100-round ammunition clip to kill and wound as many people as he possibly can, our government believes that we should do nothing. >> are the media inflaming the issue? plus, with the london olympics underway, nbc news pulls out the stops to promote the network's coverage of the games. >> back here in london with tower bridge lit up so beautifully behind us, with less than 24 hours to go now until the opening ceremony -- >> is this promotion in the guise of news? we'll talk about that and more with veteran sports writer frank deford. i'm howard kurtz, and this is "reliable sources." it's becoming standard practice for a presidential candidate to buttress his dippic credentials by meeting with world leaders when candidate obama did it in 2008, all three network anchors flew overseas to interview him. [ applause ] >> i'll be reporting next week from the middle east. we'll have the first one-on-one interview with senator obama. >> the coverage of mitt romney's visit to britain, poland, and israel turned sour as he was arriving in london. when the visiting american offended the brits by expressing concern it security plans for the olympics, well, reporter and pundits were quick to give him a failing grade. >> what weather romnromney answ unbelievable, beyond human understanding, incomprehensible. i'm out of adjectives. >> he did it. after a day in london, the british press is actually saying mitt romney is worse than sarah palin. >> was this a major international incident or something that was pumped up by the press? joining us in washington, ryan luza, correspondent for "the new yorker" and cnn contributor. jim garretty, contributing editor at "national review." and kelly goff, contributing editor at loop21. i'm going to be contrarian. mitt romney tells brian williams about disconcerting things about the security preparations for the games. he didn't say anything that wasn't in the british papers, and nbc didn't even use the initial sound bite because it didn't consider it particularly newsworthy. >> classic, classic michael kinsly gaffe. he said something that everyone else was saying, soming that was the truth. but if a politician says it gets you in trouble. remember, the british press has an outrage machine the likes of which we do not understand in the united states. and they have a hair trigger for the -- someone from outside of the u.k. offending them. and so, you know, this was a british press -- this was driven by the british press. i don't think the american press would have picked up on it unless we saw those headlines over there. unless we saw the outrage that the british -- >> a the -- >> the street generated. >> let me come back to historical perspective from kelly goff. you saw the coverage, we sought coverage of obama in '08 when he went overseas. it's hard to see the same approach. >> no, i will say we have to keep in mind that there were specific reasons why the coverage was slightly different, howard. for one, if you remember at the time that then-senator obama visited in 2008, polling showed that the british public overwhelmingly wanted troops out of iraq. since that was the centerpiece of his campaign, there was a level of jubilation and sort of the red carpet being rolled out for the then-senator with this idea that he would help support all of these troops coming home. and so that was part of the focus of the coverage. then you had his speech in berlin, and that sort of solidified his international rock star status. you know, when you compare the coverage, it's not entirely a fair comparison because i think there are specific reasons why some of the international press was a little more excited that president obama was coming. >> jim garretty, i disagree with ryan to this extent. i think if the british press said nothing, the american press is on gaffe patrol and would have called romney out on this. he did spend a couple of days trying to walk back his remarks about security preparations and some conservative commentators said he royally screw tupd. >> he gave -- screwed it up. >> he gave the mayor of london the excuse to say, this terrible american company -- we're not ready. one of the sishs they were 6,400 secure personnel short weeks before the election. the british press of beating the hell out of the security contractor saying this is an issue -- wait. that's our job. not your job -- >> why is the false setting of at least the american coverage that this was a really dumb thing for mitt romney to do if, in fact, what he said was basically true? >> because we're -- we have a hay trigger for outrage. basically peeg e people a-- peo for it. romney campaign said you didn't do it -- everybody who's rooting against romney needs something else. this was the most convenient, you know, raw tomato to throw at him in the circumstance. >> he said something that was true that -- we should stipulate. what romney said was true. it was disconcerting, that the brits weren't ready or had security issues. as one -- >> shutting down heathrow -- >> it's rarely mentioned in the coverage. it's romney stepped in. he has a tin ear for this stuff. kelly? >> i was going to say there's more to it than that. we've had this conversation about when stories become part of a larger framework of a narrative that the media set up. they give lesleywles leeway whe stepped in it. people already have this narrative that we wasn't particularly intellectual or bright. with mitt romney, you know, we know he has issues with being aloof. about w being likeable. so this story plays into that, that he can't be polite, when he goes to a foreign country, therefore how could he be a diplomat. it's part of the larger