Harris perrys show canceled. I have fresh reporting on what went wrong late they are hour. First, the gloves, they sure were off at the cnns gop debate in houston on thursday night. If feels like it was a long time ago, doesnt it . Almost 15 Million Viewers tuning in to watch the leading candidates hurling insults and trading spernl twakts but its really what happened next between marco rubio and donald trump on the campaign trail that made the debate look civilized. Marco rubio taking a page right out of trumps playbook and its making the gop contest feel like this, a smackdown from the wwe. I watched him repeat himself five times four weeks ago i watched you repeat yourself five times five seconds ago. s a choker. He xospelled the worst spray tan in america. Nasty little guy. Make sure his pants werent wet. I need watt per. He was having a meltdown. Bing, bing, bing. Donald trump likes to sue people. He should sue whoever did that to his face. What do we say, right . Comedian jake flores might have said it best. He suggested on twitter this week, he said, im starting to think this is the last season of america and the writers are just going nuts. Its been retweeted 25,000 times. Clearly some people agree with him. Now, many people are asking have Media Outlets enabled trump and are they now egging on rubio . Let me bring in my allstar panel to talk about. Kathleen parker from the Washington Post, jim warren from pointer, and molly hemingway, Senior Editor at the federalist. Kathleen, is rubio trying to portray trump as a loser, something other candidates up until now have been maybe afraid to do . Well, absolutely. And im delighted that e seems to have taken my advice because i wrote a column to that effect, but anyway, yes, basically what hes doing i think is going after trump. Hes taunting him because the one thing a bully cant stand is to be taunted, and hes trying to get under trumps skin i think at a deeper level than anyone else has bothered to do previously and why not . Trump has been throwing it at him pretty fiercely. Hes returning the volley but hes also having a little bit of fun i think. Its a liberation moment for marco rubio who has been accused of being so robotic previously. It seems to be working too. Trump cannot stand it and well see where it goes. Well look forward to everyone getting back to being a little more president ial however. You think that will actually happen . Will that actually happen . It has to at some point. I think marco rubio has been out front for a good long while with his policies and has been very, very serious all along. But now i find myself to be able to do this im sorry to interrupt you. I was going to say i find myself wondering, molly, if this walltowall coverage of trump and now this walltowall coverage of rubio could end up hurting trump. A lot of people have said for months that cable News Coverage of trump has boosted his campaign, has turned him into the frontrunner he is, but you have to wonder now that rubio is using trumps tactics and being broadcast live doing them, if it will really start to do damage to trump. Well, its not just that donald trump has gotten so much of the media coverage. You know, 60 to 80 of the actual air time when youre covering republican candidates, its also about what hes getting coverage for. The media arent responsible for donald trump but theyre definitely responsible for enabling him and theyre also responsible for the fact that if youre a republican candidate and youre trying to get a chance at air time you have to taunt and mock your opponent just to get any time on the air, so that is something i do wish the media would preflekt on what theyre incentivizing in the process. Theres no incentive to act president ial because it doesnt get you air time. Theres no incentive to talk poli policy. Jim, as our media critic, do you agree . Theres a better chance my New York Knicks from the early days will win the championship than this is going to get more president ial anytime soon. We have an obvious race to the bottom for the likes of trump and now rubio. The marketplace is almost dick kating, you know, this sort of descent into the valley of almost international trolling. The back and forth is akin to some of the raw notes we see at the bottom of our internet pieces as anybody can say what the heck they want and you have the symbiotic relationship between the candidates on one hand and news direct whose see some of this as ratings manna, particularly with donald trump, and you have a system which is commercially driven. Remember, in most other countries, you know, debates and town halls like this are not commercial. Theres not an incentive for folks to sort of jack up the pugilistic air about it, so i dont think so this descent to the bottom is going to change anytime soon. I went to reach for my watter to take that sip and then i realized trump might make fun of me. The way weve seen visual comedy on the trail and then rubio reading tweets on stage, it felt like something right out of late night of course, right out of kimmel having people read mean tweets. Kathleen, i saw you shaking your head yes. Are you speaking to me . Yeah, go ahead. Theres a little bit of wind. I think it goes without saying that the candidates, that this campaign on the republican side has devolved into sort of the reality tv, you know, template, but, you know, i think too and i agree with molly that the media do have a choice in how they cover it, and i wish they would cover it more substantively and the ratings clearly drive all of that. But, you know, at some point i do think, you know, maybe its after the conventions, i mean thats a long time to wait for president ial, but at some point, you know, everybody has got to sit down and talk seriously about how to fix things and how to unify the