. >> and this morning the times is out with a very lengthy examination of romney's mormonism. president obama, meanwhile, has been getting a very different reception. >> which one of us here at "the view" was on "dancing with the stars?" >> that would be sherri. >> are the media giving romney far more scrutiny in this campaign? facebook goes public with a bang. >> tonight the facebook frenzy. >> tonight on world news, facebook fever. one of the biggest stock sales ever creating a thousand new millionaires. >> he was little more than a tongue-tied teenager. usa today hires an on-line pioneer to kick start the paper into the digital future. a conversation with larry cramer. plus -- >> is there anything more terrifying than a room full of people without guns? >> i guess what would be more terrifying would be a room full of people not allowed to have guns. >> i just got chills. >> a former "daily show" producer admits he felt guilty making fun of people he thought he couldn't stand. i'm howard kurtz, and this is "reliable sources." the leak of a plan that was being weighed by a conservative super pact to launch an advertising blitz built around jeremiah wright drew plenty of media condemnation. tinged with suggestions of racism for invoking president obama's former -- but a different approach than a lengthy "new york times" piece today about the role of mormonism in romney's life. author jody cantor writing "mr. romney's pension for rules mirrors that of his church where he once ex-communicated adulturers and sometimes discouraged mothers from working outside the home." are there a different standard for covering these two presidential candidates? joining us now in new york, john, a cnn contributor and columnist for "newsweek" and the daily beast, and here in washington erin mcpike, national political reporter for real clear politics. rahm, senior editor at national review. this "new york times" piece, which fills a whole page, it's mostly positive, it's pretty respectful, but i wonder whether it's the latest indication of which some might call a media obsession with romney's religion. >> i'm not sure it is. i think actually one of the interesting questions confronting the media and journalists right now is how we talk about mormonism in the context of this presidential campaign. bhaets the right way to be respectful and decent, but also honest in terms of the impact this home grown american faith has on this republican nominee. it's a delicate subject because traditionally whatever faith has entered conversations in politics, it's been at the hands of bigots who want to tear people down. so it's a delicate subject, but it's an important subject, and the key is to make sure we're talking about it in a way that is thoroughly fair and not sliding into the hands of folks who demagogue it. >> the subtext of this long detailed piece, thousands of words, is, you know, the church of ladder day saints, very essential to romney's life. he doesn't particularly want to talk about it. the church does some strange things and was not sympathetic to working women, and i just wonder whether opponents might seize on this and say, well, romney is just different. in other words, it seems positive, but maybe -- it's just such a heavy focus on the guy who would, of course, be america's first mormon president. >> we've already seen some of governor romney's opponents like the governor of montana seize on the mormon issue to attack romney, so there will be that here and there. i think this article was -- i think this article was actually respectful, thorough, thoughtful. i thought it was a pretty impressive piece of work. i do think it's important to be even-handed. the "new york times" has said, bill keller has said the time was late to the jeremiah wright story in twaut, and i'm not sure we're going to see the same degree of candor and surging commentary. >> i can't think of any other candidate who has gotten this kind of media examination. some candidates like talking about their religion, and some candidates are red sent about it, but in this case the media has unilaterally decide thad mormonism is going to be a front burner question for journalists to explore. >> it is a defining part of mitt romney's life and how he governs himself. the article talks about how he is optimistic and how he is a hard worker and abides by rules, and so in a sense that romney's mormonism has shaped who he is, it's important. it talks about his character. now, that story also doesn't go into great depth about the sense of entitlement and secret si that it also brings up. that's also why journalists want to explore it. romney has been secretive about it in the past, and we feel we need to get to the bottom of it. >> if you look at the other "times" story also on the front page a couple of days ago about this veteran republican strategist who brought the pact finance or potentially financed by a conservative billionaire and owner of the chicago cubs to make a jeremiah wright front and center advertising blitz and all of that. the media reaction to that, particularly the on-line reaction, was such that the whole thing got blown out of the water within hours. so i see quite a contrast between that and the mormonism. >> well, i'm not sure. there is a contrast, but i'm not sure they're parallel. look, the "new york times" story about the fred davis pitch to joe rick ets, and it's importants to indicate that when this became public the super pact dough denounced and said it wasn't under serious consideration. to see a republican strategist put on paper that kind of an ugly thorough attack, the kind of stuff that normally you would say would only be pushed by people on the real fringes of the republican party, conspiracy they'rists trying to divide using race. to see this put forward in a detailed pitch, a detailed plan at the highest levels to the tune of $10 million to put that message out, that's fascinating. that's news. it really does speak to the sleazy side of the super pact economy that we're going to be seeing throughout this cycle. >> i do want to clarify that "the times" reporters went to the