On Today: Dems Happy 'Too Conservative' Tea Party Candidate Won Primar

June 9th, 2010 3:46 PM
On Wednesday's Today show NBC's Matt Lauer, Chuck Todd and Kelly O'Donnell forwarded the Democratic line that Tea Party candidate victories in Republican primaries will be the GOP's downfall in November. First up Kelly O'Donnell, in a set up piece, claimed: "In Nevada, a big Tea Party victory in the GOP Senate primary...But Democrats are actually cheering Sharron Angle's win, believing that a Tea…

MSNBC Anchors in 'Anguish' Over Helen Thomas Retirement

June 8th, 2010 2:59 PM
MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell, Chuck Todd, and Savannah Guthrie on Tuesday’s “The Daily Rundown” were in “anguish” over the forced retirement of Helen Thomas, but showed little sympathy for the Israelis that the Hearst columnist so odiously disrespected.“I think a lot of people feel some anguish about this because the comments were beyond the pale,” lamented Guthrie. “And yet it tarnishes a career that…

NBC's Mitchell Mourns: 'A Sad Way' for Helen Thomas' Career to End

June 7th, 2010 3:51 PM
On her self-titled MSNBC show on Monday, Andrea Mitchell Reports, NBC's Andrea Mitchell mourned Helen Thomas' resignation as a long time White House correspondent, over recent inflammatory remarks about Israelis, as "a sad way" for her career to end. Talking with NBC's political director Chuck Todd, Mitchell spoke about the loss "in the family" of the White House press corps and bemoaned the end…

MSNBC’s Todd: Is Oil Spill 'Wasted Disaster' If Congress Doesn’t I

June 4th, 2010 6:09 PM
Chuck Todd “hated” to say it but just had to get it out anyway–would the BP oil spill, arguably the greatest environmental disaster in U.S. history, be a “missed opportunity” for Congress to capitalize on “disaster” to enact energy legislation should it fail to do anything in its wake?Discussing what the reaction of Congress and the Obama administration should be to the spill during an interview…

Nets Embrace 'Did You Plug the Hole Yet, Daddy?' Anecdote to Humanize

May 27th, 2010 8:57 PM
The White House press corps just loved President Obama's press conference anecdote meant to prove the pressure he's under and responsibility he's taking (“When I woke up this morning, and I'm shaving and Malia knocks on my bathroom door and she peeks in her head and she says: 'Did you plug the hole yet, daddy?'”). The ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts all showcased the clip, with fill-in ABC…

On Hardball: Obama's 'Gut Moment' With Daughter May Quiet Critics

May 27th, 2010 6:31 PM
Both Chris Matthews and Chuck Todd were taken aback by Barack Obama delivering a "personal connection moment" in today's press conference when he told reporters that his daughter Malia asked him: "Did you plug the hole yet, daddy?" Of the anecdote Matthews, on Thursday's Hardball, exclaimed "Talk about a sound bite guys!" and declared he delivered "personally there, in a way he rarely does."…

MSNBC's Chuck Todd Knocks Texas Conservatives for New Textbooks: 'Educ

May 25th, 2010 11:59 AM
MSNBC's Chuck Todd on Tuesday attacked new standards being adopted for history textbooks in Texas as "odd" and mocked that the state would now be teaching "education by Wikipedia." Evan Smith of the Texas Tribune appeared as a guest and fretted that the school board includes "a conservative, arch conservative bloc." Todd recounted the changes being made to the curriculum, including "the idea that…

Todd: Obama Offering Sestak Job No Different Than Cheney Offering Camp

May 25th, 2010 9:07 AM
UPDATE: Later in today's show, a clip [displayed after the jump] was played of an interview from months ago in which Scarborough unequivocally put it to Sestak that he had been offered the Secretary of the Navy position, and Sestak seems to confirm it. So much so that after watching the clip, today's guest Jeffrey Sachs, an ardent Obama fan, had to laughingly admit that, yes, Sestak had been…

Bill O'Reilly: Stop Gulf Oil Leak - 'Stuff Every Member of NBC News in

May 24th, 2010 5:05 PM
Bill O'Reilly on Monday offered an obviously satirical solution to the Gulf oil spill that has generated some ire from the usual suspects on the left: "stuff every member of NBC News in that hole."As readers are well aware, the Fox News personality has had an ongoing war with General Electric and its television subsidiary over its dramatic left-leaning approach to covering the news.With that in…

Chuck Todd: Blame Obama, Not His Staff, for Keeping Press at a Distanc

May 24th, 2010 12:03 PM
Deep in a Chuck Todd profile by Howard Kurtz in Monday's Washington Post, Todd says blame President Obama, not his staff, for his press aversion:  Despite his newfound prominence, Todd, like his colleagues, has limited access to the man he is covering. "Obama himself is the one who doesn't like dealing with the press," he says, exonerating the White House staff. "You can't even do shouted…

CBS's Lesley Stahl Imagines 'Huge Potential Advantage' for Dems Over R

May 21st, 2010 12:00 PM
On MSNBC's Morning Joe on Friday, CBS correspondent Lesley Stahl sounded positively giddy at the possibility of Democrats exploiting the Rand Paul round of TV interviews. She pushed David Gregory to agree with her that the Democrats can gain a "huge potential advantage" for suggesting the Republicans are extreme on everything. STAHL: David, don’t you think, though, that the Republicans [she must…

They Won't Say Specter or Lincoln Are Challenged by 'Liberals' or 'Fro

May 18th, 2010 6:39 AM
As the conservatives in the Tea Party movement gained strength, the liberal media often predicted they would cause harm to the Republican Party and drive out all the moderates. Wouldn't the conservatives look too extreme to win over voters? (See Rich Noyes for more.) Now that the MoveOn.org leftists are poised to remove an incumbent Senator or two, they might spread the idea that there is also a…

NBC Astonished Poll Finds Most Support Arizona Law and Anti-Terror Pro

May 12th, 2010 9:27 PM
NBC News Political Director Chuck Todd seemed astonished by how a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll confirmed solid agreement with Arizona's immigration enforcement law – “a whopping 64 percent support the law,” Todd marveled, “and we read them the law verbatim exactly as it's been written” and still, he repeated, “64 percent approve of it.” NBC also treated as surprising the majority backing…

Todd: Crist for President?; Remnick Reveals ObamaCare Passed to Gain N

April 19th, 2010 12:15 AM
Friday follies. Before the weekend ends, two quotes from journalists worth noting made on Friday night shows: ♦ On MSNBC’s Hardball, NBC’s Chuck Todd forwarded the notion that if Florida Governor Charlie Crist drops out of the Republican primary -- where polls put him way behind conservative Marco Rubio -- and wins the Senate seat as an independent, “he becomes the most powerful Senator in the…