Should be hooked up it a lie detector. Our interview with josh earnest. Being press secretary is tough at any time. Its especially tough right now. This may be the low point of the obama presidency. Hes facing an Immigration Crisis on the border and a threat of a lawsuit from the gop. Go jo josh earnest, hes having to deal with all of it. Imagine your first few weeks, kind of intimidating, right . Now imagine that literally the whole world is watching. Josh, thanks for joining me. Thanks for having me. I thought it would be fun to change it up to you and have you sit out where the reporters sit. Its nice to be seated as opposed to standing up. I guess it is. Lets start with the big story of the week. Humanitarian crisis on the border. What we heard all week was a drum beat about photo ops, symbols. So much of the presidency is symbols. Why not have him go to the border even if its a symbol. Thats a good question. Its important for people to understand what the president s priority is. In this situation the president s priority was on solving the problem. Weve talked through what hes trying to do to solve this. Hes asked for resources from congress. Prior to that the president made some unilateral decisions about moving it from the interior to the border. The president has asked for congress to provide Greater Authority to the secretary of Homeland Security to more efficiently implement the law. We saw Greater Authority to crack down on the trafficking groups that are responsible for so much of this situation that were seeing there. Those are all policybased solutions to a difficult problem. Those dont lend themselves to sexy pictures. The president s putting the policy solution first even though hes being criticized over photo ops. Thats leadership. The president does think a lot about photo ops, i would think. Hes been traveling around the country to spend time with regular people. Those are photo ops. Any time the president and the symbol goes, that sends a message. You turn on the tv and you hear all of the chatter about photo ops. Do you think the press is featuring on the small thing versus the important thing . I want to be the media critic in chief. Theres a responsibility for the news media to try to make sense of a really complicated, fastmoving dynamic environment, and thats particularly true when youre talking about a story like this. Look, i think the president made exactly the right decision. Hes focused on results. Sometimes the media environment doesnt reward somebody whos willing to absorb a little criticism and not Pay Attention to the optics or pay less attention to the optics. Theres always some attention to the optics. Theres always some attention to the optics. Look, particularly a News Organization like cnn, television is a visual medium. Your stock in trade is going to be the optics. I understand theres value in paying attention to that. The responsibility of the leaders of the country is understanding how to use the optics to solve problems. The other side is theyre using photo ops to avoid having to deal with tough problems. You talk about tough issues. Do you feel this is the lowest point in the Obama Administration . I dont feel that. One person when i asked for questions from twitter for this interview, one person asked, what were you thinking by taking on this job at this moment . Yeah. Yeah. Look, it is its its a really interesting time to take on this job. What were you thinking . I was thinking about what a tremendous opportunity it would be to stand up at that podium on a daily basis and fight for something that i really believe in, and that is a president who has the right priorities for this country. Hes somebody who believes passionately in the American Government being a force for good in the world but he also believes passionately using the influence he has in washington d. C. To fight for middle class families that i grew up . Its quite a fight. How many days have you stood up there having dreaded doing it so far . None so far. Each time ive looked forward to the opportunity. It doesnt mean there havent been touch questions and that there arent questions that i worry about. It is a really interesting symbol of our democracy for somebody who works here at the white house to walk out here every day that the president is in town and say, ask me whatever question youve got. Let me know. By the way, i bring it up. Should we keep televising this . If you think its good for your ratings, you should do it. If you decide at some point its not, you shouldnt. Its not for me to judge. I think that adding a Television Camera definitely changes the dynamic but i dont be think it would be appropriate for me to say what you can or cant film. Your first briefing in june was described as testing. I thought, wait, thats the way its supposed to be. Its too adversarial now. Do you believe that . Its a battle and not an exchange of information. Right. I would say there is builtin tension in the relationship. If theres ever a day when the White House Press core sits back and says, were getting all the information we need from the white house, everybody in the press core wont be doing their jobs. The question for me is does that tension help you get answers . Does it help people get a better understanding into whats happening here in the white house or does it get in the way . Sometimes i do think it gets in the way. Theres a premium based on what gets the answers. Some would say it may be more adversarial because you are all withholding more than ever. Have you seen this letter from the society of professional journalists . 