Chuck Todd appeared on a podcast called The Mike O’Meara Show on Tuesday, and made several jaw-dropping claims. When O’Meara asked about charges of liberal bias, and whether he gets blowback about the point of view of Meet the Press, he denied one: “There’s no point of view to Meet the Press.”
Then he added a slam of MSNBC: “I think advocacy journalism, sort of the Fox and what MS[NBC] primetime, those models, that hasn’t been healthy for politics.” (Daytime, where Todd used to have a show, is healthy; but primetime is poisonous.)
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.
O'Meara, a longtime (mostly non-political) talk-radio star in the D.C. area with Don Geronimo, does terrific impressions, but his politics have always been in line with...well, Chuck Todd's.
People who think Todd has a tilt aren't the "professionals." The objective journalists all know that each and every one of them is objective. Critics are cynically "working the referees," they don't have a sincere argument. Chuck seems to be unaware how insulting this sounds:
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.
The interview ended with O'Meara joking about John Kerry looking like Frankenstein and asking Todd, "Does Mitch McConnell blink, and have you ever seen him snatch a fly out of the air with his tongue?" Todd said: "Hey man, don’t bet against the turtle....Fear the turtle."
