This is a rush transcript from "Media Buzz," February 3, 2019. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

HOWARD KURTZ, HOST: On the Buzz Meter this Sunday, a stunning denunciation from anchors and journalists on the left and the right as Virginia Democratic Governor Ralph Northam apologizes for a racist photo in his yearbook page more than three decades ago while changing his story that he had post for the offensive image.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. RALPH NORTHAM, D-VA.: This was not my picture. I was not in that costume either as black faced or as KKK.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KURTZ: But the media condemnations are already growing louder by the hour.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)

DON LEMON, CNN: If you even thought it was OK or you're somebody like Ralph Northam, then you owe people like me in this country a huge apology.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have to look at the whole record, but I have a hard time getting that image out of my head. It's just so terrible.

YAMICHE ALCINDOR, PBS NEWSHOUR: We live in an age where we now all have, I think, collectively decided black faced and KKK robes are unacceptable and if you did that as a young medical student that you should not be fit to be a governor of any state.

(END VIDEO CLIPS)

KURTZ: Is the press determined to force him out? And why was there a little media coverage this week when Northam backed a late-term abortion bill, even saying it would allow for the killing of a just born baby with many cable and broadcast networks totally ignoring it.

The media pounds on the president's war of words with his own intel chiefs.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)

CHUCK TODD, MSNBC: Forget not being on the same page. President Trump and his own Intelligence Community don't even seem to be on the same planet when it comes to the most imminent threats facing our country.

JOE SCARBOROUGH, MSNBC: We need to stop saying that Donald Trump is taking a position different than them and just need to start saying the truth which is Donald Trump is adopting Vladimir Putin's position.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think that there is plenty of room for skepticism when it comes to what the Intelligence Community is saying and the sourcing that these media outlets are using to push a certain agenda when it comes to foreign policy.

(END VIDEO CLIPS)

KURTZ: But the president after scolding the officials for their testimony blames the controversy now on fake news. We'll take a closer look.

Liberal pundits and a tidal wave of Democrats slamming Howard Schultz as the former Starbucks chief explores an independent run for the White House, but getting a bit over-caffeinated in trying to protect the Democrats who are trying to ousts Donald Trump.

Plus, Tom Brokaw facing a backlash for his on-air comments about Hispanics. The former NBC anchor apologizes for the media's PC police piling on.

I'm Howard Kurtz and this is "Media Buzz."

The pundits were a bit cautious at first when Big League Politics published a 1984 yearbook photo showing Virginia Governor Ralph Northam's page with photos of men in black face and in a KKK outfit, and the Virginian-Pilot confirmed it.

The Democratic governor apologized, saying he was deeply sorry for the hurt he has caused by posing for one of the pictures. But as much as Virginia's Democratic establishment urged Northam to quit and the party's presidential candidates demanded his resignation as well, the media turns sharply against his staying in office.

Northam vowed not to resign at a long and painfully awkward news conference yesterday, insisting that while he had not been in the black face photo as a 25-year-old medical student, there was another time that year that he did just that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NORTHAM: I had the shoes, I had a glove, and I used a little bit of shoe polish to put under my -- or on my cheeks. I had always liked Michael Jackson. I actually won the contest because I had learned how to do the moonwalk.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KURTZ: Joining us now to analyze the coverage: Kristina Partsinevelos, a correspondent for Fox Business; Emily Jashinsky, culture editor of The Federalist; and Capri Cafaro, Washington Examiner contributor and former Democratic state senator.

Kristina, Northam took plenty of questions from reporters yesterday. It was a bit of a fiasco in my view. He now says it wasn't him in the photo. But with so many Democrats calling him to resign in Virginia across the country, is there a media drumbeat that is essentially saying it's time for him to go?

KRISTINA PARTSINEVELOS, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK: I think it's the first time you have all media outlets that are running a story and agreeing on something literally. I checked this morning and last night.

Every single newscast led with this story, so there is a consensus that he should step down. Being in a position of leadership is a privilege and that can be taken away. The fact that he reversed his story shows a lack of trust amongst the people, shows that you don't deserve to be there.

If you want to just come out and apologize for it because race is such an important issue especially right now, let's bring to the forefront and let's discuss it. And so yes, you have all outlet's that are essentially, I think, agreeing on this.

KURTZ: Emily, so the governor is in a position of saying I didn't pose in black face in that picture. By the way, I did darken my face to be Michael Jackson. Do you want to see my moonwalk?

EMILY JASHINSKY, THE FEDERALIST: Yeah.

KURTZ: It was an amazing news conference. I think he put that up knowing that some reporter would probably break it. But your side, The Federalist, has a piece saying that Ralph Northam should not resign.

JASHINSKY: Yes. There is a conversation. I don't think it's a perfect parallel about -- you know, we went through with Brett Kavanaugh in his yearbook. That was high school and this is med school. Totally different thing.

KURTZ: Yeah.

