What Chuck Todd sees as good old-fashioned bipartisanship by booking election deniers on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” many critics are expressing their disdain for his laissez-faire approach to enabling the spread of misinformation.
“Chuck Todd is a dangerous f—ing imbecile,” one Twitter user said.
On Thursday’s installment of “The Interview,” Mediaite’s podcast, Todd defended interviewing politicians from the other side of the aisle, including Republicans who supported former President Donald Trump’s attempts to contest the results of the 2020 election.
Saturday, NYU journalism professor Jay Rosen tweeted a quote from Todd’s interview: “You don’t know when somebody you think deserves to be banned is suddenly somebody that you’ve got to deal with. Because you may not like them, but they have the power.”
That revealing quote — which was Todd’s answer to Mediaite’s Aidan McLaughlin when he was asked whether such politicians should be banned from “Meet the Press” and other Sunday shows — led to the NBC host trending on Twitter and receiving some considerable pushback.
“I think you’ve got to be careful of absolutes,” Todd said in the interview. “I feel like I have a compact with my viewers that they expect me to deliver them the information they need…You don’t know when somebody you think deserves to be banned is suddenly somebody that you’ve got to deal with. Because you may not like them, but they have the power. They’re the elected speaker of the House or something like that.”
Todd went on to say that he has no interest in catering his show to “fringe-y” Americans on Twitter.
“If you worry too much about the social media and you start to cater to the social media critics, you’re catering to 7% of America and you’re catering to probably a fringe-y version,” he said. “I mean, it’s not just the 7% of America on Twitter. It’s this smaller percentage of [those] who think their opinions — who are so narcissistic that they think all of their opinions matter so much more than anybody else’s.”
When Rosen’s tweet was posted Saturday, the criticism about Todd’s style of journalism began to flow in… and it wasn’t pleasant.
“Yes, that sounds like a totally reasonable justification for giving election denialism access to your large platform while simultaneously legitimating them,” one Twitter user said sarcastically.
“They mostly get that ‘power’ by being handed a media platform and attention,” another tweet echoed.
Not that Todd will see them, but let’s sort through some of the journalist’s most vocal critics anyway.
For many months now, Todd has been consistently criticized on social media about the guests his show books and/or his lack of following up with tough questions to some of their dubious answers, with many critics pushing for his replacement.
Todd took over as host of “Meet the Press” in Sept. 2014 replacing David Gregory.
