Special each year, or being given her own Production Unit like an curry. So let me about ink in another reporter who has been digging around, lloyd grove, an editor at large, an authority on all things media. Lloyd, thanks for joining me. Pleasure. Do you think diane sawyer is leaving of her own choice . I think these discussions have been going on for months. Diane is 68, so obviously they had they needed to look at a generational change. On the other hand shes done very well for abc news, shes beat Brian Williams in the allimportant 25 to 54 age demo on which advertising is sold, so theyll be very respectful to her. If they brought it up first, im sure she agreed, and if she agreed, im sure it was with a lot of sweeteners and her new gig will be pretty wonderful for her, i would suspect. Thats where im skeptical. She doesnt seem to have a dedicated job, shes have an anchor title, but not a staff or things like that. Tom brokaw when he stepped down ten years ago, i think he had a tenyear contract and a special correspondent title. So are you as skeptical as i am that she will in fact have a clear role at abc . I am not as skeptical as you are, but you might be right. Who knows, its a crazy business. She comes from the era of the rune arledge tenure. And she is not somebody thats to sort of take anything she doesnt like laying down. Plus they have Great Respect for her. Shes the last quarter she beat Brian Williams in the demo for the first time in six years, so theyre going to treat her with Great Respect and deference. People at abc says shes going to do the biggest interviews in the country, do the biggest specials, those will be the goals for her going forward. Jeffrey toobin was thankfully filling in for me. He talked to dan rather about the idea of the evening news fading away. Heres what dan rather said. What young mr. Muir has inherited is an honor and a great opportunity, but in the great scheme of television and Television News, it is now a diminished medallion, that the principal medallion goes to the main anchor of the morning news, which in this case is george stephanopoulos. Another person said to me hes a blank slate. Would you agree . I dont think so. In terms of the numbers he draws when he subs for diane, he sometimes improves on those numbers. His weekend news anchoring, he has healthy numbers. And he has, you know, a young guy, only 40, and he has a rather distinguished reporting career. So hes no dan rather. He doesnt have the sort of larger than life movie star personality that anchors like dan and diane have had, but, you know, hes a young guy, and its a long game, and well see how it develops. I was struck by the fact when you wrote about the announcement, your headline was about george stephanopoulos, that he wins abcs chief anchor crown. You are focusing on that part of the news than the evening news. Why was that . This is a whole new configuration. Usually or always on these broadcasts the person who has the evening broadcast is the lead askor, and gets the big interviews, askors all the big news reports. Heres a case where they split the baby, essentially. David muir gets the anchor of the evening news, and does i assume, some interviews, but george has first crack at everything. Interview with his president obama, election night, inauguration, and breaking news stories. If theres another school shooting, george gets first crack. Thats very unusual. Theres a rivalry forming . My sense from the last ten days is theres been a camp for george and theres a camp for david, each of them saying Different Things about how involved the other guy is going to be. I dont think theres a personal rivalry, at least not yet between george and david, certainly not the kind of personal rivalry as between diane and Barbara Walters, but definitely the camps are working it hard. Ive had heard from both camps myse myself, the muir camp thinks that georges role has been exaggerated in the press and, you know, georges camp thinks that, yeah, im the late anchor, or hes the lead anchor. What does that tell you about how abc tried to split this baby . Is it something thats destined for failure . I wouldnt say its destined for failure. It does create creative tension, but this was a condition of georges for a reupping on his contract. He came with a position of strength. For the past two years, good morning american, his principal job, and Robin Roberts have beat the today show almost every week for the past two years. So they dont want to lose this guy. So i suspect that george wanted to have the david muir slot, with all the trimmings, they didnt give him that. Instead he got this title and the first crack at all the breaks news. You mentioned personal rivalry between Barbara Walters and diane sawyer. Now we see both of them stepping aside, Barbara Walters officially retiring, though she recently came back with that interview of the father of the Santa Barbara shooter, and diane sawyer, we dont know exactly what shell be doing. What about the new leadership at abc, the new news president , james goldsen, and the new head of the division, are these guys who come in and arent as willing to or as interested in protecting the status quo . You cant protect the status quo. You cant protect anything in this business. You have to be future forward and you have to sort of what are we going to be doing five years from now . And horrid how are we going to win . At this business, a ratings point, that could be worth 100 million in revenue. So these guys are in a business and theyre business people. Theresen a compose dulles of talent from abc, we saw several people come over here to cnn in the past year or two, and now george and david both having two jobs. I wonder if this just says something about the end of the star anchor, that maybe abc believes it can make do with just a couple big heavy hitters in george and david . Yeah, i think so. By the way, george has three jobs, because he also anchors the this week program a sundays. Right. It mite Say Something about that, but youve got to say these people are getting star salaries everything i here is he has a 1 or 10 in front of his salary. Thats not bad from a guy i met 20 years ago when he was a young compare aide for bill clinton. What does it saying for the aspiring, the folks in a local market, who want that job in 20 years . Does this Say Something about the ladder and how its going to change in the next 20 years . I dont know what things will look like, whether well all by watching Television News on our mobile devices, or maybe have devices implanted. Thats a refreshingly honest answer, we dont know the past anymore. Youre asking me an impossible question, brian. Shame on you. Thats a Perfect Place to leave it, then. Thanks for joining me. A pleasure. They continue to battle for first place. In my contacts at abc they say that david muir is even more competitive about this than diane sawyer, even more determined to beat nbc, so i do think a new ratings war is about to kick off. When we come back here, this weeks horrible news for president obama, but is he really the worst president weve seen since world war ii . Ill try to fix the wrong headlines and talk to historic who can really sort it out for us, next. Really. So our business can be on at ts network for 175 dollars a month . Yup. All five of you for 175. Our clients need a lot of attention. Theres unlimited talk and text. 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[ female announcer ] boost complete nutritional drink has 26 essential vitamins and minerals, including calcium and vitamin d to support strong bones and 10 grams of protein to help maintain muscle. All with a delicious taste. Grandpa [ female announcer ] stay strong, stay active with boost. Grandpa are the largest targets in the world, for every hacker, crook and nuisance in the world. But systems policed by hps Cyber Security team are constantly monitored for threats. Outside and in. Thats why hp reports and helps neutralize more intrusions than anyone. In the world. If Hp Security Solutions can help keep the Worlds Largest organizations safe, they can keep yours safe, too. Make it matter. Dramatic headlines about the president s popularity. Worst president since 1945, with an Approval Rating in the 30s. Did you think i was talking about this weeks poll . This is a headline from a 2006 story about a quinnipiac poll judging george w. Bush, eerily similar to these headlines from this weeks poll judges barack obama. Look at that, story after story, saying obama is the worst president since world war ii, even though 33 of the people surveyed said so. Ive got to say i think all the hyping of this poll was a big media foul this week. All these headlines seemed determined to get clicks, but not provide context. The press should know better. Heres our reliable sources policy question. Are we actually learning anything . Lets brill in julian zellezer, a professor at princeton. Hes in new york this morning. Thanks for joining me. Thanks for having me. I think sometimes headlines are too good to be true. And in this case it was too bad or too good, depending on your view of the president. What effect do you think all these inflationed stories have . I think the biggest effect is the it will create some political problems for him potentially as people make these comparisons, but i dont think it tells us much about his presidency or how his presidency compares to those who came before him. I hope you can read the headline on scribe why america just voted obama the worth president in seven years. Thats factually inaccurate. That didnt happen. I wonner if theres some response on the pollsters to not ask the question in a way thats going to get warped by the press. Is that crazy . In all on the press . I think both are accurate. In the end the pollsters give them the material and know the media environment in which theyre operating so they have to be very careful to explain both what theyre asking and what the findings are. Here its a small percentage who answered it. Republicans are the wujz who, not surprisingly feel this way right now. What it says to me is president s are judged so did you havely in the moment than later on. Has that always been true . Always true. The representation of a president changes over time, very dramatically. There is no president ial reputation or president ial legacy. It will erove, but the way in which president s leave office is very different from how we remember them. Harry truman was very unpopular when he left office in 1952, now often considered one of the great president s. Ronald reagan was not doing so well. Many conservatives thought he was doing a horrible job, but now hes revered as one of the great president s and one of the leaders of the right. We see thinks kinds of changes all the time and the way we make these comparisons is not static. What causes people to generally only remember the good and not the bad . Well, it did go the reverse, but i do think the more we learn about what happened during an administration from the archives, the more we have time to get away from the heat of the moment sometimes we start to appreciate the different environment, or we start to see the effect of some of their policies, which isnt clear at the moment, but takes some time, and then, you know, theres nostalgia. Thats the bad part. Sometimes we forget the bad stuff and only remember the virtues, and the nostalgia in some ways down the line is as dangerous as these kinds of polls which we have at the moment. Interesting. Tell me more about that. Why is that . Even with ronald reagan, we remember how he made peace with soviet leader mikhail gorbachev, but we forget the irancontra hear hearings, and i think were so frustrated with the