spokesman for joe rickets, and they said we haven't made a final decision. this is under consideration. then the next day when it blew up, we never even considered. it was a terrible idea, and, of course, it had phrases like metro sexual black abe lincoln, referring to the president. but why jeremiah wright in my view a close friend of obama's for 20 years as pastor, his inspiration at certain things. why should it be considered so out of bounds? it was a legitimate issue in 2008, but what about bringing it back now? the media reaction was -- john even said it, was borderline racist. >> there's a big difference, if i can just jump in on jeremiah wright versus mormonism. this particular story today in the "new york times" about mitt romney's religion explains how it impacted him. a lot of the focus on jeremiah wright has been about jeremiah wright and not necessarily the impact on barack obama's life, and therein lies the difference. >> i think it's completely legitimate to suggest that president obama's voluntarily association, deep association with wright four years does not speak well of him. i don't think this was a particularly smart campaign tactic. i don't think that americans are really going to vote for president in 2012 based on things that happened before obama's presidency, but i think it's totally legitimate. >> let me jump in and say that while many in the media were condemning and holding their nose about this proposal, one commentator was not. sean hannity on fox news. >> governor romney, i have to respectfully disagree with you. i believe that the president's relationship with the reverend jeremiah wright, a man that influenced him for over 20 years, inspired him, is a very important campaign issue. after all, it is a matter of character. >> so in a way even though not a dime will be spent on this aborted advertising plan, it has injected jeremiah wright into the media dialogue here. >> yeah. a little bit. you know, there are -- there's a faction of conservatives that think that if mccain had made more of an issue of this in 2008 he could have won the election, which i think is a fantasy, and even if it were true, it doesn't mean that you can, therefore, raise it in 2012 and it's going to change the outcome of the election this time. >> the fact that john mccain was an honorable man who refused to go there because he understood the demons of divisiveness in racism that it could play into speaks well of mccain, and this pitch explicitly said we're going to go where mccain wouldn't let us go and pump up the ideas of black theology that perculate on the real fringes, and the fact that sean hannity was mouthing the pitch that they were going to put their website, which character matters, speak to the persistence of these talking points, a sign that should be discredited because it was so ugly and exposed to the world. >> i want to move on to obama web ad this week which completely dominated several days of the campaign because it was about a subject certainly not a new subject, mitt romney's ten-year at bane capital. i'll play the videotape. >> it was like watching an old friend bleed to death. >> as i look around at the millions of americans without work, it breaks my heart. >> now, just for those who haven't been following it, this particular ad is about a kansas city steel plant, the bane had taken over and later went bankrupt while people lost their jobs and their health care or pension plan, and we saw a couple of the former workers there, but my question is there was a brief airing of this in five states. basically it was something on the web. it either got millions of dollars in free publicity because people on television replayed it over and over again. why did the press latch on to it like this? >> well, i think that shows it was a smart investment by the obama campaign. i think this is another storyline that we saw appear during the primaries when newt gingrich in particular was attacking romney's record at bane and people have been waiting for this to become a big story and as soon as this happened, i think the reporters pounced. >> well, my question is that romney makes -- obama makes a web ad, and because it's on bane, which is kind of a hot button subject as it goes to the heart of romney's appeal as a businessman, it immediately gets just embraced by the media as a legitimate storyline, but when romney makes a web ad about the 23 million people who are out of work, looking for work, stop looking for work, it's a blip, and it just seemed like there was a certain imbalance there. what is it about bane? >> we are talking about the unemployment rate every single day. it's a key issue in this campaign, so romney talking about it and producing web ads about it doesn't do much to change the dialogue, but mitt romney, who is running on his record as a businessman, as you said, is not talking about how bane capital truly guided his views on the economy, even though he says it did, so the obama campaign is filling the void and producing these web ads and so we latch on to them because romney won't talk about it himself. the obama campaign is defining bane for mitt romney before he can do it himself. it's a tactical thing that he is winning on. >> just briefly, john, detractors would say the media are helping obama define mitt romney about his tenure at bane, and the ad didn't mention, for example, that he already left bane capital by the time this particular plan went bankrupt in 2010. >> that particular point shows the importance of fact checking but to your first point, the media does veins to try to pick up on things that playoff of preexisting narratives, and all of a sudden you get a lot of earned media, free media, in effect, off a relatively small ad buy. we're obsessed with process stories and things that dovetails off existing narratives rather than the kind of fact check and trying to pierce the veil of these campaign strategies that we really probably should be doing. rather, we cover the ad. >> let me get a break in here. when we come back, barack obama stops by "the view". what a love fest. get the wheels. use our strength & stability to open new opportunities. to lend, and lift ...every business...every dream... to new heights of prosperity. good things are happening. just look up. with u.s. bank. but proven technologies allow natural gas producers to supply affordable, cleaner energy, while protecting our environment. across america, these technologies protect air - by monitoring air quality and reducing emissions... ...protect water - through conservation and self-contained recycling systems... ... and protect land - by reducing our footprint and respecting wildlife. america's natural gas... domestic, abundant, clean energy to power our lives... that's smarter power today. domestic, abundant, clean energy to power our lives... morning, boys. so, i'm working on a cistern intake valve, and the guy hands me a locknut wrench. no way! i'm like, what is this, a drainpipe slipknot? 