Is his strategy working . I will ask Legendary Newsman carl bernstein, here to talk about the latest scoop on cohen v. Trump. Whats next for sinclair . Will the angry tweets affect the fccs decision . First, another chapter in the Me Too Movement brought to us once again by rowan farrow, out in print tomorrow is about les moonves and the culture of cbs. Its been eight months since charlie rose was fired from cbs this morning. And now the famed Broadcast Network is again having to report on itself. The New Yorker Magazine is reporting six women have accused cbs chairman and ceo Leslie Moonves of Sexual Harassment and cbs news chairman and current 60 minutes Executive Producer jeff fager allowed harassment. The story is about much more
than moonves, its about cbs as a whole, about how Major Media Companies are still having to reckon with the past about alleged abuse that happened in the past and, in some cases, not too long ago. These are issues that have to be addressed by cbs and by other media companies. And its farrow who has been leading the way, exposing some of the darkest secrets of these companies. His latest report about cbs is also about the iconic news magazine, 60 minutes. Executive producer jeff fager, quote, enabled harassment and committed Sexual Harassment himself. He denies those allegations and saying its coming from sources who have an ax to grind. Sparked by farrows report by the New York Times, Me Too Movement has been causing these stories to come to light. Just think about how long its taken to get to this point. Lets address these different
stories as carefully as we can, because farrows story is 8,000 words long. The conduct by moonves as the boss at cbs for 20 years allegedly happened between the 1980s and the late 2000s. Some of the women quote rd on the record. Then the story also talks about issues more broadly at cbs. What farrow is indicating is that theres a systemic issue here. So, lets talk to him about it. Farrow is joining me now for one of his first interviews about the report. I know youve been working on this, what, eight months . There have been rumors about this for many months. Then on friday, six hours before your story came out, cbs stock plummeted, cbs issued a statement. I wonder what its been like for you as the whole media world has been wondering what youre working on to try to get your work done carefully, accurately, while everybody else is speculating about it. I think you framed it correctly, brian. Noise and interference. And when you work on stories
involving dozens and dozens and dozens of sources, it becomes almost inevitable, when theres so much writing on these important stories that i think really need to be heard that word leaks out. This happened in a number of prominent stories i worked on in the past month and, you know, thats okay. But i do think its important for the public to distinguish between the secondary coverage of the story, often fraught with misinformation and the story itself, which is the product of many meticulous months of investigation. We need to try to distinguish between the different stories youve been doing. When you write about moonves or fager, youre not lumping them in with a predator like weinstein, are you . Of course not. Anyone who reads these stories can see readily were careful not to draw any speculative
interferences her inferences here. In the case of Leslie Moonves, not to draw comparisons to anyone else but certainly these are six women and in several cases theyre talking about what they describe as serious Sexual Assaul assault. Moonves says he made mistakes in the past but never misused his power to punish women if they rejected his advances. Do you have evidence to the contrary . Certainly, the womens stories suggest that these are encounters that went a lot farther than that comment allows for. I do think its striking, though, and perhaps reflective of the rapidly changing times that were in, brian, that Leslie Moonves does exhibit a fair amount of contrition in these responses. I have to say that in all of our interactions with cbs and with moonves, which were extensive from a very broad window of
comments on this, and worked very closely with them, mr. Moonves personally, to me, was very, very gracious and seemed to take the claims very seriously. Moonves is one part of your story. I want to ask you one more thing about that. He is locked in this epic value with sherry redstone, Controlling Shareholder with cbs. Theres been some insinuation that maybe sherry redstones camp is partly behind your story. How do you react when you hear that kind of insinuation . We address it in the story. These women began coming to me immediately after the weinstein story, Iliana Douglas called me after the first Harvey Weinstein story i wrote and told me her story and weve been carefully investigating since. Now, look, there are plenty of stories that are completely true and fueled by Opposition Research at some time. Weve vetted and revetted these sources and my honest impression that these stories are not only true but also not fueled by Opposition Research. These women came in a heartfelt moment where there was an outpouring of these kinds of stories. And you say 19 sources describe behavior at cbs news that jeff fager, chairman of the News Division and still Executive Producer of 60 minutes that he enabled and allowed for harassment to happen and sometimes made unwanted advances himself. He has flatly denied this. He says your sources have an ax to grind, trying to hurt 60 minutes. What can you tell us about what you learned from these sources . Its a lot of sources that supposedly, in mr. Fagers view, have an ax to grind and a story thats been percolating for a long time. They describe, with some uniformity, brian, what one person in this story terms a mad
