Cnn loses control. Are you the only person on the stage that been fined for hiring people illegally. Im the only person on the stage that has hired people. You get along with nobody. You dont have one republican you dont have one republican senator you should be ashamed of yourself. But youre not dating hillary. Hey can i cant beat here, youre really going to get killed, arent you . Is the stormy debate going to be changing the forecast. The focus group will tell us. What will the conservative commentators who detest trump do if he wins the nomination. Rich lowery joins us. Hillary clinton trounces Bernie Sanders with 76 of the vote. Are the media convinced that the sanders surge is over . Plus, a Campaign Victory with friends dumping friends is faish turni facebook turn toing toxic. Im howard kurtz and this is media buzz. You have more careful about that kind of stuff. I posted it in haste. I apologized. The media new convention was that trump was soaring, cruz was fading and rubio desperately needed to attack trump which he did again and again at the cnn debate in houston. Is that the part of the plan . No, no. Youll have many different plans. Youll have competition, youll have so many different larges. Now, hes repeating himself. No, im not repeating. What im seeing up here, first of all, this guy is a choke artist and this guy is a liar. One thing that was agonizingly evident as they smacked each other around, wolf blitzer repeatedly lost control of the debate. Gentlemen, gentlemen. I want to clarify something. Gentlemen, please, i want to move on. We want to talk about the economy. Gentlemen . Gentlemen . You have agreed you have not answered that question. You know what . Call it what you want. Call it what you want. People are not going dying all of you have agreed to the rules. I want to move on. Hold on. He called me a liar. You mean i cant respond to him calling me a liar . Go ahead and respond. Joining us now to analyze the coverage, Cheryl Atkinson host of full measure that airs sunday morning. Amy holmes, news anchor at the blaze. And joe trippi. The same pundits said trump is impossible and now saying hes practically unstoppable. Amazing, isnt it . Amazing. Were supposed to bring insight and not being doing what i think were doing this case which is finally coming around to the thing that public already knew and was screaming at their televisions all these months. Now were supposed to take seriously when the news and pundits say now we know what is going on. You can listen to us and believe us. You say journalists are behind the public in this case. At the debate, amy holmes, marco rubio got good press for trying attack donald trump. There was so many charges and countercharge thats it may have all gotten lost in the din. Well, it may have gotten lost in the din, but what weve seen with these debates is that they never seem to hurt trump. He may not do well. He may not respond fully. He may not have a detailed plan. But he keeps gaining points. Cheryl, to your point about the media, i think there is this lovehate relationship between the immediate why and donald trump. I call them friend amys. On the one hand, they were saying donald trump certainly cant win the republican nomination. I mean who could ever imagine that . And, yet, continually throughout this campaign putting their thumb on the scale by giving donald trump the most free media, the most earned media of any political candidate i think weve ever seen. Thats in part because he does more news than anybody. Hes great for ratings. That you this say what was going to happen. Just the tone of the campaign and the insults we started to see this morning on the sunday shows, trump referring to rubio as little rubio and rubio calling him a con artist and a clown show. But i want to play one little bit of trump that got kind of overlooked at the media excuse me, at the cnn debate in texas as he did something that hes done in other debates. Take a look. First of all, i dont believe anything telemundo says. You are going back on your commitment . First of all, very few people listen to your radio show. Trump insulted hewitt and the telemundo show. Does that work for him . It works every time. And there is a lovehate relationship thing works for donald trump a lot better than it does for the media and the hosts and show hosts and anchors that he goes up against. It is hard to moderate a president ial debate when everybody is trying to talk and trampling over the rules. I felt for wolf blitzer. But it seem to you that things just really got out of control . At times. Some of it was design. There is time when he was letting thing goes on and on. Thats because in, my view, and having worked at cnn, somebody is in your ear saying, let it go. This is great. Let it play. But theres another dynamic. The audience was wild. The audiences are stacked and coached. Theyre trying to create moments. Coached . That is my opinion. Theyre trying to create moments, good ones for the candidates and bad ones for the opposing candidates. They can turn the tide or feeling of a bad question and make it sound like the answer was good, by applauding wildly no matter what the answer is, and i think i saw that. I agree. I think the audience, getting disruptive in these events. In the Fall Campaign this dont let the audiences cheer. Maybe thats a good idea. All right, ted cruz, to your point about trump and the way hes covered by the media and the free air time question, took a whack at the coverage of the donald. Take a look at that. An awful lot of the Mainstream Media is using kid gloves on donald right now. Because they want donald to be the nominee, and the instance hes the nominee, they will unleash every cannon they can to elect Hillary Clinton. We go through some of the things. Heres cruz saying the media wants trump to be the nominee, do you buy that . I dont think its