Amazon on the potomac. He visits his new property at the Washington Post and the staff tweets everything he says in realtime. We will look at why he thinks he can revive the paper. New yorks mayoral primary is upon us and the National Press still obsessed with Anthony Wiener despite his flame out. As they say in the city, whats up with that . And digital download, an ambitious profile of melissa mayor. It is time for the buzz. First a few words about this program. We will hold the media accountable in a fair, aggressive and unbiased way. We will look at how stories are covered and framed and not shy about calling people out for mistakes, conflicts, sensationalism or our own errors when they happen. And a guide to cut through the static and fingerpointing and focus on the facts and have fun in the process. Whats more . We will continue the conversation online and we want your feedback. Send me a tweet about our show during this hour. It is at media buzz fnc. Perhaps we will read some of the messages at the end of the program. From the moment prom halted plans on airstrikes for syria to ask congress for a green light he has been getting pounded by the media from the left, from the right and every way in between. You cant leave the region hanging. It looks absolutely as if the United States has chickened out. Do you feel undermind . Do you think the United States has undermind its lempleg in the world . Its leverage in the world . The president is making the case to the congress and the American People for a strike, but no one including me is buying it. We know president obama to be the reluctant warrior. He is coming off now as a reluctant leader. I think the president s press conference was actually embarrassing. It was as muddled and unconvincing as you could possibly imagine. So why has this mounting mediaism cr media criticism cut across the party lines . Joining us now, Lauren AshburnFox News Contributor and david zurich for the washington son and an anchor on the new adventure post tv. Lauren, it seems to be a rare moment when liberal and commentators, left, up, right, down are united in criticism president obama. Nobody wants this war even the public. Look at the polls. 36 are approving of this . That is the lowest number of any of the wars. Iraq, afghanistan. I think in the very beginning when we learned that chemical weapons had been used that people thought, okay, the media thought we are going to war. And then as a couple days moved on and we see a video, videos of the terrible, horrible 400 children who were gassed and killed that everything changed. Pundits started to say, no x we are not going to no, we are not going to do this. Reporters, anchors started to have a skeptical tone. What strikes me is often when it comes to president obama you have the gang at msnbc and they are acting as a cheerleading squad, but on this one, chris matthews, ed schulz and others opposing the president on inter veption in syria and i wonder if that says we reached a moment where obama at least on this issue has no friends in the press . Strange bedfellow here not only in the press, but in congress. You have people like liz cheney and barbara lee agreeing on this that america shouldnt intervene. Some people call it a war and the white house is calling it a military inter veption in limited strikes. When americans hear about this they think of war and they think obviously of iraq and the specter of iraq has determined a lot of the skeptical coverage. And there is the main stroam press. Mainstream press. You saw cnn got some of the videos that were released. Even in releasing some of the videos there was skepticism on the chain of command. Who released the chemical weapons . Was it the rebels or the Syrian Government . There is also a question of why were those video reis leased now . They werent publicly released. They were, quote, obtained by cnn and fox news and then made public. But they are too gruesome to show. Before we get back to that i want to bring david in. The television nature of this debate means that president obama giving the big Oval Office Speech on tuesday evening. Before that, tomorrow he will sit down with wolf blitzer and brian and scott and diane and it seems to me that can that move the needle, the pulling out the stops and sitting with the big anchors . I think president obama knows he is in trouble and he knows this is what he does well. This kind of media blitz is what he does well and so this is his a game and he goes to it. I dont think it can move the dial. In fact, assad as we now know will be on cbs tomorrow in an interview that was taped on sunday with charlie rose. Listen, i wonder what the white house is like today finding that out. Here is part of what i think went wrong with this. President obama and secretary of state kerry talked in this high moral plain of immonic moment and neither of them has that moral authority. I think thats why president obama tried to bring mccain into this because he does. You are saying the president of the United States i want to stay focused on the media. You say he has no moral authority. You are acting as a public dit and saying public dit and saying this guy doesnt have what it takes to persuade the country. But dont people in our business have a lot to do with this . Their tone has consistently been skeptical, aggressive, is this another iraq . Gee, i wonder why after the history of the administration . Thats our job. They come out and sell this and i tell you who has done a good job in the media, cspan with the congressional hearings. Mike mccal from texas when he questioned the nature of the opposition and kerrys facts were all over the place. There is no radical, oh, maybe 20 . They have been telling us a narrative without facts. When the Washington Post describes the evidence of Chemical Attacks by the assad regime as alleged i wonder if he would have seen that in 2002 