Obama's terrorist 'kill list'

This is a rush transcript from "Fox News Watch," June 2, 2012. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

Watch the latest video at FoxNews.com

JON SCOTT, HOST OF "FOX NEWS WATCH" (voice-over): On "Fox News Watch," The New York Times reveals President Obama has a kill list, targeted terrorists who could be taken out by U.S. drones. The story igniting concerns over legality, morality, security, and with an election just months away, the timing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITT ROMNEY, (R), FORMER MASSACHUSETTS GOVERNOR & PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This is not the kind of building that is built by private enterprise.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT: Mitt Romney and his supporters start to fire back at the opposition.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(SHOUTING)

DAVID AXELROD, OBAMA CAMPAIGN MANAGER: (INAUDIBLE)

(SHOUTING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT: Then the liberal press takes aim at Romney, calling him "nasty."

Wisconsin Democrats and their friends in the media pushed for a recall election for governor, protesting in the streets and in the state house. So, how will that same media react once the results are tallied on Tuesday?

Massacres and atrocities in Syria. The images captured by the victims and reported on social media sites. Are the reports too one-sided? And are the professional press failing to do their job?

This book hits number one on the book list, but gets the bum's rush from the press.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBIN ROBERTS, CO-HOST, "GOOD MORNING AMERICA": Good morning Mrs. Obama.

MICHELLE OBAMA, FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: Good morning. I'm happy to be in the studio.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT: The first lady has a new book and the press can't get enough. And this book tells about young Barry Obama. What kind of attention is it getting?

(on camera): On the panel this week, writer and Fox News contributor, Judy Miller; syndicated columnist, Cal Thomas; Jim Pinkerton, contributing editor, the American Conservative magazine; and Daily Beast columnist, Kirsten Powers.

I'm Jon Scott. "Fox News Watch" is on right now.

This week, The New York Times published an extraordinary story which got a lot of attention and stirred up a lot of concerns. Titled "Secret Kill List Proves a Test of Obama's Principles and Will," it was the front- page story. Here are a couple of the quotes. "Mr. Obama has placed himself at the helm of a top-secret nominations process to designate terrorists for kill or capture, of which the capture part has become largely theoretical." "Mr. Obama is the liberal law professor who campaigned against the Iraq War and torture, and then insisted on approving every new name on an expanding kill list, pouring over terrorist suspects' biographies on what one official calls the macabre baseball cards of an unconventional war."

First of all, Jim, the story here is pretty extraordinary, but the paper must have had some extraordinary access to get it?

JIM PINKERTON, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR, AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE MAGAZINE: I suspect they did, and I suspect they got it right from the Oval Office, right from the president, because they understand that any story like this, even if it upsets the ACLU and liberals and anti-death penalty activists and so on, that’s all good. They need some framing in the center. Everybody on the left, who is criticizing Obama over some aspect of the drone strike business, is still going to vote for him. What he needs is help in the middle, and they realize that. So the idea of President Obama running a kill list against terrorist’s sounds like President Bush to me, including the baseball cards and it's going to help push Obama in the center. Whether it works in the election remains to be seen, but it's certainly a strategy from the White House.

SCOTT: The same president who campaigned against water boarding and outlawed it when he came to office, but killing is OK, killing the terrorists.

JUDY MILLER, WRITER & FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Right. Now, we have his aides on the record explaining, not a flip-flop, but an evolution of thinking about this issue. And, of course, this was a concerted campaign strategy because the same article appeared in Newsweek a day before The New York Times, which is never mentioned by The Times. This was clearly an issue they wanted to address. They want to highlight the president's role as a tough counterterrorist warrior, which he has been.

SCOTT: And didn't it say that he even invited his campaign manager to sit in on some of these meetings?

KIRSTEN POWERS, COLUMNIST, THE DAILY BEAST: Yes, well, I think the way that this was covered is interesting because, you can imagine, if this was about George Bush, how it would have been covered versus how it's been covered with Obama. With Obama, it is very heroic and decisive. And with Bush, it would have been that he was a war criminal and we would have harkened back to the days of Henry Kissinger targeting villages in Vietnam. So I think that this is -- it's really, very biased in that way.