JASHINSKY: I think he should resign. I don't think it's acceptable. I think our side is great at publishing vast array of points on this. But at the same time, I will say if your wife has to stop you from moonwalking in the middle of a press conference, an apology press conference, it did not go well and you are probably --

KURTZ: You're saying that is an impeachable offense.

JASHINSKY: The fact that he is talking about putting shoe polish under his cheeks, it was unbelievable.

KURTZ: Capri, a few people in the media are saying, look, no matter how offensive this was and everybody agrees it was horrible and racist, it was 35 years ago, he doesn't have a racist record as a politician in office, he shouldn't be destroyed over this.

But the coverage is all about Democrats like his predecessor Terry McAuliffe, like all these 2020 candidates, saying he should resign immediately. By the way, he's a one-term governor, so there's no --

CAPRI CAFARO, WASHINGTON EXAMINER: I was just going to say that's the way it works in Virginia. You are only one term, so you know, if he tries to ride it out, he only has two years left anyway on his term.

KURTZ: Yeah.

CAFARO: You know, I think that obviously this is an issue that is very important to Democrats particularly going into 2020 where race and diversity is playing a huge part in the Democratic platform. So, obviously Democrats are going to come out and say we want him to resign, even though it is a Democrat that is the person that is offending for lack of a better term.

So, I mean, I think that this is less about the media coverage and more about the fact that this is so egregious that Democrats and Republicans are agreeing and therefore the media coverage is consistent --

KURTZ: No, I think it's very much about the media because often ou have liberal pundits defending a Democrat or saying he was bad but he apologized, you don't have that race issue, as you pointed out, Kristina. Even President Trump going on Twitter says how did the media not discover this, how did this not get leaked when he ran for governor in 2017, and why did it get leaked now.

PARTSINEVELOS: There are all kinds of conspiracy theories around that. I don't really think that we should focus too much on that. I think we should focus on wouldn't we be having a different conversation right now had he come out, admitted it, apologized, saying that was somebody from the past, he is no longer like that.

I think we forgive. We forgive Charlottesville. We forgive even President Trump when he was -- during his campaign, he said my African-American to a supporter in the crowd. So there are -- has happened before. Race has come up. It's a question of do we forgive as a society.

KURTZ: Right.

PARTSINEVELOS: He lied and wasn't trustworthy. That's the conversation that we should be having.

KURTZ: By the way, this was broken by a guy named Patrick Healy, 29-year- old former Breitbart journalist, who said a concerned citizen gave him this. I think it is related to the abortion controversy that we are about to talk about. Somebody wanted to retaliate against Ralph Northam.

So on that point, earlier in the week, Ralph Northam was doing a radio interview talking about a bill that he supported that would lift restrictions on late-term abortion in Virginia, either health of the mother or the fetus wasn't deemed viable. He came out and said this. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NORTHAM: If a mother is in labor, I can tell you exactly what would happen. The infant would be delivered. The infant would be kept comfortable. The infant would be resuscitated if that's what the mother and family desired. And then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KURTZ: That's a remarkable statement. There was plenty of coverage on Fox. But, first two days, nothing on NBC, nothing on MSNBC, nothing on ABC. Two minutes total on CNN and one story on the CBS Evening News. Why?

JASHINSKY: Yeah. So this is actually a case study that should be held up in journalism schools as how not to handle a serious story like this because he is talking about a very extreme law that is outside (INAUDIBLE) belief.

So what you get is basically some outlets running (ph) with Associated Press story that focus very heavily on conservative reaction. And what happens so often in these situations is the media waits until conservatives reacts and then writes these stories about conservative seizing and pouncing on extreme Democrat positions in order to cover it that way and to feed this narrative.

So that is completely inappropriate. It was really, really bad in this particular case. Again, this should be studied by journalism students for how the media should not handle this.

KURTZ: The CBS even did get credit for covering it. But look at the way the lead was. It wasn't that Virginia was considering doing this or that Ralph Northam had made this very controversial comments in radio interview. Here is what it looked like.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEFF GLOR, CBS NEWS: Virginia's governor today responded to critics after a move by Democrats to ease restrictions on late-term abortion.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KURTZ: Responded to critics. Republicans pounced. CBS said and only showed the least controversial part of the soundbite. Your thoughts?

CAFARO: Look, I mean, as a former state legislator, I can say that, you know, I need to sit down and read the statute. This is not a place for an abortion debate. But this is what happens when you have very complex laws that are happening at the state level or the federal level and they get like boil down to a 30-second soundbite.

There is no question in my mind though that there is a significant difference in the way that conservative-leaning media and mainstream media are covering this issue by the words they choose, by not covering it all, whether they talk about it as infanticide on the right or fake news and try to downplay it on the left. We are getting past the facts and the core aspects of the bill which I think is a disservice in a journalist's standpoint.