conspiratorial that they want him to be the nominee. It is certainly great for business and ratings. I almost think the relationship is like a drug addict. They know hes toxic but they want to keep chasing that ratings high. If hes the republican nominee, listen, the media is going to sit back and cover it relentlessly. Get high ratings. But at the end of the day, do they want him . I think theyll take this a lot more seriously if donald trump was running as a democrat. But the ratings high reflect the kind of support he has. People are watching him because theyre for him or im sure there are a lot of people watching him because they find it entertaining. It still relates to his hes putting votes on the table in these states and hes win. What about cruzs point about kid gloves . I would argue that many interviews, not all, including interviews with me, that he gets pressed a lot. Youve been easy on him. Im kidding. No to transcriber, sarcasm. But my point is that even when trump gets negative coverage, even when conservative commentators on fox and say that, it helps him because he runs against the press. No, exactly right. And so i dont think i think the more the press goes after him, the more the establishment goes after him, the better hes going to do. And so, i dont buy the argument that cruz and rubio are putting out there. I think the tough test has come from conservative media. National review dedicated an entire issue to stop trump. Meanwhile, the Mainstream Media, i think, is actually treating him with kid gloves, around digging into his background nearly as much as conservative media, because for conservative media, donald trump is a catastrophe. For main street media, hes entertainment. Liberal commentators beat up on him, too. I want to talk about friday. I was in the chair in this studio. Didnt get on the air because of trump. He held a News Conference with chris christie, the somewhat surprised endorsement from the new jersey governor. Then there was a break and he spoke at a rally. Cnn and fox and msnbc took much of that live. Both of the presser and the rally and we actually timed it. Fox, 1 hour and 12 minutes. Cnn, 1 and 15 minutes, msnbc, 1 47. After the cnn debate in texas, trump was interviewed twice on the postgame show, so it does seem like the camera or the people who make the decisions that it goes on camera do love him. I want to play for you a sound bite involving what some other are saying about the other candidates and whether they should stay in this race. Take a look. I would say ben carson and john kasich, its time to move on so the supporters and money can go to someone else. It would take a miracle for not only you but john kasich with a delegate situation being what it is to overcome trump. A lot of things can happen, bill. Why do journalists keep telling candidates they should drop out of the president ial race . Well, on opinion that people are entitled to do so, but ordinary journalist, if luke at how were framing the coverage, its largely in terms of how to beat trump. What combinations of which votes if people drop out can overcome the momentum that trump has rather than more what you would expect a neutral analysis or neutral reporting of what is happening. They seem to be more than ive ever noticed before, rooting for an outcome and trying to hope and sway and they seem delighted when rubio and cruz finally this is how they termed it, attacked trump. The media seemed happy as if its what they were waiting for. The dirty tricks allegations against ted cruz and his campaign, do you think that he cruz, made it a story about ten times bigger than it had be by firing his Communications Director rick tyler who apologized on the air . Thats an interesting point. I think, yes, it did give the story legs. Here is another twist and turn, the ted cruz dirty tricks story line. Politically, he had to. He was getting a lot of criticism from his own supporters. Saying, look, we cant have this. A few days later, tyler becomes an msnbc contributor. That struck me as odd. Certainly. Im not sure all of msnbcs viewers know that he has this conflict of interest. Well see if its on the chyron, former spokesperson for ted cruz every single time he has something to say. Absolutely crazy for cruz to do that right before the vote. I mean that, was just if youre going to do it, do it a couple days later. I assume there is more it to. I assume it wasnt for that one act. Because that said to cruzs supports, some of whom might otherwise support trump that he doesnt have the same fortitude and backing up his people and sticking to it as trump does. What do you think of cheryls point that at least some in the Mainstream Media and the way they handicap race seem to want an outcome where there is a oneonone between cruz and excuse me, between trump and marco rubio and therefore, kind of have their thumb on the scale . Definitely, i think theres a merging of Mainstream Media and the establishment. I mean, is there something between new york and washington and mens of congress and the media in the way theyre portraying the race and actually put are their thumb on, it no doubt about it. And that is why theres a lot of public anger at us in the Mainstream Media because they feel like we have become part of the establishment and a lot of people see us as antitrump. Before we go, trump in an interview or was it in a debate . Hes done it since. Talked about the libel laws. He criticized the New York Times and Washington Post coverage. He said hes going to make the libel laws tougher and so that if anyone writes purposely negative and horrible and false articles, we can sue them, win lots of money. Your reaction . Im dubious about changing libel law. I do have sympathy to the idea that a public figure today has almost no recourse. Your attorney will tell you anyway for something that is false and malicious even