country primarilpr. Guys, at the same time its interesting, you have so many reality sort of hiding there in plain sight. Whether its the donald trump business record, and thats been laid out by many folks. There was the former New York Times reporter david k. Johnston who a year or so ago did a fabulous piece raising 20, 25 questions or so in something called the National Memo about that record. Then the other night you had rubio with what was deemed some pearl harborlike sneak attack when it comes to trump university. Thats all been laid out. Go to time magazine. Steve brill did a fabulous piece just going through the Court Records and almost everything trump said in response to rubio, to wolf blitzer, was categorically wrong, but the question is does is any of this appreciated . The information is out there, but there doesnt seem to be a whole lot of understanding or interest in understanding on the rt of the republican primary electorate. Molly, go ahead. Its not just about whether you cover it one time or whether there was something written in the past. Its part of how much coverage are you giving as part of the whole. When you say there was a piece writ an few months ago that went through some of his mob ties, thats not sufficient. The media need to be a little more proportion nal in the same way they cover Hillary Clinton. Certainly her campaign gets covered but also some of her email scandals and things like that. So i think we could just see much more substantive coverage of trump as well. You mentioned mob ties. Worth knowing ted cruz brought up that on one of the sunday show this is morning. Wonderf wonder if well hear more from cruz on that. Want to turn to one of trumps favorite punching bags, the media. The New York Times wrote donald trump in new york, deep roots but little influence. Now, i dont know this for sure, but what do you think . Do you think trump attacked the New York Times as a result . Take a look at what he said. The New York Times, its going out of business, its the worst newspaper. It is a dead newspaper. These people are incompetent and theyre bad people. They have a bad agenda. Were going to open up the libel laws so when they write falsely, we can sue the media and we can get the story corrected and get damages, right, believe me. The New York Times has seen better days but its not dead. Jim, i want you to tell us about the libel law issue. Educate our viewers for a moment. Is it fundamentally an attack on press freedom to do what trump is proposing to do . Yeah, absolutely. Why . If you go back to the Supreme Court case famous case sullivan, you have got to show malicious intent in proving libel against a media outlet, even when it publishes erroneous facts. The irony here of a guy who is trying to weaken those libel laws at the same time hes very much profiting, is he not, from the protections of the First Amendment by basically saying what the heck he wants. But i think in the process by railing every time he feels hes been done some injustice by the press, i think he has inadvertently making a very, very good case for why you should make the laws stronger, not weaker, and i do hope mr. Trump and campaign adherents are watching the oscars tonight and crossing their fingers that spotlight wins because that movie is all about the First Amendment and its relevance in a democracy and why it should be stronger, not weaker, as trump wants to make it. You just gave a great tease for me. We will talk about spotlight later in the hour. Whenever i hear trump criticizing the press i think this does resonate with a lot ever his fans. We are a punching bag that seems very effective. Molly quhashtion is the antidote, if there is one to that sort of rhetoric . Its heartening to see the way the media have responded negatively to Donald Trumps calls to open up libel laws, but it also speaks to the strength of his argument, which is that the same media who are complaining about what he said about the Washington Post and the New York Times, they dont care when Democratic Candidates openly state theyre opposed to citizens unites, a Supreme Court decision that protects the First Amendment, that allows people to criticize candidates. I dont know if people rather Citizens United was about a Nonprofit Group trying to criticize Hillary Clinton and the Supreme Court said they could do that under free speech and free press rules. We dont see the same aefl of angst about other candidates speaking against the administration. Or also just opposing other parts of the First Amendment such as religious freedom protections. People are upset about that and thats partly why theyre supporting someone like trump. Molly, jim, kathleen, i thank you all for being here this morning. Thank you. After super tuesday the big media story will be donald trump and megyn kelly, the rematch next thursday night. This reminds me from a quote of Rolling Stones quest latest issue. It says trump found the flaw in the american death star. It doesnt know how to turn the cameras off even when its film its own denies. So should we find the off button . The author of that story, matt taayieby, which join me after the break. Pet moments are beautiful, unless you have allergies. Then your eyes may see it differently. Only flonase is approved to relieve both itchy, watery eyes and congestion. No other nasal allergy spray can say that. When we breathe in allergens our bodies react by over producing six key inflammatory substances that cause our symptoms. Most allergy pills only control one substance. Flonase controls six. And six is greater than one. Complete allergy relief or incomplete. Let your eyes decide. Flonase. 