KURTZ: Kristina, this is how the big papers covered it. New York Times' headline, Republicans seize on late-term abortion as a potent 2020 issue. So it is a Republican reaction. Washington Post, While acknowledging some Democratic missteps, Virginia Republicans double down on their effort to paint Governor Ralph Northam and other Democrats as radicals who favor infanticide.

So, isn't this a story even without the partisan criticism was portrayed as partisan criticism?

PARTSINEVELOS: This is going to be a partisan issue no matter what. So you have -- you just listed headlines, right? They are going to fulfil the narratives of those organizations. You just mentioned the word "mainstream media."

I think that more and more, we have to stop using that term because we are on media. There are lot of viewers that watch Fox. I think it's -- we are part of the media so let's stop with that dialogue.

KURTZ: OK.

PARTSINEVELOS: But regarding to just the headlines that you're mentioning right now, now matter what when it comes to abortion, you will have Democrats that maybe wouldn't want to bring it up because it is too sensitive.

You have the Republicans that are calling the Democrats baby killers essentially and then the Democrats that are saying that you're painting people as essentially anti-feminist. So I think that no matter what, you're going to get the soundbites to paint the narrative. KURTZ: What I would say is whether you are pro-life or whether you are pro-choice or pro-choice with reservation, a lot of people would be -- who even support abortion rights would be uncomfortable with third trimester abortions. Abortion is done, as the governor says, up until the day the baby is about to be born or in labor --

JASHINSKY: Yes. It was a two-minute clip that went viral. It wasn't edited at all. I mean, CBS when they played it on air played a tiny portion of it. But the clip that went viral that caught everyone's attention was two minutes long. It was not edited. Northam defended his position the next day.

KURTZ: Right.

CAFARO: This is my point about this. The content of the policy is what needs to be covered, not the reaction from left or right.

KURTZ: Yes.

JASHINSKY: Always happens. Policies (ph) aren't problem in and of themselves. It is when they are not coupled with serious stories on the policy in question.

KURTZ: OK. I think we have a rough consensus on that covering the policy. Unfortunately, the politics often dominates. By the way, in one poll, 15 percent support abortion at any time during pregnancy.

When we come back, President Trump calls out his own intel chief, blames the whole thing on media misquotation.

And later, why are all the liberal pundits out to stop Starbucks' Howard Schultz from running as an independent?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KURTZ: It began with a flood of headlines about President Trump's top intel chiefs rebuking his stance on key foreign policy issues from ISIS to North Korea based on congressional testimony from FBI Director Christopher Wray, CIA Director Gina Haspel, and National Intelligence Director Dan Coats.

The president fired back with his own rebuke on Twitter. "The Intelligence people seem to be extremely passive and naive when it comes to the dangers of Iran. Perhaps Intelligence should go back to school."

And yet after meeting with his appointees, Trump blamed it on the media.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I said that they were totally misquoted and they were totally -- it was taken out of context. What I do is I suggest that you call them. They said it was fake news.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KURTZ: Emily, the testimony of Trump's top appointees on the Hill was widely covered. And here the president is saying misquoted, misinterpreted, fake news. Does he have a case?

JASHINSKY: So I think when he says misquoted, no, he doesn't have a case. Maybe misinterpreted or framed as it shouldn't be. I mean, I don't know. I think there is room between Trump's position and the position you played earlier in the broadcast, what Joe Scarborough was talking about, which is that Trump is wildly out of line with them.

KURTZ: Doing Moscow's bidding.

JASHINSKY: Yeah, exactly. So I think he was more frustrated with the narrative that the media created after he met with Gina Haspel and other people in the Intelligence Community and seemed to feel they are on the same page. I think there is frustration. He even used the word "narrative."

KURTZ: Right, but frustration with narrative, Kristina, doesn't equal fake news. And sure, the press enjoys exaggerating these rifts within the administration, but these aren't shadowy sources. These people testified. There were cameras. There were spotlights. We have the video. We have the transcripts.

PARTSINEVELOS: Exactly. So then it makes it a very hard defense for the president to come out and blame the media. I think it is unfortunate that it is constantly the media including Fox as well that is being put to blame for a lot of these situations.

You have even dialogue between the president and the chairman of the Federal Reserve, constantly putting the blame there if the market is going down or something is wrong there too.

So I think that if you are in a power of leadership position, you need to take control -- not control but you need to take, I guess, take the blame every once in a while when things don't go your way or if you have leaders within your own organization like Gina Haspel that are saying North Korea could still be a threat, ISIS could still be a threat, and accept that and work together. I don't see that. There is a lot of divide going on.

KURTZ: Coats said that North Korea is likely to try to retain all of its nuclear weapons. The president doesn't believe that or believes that --

CAFARO: That he's on his way to North Korea the soon the next few weeks --

KURTZ: Well, wherever they are going to meet, yeah. OK, so, let me play a soundbite here having to do -- I want to get into sort of tribal quality of these debates over Intelligence. So, one of president's strongest media supporters is Lou Dobbs. And he said this after Dan Coats, the DNI or Director of National Intelligence, testified on the Hill.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LOU DOBBS, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK: What the hell is wrong with the DNI? He has no political judgement. He has no sense of proportion. I mean, what in hell is he thinking about?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KURTZ: Wasn't Dan Coats doing his job like getting an honest assessment.