40 press groups all sayings the president should be more transparent. Look, i think the president s record of transparency stands up to any of the record of his predecessor. You did see the letter and hear from the groups . I did. You didnt have legitimate concerns . Again, theyre all journalists. The day that they sort of sit back and say, we dont need to write a letter, the white house is telling us everything theyre supposed to, is the day theyre no longer doing their job. They say many federal agencies are imposing terrible restrictions on freedom of the press. Is there anything you can do to stop that, improve the flow of information . I am definitely committed and have a responsibility to try too help the president live up to his commitment to be the most transparent president in history. If you look at some of the steps im surprised you say that. Most transparent president in history. He has been criticized saying that given the prosecutions of whistle blowers and other steps. You will still stick by that . Absolutely. If you look at the president s record of releasing wage records. This Administration Releases it voluntarily on the internet on a quarterly basis. Reporters for years clamored to get access to fundraisers that president s hosted or attended that were hosted in private homes. Reporters now have access to those when this president goes to a private home. This week. There are a number of steps weve taken. I notice this week the between two ferns interview was nominated for an emmy. Its an honor being nominated. Of course. We certainly have our fingers crossed. That was a tremendous opportunity that the president took to deliver a message. Even though it was criticized theres evidence that it worked for its purposes. It got more traffic to the obama care website. It got as much traffic to the obama care website as any other online project that we were engaged in. It was a really powerful thing. Where else might we see him go . Were always looking for new ideas. Some can be online. Maybe theres a great print idea out there that we havent come up with yet. Were going to be looking for over the course of the next two and a half years to push the envelope and put the president in unique formats where he can connect with people in a different way. Lets talk about you and your media habits. What newspapers do you read every day . I well, i benefit from two things. An ipad. Thats transformed the way that a lot of people get the printed product. New york times, washington post, wall street journal . Ap has a really good app, too, at the risk of plugging them. The other thing i bet fit from is we have an internal service where there is a staffer that starts sending emails before 7 00 a. M. With an individual news clip. So i benefit a lot from reading through my email. Television . What network do you go to first . First probably espn. But if its easy answer. That is an easy answer. If its for work i definitely spend some time on cnn. Ive found them to be a pretty good barometer of what a lot of people in this room are going to be interested in on a daily basis. You must turn on fox and msnbc . Yes. There is a function where we can watch four stations at the same time so we can pull up do the broadcast networks still matter . Absolutely they do, in a different way than they used to. Theres still a tremendous audience. There are very serious were sitting in two of their seats. What about the web . Are there any particular websites that are most important in terms of the news . Politico has done a lot to really transform the way that the news is reported here in washington so that is an outlet that i know a lot of reporters go to for news and its certainly one that i look for, too. They style themselves as the espn of politics. Even though we think of this as being so adversarial, youre describing a way you can help the press. Look, my first responsibility is to be an advocate for the president , theres no doubt about that, but i am serving the president really well if im doing a good job of serving the press core. Sometimes that means helping them, sometimes that means being an advocate internally getting them access to things. Its a unique role. The other thing i like about the white house, through that door reporters have an opportunity to wander through press offices. Something viewers dont realize . Right behind that wall is where my old office used to be. That meant that i was often the stop of first resort for a lot of reporters if they were desperate for a piece of information, if they were frustrated with the white house. If they needed help on a story, i was the first door that they came to. That allowed me to develop important, strong relationships in working with reporters and thats something you cant do over the phone or by email. By doing it face to face it has been an interesting thing. Something oldfashioned about the white house but it serves the White House Well in the 21st century fast moving viern zblmt thank you for taking my questions. Thanks for coming, brian. Nice to see you. Now were back here in the studio. I would love to talk to mr. Earnest in a year to see how hes feeling. Coming up on reliable sources. There is a double standard in the media. Well talk about why and how its back in the news right after this. To fuel economy. To quality. Todays chevrolet has it all. And great news the chevy 72 hour sale has just been extended. Youll get 0 apr for 72 months. Plus no Monthly Payments for the rest of the summer. 0 apr for 72 months plus no Monthly Payments for the rest of the summer. The chevy 72 hour sale ends monday. Find new roads at your local chevy dealer. 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. Were working deals all day. You get 10 gigabytes of data to share. What about expansion potential . Add a line anytime for 15 bucks a month. Low dues. Great terms. Lets close. Introducing at t mobile share value plans. With our bestever pricing for business. Welcome back to reliable sources. I want to turn now to women and television, and more specifically women on television, anchor women, and how they dress. Check out this headline from the Huffington Post this week. This is the kind of bs that women in television have to deal with. The Huffington Post was talking about a morning show war over in brittain where executives from one network were apparently so anxious to hike up the ratings they suggested the anchor woman should hike up her skirts. The coverage of that controversy had me pondering how much change there has been in this country in the Way Television anchor