Chuck Todd Gets Shredded by Left and Right over 'Delusional' Claims About Republican 'Misinformation'
D Dipasupil / Getty Images for AWXII
NBC News Political Director and Moderator of "Meet the Press" Chuck Todd speaks onstage at the Road to the 2016 Election: A Campaign Preview panel presented by NBCUniversal during Advertising Week 2015 AWXII at the Times Center Stage on Sept. 30, 2015, in New York City. (D Dipasupil / Getty Images for AWXII)
By C. Douglas Golden
Published December 28, 2019 at 8:12am
NBC News’ Chuck Todd has not infrequently become the story when it comes to his coverage of President Trump, and never in a way that flatters his journalistic profile.
Consider the fact that the “Meet the Press” host recently compared the president to O.J. Simpson, a canny parallel unless you consider the fact that Simpson almost certainly killed two people. He also engaged in several high-profile scuffles with GOP politicians over Trump, including one where he told Sen. Rob Johnson of Wisconsin that he was bringing up “Fox News conspiracy propaganda stuff” when the two were discussing the freezing of military aid to Ukraine.
All of this, of course, makes him an ideal interview subject for Rolling Stone.
You can probably guess the tenor of the piece from its headline, published last week: “How Disinformation Spreads, According to Chuck Todd.” One of the ways, Todd and interviewer Peter Wade agreed, was by watching “Meet the Press.” I’d agree with them. You may not be surprised, however, that it’s not for the reasons provided in the article.
Wade and Todd discussed another contentious appearance by a Republican lawmaker on Todd’s show, this one by Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana. Wade accused Kennedy of spewing “Russian talking points to defend Trump” and asked why GOP legislators would come on “Meet the Press” to spread that dastardly misinformation.
The question itself isn’t surprising, coming from a representative of the magazine that’s little more than an echo chamber for boomer-centric liberalism. Todd’s answer, however, is curious inasmuch as it’s actually the very definition of disinformation:
”The fact is, and by the way, this isn’t going to be easy to show, but I actually think when we outline this it will, the right has an incentive structure to utter the misinformation,” Todd said.
“Look, I’ll just be honest, when I had the third senator [to spread Russian disinformation], Sen. Ted Cruz, come on my show and do this — who I did not expect to do this — I started to think, he wants the confrontation,” Todd said. “He wants to use this for some sort of appeasement of the right.
“I didn’t know what else to think. I was stunned because he’s a Russia hawk. He spent the entire week showcasing his hawkishness on Russia.”
Todd was responding to yet another interview in which the goateed scold went after Cruz for saying there was evidence that Ukraine meddled in the 2016 election to the benefit of Hillary Clinton.
“Senator, this sort of strikes me as odd. because you went through a primary campaign with this president. He launched a birtherism campaign against you,” Todd said. “He went after your faith. He threatened to quote ‘spill the beans’ on your wife about something. He pushed a National Enquirer story, which we now know, he had a real relationship with the editors.”
Poster Comment:
Busted and disgusted.