CAFARO: It's not for the director of DNI to have a political instinct in all of this. I mean, what really strikes me about this issue, first of all, let us remember that this is not the first time that President Trump and his administration have publicly disagreed. This is not the first and probably won't be the last.

But what strikes me about this is the fact that because this coverage was so on the record, on tape, transcripts, that President Trump thinks he can go out and say fake news. The concept of fake news has taken such hold in our debate and our collective consciousness that you can actually do that in contrary, in juxtaposition to physically being on record is amazing to me.

KURTZ: Kristina, the president made this point in the Super Bowl interview today that was aired this morning with CBS' Margaret Brennan, that Intelligence chiefs are not always right. He invoked Iraq when obviously the Bush administration got bad information or was misled or misrepresented, whatever you want to say about the Iraq war.

But what fueled this particular media fire was the president's own tweet, passive, naive, about people who he appointed. And it is reminiscent to some degree about -- we are used to president fighting the Justice Department when Jeff Sessions was there, fighting with the FBI, saying the FBI is doing a lousy job.

But now you have these serious foreign policy questions and apparently differing views between the president and the people he named.

PARTSINEVELOS: Exactly. So, he named them. He is not taking responsibility. So let's just put the blame on the media. I think that's the most concerning part in the past two years that we are seeing this fake news, the media is always wrong. We need journalists across the board on all networks, every single organization to do the digging and hold people accountable.

I will just give a brief example. I was covering midterm elections in Florida. I went to a Ron Desantis rally. I was like the only silly one to be standing next to the cameraman. The other reporters have gone to the side.

Rudy Giuliani took the stage, booed the media, Everybody turned in such venom. The same thing, camera guy working for Fox got spat on because it is the media, fake press. I don't think that's the attitude we should take towards journalists.

KURTZ: Right.

CAFARO: This is my point about the fake news concept taking hold so much. I think it's dangerous to the institution of journalists and the fact that the American public basically have totally lost trust rightfully so but --

JASHINSKY: It was not a good month for the press. There is a lot of very fair and very legitimate concerns about BuzzFeed, probably Covington more than --

(CROSSTALK)

KURTZ: It's been a lousy month for the press and the press sometimes gets involved. The press can be very, very negative toward this president more than I've ever seen. I do want to throw that in there. I'm not supporting the booing and the viciousness and all that.

But you also had a split to some degree between the president and Senate Republicans. Mitch McConnell, the present's probably key ally on Capitol Hill, supporting an amendment which passed the Senate with majority of Senate Republicans expressing disapproval of the quick withdrawal from Syria and Afghanistan.

It's purely symbolic but I don't think it's fake news to report on how this now looks after the shutdown.

JASHINSKY: No, not at all. I actually think that's a split that a lot of the president's supporters are glad, that that would open up between the president and some of the foreign policy establishment in Washington.

KURTZ: They want to fight this thing.

JASHINSKY: Yeah, absolutely.

KURTZ: All right, Emily Jashinsky, Kristina Partsinevelos, and Capri Cafaro, great discussion on both topics. Thanks so much.

Ahead, Tom Brokaw says he is sorry for his comments about Hispanics. Are the critics going too far in this case?

But up next, it's Donald Trump versus Chris Christie versus Jared Kushner versus Cliff Sims versus Kellyanne Conway. The sniping over two new books targeting Trump world.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KURTZ: Washington these days is like a really mean junior high especially if you got a book out and especially if that book is about Donald Trump. Chris Christie in his book, "Let Me Finish," is largely sympathetic to the president but he is still angry about getting fired from the Trump transition team.

He blames Jared Kushner constantly, repeatedly, saying Trump's son-in-law bears a grudge because Christie once prosecuted Kushner's father in a case that involved entrapping and videotaping the elder Kushner's brother-in-law with a prostitute.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS CHRISTIE, FORMER NEW JERSEY GOVERNOR: I mean, it's one of the most loathsome, disgusting crimes that I prosecuted when I was U.S. attorney. I was a U.S. attorney in New Jersey --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KURTZ: Maybe Jared just didn't think Christie was good at the job. The former New Jersey governor also unloading on Steve Bannon, who said recently that he hated working in the White House but was doing the Lord's work.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) CHRISTIE: I don't think Steve Bannon wouldn't know the Lord's work if it hit him across the forehead.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KURTZ: In fact, Christie ribs a whole lot of people hired by Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTIE: In the beginning, he had a group of people around him like Steve Bannon, like Rick Dearborn, like Omarosa. I mean, what the hell was somebody like Omarosa ever doing in the White House?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KURTZ: The president not too pleased, tweeting about the man who ran against him. "So great to watch and listen to all these people who write books and talk about my presidential campaign and so many other things related to winning. I then sit back, look around, and say gee, I'm in the White House and they're not."

