MSNBC’s Chuck Todd Says It’s Not His Job To Challenge Republican Lies

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NBC News political director and MSNBC host Chuck Todd is claiming that it is not his job to correct the constant Republican lies that he gives airtime to.

During a panel discussion on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Chuck Todd casually made the shocking statement that correcting Republican lies in pursuit of the truth is not his job.

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Transcript:

Ed Rendell: Chuck. I think you are dead right. I think the biggest problem with Obamacare. It’s not a perfect bill by any means was the messaging. If you took ten people from different parts of the country who say they’re against a bill and sat them down. I’d love to have ten minutes with them and say, tell me why you are against the bill. If they told you anything, it would be stuff that’s incorrect.

Chuck Todd: That’s right.

Rendell: Incorrect.

Todd: But more importantly, it would be stuff that Republicans have successfully messaged.

Rendell: Absolutely.

Todd: Against it. And they won’t have even heard. they don’t repeat the other stuff. because they haven’t heard the Democratic message. What I always love, people say it’s your folks’ fault in the media. it’s the President of the United States fault for not selling it.

Todd’s logic falls apart, because he is missing the point of what people are trying to tell him. People aren’t saying to the mainstream media that they want them to support Democrats. The message is that the media should be interested first and only in facts. People get frustrated with the media, because they give lies the same weight as facts. As a journalist, Chuck Todd shouldn’t be evaluating messaging. He should be only interested in communicating truth and facts.

One of the main reasons why Obamacare is misunderstood is that the mainstream media shares the the same attitude as Chuck Todd. Facts aren’t our business. Todd’s point is that he is only here to let each side put their message out there, and the best message wins. What Todd described isn’t journalistic neutrality. It’s laziness and indifference to factual reporting.

Maybe people would understand Obamacare better if media did their job and focused on facts. The media is supposed to inform the public, not willingly enable the dissemination misinformation and propaganda.

If Chuck Todd was just a host on MSNBC, his comments would have been bad. However, Todd’s is the political director for NBC News. His attitude about the letting Republican lies slide guides the political coverage at NBC News.

Todd is the perfect example of why Democrats can’t expect to win policy debates with just facts. The truth is that facts don’t matter to the media. The mainstream media is looking for a juicy story to sell. They don’t care if it true or not.

Real journalism is dead, because people like Chuck Todd think that facts no longer matter.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association