Fast & Furious: Are the media now interested?

This is a rush transcript from "Fox News Watch," June 23, 2012. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

Watch the latest video at FoxNews.com

RICK FOLBAUM, GUEST HOST (voice-over): On "Fox News Watch," Congress prepares to push forward with contempt charges against Attorney General Eric Holder for holding on to key documents related to the bungled Fast and Furious gun-running operation. Mr. Obama goes on the defense, claiming executive privilege, and the White House tries to spin the media coverage.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAY CARNEY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Congressional republicans are focused on this politically motivated, tax-funded, election-year fishing expedition.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOLBAUM: Are the mainstream media finally interested?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRIAN WILLIAMS, ANCHOR OF "NBC NIGHTLY NEWS": It just looks more like of our broken politics and vicious fights now out in the open.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOLBAUM: NBC News at it again.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITT ROMNEY, (R), FORMER MASSACHUSETTS GOVERNOR &PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I went to a place today called Wawa's.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOLBAUM: Andrea Mitchell and her pals at the peacock network try to pull a fast one, editing Mitt Romney's word to make him look out of touch. And Lawrence O'Donnell taking heat for taking shots at Ann Romney and her therapy for M.S. And one more NBC blunder. The interview Bob Costas had left one thing out -- the evidence. What's going on over there at 30 Rock?

HBO has a new series. It's about the TV news business. Will it also have a bias?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You, too. You, too.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- the crazy guy --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT (on camera): On the panel this week, writer and Fox News contributor, Judy Miller; Daily Caller columnist, Deneen Borelli; Jim Pinkerton, contributing editor, American Conservative magazine; and Talk Radio News Service bureau chief, Ellen Ratner.

I'm Rick Folbaum. "Fox News Watch" is on right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CARNEY: To advise you, I think perhaps more than others by giving the interest in this, your network knows the administration, principally the Department of Justice, has cooperated extensively with congressional investigators, provided extensive documentation. The administration has even provided documents related to an interest in whether or not people in the White House knew of this operation at the time --

(CROSSTALK)

CARNEY: -- and provided that --

(CROSSTALK)

CARNEY: -- provided that -- let me finish, please, Ed -- and provided that last fall.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOLBAUM: The White House press secretary, Jay Carney, this week, giving his take on the Fast and Furious investigation to our chief White House correspondent at Fox News channel, Ed Henry.

Jim, I guess he's right about one thing, because Fox News has been covering this story since the get-go, but so many other news organizations have not been. Why not?

JIM PINKERTON, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR, AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE MAGAZINE: Well, it would almost make you think that they're thinking more like political partisans than investigators. It's astonishing to me when you see people like Eugene Robinson, from The Washington Post, saying, oh, yes, normally, I'm from full disclosure and, normally, letting truth -- after all I'm a reporter and a journalist, but in this case, of course, no, no, we can't do anything to hurt President Obama. That's pretty astonishing, where you forfeit your journalistic credentials in favor of supporting just a politician.

FOLBAUM: Ellen, not a whole lot of coverage of this story from NBC, not a lot from The New York Times. Why do you think the story was ignored so long?

ELLEN RATNER, BUREAU CHIEF, TALK RADIO NEWS SERVICE: I don't think the story is ignored. We heard about it in many, many places. And I mean everything from The Washington Post who really did something on it. And MSNBC did something on it. They didn't do it in a conservative way. But, also, want to say that none of the press really scored what the deal was that was offered. There's a lot of leaks in this town, or the town in Washington D.C.

FOLBAUM: Right.

RATNER: And why did they say, what happened between Holder isolating (ph).

FOLBAUM: Well, that was a meeting.

Judy, let me ask you. The chairman of this network, Roger Ailes, says bias is what you exclude, as often as what's included in a news report. The exclusion of this story from so many newspapers and broadcasts, why?

JUDY MILLER, WRITER & FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Because the Democrats were thinking it would go away if the mainstream media ignored it. It would go away if they said loud enough and often enough that this was a political, all a political ploy, a way to embarrass the president and get at the White House. Even Jay Carney's response to Ed -- you know, well, you at Fox would know about this, because you know this story -- implies this is not really legitimate news. And whether or not you think the Democrats are right or the Republicans are right, this was a legitimate story. It remains a legitimate story. And it should have been covered, and it wasn't by many in the mainstream media.

FOLBAUM: Deneen, we heard from Jay Carney in that clip that we just played, calling this whole thing political. Fishing expedition is the term that a lot of Democrats, including the White House, are using to refer to this. Is the media, though, too quick to follow suit, and sort of keep that story line going?