Then there is former White House Communications aide, Cliff Sims. No, I never heard him either, who unloads on most of his ex-colleagues.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CLIFF SIMS, FORMER WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS AIDE: -- creating what kind of amounts to an enemy's list of people in the White House who I felt were basically disloyal to him --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice over): And who was on that?

SIMS: I mean, there are a number of name on the book, Sean Spicer and Reince Priebus.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KURTZ: Sim's book is "Team of Vipers" and he admits he was one of the vipers and he really has it in for Kellyanne Conway painting her a big leaker.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is Kellyanne loyal to the president?

SIMS: I think publicly, yes. I think privately --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice over): Privately not?

SIMS: -- there's a lot of evidence that she is not --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You say unkind things about Kellyanne Conway, that she had gotten a lot of press, and so you're willing to burn some bridges on your way out. SIMS: I didn't really look at it that way.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KURTZ: Of course you didn't. You're trying to (INAUDIBLE) books. And for the record, part of Kellyanne's job is to deal with the press and I've never heard her denigrate the president even off the record.

And POTUS punched back. "A low level staffer that I hardly knew named Cliff Sims wrote yet another boring book based on made up stories and fiction. He pretended to be an insider when in fact he was nothing more than a gofer. He is a mess."

There are some really low blows here. I take it back. Junior high is never this bad.

Ahead on "Media Buzz," Super Bowl Sunday, folks. But the media, not just the fans in New Orleans, put a cloud over the big game.

But first, the liberal media declaring war on Howard Schultz for pondering a White House run. Kamala Harris steps in on health care. Ben Domenech is on deck.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOWARD KURTZ, MEDIA BUZZ, HOST: Howard Schultz may have built a fabulously successful business with Starbucks, but he's hardly a household name yet. Now that the billionaire is doing a media blitz to test an independent campaign for 2020, imagine a billionaire as president. He's getting trashed in the more liberal precincts of the press.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why not have that debate in the Democratic Party of which you were a member up until recently?

Howard Schultz, FORMER STARBUCKS CEO: Because I would have to be disingenuous to try and run as a Democrat.

MICHELLE GOLDBERG, NEW YORK TIMES OP-ED COLUMNIST: Obviously, I don't want Howard Schultz to run for president. I think that his entrance into the political stage has been catastrophically misjudged.

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN CHIEF LEGAL ANALYST: These guys, they're billionaires. So they think they can do everything. And, you know -- and one thing he can do is hand the reelection to Donald Trump.

TUCKER CARLSON, TUCKER CARLSON TONIGHT HOST: Poor hapless Howard Schultz in this overfunded midlife crisis just got in their way. So they have to crush him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KURTZ: Joining us now from New York, Ben Domenech, the founder and publisher of The Federalist. And, Ben, so, Howard Schultz is out there, kind of testing the water for a run. And what do you make of all these anchors challenging him, all these liberal commentators saying how dare you run, why don't you run as a Democrat, how is it their job to do that?

BEN DOMENECH, THE FEDERALIST FOUNDER: You know, in any other context, I think they would be receptive to Howard Schultz running. He's a classic example of someone who is socially liberal, fiscally conservative. We're told by all these different people that that's a representative of where the centrist sort of thought process of this country ought to exist.

And yet, in this year, this is a situation where the left, which is represented -- overrepresented in our media nationally, feels they have the right to every anti-Donald Trump vote. And that's what they view Howard Schultz as disrupting, that he could potentially take away 3 to 5 percent, or potentially more of that anti-Donald Trump vote. And ultimately, reelect him.

That's what makes him inconvenient from their perspective. I actually think it's very interesting. I don't just say that as someone who was at one time a Starbucks barista, served for many people, some very fine drinks at that time. That was my first job.

KURTZ: I didn't know that. Some people say boycott Starbucks.

DOMENECH: I think that's ridiculous. And I think -- look, the guy bears a hearing. What I do I think he's telling though is that his positioning is really out of touch with the kind of person who could actually beat Donald Trump. Anderson who was a guest on your program occasionally has a great piece on the Washington Post, in which she outlines the fact that the real way to go after Donald Trump is with someone who is a populist when it comes to economic policy and is actually more traditionalist when it comes to social policy.

That's where the actual sort of the underrepresented center of the country really is when you look at the poll data. That's not where Schultz is. And it's ultimately why I think he's going to have a real problem being a significant candidate in the end.

KURTZ: People are coming at me on Twitter saying you shouldn't run for president, your coffee is horrible, because I'm also Howard, except without the billions. I try to tell them.

