we've got an all-star lineup, britt hume, mary katherine hamm, kirsteners and laura ingram. hillary blitzes the networks with a book tour. >> is there anything you personally should have been doing to make it safer in benghazi? >> i wonder if people are looking for a sentence that begins from you, i should have -- i should have -- >> i certainly would give anything on earth if this had not happened. >> you had said repeatedly that you take responsibility for what happened in benghazi. >> i do. i do. >> doesn't that include testifying before congress if they want you? >> some people were surprised you didn't really after all that you read and wrote in the book, that you didn't talk about your. >> were the interviewers tough enough on the democratic front-runner? iraq back on our television screens after years of war fatigue. are journalists asking the right questions? >>. >> plus, the o.j. bronco chase, 20 years ago this week. did that moment push the media into an era of celebrity crime and sensationalism? i'm howard kurtz and this is "media buzz." on tuesday morning, "the washington post" said eric cantor's obscure opponent would fall far short of knocking him off. quote, the question in this race is how large cantor's victory would be. by the evening "the post" was calling the upset shocking. >> brat tells the national review he is going to run a primary campaign against cantor because cantor voted for the ryan budget deal. and when it comes to repealing the affordable air care act, quote, he hasn't moved the ball down the field at all. >> even on primary day it was clear virtually no one saw the cantor collapse coming. >> other races to watch, in virginia, how majority leader eric cantor facing a long-shot tea party challenger, an economics professor, dave brat. >> what do we know about dave brat? who is dave brat? >> it's a great question. we don't know very much about him. >> because nobody bothered to cover the guy. how did political journalists blow this race so badly? lauren ashburn, a former "usa today" executive who hosts social buzz on the fox website. mary katherine hamm and kirsten powers, columnist for "usa today," all fox news contributors. >> is it an embarrassment for the professional pundit class that almost nobody talked about or reported on this race. >> everybody was caught flat-footed on this. it's just because of the reason you said. nobody bothered to do shoe leather reporting, get down there, talk to the voters, see what they had to say. msnbc had a few mentions, cnn nothing, politico, while brat has little chance of upsetting cantor, cantor who will almost certainly become the next speaker of the house. >> how is that looking this morning? it's not that we should be able to predict every race with certainty but most of the tv reporters that have gone home, it wasn't on the media radar. >> right. i want to take my blame on this, too. since i am of the pundit class. there's a tendency with the tea party especially to see it black and white. the early primary season convinced everybody it's dead. there seems to be no middle ground. perhaps we can google the primary candidates. >> is this in part because most reporters take their cues from the political establishment which didn't see this coming? and there were no media polls. we love to have polls to tell us who's in trouble. no polls, somebody must not be in trouble. >> if a poll didn't you'd be hearing something. something would be bubbling up, somebody else in the district would be saying something's off. they would be telling the reporters that. maybe they were telling the reporters that and they were dismissing it. i think mary katherine hit on it, it became a media narrative. which i never bought. even when i pushed back against it, i was treated like i was crazy. is the tea party dead? the two people who get the most attention right now in the republican party are ted cruz and rand paul. the tea party obviously wasn't dead. >> definitely, we won't treat you like you're crazy this morning. >> it's a story line the republicans like, the establishment liked. it's what they were pushing. they wanted the tea party to be dead and they wanted the establishment to be alive. >> you mentioned talking to voters. a "new york times" reporter knocked on doors. they found out there was a lot of antipathy toward eric cantor. the idea of going out and door knocking in a race, is that just out of vote? >> you can't just blame reporters on this. >> try me. >> okay. all right. blame whoever you want. i think there's also a corporate responsibility here. a lot of travel budget has been cut. the newspaper industry and the magazine industry isn't as vibrant as it used to be. everybody sort of mcing decline right now. so i think that when you cut those budgets, you'll see something like you saw with trayvon martin in florida, the young man who was killed. and we didn't even know about that for about a week because the local paper closed its