Skip to main content
  • CNSNews.com
  • MRC TV
  • Biz & Media
  • Culture & Media
  • TimesWatch
  • Take Action!

Join Us @:
Facebook
Twitter
Amazon Kindle

Free email alerts!

NewsBusters logo
May 24, 2013
  • Home
  • Blogs
  • About
  • Forum
  • Take Action
  • Contact
  • Donate
  • Search
  • RSS

Hot Topics

  • Obama Targets Fox News
  • IRS Targets Tea Party
  • Censoring the News
Home » Blogs » Mark Finkelstein's blog
  • Only CBS Notes IRS Official’s Leave, Yet ABC and NBC Have Time to Show Obama’s Prom Photo with ‘Foxy’ Friend
  • Hearing on IRS With Lerner Taking the Fifth? Newspapers Had No Front Page Story Thursday
  • Chris Matthews Trashes 'Morning Joe' for Being 'Open to All People's Points of View'
  • Thursday Morning: Fox Gives 15 Minutes to Latest IRS Scandal Details; NBC and ABC Ignore
  • On Taxpayer-subsidized PBS, Liberal Reporters Lament Benghazi Won't Go Away
  • No Mention of IRS Scandal on NBC's 'Today,' But Plenty of Time for Obama Prom Photo
  • MSNBC’s Chris Hayes Hypes ‘LGBT Injustice’ During Interview With 18-year Old Woman Charged With Sex With Minor
  • Lisa Myers: 'For a Year the IRS Essentially Knowingly Lied to Congress and No One Came Forward'

Chuck Todd Suggests Covering Van Jones Waste Of MSM Time

By Mark Finkelstein | September 15, 2009 | 08:21

A  A

I've been trying to give Chuck Todd the benefit of the doubt when it comes to classifying him as part of what Rush would call the state-controlled media. But that indulgence was strained to the breaking point on Morning Joe today when Todd flatly rejected the notion that the MSM had under-covered the Van Jones story and suggested that delving into his background would have been a waste of MSM time.

JOE SCARBOROUGH: You say this has been a Republican obsession, ACORN. It certainly hasn't been an obsession in the media. Mike Allen said the mainstream media was slow on the Van Jones story, also slow on this [ACORN] story. Is that a fair charge?
CHUCK TODD: You know, no . . . I think Van Jones was not, this was not a big guy in the White House administration. If we're all going to focus on trying to figure out who Van Jones and his past relationships, when you go #600 down on the list of White House staff. Is that the best use of the time of the mainstream media? You know, we'll see.  Clearly some on the right had objections to Van Jones and they successfully got the White House to sever ties.

SCARBOROUGH: OK.

MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Interesting take.
Interesting indeed.  So it wasn't worth the MSM's time to cover Van Jones.  Let's review:
  • hand-picked by top Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett.
  • self-described "Communist" in the 90s.
  • leading member of the Marxist "STORM" organization.
  • Signed-on-the-dotted-line Truther.
  • responsible for crafting PBO's "green jobs" initiative, something near to the president's policy heart.
Can Todd say with a straight face that had a Republican admin contained someone with a mirror-image history, the MSM wouldn't have been all over it?

Even the New York Times has acknowledged that it was late to the Van Jones game. So Todd places NBC to even the Gray Lady's left when it comes to covering for the Obama admin. 

Note: Joe and Mika seemed skeptical of Todd's argument, Scarborough mentioning they would discuss on their radio show later this morning Todd's notion that Jones wasn't worth covering.

About the Author

Mark Finkelstein is a NewsBusters Senior Contributor. Click here to follow Mark Finkelstein on Twitter.
  • Appointments
  • Chuck Todd
  • Van Jones
  • Morning Joe
  • MSNBC
  • NBC
  • New York Times
  • Major Newspapers
  • Video
  • Mark Finkelstein's blog
  • Login to post comments
  • Printer-friendly version
Stop Censoring The Gosnell Trial!
Stop Censoring The Gosnell Trial!

Editors' Picks

  • Oops: Obama fails to salute Marine, went back to shake hand (Weekly Standard)
  • Deputy kills PBS NewsHour staffer (Washington Examiner)
  • Oklahoma disaster was tragic, but larger ones have occurred (USA Today)
  • Mainstream Media Scream: Today’s Savannah Guthrie questions GOP ‘overreach’ (Paul Bedard, Washington Examiner)
  • Desperate Carney complains asking about scandals like asking about birth certificate (RCP)
  • Look at NYT's partisan-hack rewrite of the IRS hearing (Draw and STRIKE!)
  • Study: Christians who tithe have better finances than those who don't (TGC)
  • The media are willing accomplices to Obama (PolitiChicks)
  • FBI has suspects in mind in Benghazi; Obama prefers to try them in court (AP)
Ann Coulter's picture
Ann Coulter
Ann Coulter Column: When Did We Vote to Become Mexico?
Chuck Norris's picture
Chuck Norris
Chuck Norris Column: Why Tim Tebow Is an Ultimate Clutch Player
Walter E. Williams's picture
Walter E. Williams
Walter E. Williams Column: Hating America
Michelle Malkin's picture
Michelle Malkin
Malkin Column: Obama's Emptiest Benghazi Talking Point
Ann Coulter's picture
Ann Coulter
Coulter Column: Sorry, Sen. Rubio, But Your Immigration Plan Is Still Problematic
More >

RSS FeedAmazon KindleFacebookTwitter

Stop Censoring The News!

Gosnell's Just the Tip of the Iceberg
more cartoons
  • Leno: ‘Not Looking Good for Obama - Today His Teleprompter Took the Fifth’
  • Robert Redford Blasts America's Belief System, Tech Advancements
  • Dennis Miller: 'Nixonian' Obama Will Need Teleprompter to Say 'I Am Not a Crook'
  • Leno: Obama Knows Nothing Because They Moved ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ to the White House
  • IRS Charged With Unfair Scrutiny of Pro-Life Groups' Prayer Events, Protest Signs
More >
NewsBusters

Executive Editor
Matthew Sheffield

Editor at Large
Brent Baker

Senior Editors
Tim Graham
Rich Noyes

Managing Editor
Ken Shepherd

Associate Editor
Noel Sheppard

Contributing Editors
Tom Blumer
Geoffrey Dickens
Dan Gainor
David Limbaugh
Mithridate Ombud
Clay Waters
Scott Whitlock

Senior Contributor
Mark Finkelstein

Contributing Writers
Matthew Balan
Michael M. Bates
Erin R. Brown
Jack Coleman
Kyle Drennen
Douglas Ernst
P. J. Gladnick
Stephen Gutowski
Matt Hadro
D. S. Hube
Kathleen McKinley
Dave Pierre
Amy Ridenour
Julia A. Seymour
Terry Trippany
Rusty Weiss
Brad Wilmouth

Publisher
Brent Bozell

Site Design
Dialog New Media

 

  • Home
  • Blogs
  • About
  • Forum
  • Contact
  • Donate
  • Search
  • Account
  • rss
  • CNSNews
  • MRC TV
  • Biz & Media
  • Culture & Media
  • Take Action!
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Amazon Kindle
  • Advertise
  • Jobs

Copyright © 2005-2013 NewsBusters.
Privacy Policy | Terms of Use