DENEEN BORELLI, AUTHOR: I don't think the media is doing this issue justice. And you mentioned The New York Times. I see this really as a liberal media bias going here. The New York Times had a headline in the editorial this week; it's a pointless, partisan fight. Not only that, The New York Times is making Holder out to be the victim here. He has misled Congress and, somehow, Holder is now a victim of what is going on, when really he should have had these documents come forth to get to the bottom of what's going on here.

FOLBAUM: Ellen, you're rolling your eyes.

RATNER: Well, I mean, I am rolling my eyes because, in fact, I think this got a huge amount of coverage. And again, it may not be the kind of conservative coverage that people thought it ought to get, but this whole idea -- no one has been prosecuted for 35 years when there's been contempt. And I mean, and that was pointed out, actually by Reuters.

BORELLI: What Congress wants to do is get to the bottom of this. Try telling what you just said to the parents of Brian Terry. They want to know what happened and no one is being held accountable for --

(CROSSTALK)

FOLBAUM: All right, let's focus on the coverage though.

And, Jim, the coverage, we hear a lot of talks about politics but, of course, this has to do with politics because it's election year. This is Washington D.C.

PINKERTON: Right, so, the issue is, for example, and Deneen mentions The New York Times editorial in 2012, calling it a pointless, partisan fight, denouncing the Republicans. In 2007, when it was Democrats investigating the Bush administration over the U.S. attorney's case, the headline was "Defying an Imperial Presidency." In other words, the media were completely situational. If it's bad for Republicans, they trumpet it. If it's bad for Democrats, they downplay it. I think that's the metric here. But I agree with Denned, the family of Agent Terry --

FOLBAUM: Yes.

PINKERTON: -- They have a say in this now. And it's astonishing that I see them on Fox -- if this had been some other kind of case, something had been hurt under -- under the domain of the Bush administration, they would have been on "60 Minutes" years ago.

FOLBAUM: How about the coverage, real quickly, Judy, of the assertion of executive privilege? Was enough to attention paid to comment from President, then-Senator Obama, when he criticized President Bush for a certain executive privilege?

MILLER: I think that point has been made. That's an easier story for the media to discover once they understand that Fast and Furious is not going away and it's a legitimate story. You have arguments in favor and against, by constitutional scholars. That's a standard story. People are more comfortable with that.

FOLBAUM: All right.

Coming up next, more questionable editing over at NBC.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROMNEY: Go pay the cashier, there's your sandwich. It's amazing.

ANDREA MITCHELL, MSNBC HOST: It's amazing

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: Andrea Mitchell and her NBC News cronies do some creative editing to make Mitt Romney appear out of touch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOB COSTAS, NBC SPORTS: So it's entirely possible that you could have helped young boy A in some way that was not objectionable while horribly taking advantage of young boy B, C, D and E.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: And a key statement from an accused child rapist gets cuts from his interview with Bob Costas. What's going on at peacock network? Answers next, on "News Watch."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITCHELL: Maybe this was Mitt Romney's supermarket scanner moment. But I get the feeling -- take a look at this -- that Mitt Romney has not been in too many, too many Wawa's along the roadside in Pennsylvania.

ROMNEY: By the way, where do you -- where do you get your hoagies here. Do you get them at Wawa's? Is that where you get them? Well, I went to a place today called Wawa's. Anybody been there?

(LAUGHTER)

Some people don't -- I'm sorry, it's a very big state divide. But we went to Wawa's. I was at a Wawa's. I went to order a sandwich. You press a little touch-tone key pad. Touch that, and the sandwich comes in. Touch this, touch this, touch this, go pay the cashier, there's your sandwich. It's amazing.

MITCHELL: It's amazing.

(LAUGHTER)

MITCHELL: You know, when these candidates get out of their comfort zone --

(CROSSTALK)

CHRIS CILLIZZA, NBC CONTRIBUTOR: Yes.

(CROSSTALK)

CILLIZZA: And that's what --

(CROSSTALK)

MITCHELL: -- in Small Town, America --

(LAUGHTER)

-- You've got to be able to, you know, speak the language.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOLBAUM: MSNBC news anchor, Andrea Mitchell, with one of the contributors, Chris Cillizza. They are laughing, you saw, at a clip of Mitt Romney that they had edited to make the GOP presidential candidate seem, well, overly excited about his sandwich ordering experience at Wawa's.

Here is what really happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROMNEY: I went to order a sandwich. You press a little touch-tone key pad, all right. You touch that and the sandwich comes in. Touch this, touch this, touch this, go pay the cashier, there's your sandwich. It's amazing. People in the private sector learn how to compete. It's time to bring some competition to the federal government, and to get it smaller and have it respond to the customers, which are you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOLBAUM: Judy, a little selective videotape editing. And not the first time at NBC. They got caught doing this with the Trayvon Martin 911 tapes.