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>> um, that would be kim. >> very good. okay. >> because it was a ballplayer. >> that's right. >> that's how i know from watching basketball. >> so erin, does hanging out with the ladies, smart campaign strategy perhaps, but does it feel at all like pandering? >> it certainly -- there's a little bit of pandering to it, sure, but it makes them more relatable to women across america whose votes he needs to win in large numbers if he is to be re-elected, so, yes, it helps, and it's a thing that mitt romney can't do as well. he cannot speak to women as well, and the obama campaign knows it, so they continue to put him in these situations, like putting him on the jimmy fallon show so he can connect with young americans as well. >> is that just one of the advantages of being president, particularly if you are a president who is comfortable joking around with fallon and hanging out with barbara and whoopi and the gang? >> it's not just the bully pulpit here. there is an odd tradition here, whether it's nixon on "laugh in" in the 1960s, bill clinton on ars yoin hall and george w. bush on oprah. going on talk shows sshgs unfortunately, sort of the political equivalent of willy sutton robbing banks. that's where the money is. this is where the viewers are, and if women in particular are going to be such an important swing this election, it makes sense. does it necessarily dignify the office? no, not particularly. >> i may be one of the few americans who would rather have a president who didn't know anything about the kardashians, but i guess i've just not a representative median voter here. >> so you think the idea of a president -- this is also true when he goes on espn, and he talks about the ncaa brackets that the president being plugged into pop culture is a way of relating to voters. it's not. it's not something that is a plus in your view and you think these shows shouldn't have the president on? >> i would like to think that voters are going to decide these things based on more serious considerations than whether he reads ""people magazine"" like the rest of us do. >> a lot of pundits don't leave us "us weekly" and tmz and the others. a lot of pundits were hoping that the group of americans-elect would mount a serious third party candidate for president and i want to play a piece of tape of john avalon. this is you back in december. >> this is going to happen. this is going to be a major player in the 2012 election. you know, you're going to have a centrist bipartisan ticket. on the ballot in all 50 states. fwloo so that didn't happen. americans-elect, no major candidate. wanted to do it. were you overly optimistic? >> well, certainly. this effort did fail. they succeeded on getting on the ballot in 26 states. meant getting over two million people to sign up and i think there remains a desire. you have a record number of americans, self-identifying as i wanted pent, 48% say they want a third party ticket. the fact that they couldn't recruit a credible candidate. romney and obama represent, i think, the center right and center left respectively of their parties. the other factor that was significant, technologically they were so focused on ballot security that it was enormously difficult for people functionally to support a candidate, but this is a real disappointment and a real failure on their part. >> very briefly, the incident this week with romney and the rope line were reportedly shooed away, is that just a blip, or is that just for difficulties between romney and the press? >> difficulties. there is been little access to mitt romney this campaign, which is very different from how he was the last campaign. it's clear they don't want to take questions on things like bane and his record. >> to be continued. thanks for joining us. coming up in the second part of ""reliable sources" "we'll go behind the hyperbole with sarah lacy, who has had colorful interviews with mark zuckerberg. a former "daily show" producer comes clean on how he tried to embarrass smfrt guests, and the new publisher of "usa today" on pushing the paper into the digital future. not in this economy. we also have zero free time, and my dad moving in. so we went to fidelity. we looked at our family's goals and some ways to help us get there. they helped me fix my economy, the one in my house. now they're managing my investments for me. and with fidelity, getting back on track was easier than i thought. call or come in today to take control of your personal economy. get one-on-one help from america's retirement leader. whose non-stop day starts with back pain... and a choice. take advil now and maybe up to four in a day. or choose aleve and two pills for a day free of pain. way to go, coach. ♪ the company began and grew into a global bohemath, one wall street was eegtory bring to the market. on friday facebook went public. >> mark zuckerburg, he is wearing a hoody. he is about to rin the opening bell for the nasdaq by remote. >> look. >> facebook opening for trade. >> 42. >> 43. >> we begin with facebook and this history-making day. as expected, the buying and selling of facebook stock today was feverish. >> despite soaring expectations and some early likes among eager investors, facebook s