gridlock, were so frustrated with the partisanship, so we try to tease out the best parts of the past. We remember how reagan and tip olympic kneel, the speaker of the house liked to have a beer after work, because it reminds us maybe things could be a little better. I do wonder if this poll by the way an organization usually very well respected that i have relied on for years, i wonder if it does tell us something about the current political climate. Abc news did a similar poll when bill clinton would you say in office. When it did its surveys it found nixon to be number one, then reagan, then clinton at 16 , so the sitting president was considered one of the worst, but near lieutenant to the extent obama is currently. I guess the difference is about double. Its always dangerous to compare two different polls like this, but does it Say Something about our politics . I think theres something to that. The fact hes rated worse than nixon is very telling, and i do think theres something about this that indicates how polarize our judgmenting are good everything. Let me play a clip from foxs cover a coverage. Whats devastating for the white house is this is a nonpartisan, highly respected poll in terms of quinnipiac. Interesting, quinnipiac also asked what do you think if mitt romney had been elected instead of president obama being reelected. 45 said in this poll the nation would be better off. What that says to me, and tell me if im wrong, is romney voters still prefer romney. Should we surprised by a finding like that . Not at all. Were in the final years of a presidency. Even some of obama supporters are frustrated, the economy is weak. Its not surprising. People who supported romney would still want romney in office. Others might wonder would things have been better in but its not a shocking piece of information to hearing that. Julian, thank you for joining me. Thank you. My advice to reporters in 2022, dont fall for the poll that says president clinton, bush or paul is the worst. Im reading your comments right after the show. And speaking of facebook, that site came under fire this week for the mood manipulation study, but the trust is, they toy with us every every day. My next guests tell us how, after the break. In keeping the denture clean. Dentures are very different to real teeth. Theyre about 10 times softer and may have surface pores where bacteria can multiply. Polident is designed to clean dentures daily. Its unique microclean formula kills 99. 99 of odor causing bacteria and helps dissolve stains, cleaning in a better way than brushing with toothpaste. Thats why i recommend using polident. [ male announcer ] polident. Cleaner, fresher, brighter every day. [ male announcer ] polident. At every ford dealership, youll find the works its a complete checkup of the services your vehicle needs. So prepare your car for any road trip by taking it to an expert ford technician. Because no matter your destination good maintenance helps you save at the pump. Get our multipoint inspection with a Synthetic Blend Oil change, tire rotation, Brake Inspection and more for 29. 95 or less. Get a complete vehicle checkup only at your ford dealer. The last four hours have seen. One child fail to get to the air sickness bag in time. Another left his shoes on the plane. His shoes and a third simply doesnt want to be here. Until now. Until right booking now. Planet earths number one accomodation site booking. Com booking. Yeah welcome back to reliability sources. Lets now turn to facebook. The news this week that had users outraged. The social media giant revealed for one week back in january 2012, it allowed researchers to manipulates almost 700,000 news feeds. And the experiment worked. The people who saw more positive news seemed happier in their own facebook posts. Facebook sort of apologized this week, but not totally. But the story is so much bigger than that one experiment. Im intrigued by the loarger, longterm, can they influence who you vote for or what kind of news you see during a big political decision . Joining me to discussing that in austin texas a researcher and associate at the university of texas. And zanev as unc chapel hills. Welcome to you both. I want to hear from both of you first. Were you outraged . Surprised at all . Zanev . I wasnt. This is not the first study facebook has published, showing its enormous power. Its one of many this is the first one that caught the imagination. I think this is the tip of the iceberg. Why do you think this is the one that caught the imagination . Because i think it was involved with emotions, the way the study abstract sound that it created an emotional cajun, i think made people realize facebook is a primary way in which they interact with their friends, a lot of people get news around the world. The idea that theyre the product that facebook is manipulating to make sure they come back to facebook, this idea hadnt been very public before, i think it was the first realization that facebook does experiment with them, and theres all thinks algorithms that filter what they say and what they dont see. I think it made people step back and said, wait, what else is facebook doing . What else and why am i seeing that post . And not the other one . Those are very good questions. Should we be more bothered by this than, for example, how advertisers manipulate emotions . I dont think so. There are certainly legitimate concerns. I agree with zeynep, that you hear people talking about manipulating emotions, and it seems like a potential dangerous thing, but you have to remember that advertisers have been doing this kind of thing more or less for decades. When you go to the supermarket, theres a reason why the chocolates are by the checkout and flowers are not. But thats not as effective. The advertiser doesnt come between you and your friends. That posted chocolate doesnt know that mu