Despite the overwhelmingly hostile, transparently liberal tone of the mainstream media, some journalists still try and deny what it obvious to most everyone. NBC and MSNBC host Chuck Todd did just that five years ago this week. Appearing on the March 18, 2015 edition of The Mike O’Meara Show, O’Meara asked if the Meet the Press host “gets any blowback from political leaders about the point of view” of the show.
Todd huffed, “Not from me, cuz there’s no point of view to Meet the Press.”
No point of view? Todd is the same guy who suggested that the coronavirus would be Donald Trump’s Iran Hostage Crisis. He’s the same person who taunted Trump on corona by saying of the President: “You reap what you sow.” (There's also the problem of Todd and NBC hiding or downplaying his wife’s donations to Democrats and her firm getting millions from Bernie Sanders.)
And those are just recent examples. For more instances of Todd’s VERY clear bias, see this round-up by the MRC’s Geoffrey Dickens.
He then insisted that the “professionals” would never claim this, just those trying to “work the refs.” Todd did admit that MSNBC primetime “hasn’t been healthy for politics”:
Not to the professionals. Now, there’s like the campaign guys who are working it, right? There’s just trying to work the refs so they may try to lump an Al Sharpton, and MSNBC and use that as a way to say “well you work with folks who have an agenda so that must mean you have a...” the sort of guilt by association aspect of trying to get at people. But that is just no different than, you know, yelling at a ref, we’re in college basketball time, it’s no different than some coach going “hey man, you’re not calling that foul. Why are you always doing that? Why is Duke getting all the calls?” You know, and that’s sort of where this goes.
I have to say, and the left is now just as aggressive about this. I mean, I probably get more heat from the left than the right these days 'cause the left gets just as aggressive at trying to work the refs. They think that we in the quote, "mainstream media" overcompensate to the criticism. That’s their argument. Of course the right says we’re never, so it’s a shame. I think advocacy journalism, sort of the Fox and what MS[NBC] primetime, those models, that hasn’t been healthy for politics. It’s just not healthy for it. It all goes to one of the explanations why we don’t persuade people anymore.
For more examples from our flashback series, which we call the NewsBusters Time Machine, go here.
A transcript of the exchange is below. Click “expand” to read more.
The Mike O’Meara Show
3/18/2015
MIKE O’MEARA: I wanted to ask about the, you hear a lot of people talk about the liberal media and the liberal mainstream media and I’m curious when you’re doing a show like Meet the Press, I would imagine that is a, objectivity has to be a pretty important deal, and do you get a lot of that from guests on the right? And I’m just curious whether they say “well, I don’t want to do Meet the Press because we know where you guys come from.” I watch the show, I don’t sense that so I’m curious whether you get any blowback from political leaders about the point of view of Meet the Press?
CHUCK TODD: Not from me, cuz there’s no point of view to Meet the Press.
O’MEARA: Right, exactly.
TODD: Not to the professionals. Now, there’s like the campaign guys who are working it, right? There’s just trying to work the refs so they may try to lump an Al Sharpton, and MSNBC and use that as a way to say “well you work with folks who have an agenda so that must mean you have a...” the sort of guilt by association aspect of trying to get at people. But that is just no different than, you know, yelling at a ref, we’re in college basketball time, it’s no different than some coach going “hey man, you’re not calling that foul. Why are you always doing that? Why is Duke getting all the calls?” You know, and that’s sort of where this goes.
I have to say, and the left is now just as aggressive about this. I mean, I probably get more heat from the left than the right these days 'cause the left gets just as aggressive at trying to work the refs. They think that we in the quote, "mainstream media" overcompensate to the criticism. That’s their argument. Of course the right says we’re never, so it’s a shame. I think advocacy journalism, sort of the Fox and what MS[NBC] primetime, those models, that hasn’t been healthy for politics. It’s just not healthy for it. It all goes to one of the explanations why we don’t persuade people anymore.