though the laws are supposed to protect you, it doesnt. There may as well not be one. We have the food fights, feeding frenzies, anything goes. On the other hand, i think, you know, it bothers me the idea of changing libel law we have to be very, very careful. Right. I mean, you can sue now, but it is true, if youre a public figure, you basically have to prove that something was knowingly false and published or aired with reckless disregard for the truth. When we come back, Hillary Clintons big win in South Carolina last night, are the media again anointing her as inevitable . And one of our leading back everhas a number. Olicy but not every Insurance Company understands the life behind it. For those whove served and the families that have supported them, we offer our best service in return. Usaa. We know what it means to serve. Get an insurance quote and see why 92 of our members plan to stay for life. It takes a lot of work. But i really love it. S. Im on the move all day long. And sometimes, i just dont eat the way i should. So i drink boost® to get the nutrition that im missing. Boost complete nutritional drink has 26 essential vitamins and minerals, including calcium and vitamin d to support strong bones and 10 grams of protein to help maintain muscle. All with a great taste. I dont plan on slowing down any time soon. Look for savings on boost® in your sunday paper. Hillary clinton is heading into super tuesday after a stunning victory yesterday. The South Carolina primary taking 74 of the vote in a state that Bernie Sanders didnt even bother to give a speech afterwards. While her second straight win has revived the thought, shes still dogged by the honesty questions as we see in one of the many interviews on msnbc. Weve been talking about how calculating you were and how it seems to be not the person that we know personally. There is kind of come to me over the last month because, you know, it is painful. It is hurtful to have people say oh, we dont trust her or dont know why shes doing it. So, amy, the flip side of the trump question, the press was saying a week ago hillary was in trouble. She had no theme. She wasnt drawing the crowds. Two big wins. Back to calling it inevitable. But there is the question we saw in that morning joe interview. Right. I think all of the above can be true. And we see Hillary Clintons campaign, shes not generated the same type of just native excitement that Bernie Sander has. Yet, she does have the machine behind her. We saw in South Carolina this landslide victory. Is the press tough on her . We talked about the press and trump. I think the press is theyre not as tough on her as they are with conservatives when you look at the email scandal problem that she is under investigation. Which is opened by the New York Times. Which is opened by the New York Times. A lot of conservatives would say this should be disqualifying. Yet, you have the New York Times saying, mrs. Clinton, do answer the questions. So you think you can pick that up. Also address whether there, you know, just stunningly massive South Carolina win, i mean its not even a landslide, that doesnt do it justice. Is this touted in part because the press expected hillary to win big . They should have expected it for months and months. It was obviously coming. But they totally ignored it. Even the narrative that Bernie Sanders is turning on part of the Obama Coalition where the one party has never been able to turn on. With africanamericans. Its a pretty big part of it. Do you think its kind of been onesided. Do you think the press was complicit in generating artificial excitement . Bernie sanders is tied in iowa. Had a big win in New Hampshire. The Clinton Campaign said those are the two weaker states. Once we got to the bigger, more diverse states, she would blow him away. So far, that seems to be happening. Did the press kind of get swept up in the sanders momentum . Yeah. And i think there is the same reason. Wants the contest and a contest is going to get more people interested in watching than its over. It was always going to be this way. It was always going to be this way. And they were pretty brutal on her up through and also i think used the sanders surge in iowa and New Hampshire to tie all the stuff that was going against her, on honesty and all those things into that narrative. Interesting twist. Editorial pages dont have the clout they used to. Liberal editorial page saying Hillary Clinton is stonewalling and should release transcripts on the wall street groups, that includes the money from goldman sachs. What did you make of that . I make of that its the New York Times as a whole has taken a viewpoint for whatever reason it seems to be less pro Hillary Clinton. Theyve been breaking stories you may not have seen them break against her, maybe five years ago they wouldnt have done it. Theyre doing it now. So youre saying news pages and opinion pages . Yes. I want to point out the news is Still Deciding which narrative to adopt, we should be doing more of our own original reporting. If you look at nevada, i thought this was interesting. I didnt see it reported anywhere. Even though they have accord even though they have cording to the website at the Elections Office 100,000 more democratic registered voters, trump won the Republican Party with huge margin, Something Like 70,000 votes whereas was it 50 or 70 . She won with 6,000 votes on the democrat side even though there are so many more registered democrats there. I think thats just a narrative that was fought put out there by anybody. Got time for a short comment. Do you think its going to remain critical . You think its too soft . Well, personally, i think its too soft. I think her feet do need to be held to the fire. In defense of Bernie Sanders, we have an independent socialist that did far better than anyone thought a year ago. Anybody. That includes me. An