All right. Let's go at Kamala Harris. She did a CNN Town Hall. And she came out for Medicare For All, which is becoming a popular Democratic position. And to his credit, Jake Tapper pressed her on how it would work. And she said, well, you know, we don't need people going through insurance companies, let's eliminate all that. So just get rid of 150 million people's private insurance. And the press is covering this just sort of a political misstep.

DOMENECH: You know, I think one of the big problems that you're going to see here for people like Kamala and others is that these -- once you start running as a presidential candidate, a lot of these slogans and these ideas that you've thrown out as a member of the U.S. Senate over the years, are going to be judged under new light of how feasible they actually are.

And in the case of Medicare For All, we have seen time and again multiple states go down the road of doing some kind of a single payer program in Vermont and California. And they can never make the math work.

KURTZ: Media scrutiny is a good thing, right, for Democrats as well as the constant scrutiny of Trump?

DOMENECH: It is. And I think that this is one of the things that we're going to see develop over the course of this campaign, where a lot of these people are going to roll out idea, that you know maybe endorsed in the past. And they're going to have a new level of evaluation that they're going to live up to.

KURTZ: All right. We talked earlier in the show about Virginia Governor Ralph Northam, now facing calls not just from Democrats, over a whole lot of media people to resign over the blackface/KKK photo in the yearbook back in 1984. One of your writers doesn't agree, you know, people are saying, well, it was offensive, but it was 35 years ago. Has this become a media mob?

DOMENECH: You know, I think it has to a certain extent. But I do think it's funny this media mob was driven up by this old photo as opposed to the governor's terrible comments earlier in this week endorsing you know letting a baby die, whether you think it's infanticide or not, after it's born, which, you know, from my perspective is truly the position of the elites of the Democrat Party and Planned Parenthood, a position that is out of step with the overwhelming majority of the American people.

KURTZ: So why in your view -- let me jump in, did so many networks and other news organization completely ignore the story or barely mentioned it or frame it as Republicans pounce on Northam remarks, rather than having a healthy debate about late-term abortion legislation?

DOMENECH: Howard, both you and I both know that overwhelmingly, the media is full of people who are extreme on the issue of abortion. They do not like the messy conversation that happens when you look at this issue in a hard way. You remember the Washington Post dismissing the Kermit Gosnell Story as a local crime story. You know the fact that the way that these stories are often framed is that Conservatives are pouncing on the remarks of people in various positions that could be depicted as extreme, when the positions they hold are out of step with what the vast majority of Americans want.

You and I both know that the polls consistently say that Americans want more restrictions on abortions, particularly late-term abortions. They're more moderate on the subject than the vast majority members of the media. And I think in this context, when you look at what Ralph Northam has gone through this past week, you know, it's a bold move to try to distract from your comments on infanticide with a sort of racist scandal from your college years.

KURTZ: Well, I don't think that he planned that part of it. But with time that we have left, what do you make of all the media calls for him to resign and that long and rather bizarre news conference yesterday?

DOMENECH: IF I -- you know, I have seen a lot of bizarre news conferences in my day. I have watched the Mark Sanford press conference live. This is the most bizarre thing I have ever seen. But if I was a major donor to the Democratic Party in Virginia, I would be looking at Ralph Northam right now the same way I look at someone like Maduro.

I need to give him a golden parachute to go somewhere. I need to give him a board to go and sit on, So that he could pay for private school and things. Give him a parachute to get out of that office. Because frankly, what he has done here, as embarrassing as it is, it's not necessarily an impeachable offense or something that can drive him off out of office for. But he's going to be a drag on Virginia Democrats going forward. They have a real shot at winning that legislature.

KURTZ: Right.

DOMENECH: They need to get him out of there as quickly as possible.

KURTZ: Right.

DOMENECH: For the sake of the party.

KURTZ: Certainly, he has lost the confidence of the Democratic establishment in Virginia. Ben Domenech, great to have you back. Thanks so much for joining us.

DOMENECH: Thank you. A pleasure as always.

KURTZ: Coming up, with NBC distancing itself from Tom Brokaw, Latino journalist who says the ex-anchor got it wrong about Hispanics and assimilation.

And later, can the NFL use Super Bowl to celebrate its rebound in the ratings?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KURTZ: The firestorm overall Tom Brokaw's comments was so intense that NBC had little choice, but to cover it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A former long time anchor of this broadcast is in the news tonight for the comments he made Sunday on Meet The Press. The criticism was widespread and almost immediate.