man culture, where women are made to feel objectfi if object. They paint a picture of a way in which a culture of alleged misconduct at the top can trickle down to various facets of even a large company. Now, youre not the first person to go digging around 60 minutes, as you know. As you mention in your piece, the Washington Post was pursuing a story about fager this year. One of the reporters who wrote about charlie rose, cbs, but didnt say much about fager in her story. You report thats because fager had a team of lawyers get involved. Can you talk us through that . I can. The post did very important, powerful reporting about charlie rose in the fall and starting immediately after that began working on a followup story by
two really wonderful reporters, in my view of their work, and they uncovered substantial evidence of misconduct by jeff fager amongst other things. That story was the subject of a heated battle where the post was subject to a lot of pressure from fagers personal legal team. Obviously we also dealt with his legal team. And there were efforts to personally smear those reporters and their professionalism as well as sources in the story. I was struck by what was said at a Mirror Award Speech in june. You wrote about this clip, ronan. When you watch this clip, keep in mind, jeff fager is in the room while she is speaking. I just want to say one thing. I think there is a temptation to think that the last few months have been about individual men, that its about a handful of bad apples and if we get rid of them, it will end the cycle of harassment and abuse. It is not true. The stories weve been doing are actually about a system. The system had lawyers and a good reputation, it had publici publicists. It has a perfectly reasonable explanation about what happened. It has powerful friends that will ask, is this really worth ruining the career of a good man . What one woman says, what four women say, what 35 women say . Indeed, the system is sitting in this room. Some more than others. The system is still powerful men getting stories killed that i believe will some day see the light of day. And i believe she was talking about her own reporting about fager that was never published by the post. So why were you able to get this reporting out there in the new yorker . What happened . I think there are a combination of factors any time a story that is this tough and where sources are this afraid. And theres a long time span where sources grapple with the
my main purpose was for accepting the meeting was to raise concerns about the president s deeply troubling antipress rhetoric. I told the president directly that i thought that his language was not only divisive but increasingly dangerous. I told him that although the phrase fake news is untrue and harmful i am far more concerned about its labels journalists the enemy of the people. I warned that this inflammatory language is contributing to a rise in threats against journalists and will lead to violence. Trump hasnt answered a single question from reporters since wednesday. Thats the day you remember this happened. Did Michael Cohen betray you, mr. President . Did Michael Cohen betray you . Are you worried what he will say . Are you worried about what is on the other tapes, mr. President . Why has Vladimir Putin not accepted your invitation . Those were the questions asked by Kaitlyn Collins and she was disinvited, meaning banning her, from a gathering that was open to all the press. Ever since the reporters have been able to shout questions near the president , he hasnt responded. Its really telling that hes avoiding any opportunities or any interactions with the press corps. I think it shows that kaitlyns questions were spot on. These issues about cohen and his twisted relationship with putin, these are big stories and were not getting any answers from trump. Lets talk about it with our panel now. The brand new president of the White House Correspondents Association and the Chief Washington correspondent for sirius xm. Katie roberts is here, from the New York Times and s. E. Cupp, host of cnns s. E. Cupp unfiltered. Katie, you have the president talking about your paper today. What do you make of the president and the meeting with your publisher . I think a. G. s meeting stands on its own. I agree that the president s words have weight in the field when we cover rallies. Its very clear that his rhetoric about enemy of the people is resonating across the country. And he is the president. What he says matters. As a reporter, you go into the field, talking to republican voters, having to hear that its fake news, were enemies and it adds a different component to our jobs broadly. The president is entitled to feel however he wants about the coverage about him. Other president s have done the same. What is different is that this president is coming out and calling us enemies of the people. Tell me about wednesday,