and 2003 and whether there is such a hangover from the dark shadow of iraq that many in the media feel like they have got to be more cautious and skeptical about this. It is the reason why the media is singing this chorus of caution. You see it everywhere. People remember and journalists remember the iraq war and the mistakes that were made in that war and in reporting that war. Thats right. People lost their jobs, right . Everybody thinks about Judith Millers reporting. At the New York Times. Well she went to jail on an unrelated case, but people lost their reputations and people had to apologize for being too credited you los about the bush administrations claims. Here you have almost a perfect storm. You have the natural skepticism of the press having taken a beating over iraq and you have the fact that there is so little support apparently in the country for this military intervention. It would be different if the president had just done it unilaterally. In a way are the media reflecting public sentiment . They reflected public sentiment back during the iraq war too. The context was we were just hit in september in the public and they very much were wanting blood in someways and believe there is a connection between saddam and alqaeda and i think the press reflected that. I dont think the press should always reflect what the public thinks especially if the public is misinformed. But i think with this it is very very i have had a hard time finding just regular people let alone folks in the press supportive of this war. Most people are skeptical. We talk about the pictures or lack there of since there are few reporters in syria. It is dangerous and risky to go there, but the New York Times ran that and obtained out of syria last year. Talk about that front page picture and what impact it may have had. The 27yearold rebel commander who they call uncle has guns pointed over these seven soldiers. Cap you are tood government soldiers and later executed and that was quite an eye opener. Right. But it also muddles for reporters. While we were thinking that the narrative was the rebels are okay and the assad regime is wrong, but then you look at that and then you think, wait a minute, it is happening on both sides. I have an exit question here having to do with the role of commentators. We saw white house strategy sessions, trying to get everybody on the same talking points and who goes over there but a bunch of former obama aides. Talking about stephanie cuter who is the new host of cross fire and former msn people who are now common commentators. It is outrageous. We talked about that especially with gibbs and axel rod. When i watch them, especially gibbs, he sits there in a coma and somebody says something bad about president obama and he jumps up. They are loyalists. They are hard core loyalists. Thats not what the media should not be one at a time. Thats their job. It is very clear who stephanie cuter is. She worked for obama and she is on a show that is an opinion show. Q. I and thats why she was thats why she was hired. Viewers expect her to have an inside knowledge of how the white house works and a current pipeline. I dont necessarily i dont think anyone thinks Stephanie Gibbs stephanie cuter or robert gibbs are commentators. Of course she will be pro obama. There seems to be a little difference between that stance and going to strategy meetings. By the way yes, so he can craft his message. By the way, when karl rove appears on fox and he is in charge of raising money for public candidates and president ial candidates possibly the last time around Newt Gingrich appearing on fox it was fair to question whether they are pushing an agenda. Lets go to war for moral reasons. Lets convince the country of the moral righteousness of it and not five spin doctors sitting in the white house cooking up a strategy. Im sorry, but that is what the program is. As long as you are transparent to your readers thats the question. Will they be transparent . They know who these people are. We are out of time for this segment. Send a tweet to our show at media buzz fnc. We hope to read some later. When we come back, a billionaire is visiting his new property. And the staff tweets everything about the new founder. Well take you behind the [ villain ] well mr. Baldwin. It appears our journey has come to a delightful end. Then i better use the capital one purchase eraser to redeem my venture miles for this trip. Purchase eraser . Its the easy way to erase any recent travel expense. I just pick a charge, like my flight with a few taps, its taken care of. Impressive baldwin. Does it work for hotels . Absolutely thank goodness. Mrs. Villain and i are planning our. You scare me. And i like it. Lets go whats in your wallet . Boss at the Washington Post with the amazon founder showing up to answer questions. These were no softball questions. Some involved journalistic ethics. You were there and what was the reaction to the new owner who had maintained this extraordinarily low profile before showing up at the the post . Thats right. He had an interview with our reporters there. But he isnt a guy who is very friendly to the press in terms of giving interest you interviews. I will say my whole reaction was sadness and shock. I think that was everyones response initially because there is just such an attachment that folks at the post have to the family. That was my reaction after working there for so long. How can this be happening . What is your second reaction . My second reaction is a lot of hope. Thats where we are more generally. You look at what he said. He is talking about invention. He is focusing on the customer. He is talking about a longterm strategy and this idea that the post cant cut its way to growth which i think a lot of folks want to do. I think in newspaper boardrooms across the country executives were saying what does he know that we dont know . Why