KURTZ: Brokaw was talking about culture in America when said this about the Hispanic community.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM BROKAW, FORMER NBC ANCHOR: Also, I don't know whether I want brown grandbabies. I also happen to believe that Hispanics should work harder at assimilation. That's one of the things I have been saying for a long time. You know, they ought to not just be just codified in their communities, but make sure all their kids are going to speak English. And that's going to take outreach on both sides, frankly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KURTZ: Brokaw quickly put out an apology saying he feels terrible, but his network seemed to distance themselves from the former anchor.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHANIE GOSK, NBC NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Tonight, an NBC News spokesman tells me, quote, Tom's comments were inaccurate and inappropriate. And we're glad he apologized.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KURTZ: And joining us now from Florida, Cathy Areu, a long time Latino journalist and publishes Catalina Magazine and is a former Washington Post magazine editor. Cathy, are you offended by Tom Brokaw saying Hispanics should work harder at assimilation, their kids should speak good English. And this was kind of overlooked about the part about there should be outreach on both sides.

CATHY AREU, CATALINA MAGAZINE FOUNDER: Offended as a Latina, offended as a journalist, because it wasn't accurate. It wasn't true. This is truly an op-ed that he was giving. He was stating as if he were a journalist, who had done some research and is bringing it back for an audience, which he wasn't.

This is purely an opinion, this is his point of view, and he's actually incorrect. I mean, my parents are immigrants and if being a Latina on Fox News isn't assimilation, I don't know what is.

KURTZ: Well, you know, it's Meet The Press round table, so Brokaw is entitled to give his opinion. Now, he says he covered Hispanic contributions to society going back to Cesar Chavez. I think he came across as tone deaf and kind of lecturing Hispanic community. But why is it so radioactive to talk about assimilation, which is the same advice given to every immigrant group going back to the 1900s?

AREU: Exactly. And Latinos are like every other immigrant group. There is study after study that shows they assimilate as quickly as every other immigrant group in our nation. And I've taught ESL to adults and to students. And there is no one that wants to learn English more than people who come to this country. They want to be a part of the community, they want to understand what is happening, when they go to the grocery store and buy something.

So what he was saying was completely inaccurate. I don't think he has ever taught English as a Second Language and have seen people work 10 days out of the fields and then come dirty to classrooms at night to learn English. He did not know that. People are working very hard in this country.

KURTZ: There have been, by the way -- there have been, by the way, cutbacks in school English a Second Language program. Look, if you find what Brokaw said as offensive, that's your choice. I respect that. But there is a bit of a police aspect to this backlash. Because some people are saying, oh, that was racist. Tom Brokaw is a racist. There is nothing in his career that supports that. At worse, he made some remarks that were insensitive.

AREU: They're inaccurate. They were inaccurate. He made remarks that were insensitive, they sounded racist. I'm not saying he's racist. But they were inaccurate. As a journalist, I think Journalism 101, you have to back that up. You have no statistics. And if you find them, he was wrong. He was completely wrong as a journalist when it came to this topic.

KURTZ: All right. Let me move on. Let me move on -- let me move on to the week's big story which is Ralph Northam, the Virginia governor.

AREU: Yeah.

KURTZ: Many people on your side, Democrats, liberal commentators, saying the governor absolutely has to resign over that blackface, KKK photo in the yearbook back in 1984. First he said it was him, then he said it was not him. Where do you stand on this?

AREU: Right. Well, I think we have to look at Kavanaugh. It's like we have short memories. But everyone was saying Kavanaugh, that issue with him on going to the Supreme Court. We should look at things that happened 30 years ago, that doesn't define the person today.

So racism is wrong, blackface is wrong. KKK is wrong. But if it's over 30 years ago, why are we crucifying him at the same time we aren't crucifying Kavanaugh?

KURTZ: Well, one distinction is that unlike being in high school, which is many of the Kavanaugh allegations, he was a 25-year-old medical student. And also, he's now changing the story and he's admitting to the Michael Jackson blackface. So that's one of the reasons he's getting pounded.

AREU: But he's apologizing. I mean, people change. Trump has made really odd comments in the past about different groups. And we forgive him. We say that that's not who he truly is. And he's doing wonderful things for the country. So why the hypocrisy?

That's what the Washington Post pointed out. If we are going to criticize the governor of Virginia then we need to look at the White House as well.

KURTZ: Right. Well, I think that's an argument to be made, that people do change over time. It was almost 35 years ago, most Democrats and liberals aren't giving Governor Northam the benefit of the doubt. Cathy Areu, great to see you. Thank you so much for joining us.

AREU: Thanks.

KURTZ: And after the break, President Trump gave a CBS a Super Bowl interview. Is he taking credit for the NFL's turnaround, that's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KURTZ: On this Super Bowl Sunday, even President Trump says the NFL is in better shape than he was attacking the league. The media cast a bit of a shadow over today's showdown between the New England Patriots and the L.A. Rams because of that blown call that got the Rams to the big game. Joining us now, Britt McHenry, the co-host of our very own online show Un-PC on Fox Nation and a former ESPN reporter. So, any one who has saw the replays of the botch call involving the Saints in the championship game can fairly question whether the Rams deserve to be in Super Bowl. Is it almost like an asterisk over this game?