SCOTT: Remember when George W. Bush made the dead-or-alive comment about Usama bin Laden just days after the 9/11 attacks and he was lambasted in the media to the point where he even issued kind of an apology about it.

CAL THOMAS, SYNDICATED COLUMNIST: Yes, "A cowboy." They did the same thing with Ronald Reagan. He's a cowboy, finger on the nuclear trigger. But look, The New York Times, which almost never finds anything to criticize this president about, in their lead editorial on Thursday of this week, said that his ability to decide, like Caesar, thumbs up or thumbs down in the Coliseum, is too much power for a president. So at least we know, according to The New York Times, where the line is with this president for too much power.

SCOTT: Does this kind of leak, Judy, have any effect on national security?

MILLER: It can but, in this instance, since everybody being targeted knows that America's using drones out there, and since there have been many, many articles on the use of drones to kill people, I don't think it compromises anything to understand the process by which someone's name is added to the list. But I just find it extraordinary that the left has been silent about what is basically a king-like absorption -- assertion of power on the part of the president.

(CROSSTALK)

MILLER: That’s unusual. And it's gotten very little comment.

SCOTT: Some of the names on the list are American citizens. There's very little outcry about due process here.

PINKERTON: Right. Well, again, it's --when your team is doing it, it’s OK, whatever it is, and that includes the media team on this score.

MILLER: But there was -- William Saletan, writing in Slate, pointed out something very important, which was the definition of who’s a target is so broad that it minimizes the number of people who are killed collaterally who may have nothing to do with terrorism. And a second point is that this president has been living off of the intelligence provided by the previous administration. We are not capturing more terrorists. We are not interrogating more terrorists. We are just killing them. And that, four years down the road, may have some consequences.

THOMAS: Kudos to Jake Tapper, of ABC, who challenged Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, saying this week, in a direct quote, "There's almost a quality of guilty until proven innocent." And Carney didn't really have much to say in response to that, other than to say, well, this is kind of new technology that the previous administration didn't have.

There's also not a lot of debate in the media about the wisdom of killing these guys as opposed to capturing them and getting intelligence. We have lousy intelligence on the ground. These people have information that could prevent other terrorist attacks.

SCOTT: We're talking about the actions of the president here. Let's shift our attention to the guy from the other party who wants that office. Mitt Romney earned enough delegates this week, Kirsten, to officially become the Republican nominee, assuming everything goes well for him at the convention.

POWERS: Yeah.

SCOTT: And yet, the press seemed to pay more attention to his associations with Donald Trump all week.

POWERS: Yes, well, it's not big news that he’s the nominee.

(LAUGHTER)

I will give them a pass on that.

But this obsession with Donald Trump is little strange, that he’s being asked to disassociate himself from Donald Trump when you rarely hear anybody asking Barack Obama to disassociate from anyone. For example, Bill Maher, just off the top of my head. And yet they’re obsessively talking about Donald Trump, who is just kind of a clown. I don't understand why we spend any time discussing him.

PINKERTON: Politico dropped the bomb on both The Washington Post and The New York Times last week by -- the headline, "Two GOP, blatant bias and vetting. Blatant bias. They just went though, look, why is Romney's 50-year-old stuff about high school getting all this attention and all this stuff about Obama, everything else is not getting attention. This is Politico. This is not Brent Bozell saying it. It’s Politico saying it. And it caused a ripple. And, of course, the media are now scrambling to defend The Washington Post and New York Times, who they see as their champions in their effort to support the president.

THOMAS: Look, it’s a given. The media are so deep in the tank for this president and his reelection, that if they came up for air, they would get the bends.