MILLER: Absolutely. Those were edited to make Zimmerman look like a racist. There was an apology. What I find striking about this example is Andrea Mitchell did not apologize. They did run the full interview the next day. But there was never "we are sorry for having misled our viewers." It was, "In case you'd like to see the rest of the interview, here it is." I'm mystified by NBC's response to this.

FOLBAUM: Deneen, she really dug in her heels, Andrea Mitchell, who has a long career in this business. But they claim that the edits that they made didn't change the context of what Governor Romney was saying.

BORELLI: This is shameless. This is more proof to me that MSNBC is really reporting news as part of Obama's campaign, helping his campaign, because when you look at it, we had social media that uncovered the story, and thank goodness for that. But also, thank goodness for competition in the media because, if it went for analysts that honestly report what was going on, where they were trying to make Romney look bad, he was mentioning competition in the private sector versus the public sector -- thanks goodness for the media outlets that are doing due diligence. And MSNBC should be ashamed of themselves.

FOLBAUM: That's the part cut out, Ellen. Instead, we got to hear his amazement at the touch screen. And we even heard Andrea Mitchell say to Cillizza, is this the supermarket scanner, referring, of course, to the problems that George H.W. Bush had at the supermarket when he was running.

RATNER: Right.

FOLBAUM: These are impressions that, once created, stay with voters for a long time.

RATNER: Andrea Mitchell was clearly wrong. And I don't think you'll get any disagreement from any of us at the table. But I want to say one thing. It was on one media outlet. It's not like this cluster group of people that did this. It was one media outlet, one --

(CROSSTALK)

BORELLI: But it's a major network.

(CROSSTALK)

RATNER: -- And she was wrong. I'm just saying it was one person.

Miller: But it wasn't just one instance. We were talking about at least three instances.

FOLBAUM: All right, hold on. We want to show something else. This is also MSNBC. their host, Lawrence O'Donnell, who a lot of people say, went too far this week, taking shots at Ann Romney, the wife of Governor Romney, for how she goes horseback riding to combat her multiple sclerosis.

This is what Lawrence O'Donnell said. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LAWRENCE O'DONNELL, MSNBC HOST: Mitt Romney has always told the story of the family entry into the breathtakingly expensive so-called sport of dressage as a therapeutic option for Ann Romney's multiple sclerosis.

ROMNEY: Her getting back on a horse after she was diagnosed with M.S. was able -- she's convinced to help her regenerate her strength and renew that vigor.

O'DONNELL: Now, this is not in any way to make light of Ann Romney's difficulty with M.S. It's obviously a very difficult thing to bear. And there are a lot of things you can do to try to do to deal with M.S., but, come on; dressage does not appear in any of the more traditional courses of treatment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOLBAUM: Fox's Neil Cavuto, who also happens to suffer from M.S., had this to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NEIL CAVUTO, HOST, OF "YOUR WORLD": It just seems odd to me that a network with the very letters M.S. in its name wouldn't resist making fun of someone who has to live with M.S. every day. Ann Romney doesn't need their pity, just their accuracy. She has a lot of money, but it clearly has not bought her a pass from a lot of hell, has it?

Take it from me, I'm not horsing around. These guys taking pot shots at Ann Romney are horse's asses. Take it from the Multiple Sclerosis Society, the American Academy of Neurology, The European Neurological Society, the M.S. Research Center, the Child Neurology Society, and so many others who devote so much to an illness that is so bad and chronicled the very real benefit of horseback riding that they all report has a proven history of doing some good. Hippo therapy, dressage, working with horses, whatever the hell you want to call it, you don't have to lean forward to appreciate it. Just check your facts before you joke about it. Because right about now, you condescending, sanctimonious twits, who are allegedly healthy, you have proven that you do not know the benefits of horseback riding one bit. But you sure are good at piling on the lies and shuttling what amounts to unadulterated horse -- well, stuff.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOLBAUM: Very good to hold his tongue there at the end, Neil.

Jim, Lawrence O'Donnell, you would think, at the least, his staff would have done some research into this before they allowed him to go on the air.

PINKERTON: Oh, I don't think they care.

FOLBAUM: They don't care.

PINKERTON: And, look, this is a guy who brags in G.Q. about wearing $88 socks, $88 for a pair of socks.

FOLBAUM: Lawrence O'Donnell?

PINKERTON: Lawrence O'Donnell, yes, sir. and what is also striking is, if Sean Hannity had gone on a riff against, say, a Democrat with multiple sclerosis, the media would have found all of those groups that Neil mentioned, the M.S. groups and patient advocacy groups and they all would have been on the front page of The New York Times denouncing Sean Hannity in this hypothetical incidence for this. Instead, we have a kind of weird silence.