BRITT MCHENRY, UN-PC HOST: I personally think so. Now, we got a lot of great viewer feedback on this segment. And people pointed out that Jared Goff had a facemask penalty that was not called. But when it's a 1:49 left in the game, Roger Goodell, the commissioner of the league, says, yeah, we messed that one up. It's just too hard I think for a lot of football fans to digest that.

KURTZ: Particularly if they live in New Orleans.

MCHENRY: Yes.

KURTZ: So President Trump, as everyone remembers, you know, weighed into the NFL, was highly critical of the league and the anthem protest. He told the Daily Caller and again in a CBS interview for the Super Bowl, that he's not taking credit. But the league has bounced back, the protests fade, the ratings were up 5 percent this past season. Has the NFL learned a lesson from that controversy and is now in a better place?

MCHENRY: I would like to say yes. But after listening to the commissioner on Wednesday this past week at the Super Bowl, I tend not to think so as much.

KURTZ: Why is that?

MCHENRY: Roger Goodell, yeah, of course, the media doesn't want to let go of the Colin Kaepernick storyline, which I have always said there were many more aspects to that, including, you know, the shirts he wore, the offensive comments to family members and friends have made about certain owners.

KURTZ: Right. It is still going on years later.

MCHENRY: They're still asking him about that. And I think the stubbornness to say we might look at instant replay. We might, but, you know, everything we're doing is the right course really rubs a lot of fans the wrong way.

KURTZ: Talking about rubbing the wrong way, so today in Atlanta, we have a big game. We are back to the same old media narrative, can Tom Brady, now 41 years old, work his magic, do it again as he did in the overtime in the championship game, it's no secret the national press is not big fans of Tom Brady, or Bill Belichick, or the Patriots. How much does that influence the run-up to the game and the way the game will be covered?

MCHENRY: I think the Patriots at this point have to be used to it.

KURTZ: Right.

MCHENRY: It's like an annual tradition to go there.

KURTZ: But what is -- but what is it about Brady and the Patriots that bring out that resentment among sports jocks and sports writers?

MCHENRY: Let's face it, because they are good. I grew up with Miami Dolphins fans. We don't know much about being that good, the perennial...

KURTZ: Yes.

MCHENRY: ... before my time.

KURTZ: Yes.

MCHENRY: It's because they're so good. It's because we constantly see them. And New England has such a diehard fan base. It's like we want our team to be in it.

KURTZ: And it could also be that the owner of the team, Rob Kraft, is friends with the president. And Tom Brady is friendly with the president. They wouldn't like to talk it much.

MCHENRY: Absolutely. I found it funny this week, it made national headlines, Kraft was dancing Cardi B. Cardi B is very anti-President Trump.

KURTZ: All right.

MCHENRY: Does she know he donated a million dollars to get him elected?

KURTZ: I admire you're here -- your ability to work Cardi B into the program, the Super Bowl Sunday.

MCHENRY: Anytime, Howard.

KURTZ: Britt McHenry, thanks so much. Enjoy the game.

Still to come, President Trump sits down with the New York Times and rips the New York Times.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KURTZ: President Trump once again sat down with the New York Times and complained in the interview that the paper treats me so unbelievably terribly. Now, Trump had asked A.G. Sulzberger for an off-the-record dinner. And the publisher whose last private conversation with the president blew up into a public spat, declined asking instead for an on- the-record interview, which he attended with two top reporters, Maggie Haberman and Peter Baker. Sulzberger said Trump's rhetoric is endangering journalists worldwide.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

A.G. SULZBERGER, NEW YORK TIMES PUBLISHER: They say that they are increasingly of belief that your rhetoric is creating a climate in which dictators and tyrants are able to employ your words in suppressing a free press.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I don't like that. I mean, I don't like that. I don't like though -- I do think it's very bad for a country when the news is not accurately portrayed. I really do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KURTZ: The president said he was a victim of negative coverage, like nobody has ever had before. And this part was very revealing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I came from Jamaica Queens -- Jamaica Estates and became president of the United States. I am sort of entitled to a great story. I mean, just one, from my newspaper.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KURTZ: Heard that, my newspaper? That's why the president cares about the New York Times. He's from Queens, went to Manhattan, and tried to make it. And he still wants that recognition from the Times. He constantly bashes a failing New York Times, but really wants the approval.

By the way, Sarah Sanders, the press secretary, gave an interview this week and said that about the reduced briefings schedule that she sees a bunch of angry faces in the crowd. But she wasn't talking about everybody in White House press corps.

That's it for the Super Bowl Sunday Edition of Media Buzz. I'm Howard Kurtz. Check out my new Podcast, "Media Buzz Meter," now rated four-and-a- half stars on Apple iTunes. You can subscribe there or on Google Play or on FoxNewsPodcast.com. Leave us a comment. We talk about the day's buzziest stories.

Also, check out our Facebook page. We post my daily columns, original video. Talk to you on Twitter @HowardKurtz. We're back here next Sunday after the game, 11:00 Eastern, with the latest buzz.

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