(LAUGHTER)

SCOTT: Up next, covering the serious crisis in Syria and the challenges for the media in doing so.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(SHOUTING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: Images of atrocities -- men, women and children massacred in Syria. The reports coming by way of social media to the mainstream media. Can we trust the details? And should the press be doing more to deliver all sides of the story?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHELLE OBAMA: I'm not taking any bait.

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: The first lady pushing her new book and getting first-class treatment by the media. But how are the media treating two new books about our president? Answers next, on "News Watch."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BRET BAIER, HOST OF "SPECIAL REPORT": The fighting is unlikely to stop without direct negotiations between the government and opposition.

DIANE SAWYER, ANCHOR, "ABC WORLD NEWS": -- an unraveling situation in Syria. Today, evidence of yet another massacre there of the Syrian people. A new one, which means new pressure on the U.S. tonight.

NORAH O'DONNELL, CBS NEWS: The White House opposes arming the opposition because the opposition is not unified, and because they believe there are some parts of the opposition that are not friendly to the United States or a peaceful transition.

HARRIS FAULKNER, FOX NEWS REPORTER: Well, the United States hitting Syria with new economic punishments amid reports of another brutal massacre there.

ANDREA MITCHELL, NBC NEWS CHIEF FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: White House officials say that the president is not considering military action and still hopes that he can change Vladimir Putin's mind about Syria.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT: The massacres and human atrocities against civilians in Syria capturing the attention of news media worldwide.

The problem, Judy, is there really aren't many news media there. The pictures coming out of that place are mostly shot by amateurs, as far as we can tell. Should we be concerned about the crisis that we’re trying to document?

MILLER: Of course. But Syria is the greatest challenge to reporters because my friend, Marie Colvin, was killed there. Other reporters have been killed trying to bring the news from there. Hats off this week to Paul Wood, of the BBC, who spent three weeks undercover, reporting on the kinds of atrocities that are coming out in the forms of video clips from partisans and activists. But it’s a very, very difficult situation because you can't verify the information that's coming out about its authenticity and the context. You can't do it.

SCOTT: And social media seems to be doing a lot of the heavy lifting in getting the story out.

PINKERTON: Right. Whatever the veracity of it -- and who really knows, although clearly the Syrian government seems to be the bad guy here – there’s an abundance of video. And every day, on the news, the horrible footage of children being slaughtered and so on. It's sort of the modern- day equivalent of Odysseus tied to the mast in the Odyssey. We can see this stuff and can't really do anything about it. It’s hard to find any foreign policy analyst who says, oh, here’s the clear plan. It’s just incredibly difficult to watch it happening without the capacity to really do anything about it.

SCOTT: What would you say the collective media take is on the approach? I mean, you don't seem to see a lot of clamoring for anything, whether it be military intervention, air strikes, you know, a no-fly zone?

POWERS: I don't think it is for the mainstream media to weigh in on that per se. There are certainly conservatives arguing we should be arming the rebels and different people that have ideas. But I think it is more -- the problem is it's just harder to cover. There aren't enough reporters there are able to be in there because it is so dangerous, and they have to rely on activists. I would say between activists and the Syrian government, I would go with activists. The idea that the Syrian government is a trustworthy source there, I think clearly they’re not.

THOMAS: I think there's a lot more caution now. The media championed intervention in Lebanon for some of the same reasons, the slaughter of the innocents, women and children, innocent men. Now, there are a little more reluctant on this because I think we've seen the pattern here. We don't know what we're going to get in Egypt, with the Muslim Brotherhood candidate strongly positioned to win there. You’ve a strong Muslim Brotherhood presence in Syria. You've got it all over the Middle East. It is a question of, be careful of what you wish for.

And I want to salute Jim's superior education here --

(LAUGHTER)

-- Odysseus tied to the mast.

(LAUGHTER)

I've never seen that on cable TV.

POWERS: Yes.

(LAUGHTER)

SCOTT: We'll all be looking that one up.

MILLER: Yes.

(LAUGHTER)

THOMAS: I read it, too.

(LAUGHTER)

SCOTT: But, back to the subject at hand, the president famously led from behind in getting NATO involved in Libya. Why not do the same thing here?