FOLBAUM: Judy, its one thing to provide political commentary, which is what Lawrence O'Donnell, does, and he does it from a political viewpoint that he doesn't keep secret. Did he cross the line?

MILLER: I don't think he did. if you listen to the all of the interview, if you listen to the entire interview, he went on to say that he wasn't taking issue with the treatment of dressage, with dressage to make her feel better or cope with M.S., because, Neil is passionate about this because he suffers from this as well. But because Romney took a business deduction, a $77,000 business deduction, rather than a medical deduction for the expenses associated with that. So I don't think he was making fun of her. I think it was unfair to suggest he was.

FOLBAUM: All right.

We have more "News Watch" ahead.

First, if you see something that you feel shows media bias, e-mails us at newsatch@FOXnews.com.

And coming up next, yet another editing blunder at 30 Rock.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JERRY SANDUSKY, FORMER PENN STATE ASSISTANT FOOTBALL COACH (voice-over): I didn't go around seeking out every young person for sexual needs that I've helped.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: A key statement from accused child rapist Jerry Sandusky gets cut from his interview on NBC. What were they thinking?

And a new HBO series about the TV news business debuts. Is it true to life or just more lefty Hollywood razzle dazzle? Details next, on "News Watch."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANDUSKY (voice-over): Well, you might think that, I don't know.

(LAUGHTER)

And in terms of -- my relationship with so many, many young people, I would -- I would guess that there are many young people who would come forward, many more young people who would come forward and say that my methods and what I had done for them made a very positive impact on their life. And I didn't go around seeking out every young person for sexual needs that I've helped. There are many that I didn't have -- I hardly had any contact with who I have helped in many, many ways.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOLBAUM: Oh, oh. Well, that was a sound bite from the Jerry Sandusky interview -- the former assistant football coach at Penn State accused of raping young boys -- an interview he gave to Bob Costas that aired last November. But that chunk of the interview was left out.

And, Deneen, it seems this was the place in the interview where he actually says, I didn't go after every young person for sexual favors, sort of like, well, I did with some of them, but not all of them, but that never made it to air.

BORELLI: Which is very telling. This whole case is very disturbing. And even more so disturbing what NBC did. That's gross irresponsibility on their part. It's the media's due diligence to report what they know and let the public know, so that the public can decide.

FOLBAUM: I don't know, Ellen, not a good week for NBC News, any way you slice it. Was this bias or just boneheaded?

RATNER: Even if they edited, which they did, and put that interview on air the way they did, which I have a problem with, why didn't they at least put it on their web site? I mean, everybody takes the extras and put it on their web site. They were clearly trying not to be forthcoming.

FOLBAUM: Jim, real fast.

PINKERTON: Or trying to preserve some relationship with Sandusky or Joe Paterno or Penn State for some future gets down the road. That's a possibility. They knew --

(CROSSTALK)

PINKERTON: -- out there. They must have.

FOLBAUM: Judy, five seconds, journalistic malpractice here?

MILLER: Part of a pattern, unfortunately, with NBC. Bad week, as you said.

FOLBAUM: Coming up next, HBO's new series about TV news. Is it fair and balanced?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOLBAUM: Images HBO's new series, called "The Newsroom." It's a show about the inner workings, conflicts and drama of delivering the news in a Hollywood sort of way, created by Aaron Sorkin, who brought us "The West Wing" and the film, "The Social Network." Jeff Daniels will play Will McAvoy, a fictional news anchor at a fictional cable news channel who is afraid to alienate anybody, preferring to live in the ratings-friendly middle ground. But that all changes after a public meltdown. McAvoy decides to tell it like it is, nobody who he offends.

So is it modeled after anybody we know? George Stephanopoulos asked just that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, ABC HOST: So you've got to clear something up.Keith Olbermann says this is the second time that Aaron Sorkin has written about his life. This time in "Sports Night (ph)". Aaron says, no, no, wait, it's not based on anyone. Who did you base it on?

JEFF DANIELS, ACTOR: No one.

STEPHANOPOULOS: No one?

DANIELS: Sorry, Keith, no one.

(LAUGHTER)

No we really decided, let's create somebody completely fictional, who -- just drop them in the middle of the guys who exist that we know today. And that's what we tried to do. Aaron never said, by the way, this is based on so and so. He never said it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOLBAUM: We will have to see it Aaron Sorkin and HBO use "The Newsroom" as a soapbox for politics and opinion.

And that's a wrap on "News Watch" this week. No drama here.

(LAUGHTER)

Thanks to Judy Miller, Jim Pinkerton, Deneen Borelli and Ellen Ratner. I'm Rick Folbaum. Thanks so much for joining us. Keep it right here on Fox News channel.

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