olivier. The news broke right before your radio show started on sirius xm. You were out with a pretty strong statement within the hour, condemning the white houses actions. Are you trying to take a hard line . Are you trying to show solidarity . We advocate on behalf of the men and women who cover the white house. We try to bring americans news about the president , the presidency, what the government is doing in their name. We want to make sure when Television Pictures are coming from the white house, theyre coming from the news media. When theyre photos, they come from the news photographers, radio sound by the radio folkses. Of course, to try to get as many opportunities to ask questions of senior officials up to and including the president. Thats our core function. In this instance, youre right, it broke from our radio show. I had my Board Operator basically muting my microphone in being questions as i frantically typed on my laptop. Wow this is important to understand, it wasnt just a defense of cnn. It wasnt just a defense of Kaitlyn Collins. What you saw in the unaninimity, it could be someone else tomorrow, it could be someone else in the administration. It struck one of our Core Functions again. Kaitlyn was told she couldnt attend an event that literally every other credentialed reporter on the white house grounds could attend. It was important we draw a line there and explain to people why that wasnt okay. The Washington Post reported that trump has wanted to do this before, that he has wanted to block certain reporters from coming to events. The post names jim acosta and april ryan as two of those reporters. Oneword question for you, s. E. Surprised . No. You know, trump has, i think, in business and life, operated as a
sort of punitive force. I think he really likes to punish people to send a message or make examples or look like the strong man, the tough guy. And he has long wanted to punish the press, labeling us fake news, the enemy of the people has actually been very effective. Trust in the media is at an alltime low. So, this is having a significant impact. The difference now, i think, is that finally our news institution, our media, our press is sort of united around in solidarity around each other. And that is something that you and i have talked about a number of times, that we used to see in past administrations. Jake tapper calling out president obama for discrediting fox news or other organizations, calling out the Obama Administration for targeting the ap or trying to keep fox out of
the press pool for an interview. There were those moments of solidarity that had not happened under trump until the past few weeks, starting with john roberts of fox really sort of being pressured to make a statement about trumps calling cnn and jim acosta not a real news network. He eventually did write a statement, to release a statement defending cnn. The week following that, you had hallie jackson, nbc news reporter, who was trying to press Sarah Sanders in a press briefing. She wasnt getting answers. Another Hill Reporter ceded his time back to her. Those moments of solidarity, including the Kaitlyn Collins incident, are a really welcome show of strength and show of force that i think has really taken to all. There have been several episodes. Olivier, let me be cynical for a
second. Are we going to see this frequently or are they oneoffs . Most of the time you dont see it. Were having these conversations behind the scenes, meeting with Sarah Sanders and other communication officials to work out our problems behind the scenes. Again its typically not this heated. We often have debates about how much the press will see on a foreign trip, for example. Can we get the pool, the small group of 13 or so out to follow the president everywhere . Can we make sure that they stay in the motorcade . Can we make sure that they see the president actually meet with, say, british Prime Minister theresa may . A lot of the solidarity and work is happening behind the scenes. This was a very public moment. They made a decision to exclude Kaitlyn Collins of cnn from an event, from which literally every other credentialed reporter at the white house that day could attend. And it seems like if trump has been wanting this for a long time, the x factor here was bill schein, new on the job. Maybe he kind of just fell for it and now he saw the reaction. Real quick, one more story to touch on, katie. You and maggie haber reported about an amazing leak out of the white house, this email that showed how trump was angry when he boarded Air Force One and saw that melanias tv was tuned to cnn. What happened here . He wants all the tvs tuned to fox . Its Standard Operating Procedure now that all tvs will be on fox. When he returns to his hotel suite when traveling, the tvs will be tuned to fox. The emails are theyre a smaller example of this broader issue going on, that the president does not want to take in opposing or possibly opposing views. He is at a phase in his presidency where he does not want to hear anything other than his own messaging or supportive messaging. Emails are a smaller example that illustrate this larger issue. And Melania Trump won. Her team put out a statement
saying she will watch whatever channel she wants. She did give that statement to your network. Thats right. Thats right. Of all the places she could have issued that statement to, she gave it to cnn. She sure did. To the panel, s. E. , stay tuned if you can. The reporter who exposed lies and corruption to the white house 45 years ago is doing it again. Carl bernstein joins me in a moment. Paying too much for insurance that isnt the right fit . Well, esurance makes finding the right coverage easy. In fact, drivers who switched from geico to esurance saved an average of 412. Thats auto and Home Insurance for the modern world. Esurance. An allstate company. Click or call. Come fly with me, lets fly,. Lets fly away. The first thing that was important for me to change was the culture of the company. And i think that had to shift to responsible growth. Second thing i wanted to change was the leadership of the company. And the third was for us to start listening. Listening to our riders. Listening to our driver partners. I think listening is ultimately going to make us a better company. With recurring constipation and belly pain if you feel like you spend too much time in the bathroom talk to your doctor and say yesss to linzess.