MILLER: Because I think people understand the situation in Syria is different from Libya, that you can't say what worked in Libya is going to work in Syria because, for one thing, in Syria, the rebels control no territory. So, who do you arm? I was just at the Turkish border with Syria, looking at the Free Syrian Army. The only thing I can tell you for sure is that they are not free and it is not really an army, because they are giving orders by phone to people who are doing their very own thing inside Syria on the ground. And the only thing I know for sure is I think they are Syrian.

So it is very hard to figure out what to do. And even people who are critical of Governor Romney, who said, let's arm the rebels, the right-wing and conservatives, have said, as Mike Rubin said this week, at the American Enterprise Institute, he’s sniping from behind, because nobody really knows what to do.

SCOTT: Judy thanks.

More "News Watch" ahead.

But first, if you see something that you feel shows evidence of media bias, e-mail us at newswatch@FOXnews.com. We'll take a look.

Up next, for the media, some books have it and some don't.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARBARA WALTERS, CO-HOST, 'THE VIEW": -- even if in the future that you might consider running?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: The first lady out and about, almost everywhere, getting the spotlight as she pushes her new book. But when it comes to books about Obama, the media spotlight goes dark. Find out next, on "News Watch."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCOTT: Some books do well and get big media attention. Some books do well and don't get big media attention. Here’s an example, Edward Klein's new book about President Obama, Amateur: Barack Obama in the White House. It’s keeping the number-one slot on The New York Times list of best sellers for a second week. But while the public seems to be embracing Klein's expose, the media and The New York Times, not so interested.

Jim, why is that?

PINKERTON: I think it might be that The New York Times is not terribly interested in what Ed Klein has to say.

SCOTT: No?

(LAUGHTER)

PINKERTON: That might hurt President Obama.

What is striking though is the way the media is trying to help the administration, or even ignoring their own books. David Maraniss wrote a terrific book about President Obama, full of stuff that -- like, what was written in his year book, that you would have been available to people in the past. And The Washington Post even downplayed that.

SCOTT: Yes.

PINKERTON: Normally, putting stuff on the front page, they put it on page six.

SCOTT: According to Amazon, it a deeply -- this David Maraniss book - - "A deeply reported generational biography teeming with fresh insight and revealing information. A masterly narrative drawn from hundreds of interviews." And it goes on. And yet, not getting a lot of attention.

POWERS: No. Byron York did a great article about this comparing it to the book that came out about George Bush called "Fortunate Son" --

(CROSSTALK)

POWERS: -- that has information about him allegedly using cocaine in his 20s that was treated as if it was just this absolutely incredible book. And it turns out the writer of it was a felon who tried to blow somebody up or something.

(LAUGHTER)

You know, like in former boss. And they had no problem taking that. And yet when you have the credible, you know, journalists reporting something, it is being completely ignored.

THOMAS: There is an ideological apartheid at The New York Times when it comes to books. There always has been. Bill O'Reilly wrote a best-selling book. I don't think it was reviewed by The New York Times. A lot of conservative books that sell very well either, A, don't make the list because they’re not in the right stores or, B, if they do, they are totally ignored. They would never do this, as you have pointed out, with books that affirm their ideological perspective.

SCOTT: There is one book that does seem to be getting a fair amount of media attention. It's called "American Grown," and the author is the first lady, Michelle Obama. So for just 30 bucks you, too, can have this book.

She’s been all over the place, peddling this, Jim.

PINKERTON: She has. And look, let's face it, obesity, food, these are huge issues. So I -- Robin Roberts, giving him 38 minutes, as the MRC carefully counted out, it might seem a bit much compared to a lot of things, but --

(LAUGHTER)

(CROSSTALK)

PINKERTON: -- she was smart. Michelle Obama was smart to get off of resenting America into loving food and veterans. She's positioned herself brilliantly and it’s paying off for her.