bureau there. >> and orlando had just a few paragraphs on it. laura ingram is coming up behind you. she and mark levin, a couple others, this is being hailed as a talk radio victory. >> let me assist you. saying virginia 7 is 65, 70 miles from here. not a ton of budget needed to get down there and cover it. >> a gallon of gas. >> when it comes to the national media reporting on the tea party, i think it is a very diffuse movement. sometimes there are great candidates, sometimes wild card candidates that don't work. >> brat didn't have the backing of the national tea party group. >> exactly. that's a key point here. it's tough to know who is going to come out swinging and when. there's not a lot of action trying to put that into figuring out the tea party. a lot of dismissing going on. >> the morning after the primary, brat talked to chuck todd of msnbc. he couldn't answer the question about arming the rebels in syria. since then, no more interviews until now. did the media make it easier to pull this upset because he didn't have to answer reporters' questions? >> true. i would cut him a little slack. >> he's a college professor running a shoestring campaign with a 23-year-old campaign manager. >> everybody did say he was good looking. >> as many people -- >> is that missing from this debate? >> thank you for elevating it. >> it was reported. >> it was reported, okay. >> it was reported that he's good looking. >> plenty of these people have come in and had great careers. he could still have a great career even though he doesn't know whether he wants to arm the syrian rebels at this point. >> a lot of people don't know. . is there some changer now that there's an overreaction and the pundits are overinterpreting what might be nothing more than eric cantor grew out of touch with his district and ran a lousy campaign. >> it was wonderful to watch that night, inaddition to the shocking and the stunning, the shocking and the stunning, which we couldn't find other adjectives to cover this, the tea party will dominate the 2016 elections. you had people saying the compromise is dead in washington. well, it's been dead for a long time. everybody was trying to make this a lot bigger than it was. >> message on immigration. the immigration reform is dead. a little bit of hyperventilation here? >> i think that's probably going to be the case. like i said, there's a lot of googling going on, a lot of primary candidates right now. the media, especially in washington, politically wants a quick answer and a simple answer. the tea party does not give that to them. i think they might continue to misread this. >> take another minute to explain why that's a problem then. because most journalists can't figure out the tea party movement, which is, after all, it's not an organized political party with nominations. it is a movement. >> correct. i think a little bit of hyperventilation might help with that because there will be some shoe leather spent on these guys. there will be time spent asking them questions and figuring out certain races that maybe weren't going to be at issue before. but i also think, yes, there was political perfect storm here. we do need to be wary of that. >> i don't think the mainstream media is capable of understanding the tea party, based on what i watched. i forget which "new york times" reporter wrote a book about the tea party which was very good. "the new york times" is not a friend of the tea party as far as i can tell. everything she wrote about the tea party does not comport with the story line we get. which is they're racist idiots. >> why? >> it's the elites who can't relate. they want them to be a bunch of bigots who hate barack obama and are driven by racist hatred. >> journalists want this? why? >> well, i can't say what motivates them in terms of their wants. i can just say the end result, that's the end result of how they behave, how they portray them. >> do you agree with that? >> i do think that's the case. chris matthews of all people urged his colleagues on msnbc to say, stop condescending to these folks. this is a real movement. you have to take time to understand and stop flagging them. >> that's one of the good things that's come out of this, because the reporters weren't there and weren't covering it on the ground, i think you'll see a lot more reporters heading to these districts where races have tea party candidates. >> i hope you are right. the other thing, if you don't find sweeping national implications to a race like this, it's 36,000 voters voting for a guy in the district of virginia. that's hard to sustain. what do you think of our candid coverage this morning? send us a tweet. ahead, laura ingram on using her radio show to help knock off eric cantor. but first, hillary hits the airwaves as they launches her campaign -- excuse me, her book tour. it wasn't quite a campaign kickoff but far more than a book tour when hillary clinton sat down with diane sawyer, it was