In a fawning profile of NBC’s Today show co-host Savannah Guthrie for Sunday’s New York Times Style section, columnist Sridhar Pappu happily proclaimed that her vicious attacks on President Trump during an October 15 town hall assured her “heightened status” in the leftist media: “Since she held President Trump’s feet to the fire at a crucial turning point of the campaign, her future at NBC News appears bright.”
Referring to the partisan hit job that Guthrie conducted in the final days of the presidential campaign, Pappu giddly cheered: “During an event that many argued shouldn’t have taken place, in a manner that was both disarming and hard-charging, she had done what many thought impossible: humbled, even humiliated, a man who had steamrollered his way to power, belittling journalists along the way.”
He marveled over her performance and even suggested that Guthrie flipping out on Trump was an historic landmark: “Looking back on the crucial turning points of this dizzying election, voters — and historians — will surely remember Ms. Guthrie in a hot-pink pantsuit sitting 12 feet away from a president, not settling for his stock answers on the Supreme Court or QAnon or health care, demanding to know why Mr. Trump insisted on retweeting conspiracy theories.”
Pappu fondly recalled the NBC morning show host comparing the President to “someone’s crazy uncle,” and noted how Guthrie confessed: “I’m shocked at myself. I don’t even know if it’s a good thing that I said it. That just came out.”
Wrapping up the puff piece, Pappu highlighted the initial left-wing hysteria over Trump even being given the air time:
Democrats were furious when NBC gave Mr. Trump his own forum at the same time slot as Mr. Biden’s own event over at ABC. There were social-media meltdowns and petitions, including one signed by a couple of the network’s own prime-time stars.
“Having dueling town halls is bad for democracy — voters should be able to watch both and I don’t think many will,” tweeted Ms. [Katie] Couric, who left NBC in 2006.
Of course he summarily dismissed any “conservative” criticism that came afterward: “Though the event finished second in overall Nielsen ratings, the praise for Ms. Guthrie, excluding conservative outlets and Mr. Trump, who called her ‘crazy,’ came in from all over.”
As supposed proof, Pappu cited one of Guthrie’s Democratic hack media colleagues: “I was thinking, ‘Oh, my God, you know, who would have the guts to say that to Donald Trump?’ said her NBC News colleague Andrea Mitchell of the ‘crazy uncle’ line. ‘And Savannah Guthrie could because of the manner in which she does it.’”
He further touted:
Ms. Guthrie’s heightened status was evident weeks later on Nov. 7....[she] had been part of the network’s election coverage in previous years, but this was different. She had never announced the winner of a presidential contest. Sitting socially distant with her network colleague Lester Holt, it was left to her, at 11:25 a.m., to finally say that NBC could project Mr. Biden would be the next president of the United States.
While there was a brief mention of Guthrie’s marriage to longtime Democratic Party operative Michael Feldman, his partisan identity was conveniently never revealed to readers in the article.
On Monday, Guthrie’s fellow Today show co-hosts applauded the Times profile, with Hoda Kotb declaring:
Every now and then, something really cool happens to someone on this show. And it just happened to Savannah. I was reading the Sunday Style section of The New York Times and I don’t know if y’all saw it. It’s the most beautiful read. Savannah talks about being lucky in this business. And as many have said before, luck’s got a teeny bit to do with it, but all the rest, all the hours, all of it is all written out in this article. It is beautiful and we are proud to be sitting next to you.
Craig Melvin chimed in: “Richly deserved....It’s a great profile.”
When reporters violate every journalistic principle by acting like partisan combatants on behalf of Democrats, they are congratulated by the rest of corrupt leftist media. The collusion between the DNC and the press is not just obvious, it’s celebrated.