SCOTT: Here she is during her appearance on "The View." How was she treated?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHELLE OBAMA: I am not interested in politics. Never have been. One of the things you learn after 48 years of life, you know what your passions and your gifts are. Now, the one thing that is certain, I will serve. I will serve in some capacity.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT: She’s not interested in politics -- Judy?

(LAUGHTER)

MILLER: Well, I would use the word "asserts." She asserted on "The View."

(LAUGHTER)

SCOTT: What about the timing? Just before the election, out comes here --

THOMAS: Sure, it's coincidental, Jon. These things -- I mean --

(LAUGHTER)

-- you can't say there’s a plot, well, of course. She’s gone from, as you said, hating America to vegetables.

POWERS: She never hated America.

THOMAS: Well --

(CROSSTALK)

(LAUGHTER)

(CROSSTALK)

PINKERTON: Nobody said hated, I mean --

(CROSSTALK)

POWERS: It is not --

PINKERTON: The quote was -- we all remember it -- was, "For the first time in my life, I'm proud to be American."

THOMAS: That's right.

PINKERTON: That was -- she's obviously learning –

(LAUGHTER)

THOMAS: What did you think of America before you were proud of it? That would be my question.

POWERS: Look, I don't think there’s anything wrong with her getting this kind of coverage. She is the first lady and she is well regarded and well liked by the country. It is an issue that people are interested in. To me, honestly, I think if it was Laura Bush, she'd be -- Laura Bush probably would have gotten the same reception.

MILLER: And proceeds are going not to the Obama’s but to the garden --

POWERS: Yes.

MILLER: -- and the perpetuation of vegetables. So I think it's a good thing.

THOMAS: The perpetuation of vegetables.

(LAUGHTER)

MILLER: Or whatever one does with them.

(LAUGHTER)

THOMAS: That's good.

SCOTT: Don't do a lot of farming in your New York City apartment, do you, Judy?

(LAUGHTER)

MILLER: No.

(LAUGHTER)

SCOTT: But, again, it raises the question -- yes, sure, if she wants to sell a book, it’s great that she can go on "Ellen" and "The View" and all these ABC programs and peddle it. But again, it's like the various editors and producers are saying, let's see, Edward Klein's book versus Michelle Obama's book. Let's publicize --

(LAUGHTER)

PINKERTON: And it's possibly the resources of the East Wing of the White House have been used to write this book and help this book along. And it’s possible that somebody would think this would help President Obama's re-election prospects. Just a chance.

(LAUGHTER)

SCOTT: All right.

Time for one more break. Up next, a little confusion on "Nightly News."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MATT LAUER, CO-HOST, "THE TODAY SHOW": And good morning. Welcome to "Today" on a Friday morning. I'm Matt Lauer.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT: NBC's Matt Lauer yesterday morning pulling his regular duty as co-anchor of "Today," a job that requires an early-to-bed and early-to-rise schedule obviously. However, Matt pulled double duty, first on "Today" and then taking the anchor's chair on "Nightly News," and things got a little confusing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LAUER: And good evening, everyone. I'm Matt Lauer, in for Brian tonight.

NBC's Savannah Guthrie in the studio this morning. Savannah, as always, thank you very much.

NBC's Ron Mott is in Times Square tonight. Ron, good evening to you.

All right, Ron Mott in New York City on this, this morning. Ron, thank you very much.

And that is our broadcast. Thanks for being with us. I'm Matt Lauer, in for Brian tonight. And I'll see you tomorrow morning on tonight -- on "Today." Excuse me.

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCOTT: Poor Matt.

(LAUGHTER)

We feel for him.

(LAUGHTER)

That's a wrap on "News Watch" this week.

Thanks to Judy Miller, Jim Pinkerton, Cal Thomas and Kirsten Powers.

I'm Jon Scott. Thanks for joining us. Keep it right here on Fox News channel. We'll see you next week with another edition of “Fox News Watch.”

Content and Programming Copyright 2012 Fox News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2012 CQ-Roll Call, Inc. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of CQ-Roll Call. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.