the first chance to cross-examine the democratic front-runner for 2016. >> monica lewinsky. is back in the news. did you call her a narcissistic looney toon? >> i am not going to comment on what i did or not say back in the '90s. >> it's been reported you've made 5 million making speeches. the president made more than $100 million. >> well, you have no reason to remember but we came out of the white house not only dead broke but in debt. we had no money when we got there and we struggled to, you know, piece together the resources for mortgages for houses, for chelsea's education. >> do you think americans will understand five times the median income in this country for one speech? >> someone predicted the liberal media would roll over hillary in these interviews. diane sawyer and others asked about benghazi. >> i applaud it. i'd like to see more of it. i think that here's the thing, these questions were -- you could anticipate them. i think they were things she should have had good answers for. there's plenty of blue prints for answering questions about your wealth or benghazi or any of this. i think had she had a solid answer first time out she wouldn't have gotten pushed so much on them. >> were the media right to pounce on hillary clinton over that dead rope answer? was it a serious misstep or gaffe on her part? >> i think it was a very serious misstep. it showed her to be out of touch. of course that was the big thing that everybody said correctly about mitt romney. it really is a problem. >> the woman who's peddling an $8 million blog, makes a million dollar in speeches. >> dead broke implies you are sleeping on a sofa. it doesn't imply you're getting a loan for $1.7 million to buy a house. the reason you're getting that loan is because you know you're about to rake in the multimillion dollars. i think it showed her to be out of touch. >> diane sawyer had two hours for that one-hour prime time special. how did diane sawyer do? >> she was very good. she pressed her on age, wealth, health, benghazi. she really didn't let it go. she came back to her when hillary would not fully answer a question and followed up. >> she never seems -- she doesn't act like a prosecutor, doesn't seem like she's badg badgering the witness. >> she lulled her into a sense of complacency which is when the dead broke comment came out. it seems like you're talking to maybe a woman of your own age, which is the best zinger of the whole thing, hillary said, well, diane, isn't it great to be our age. >> the thing that got the most attention late in the week was hillary clinton's interview with national public radio's terry gross in which she was pressed repeatedly on changing her position from the 1990s about same-sex marriage. she had been opposed, now she's strongly in favor. take a listen to some of that. >> that's one for you changed your mind? >> i really -- i have to say, i think you are being persistent but you are playing with my words and playing with what is such an important issue. >> i'm just trying to clarify. >> i don't think you are trying to clarify. you're trying to say i used to be opposed, now i'm in favor and i did it for political reasons. >> was that as testy and defensive as it sounded to me. >> it is dft. part of the issue is this stylistic difference between diane sawyer and terry gross. this is something we've talked about in the past on the show. it's her contentious relationship with the media. she's clearly not giving calm and sort of friendly answers here. i think she could have prepared for them. >> that was completely out of line in that interview. >> why so? >> i have never seen someone of her stature treated that way. the way she would not drop -- she kept asking the question over and over again. >> i have always supported gay marriage. i will cut hillary clinton a little slack considering that she and the rest of the country didn't. why is hillary clinton being raked over the coals like this? >> no, no, no. >> name another person that's been raked over the coals on that issue. >> if you go back to 2008 when completely free pass and journalists were not digging in like this, terry gross should be commended. >> you're not getting my point, though. if you're going to do it -- do i wish they did this to everybody? yes. absolutely. but they don't. why was she doing it to hillary? >> here's where the clinton camp has a point. yes, they did not do this to barack obama. i don't blame them for not being there, saying why didn't anybody do this to him? you have to be ready. >> why did hillary used to not support gay marriage when nobody supported gay marriage? i mean, grow up. >> she has to learn to be not so defensive. if she gave a softer answer, i think terry gross would have moved on. >> it was npr. thanks very much for coming by. up next, did laura ingram step outside her commentator's roll in endorse iing a candidat as the national media largely ignored eric cantor's primary battle, laura