In a tirade at the beginning of Meet the Press on Sunday, host Chuck Todd tried to blame the COVID pandemic on “a decades-long assault on science and objective facts, particularly by some on the right,” as he lambasted Americans who dared to travel over Thanksgiving to see loved ones.
“Good Sunday morning, and I hope you’re having a safe and enjoyable Thanksgiving Day weekend,” Todd uttered at the top of the show, just before attacking people for celebrating the holiday. He sanctimoniously scolded: “...the United States has 4% of the world’s population and somehow has 19% of the world’s COVID deaths. This is hardly what people mean by American exceptionalism...”
He continued hammering Americans for wanting to see family during a difficult time: “This weekend, tens of millions ignored pleas from health experts and some government officials to avoid travel and instead spend time at home with their immediate families. The result may well be a COVID surge beyond the record numbers we’ve seen.”
Making sure to stay true to his role as a partisan hack, Todd predictably decided conservatives were somehow to blame:
How did we get here? Did we lose faith in our government because our government gave us reason to lose faith in it? Was it a decades-long assault on science and objective facts, particularly by some on the right? Was it a fractured media environment that invites people to seek alternative facts to fit their personal world view?
So legitimate criticism of government and the fact that NBC has more media competition is responsible for the pandemic now?
Leftist figures in the press like Todd are so convinced of their own self-importance that they routinely make arrogant proclamations and pretend it's wisdom. Having a corrupt media more interested in pushing an ideological agenda instead of responsibly reporting facts is the true problem.
Todd’s obnoxious rant was brought to viewers by Walmart. You can fight back by letting this advertiser know what you think of it sponsoring such content.
Here is a transcript of the November 29 Meet the Press open:
10:32 AM ET
CHUCK TODD: Good Sunday morning, and I hope you’re having a safe and enjoyable Thanksgiving Day weekend. Throughout America’s COVID crisis, there has been a parade of grim statistics. Among them, as of this morning, there have been more than 13.3 million cases and more than 266,000 deaths in the United States alone, with little reason to believe things will improve in the short run, but if there is one statistic that stands out above all the others, it is this one – the United States has 4% of the world’s population and somehow has 19% of the world’s COVID deaths. This is hardly what people mean by American exceptionalism, and no amount of gainsaying or presidential tweeting that increase testing is somehow to blame can wish away this dubious honor.
This weekend, tens of millions ignored pleas from health experts and some government officials to avoid travel and instead spend time at home with their immediate families. The result may well be a COVID surge beyond the record numbers we’ve seen. How did we get here? Did we lose faith in our government because our government gave us reason to lose faith in it? Was it a decades-long assault on science and objective facts, particularly by some on the right? Was it a fractured media environment that invites people to seek alternative facts to fit their personal world view? Or are we just fed up? Done with months of Zoom meetings and closed stores and kids home from school, that we’ve simply had enough? Enough that millions feel it’s worth taking a big risk to have a brief sense of normalcy.
Whatever the cause, the results are clear, millions are being infected, hospitals are near their breaking point, and health care workers are the ones paying the price.
(...)