would he invest 250 million of his own money . Albeit thats not a lot of money since he is worth 24 billion. Thats a key thing though. He can spend a lot of money on this and not worry about so many acquisitions of struggling newspapers squeezing profits. And your p and l has to of ma. With digital revenue not living up to what print advertising and circulating revenue has to be, you have to invent and you have to find new ways to get that revenue. Let me read some of the tweets that the Washington Post staffers sent out while jeff was still addressing the staff. The first has to do with the question of how can you run a newspaper when at the same time amazon says no comment. I thought that the most powerful minds in the world can hold powerful inconsistencies. Thats a duck. He was worried about any product that was 100 ad supported. Then, says bezos that you are advertisers. Then you are not around. You are a newspaper guy. Can the guy who revolutionized the Book Business in an Online Retailing help reinvent the way the news is delivered . I sat through too many of these owners walking in the newsroom. I have been through too many of them. I have to say for a cynical a lot as we are, we are always incredibly optimistic because now it is our mortgage payment and we want this person to be a genius. We want them to be a genius. I was looking at the tweets as they were coming out and thinking, oh yeah, i have been there. We love them. The number one need the number one rule must be dont be boring. I get that. He said that for 20 years though. Is there a concern that this is a guy who still lives in seattle and keeps his day job at amazon and he will be too handsoff and he has, as he puts it, no magic wand . I think people want him to be handsoff. They have had a great run over the last six months and we have the new editor and i dont think we want him medaling in the editorial part of the paper. We want his business savy. On that point, he says the Washington Post does great investigative reporting, which is true. Then these other sites come along anding a aggregate it for free which takes it away from wanting to say pay for digital subscription. That is a whole newspaper problem right there in a nutshell. No one wants to pay for what is on the internet. Getting Digital Subscribers was very difficult. And it took the New York Times and the Washington Post a long time to make that jump. In fact the Baltimore Sun went digital before the post. There is your mortgage right there. Bottom line, reporting is expensive. Great discussion. Up next, two day days to go before the vote for the new york mayor. And they are still talking about Anthony Wiener mouthing off to a heckler . The National Media couldnt get enough of new yorks mayoral race when the campaign was melting down over yet another sexting scandal. With the democratic primary two days away and Anthony Wiener way down in the polls the press is still on his case. He responded sharply to a heckler who taunted him. Thats very nice. In front of children, that is charming. You are disgusting. It takes one to know one, [bleep]. Why is this man still news . Joining us now is michelle connell, washington correspondent for the daily beast and the digital politics editor and anchor of power play on fox news. Com. Welcome, michelle. My question is this video of Anthony Wiener going on and on and on after this guy verbally accosted him. Why is it big news . Everybody loves a train wreck and Anthony Wiener has been a pretty consistent train wreck for the last several months. While as a congressman he wasnt that great and as a mayoral candidate he is down in the polls, he is a his penis is a national celebrity. I dont want to talk about genitalia anymore. This woman came out and said they were sexting even after he came out. She was on the up and on. Now he is in the Single Digits and he is not going to be the next mayor of new york city and he gets into it with a heckler. I have seen that tape online or on television a hundred times. It is not even about sex. And he was on sundae show today and he is around talking. There is a moment in the wiener campaign when the two things meshed up. One was new york is about to have its first democratic mayor in 20 years. Liberals in new york are tired of authoritarianism. Wiener had sex appeal not appeal, but had sex anyway. And then this political story. The two lived happily in that space. We could talk about a grown up thing which was democrats trending more liberal left and then we can make people it was like a flint stone vitamin. Now the two have decoupled and what are we left with . Chris star says we are not grownups by going with the easy cheesy tabloid sensational and lets kick Anthony Wiener around. Right now the word Anthony Wiener and grown up should never be used in the same sentence. It is sad. Chris, you mentioned a sunday show. I was stunned to learn that meet the press aired an interview conducted by savannah guthrie, the only one to be on that nbc program. Lets look at that. Your wife was part of that piece and she talked about how you changed. At that time she didnt even know that your behavior was continuing, that it was still going on. Doesnt that not show a capacity to look somebody in the eye and lie, not just your wife, but the reporter and the public . Things were a lot better during that People Magazine profile, they were a lot better. Chris . I am agag. A guy accused of internet flashing on a park bench in new york and i dont know if that is the right setting. You had to go there. She went there. Savannah guthrie went there. What about nbcs decision to give this guy air time when , as you point out, bill deblazio is not a household name, but he is in the polls and maybe the next mayor. Kristine quinn are the next candidates back in the pack. Yet the National Coverage not in new york or the city, but the National Coverage is not abo