During a late-morning break in Tuesday’s impeachment hearing, as part of NBC special coverage, Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd claimed that only viewers of “the President’s favorite cable channel,” Fox News, could possibly understand the “bizarre” line of questioning from House Republicans during the proceedings.
“This is a reminder of the – literally the two alternative realities that I think the country has,” Todd proclaimed. He then launched into whining about Fox viewers:
If you spend a lot of time on the President’s favorite cable channel, you followed that questioning really closely. This is the center of the argument, is about the deep state, about the whistleblower, about these things. If you don’t follow that, you were probably really confused about the line of questioning. Because it is just bizarre at some point, some of the places that they went with it.
Todd further asserted: “...if you don’t spend a lot of time on the President’s favorite cable channel, you almost have no idea of this narrative that they’re trying to weave...”
This coming from the network that earlier that morning hoped Democrats would “weave a compelling tale of wrongdoing” against President Trump during the impeachment hearing.
Minutes later, during the 11:00 a.m. ET hour hearing break, correspondent Geoff Bennett joined Todd in trashing Republicans:
...a big question heading into this was how would the Republicans handle this testimony from these firsthand fact witnesses. And now we know. I think they have settled on what is really a three-prong strategy, I think best telegraphed by Devin Nunes, the top Republican on this committee....What we saw Devin Nunes do was to try to take this Ukraine question down as many unrelated, in some cases conspiratorial, rabbit holes.
The reporter went on to complain that Nunes “also tried to invoke the name of the Bidens and Burisma as many times as he could, in part, to raise doubts and to raise sort of damaging information in the public sphere that President Trump himself is said to have wanted Ukrainian officials to do.”
While NBC thinks it’s fine to openly root for Democrats inventing a “compelling” impeachment narrative, when Republicans have the chance to counter that narrative, the same journalists immediately go to work dismissing such arguments as “bizarre” and “conspiratorial.” The double standard could not be more blatant.
Here is a transcript of the November 19 special coverage:
11:22 AM ET
(...)
CHUCK TODD: This is a reminder of the – literally the two alternative realities that I think the country has. If you spend a lot of time on the President’s favorite cable channel, you followed that questioning really closely. This is the center of the argument, is about the deep state, about the whistleblower, about these things. If you don’t follow that, you were probably really confused about the line of questioning. Because it is just bizarre at some point, some of the places that they went with it.
So it is a reminder, some of this questioning that you are hearing, if you don’t spend a lot of time on the President’s favorite cable channel, you almost have no idea of this narrative that they’re trying to weave, which makes it – and there were times that even you could tell the witnesses were confused.
(...)
11:33 AM ET
GEOFF BENNETT: But I’ll tell you what, as we expect this hearing to come back into session any minute now, a big question heading into this was how would the Republicans handle this testimony from these firsthand fact witnesses. And now we know. I think they have settled on what is really a three-prong strategy, I think best telegraphed by Devin Nunes, the top Republican on this committee, and Steve Castor, the Republican counsel. What we saw Devin Nunes do was to try to take this Ukraine question down as many unrelated, in some cases conspiratorial, rabbit holes.
He also tried to invoke the name of the Bidens and Burisma as many times as he could, in part, to raise doubts and to raise sort of damaging information in the public sphere that President Trump himself is said to have wanted Ukrainian officials to do. That really goes to the heart of the entire impeachment inquiry.
(...)