narrative painted by governor romney. >> she hit a point there, it was true but not diplomatic. that's the peg for the press if you want to blow this up -- >> oh, my god -- >> i'm not saying -- i wasn't very outraged with what he said. >> you know how fox shows deal with this, they didn't deal it with or played it down. obviously if obama had made a similar gaffe, i think it would have been big news on fox. is this the classic issue that pundits get exercise good, that becomes a two, three, four-day flap, and voters don't care about? >> yes. you know, i've actually had a lot of good political scientists studying this campaign, looking at the gaffes, and showing if any of the gaffes or any of the controversies that we cover so religiously, if they are actually moving the polls. so far this campaign they're not moving the polls. >> that's only partially true. it's death by 1,000 cuts. it's true that one gaffe rarely takes out a candidate. a series of gaffes becomes a thing that they go viral, become campaign ads. that's when it ends up making a difference in the campaign. >> jim? >> anyone who's undecided is not paying attention now. >> well, speaking of gaffes, even before romney touched down in london, there was this earlier flap -- kicked off by the british paper "the telegraph" that quoted an unnamed romney adviser saying that the obama white house didn't understand the shared anglo-saxon heritage between the united states and the united nations. brian williams in that same interview we talked about asked the candidate about this in london. here's what he said. >> what's your reaction to this quote from an adviser of yours in "the daily telegraph" in london? >> first of all, i'm generally not in enthusiastic about adopting the comments made by people who are unnamed. i have a lot of advisers. >> okay. so unnamed adviser, quoted by "the telegraph," and the press pounces on the story. >> look, i agree with romney in this case. it's really, really unfair for a candidate or the president to be nailed by something controversial that an anonymous official who we have no idea who this person is -- like you said, these guys have a lot of advisers. i hate to be critical, but the british press and we have a similar situation in the israeli press today with an anonymous quote about the obama side, they don't have the same standards we do in the states, all right? and i -- i don't necessarily -- >> you don't have confidence? >> i don't have a lot of confidence that this was his top aide telling the reporter that this is what romney believes. >> yet it hit the media megaphone in the u.s. >> if this is, you know -- stevens or beth meyers, it's a big deal. the copy guy who refills the water bottle, it's not a big deal. also,ing in in the statement said anything about -- racial or ethnic heritage -- it was talking about a -- >> that part -- [ all talking at once ] >> let's let keli in on this. >> we'll disagree. as heavily as the question on was covered no matter who said it, all the announcers left out the fact that president obama has his own anglo-saxon heritage. half english and half welsh on his mother's side. that gets lost in these conversations and in the coverage, frankly. in terms of -- i agree with ryan that there's a real problem here when you're going to use an anonymous source for something this controversial. i think that goes for both campaigns. >> you know, i'm listening to you all talk about both of these incidents, and it sounds like -- >> we're being reasonable, aren't we? >> you may be reasonable, but it sounds like the press is driving stories that you all agree in one form or another, either not very important, flash in the pan, based on unnamed sources, hyped up by the brits. not a terribly impressive performance. >> i would say that the american press had every right, though, to cover the british press' outrage over the -- you know what i mean? >> even if it's utterly manufactured? >> basically, yeah. he's going over there, and you're basically -- you're covering this as a foreign story, and the story is local press absolutely bananas over this comment. that's a story. >> by the way, the other story you referred to appeared this morning in the israeli newspaper, unnamed u.s. official, again, unnamed, quoted as saying that president obama's national security adviser had talked to prime minister benjamin netanyahu about contingency plans to attack iran. that is being denied by israeli officials. conveniently timed for mitt romney's visit. regime n israel, going to give -- romney in israel, going to give a speech. cnn will carry that. before break, i want to mention all over twitter i'm seeing talk about a fake op-ed piece by former executive editor of wikileaks. keller himself tweeted this is not him, please don't pay attention. other people re-tweeted, meaning they sent it out, including another "new york times" columnist. goes to show you can't believe everything you read on line. when we come bark the "washington post" says mitt romney is losing the like able sweepstakes cd that matter? 