ingram went to richmond on his behalf, that of dave brat. >> conservative pundit laura ingram was at a rally for dave brat. brat is taking on one of the most powerful republicans in congress, incumbent eric cantor. >> if my voice can lead anyone to think again about this race, it will be a positive thing. >> i sat down with the fox news contributor here in studio one. laura ingram, welcome. >> good to see you. >> david brat got almost no national media coverage. you started putting him on the radio and you became his champion against eric cantor. why? >> i saw something in him that was hopeful, truthful, a lot of courage, bold thinking. he was the only credible challenger to cantor. i thought you can take down the join the. cantor is the house majority leader. you could really change the shape of the debate in american politics. i thought, look, i think we're losing our country. our country is in a lot of trouble. if you can send a message to the establishment, oh, no you won't keep doing what you're doing. >> you've been a conservative talk show host for a long time. when you go down to richmond and speak at a rally of a republican candidate, does that make you a political activist. >> i'm a concerned american. i'm not an objective reporter. i'm someone who's been out there since i worked for president reagan in 1987. i've been in the trenches since i was at dartmouth for goodness sake, editor of the "dartmouth review." i think culturally, spirlually, economically, i think the realignment in politics has to come from the people. >> the coverage suggested you were driving the primary election. >> i think i helped give him more of a platform. the local media did a very, for the most part, a poor job of covering this race. >> covering is generous. there was so little attention to the fact that he could be a competitor in this race. >> yes. >> did that make your voice louder? >> it's one of the reasons i went down. number one, the press was asleep at the wheel or purposely not covering the race. >> purposely not covering the race because. >> a lot of people in the press are pro-amnesty. if cantor was re-elected it would be a signal to move forward on immigration reform. cantor is a kinder, gentler republican. on a whole host of issues he didn't measure up. if he did he would have been re-elected. he was for t.a.r.p. on ryan murray budget deal, medicare part "d" and for the last two years he's been known as the guy who wants to do the dream act and amnesty. that didn't sit well with people. >> have other candidates asked for your help? >> a lot. >> are you going to be like sarah palin, are you going to endorse this candidate? >> i'm taking it under advisement. i want to be serious about this. and there are a lot of great people out there running. every race is different, howie. i want people to understand this. when we see the establishment in both parties fail the working class people of this country year after year with their standard of living either going like this or for many people, going like this -- >> you're usually taking on democrats. here you are taking on one of the most powerful republicans. >> both are equally culpable. i wanted to try to give someone a voice who had a powerful -- ultimately very uplifting message about the american dream. that was dave brat. >> finally, there was a national review headline about this race, ingram's insurrection. are you leading the way for the beltway establishment. >> for the renewal of america. >> that sounds like a bumper sticker. >> it's slipping away for a lot of americans, in this studio, in beautiful washington, d.c., the elites are at effected like the rest of the country is. >> is it worth to you as a conservative to take on a substantial part of the republican party? >> i haven't been very popular in this town since i became critical of the bush establishment in the final few years of the bush administration. it's not personal. i like the bushes as people. i like john boehner. i think he's a wonderful person. i think paul ryan is a great guy. i think they're wrong on this issue, hurting themselves and their constituents. i'm just one person. i'll be as involved as much as i can. >> i think we'll be hearing more from this one person, laura ingram. >> good to see you, howard. ahead on "media buzz," cnn is running a documentary on george bush 41 with funding that crosses a line. we'll tell you why. and britt hume, covering the case in iraq after years of journalistic war hour for ameri news hecht's. now back to howie and "media buzz." iraq has forced its way ba back on to our television screens as terrorists are seizing major cities and marching toward baghdad, a country in utter chaos. joining us now to examine how the media are framing this story is fox news senior political analyst brit hume. why did the coverage of the iraq war all but vanish in recent years? >> one reason is, this was a war that was thought to be george bush's war. and it wa