61 changes everything. Youre an at t Small Business expert . Sure am. My staff could use your help staying in touch with customers. At t can help you stay connected. Am i seeing double . No maam. Our at t buy one get one free makes it easier for your staff to send appointment reminders to your customers. And share promotions on social media . You know it now im seeing dollar signs. You should probably get your eyes checked. Good one babe. Optometry humor. Right now get up to 650 in credits to help you switch to at t. Button . Are you powered by protein . We are. Milk has 8 grams to help give you energy to unleash your potential. Start every day with milks protein and milk life. Button . When cigarette cravings hit, all i can think about is getting relief. Only nicorette mini has a patented fastdissolving formula. It starts to relieve sudden cravings fast. I never know when ill need relief. Thats why i only choose nicorette mini. It is a question being asked in every american newsroom right now, if trump becomes the republican nominee for president , how much credit or how much blame should the press get . Matt taibbi ex ploers this in a new Rolling Stone cover stairing declaring how the media made trump unstoppable calling him an above average con man saying the political system is his easiest mark and the media helped him by having failed attempts to prop up his opponents. He calls out two members of the media in particular, Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski and hes joining me now to tell me why. Great to be here. You spent a lot of tige on the campaign trail but on an outsider. What shocked you the most . I think with trump the thing that surprised me the most was that his actual stump speech, you know, the racebaiting stuff that has gotten him so much attention in the media is actually a relatively small part of his presentation. When you say racebaiting what do you mean . The things about mexicans being rapists and keeping the muss limits olims out of the co. His actual stump speech is very populist in tone and is very much directed at this kind of global criticism of the system as being corrupt and infected with money and politics, and i think that was interesting to me because i think the media has underreported that emphasis. That part of it. You say america has made trump unstoppable. Do you feel the media has played a part in making him of course. Basically this part the presumptive nom if i. Absolutely. Of course we have. Look at the statistics. We cited one in our article where he had had 233 times the amount of Television Network coverage that his next biggest opponent on the gop side, cruz, had had and hes had twice as much coverage as hillary. I might say thats because hes more unpredictable, more interesting, more compelling to watch and hes more popular. Of course. And he gets better ratings. Whenever anybody covers trump its going to increase this is partly chicken or egg. We have been having this conversation for eight months. We have, but i mean i think this is what i was trying to say about trump in the article is that he sort of found the flaw in our system, which is that normally when we have candidates who fall outside the pale and whom political reporters consider unsuitable candidates, people like pat buchanan or howard dean or ron paul, normally we criticize them and they go away. Trump figured out if he just makes the whole thing a circus we just cant resist covering let me read from our article. You say trump isnt the first guy to run for office but the first to realize the weakness in the system. The watch dogs in the media cant result a car wreck. You go into the statistics about how hes been pulling more coverage than his rivals and Hillary Clinton. Are you saying that maybe its Good Television but its not Good Journalism to be covered him as much as he gets covered . Right. Well, its definitely Good Television. This is another point we were trying to make in the article which is that the election campaign, its just a Television Show, and i think this is what trump is his key insight into this whole process. Hes a reality tv star. He knows how to do this and hes good at this and hes turned this what is essentially a Television Show into a show where he is the star and we cant live without it. And yet i would argue if marco rubio or some of the other candidates would agree to give interviews more often, theyd be on tv more often. Maybe theyd have more of a chance. Maybe they havent learned trumps lesson that is trump might be teaching. Thats possible but trump is just so good at turning, you know, a spontaneous moment into a whole news cycles worth of headlines. We talked about how ted cruz made a major ad buy. He spends half a Million Dollars before iowa to try to get himself up in the polls, but then trump turns around a week later and kaulz him a name in a middle of a rally in manchester, New Hampshire, and he gets four times the coverage cruz gets for his ad buy and doesnt have to pay a dime for it. Do you think there are other people in 2020 or 2024 or 2028 who can pull this off, others like trump who have the ability to go around the usual political system. Absolutely but i think they will come from the place trump comes from. They will be entertainers. They might be wrestlers some people have said trump is one of a kind. This can never happen again but i dont think i agree. There are others in the future who can use free media and not right, they just have to have an instinct for getting Media Attention and hes brilliant at that but so are a thousand other reality tv stars and i think highways what were going to see in the future. Were talking about the campaign as a reality tv show. I want to get your take on the morning joe issue. They have come under criticism for being too close to trump. They say theyre not. They say this is just rivals trying to take cheap shots at them but we see this town hall that happened a couple weeks ago as an example of a clo