women have changed their dress. Were trying to see if there is a dress code. It sure seems like theres an arms race. Almost no one wears dresses with sleeves anymore. Let me start with fox news. The new program called outnumbered shows four women and one man. When we looked elsewhere on this network, msnbc, cbs, abc, we saw sleeveless dresses and shorter skirts than there used to be. Go back 20, 30 years you see a big difference s. This a fashion choice. What kind of pressures do female journalists feel to look a certain way on the air. It actually came up on wabc, new yorks abc affiliate on friday morning. Watch this. Our little micro climate in here is like a refrigerator. It is. Our micro climate. Our macro climate is different. Should we tell should we reveal how all the ladies here wear sleeveless outfits when its only 37 degrees in this studio . Good question. I have a blanket or cardigan. Shivering when were off camera. I have the two perfect guests to discuss this issue. Two generations of women in television news. Karen is a former Network Anchor are we perfect because were wearing sleeveless . Thats the Perfect Place to start. We didnt know this ahead of time, by the way. I one be derd because you were at cnn for many years, how have you seen the attention to female anchor outfits change . When i was a local News Reporter and anchor in atlanta, i wore a blazer that had a pocket that said action news 5. Weve come a long way. Gray blazer, very attractive. Takes the guesswork out of choosing your outfit. I think what happened in london is outrageous. Think about it, back then people were openly discriminating against women. Youve brought some notes with you, all of the Different Things you have been told on how to dress over the years. When you called and said, you know, do you want to come join us to talk about this, i laughed. I started thinking. I dont think its changed that much. Obviously we have come far in terms of assignments. It was unheard of back in the day twhat you would have a femae war correspondcorrespondent. I think attention to womens appearance, thats not just news, thats sort of society. We can take it with a grain of salt or we can get very insecure about it, but i laughed over the years. People said i should buy a wig, which im thinking i should have. My hair was too thin for television. They didnt like that. I was told dont wear bare arms. Michelle obama changed that. Dont wear taupe. Dye your hair blond. Wear your skirts shorter. Wear your skirts wear longer. They said get botox. When the sun is on you you look angry. Nobody likes angry women on television. Its harder. Youre trying as a woman to show that you know as much and that you deserve to be informing people about whats going on and then you have to worry about lip gloss and eyelashes and high heels and all of that stuff on top of it. I think its tough because news is at the intersection of television. If youre doing news on television, youre at the intersection of what is in large part an entertainment media. The ven diagram. Generallism and television and theres a lot in the middle. Exactly. Youre sitting right there in the middle of it. There are plenty of guys doing the news. There are plenty more anchors like brian stelter. The wind i think kieryn is right. We are judged by a different standard because society has a different standard for women. I believe we cant i think its crazy to get so focused on this because we have come vi a very long way. There are women doing serious news reporting. Theyre covering wars, theyre covering the state department. Theyre not only covering the white house. Theyre putting themselves at risk, and i think its i think we make too much if we sit and worry too much about how women look. I think, yes, theyre going to be executives in News Organizations who worry about it, but i think women have to take a deep breath and think, what am i doing here . Am i here to be a reporter, to gather the news, to make sure it gets out and do the best job i can. If thats what youre trying to do, thats what ultimately is going to matter. Do you ever look at women in television, someone on a local broadcast or something and think, my god, what are they wearing . Of course. Everyone does that. But its for guys, too. What i laugh at. What do you mean its for guys too . The only real feedback ive gotten was i wore glasses. Then a cnn executive said i like you better without glasses. Thats the only kind of feedback ive had to face so to speak. I thought it was interesting when Anderson Cooper was covering the aftermath in haiti. One of the articles was Anderson Cooper wore a black tshirt. What else is he going to wear . You have to take it with a grain of salt like judy said. You have to say i have enough confidence in myself and what im saying is relevant and hopefully informative. There is an element of attractiveness you have to have, by that i dont mean beauty, i mean you have to have either an authenticity about you or a relatebility so that i mean, its tv. Its tv news. If the ratings arent good, meaning people arent attracted to you they use the term attract viewers. If people arent attracted to your persona, your person whether it has to do with looks or how you talk or what you say, then where are we. There is a difference about outlets. Judy, at pbs, is it a luxury to not have to tli about ratings every 15 minutes . Clearly we want an audience. Gwen and i are very focused on putting on the very best program we can every night and feel very blessed to be the first two women anchoring a national newscast. No, its not the same as commercial pressure where every morning theres a lot of focus on the part of executives what were the ratings, every 15 minutes, every five minutes the night before. That doesnt mean we dont care about an audience. We do. Its the content that matters. I would argue that its the content on commercial television. Ultimately people will come back to you if youre doing a good job, getting the story right, if you did a good interview, if you had a Good Exchange with somebody you were talking to and you