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"washington post" has a piece out by karen tumelte which she writes about mitt romney, americans don't like him as well as they do barack obama. citing a 60% to 30% divide on the likability question. in the "usa today" poll. keli, the president not wild about mitt romney either. he's been critical of his personality among other things. >> look, but the only good thing that happened for the romney campaign this week is the girl from "twilight" got caught in a love triangle or there would have been probably hundreds of other articles about the campaign. that took the heat off. we've seen this play out before, the only difference is there was a different leading man, but also from the state of massachusetts and also running for president. a lot of the dhoonchlg romney received in terms of likability is reminiscent to that was kerry -- >> that doesn't make it fair. >> unfortunately, do you know what the most accurate predictor of the president has been for the last seven elections? the brew test. as in which candidate would you prefer to have a beer with. that doesn't speak particularly well of the western look trat, but -- the american electorate, but that's a fact. we can't entire blame the media for count something that dmounts elections, likability. >> and romney is a mormon and doesn't drink beer, but point taken. romney doesn't help himself with the relationship with the press. he's done a round of interviews this morning, we'll see those soon. he reacted to the bad olympic flap in london but talking about -- reporters talked halfway around the world and can't get a pool flrreporter in to the fundraiser. >> if you close yourself off it gives him a reason to dislike him more. i looked to see what was the favor ability ranking of folks in different years. it's not that much better than romney's doing now. john, 1992, bill clinton had a favor ability rating of 60%. gennifer flowers was going on. bush in 2000, 37%. george hfmt w. bush -- these were not spectacular numbers. midsummer, americans don't like politicians much. >> especial when when you're getting pounded by both sides. both candidates' unfavorable rating up in the latest poll. let me come back to the likability question. is the whole thing overdone by the press? maybe this year the public will want somebody who can fix the economy and doesn't particularly care if it's the most charming person on the planet. >> well, look, i think one of the things holding obama up despite the bad economy is the -- the likability numbers. seems to be giving him a couple more point -- >> this is a legitimate story in your view? >> i think it's legitimate. i think actually because of the polarized electorate, these guys have a very narrow range they operate in. both their approval and their likability. romney's approval or likability is never going to get that low, at least not in this election because the -- the base of the republican party is going to support him. same with obama. they have a -- a -- >> i've got to go. >> they have a floor. in the 40s. >> it is true that americans like to be comfortable with their president or presidential candidates. i don't think we've heard the last of this. jim, keli, ryan, thank you very much. coming up, in the wake of the colorado movie massacre, are the media playing the same polarizing role in the debate over gun control? and are news outlets focussing too heavily on the deranged shooter? 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'cause we love chex. ♪ [ male announcer ] and now try new gluten free apple cinnamon chex. new gluten free you know what's exciting? graduation. when i look up into my students faces, i see pride. you know, i have done something worthwhile. when i earned my doctorate through university of phoenix, that pride, that was on my face. i am jocelyn taylor. i'm committed to making a difference in people's lives, ani am a phoenix. visit phoenix.edu to find the program that's right for you. enroll now. begins with back pain and a choice. take advil, and maybe have to take up to four in a day. or take aleve, which can relieve pain all day with just two pills. good eye. there was no question that the gun control debate would be high the media's agenda after the movie theater massacre in aurora, colorado. i felt it should be a decent interview of a couple of days while we focused on the victims of this awful tragedy. after the weekend, the decibel level really got ratcheted up. >> predictably far left ideologues are demagoguing the mass murder in colorado. >> tonight is the night to welcome bill o'reilly to the ranks of the far left loons who want more gun and ammunition control. >> so are the media conducting a responsible debate here? and is the news business lavishing way too much attention on the crazed gunman? joining us in washington, jane hall, former reporter for the "los angeles times," now an associate professor of journalism at american university. and fred francis, former nbc senior correspondent and co-founder of 15seconds.com. fred, we absolutely should have a gun control debate in this country after such a tragedy. not three seconds later, but certainly a couple days later. but some in the media seem to relish shouting over this. >> there's nothing else to shout at now. okay? frankly. look at the way the political campaign is going. it's pretty weak. and then when you see both candidates, governor romney and -- and president obama are running away association far away from this issue so fast as if somebody were shooting at them with an ah-15. . it draws the attention of the media not because it was so horrific but because there's little to talk about. >> obama has uttered a single sentence about the shooting, maybe two. and romney has stayed away, as well. let's talk about the tone, jane. it's as if the media polarization matches the political polarization. i understand it's a sensitive issue. even when we get to something like should there be a limit on high havana pow high-powered magazines. should this guy have been able to get ammunition through the mail. are we bringing more heat than light? >> pundits are debating if t and are polarized. the straight reporting done by "the new york times" that pointed out that this man di