NBC News anchor Chuck Todd is under fire for an openly derisive comment about Trump supporters as effectively delusional drones who want to be lied to. He even added a dig at belief in biblical accounts like Noah’s Ark. It is the latest example of how open bias has become the norm on mainstream media. Imagine if Todd said Obama supporters are ignorant voters who just want to be lied to. This is precisely why the media is now driving some voters to Trump and reinforcing echo-journalism on both sides.
On Sunday’s “Meet the Press,” Todd criticized “misinformation” in the media and referenced a “fascinating” letter to the editor of the Lexington Herald Leader from last January. The letter read, “[W]hy do people support Trump? It’s because people have been trained from childhood to believe in fairy tales… This set their minds up to accept things that make them feel good… The more fairy tales and lies he tells the better they feel . . . Show me a person who believes in Noah’s ark and I will show you a Trump voter.”
Todd used the letter to say to New York Times executive editor Dean Baquet “This gets at something, Dean, that my executive producer likes to say, ‘Hey, voters want to be lied to sometimes.’ They don’t always love being told hard truths.”
Baquet was not sold on the theory and responded “I’m not quite sure I buy that. I’m not convinced that people want to be lied to. I think people want to be comforted, and I think bad politicians sometimes say comforting things to them.”
My first reaction was to recoil at the transparent use of a letter to say indirectly what Todd did not want to say directly. The point however was abundantly clear as was the inherent bias. The fact that Todd and Baquet would have a pseudo intellectual discussion of whether Trump voters are mindless zombies only magnifies the concerns. The issue was presented as whether this is now a clear fact or a developing fact. The question itself however is treated as mainstream and obvious.
Half of this country opposes impeachment and over 40 percent Trump. Are they all mindless drones seeking to be lied to? Stay tuned to NBC for the developing answer.
Turley’s grasping at this research to make a false equivalency between Trump supporters and Trump critics reminds me of the false equivalency created by some between the Soviet Union and the U.S. during the Cold War. I wish Turley would get off his lofty pedestal and get real
Hah! All Humans want to be lied to. The puppeteers, who have so successfully established a cryptocracy in this country, fool people all the time, and on both sides of the left/right divide. And greedy people….? They are always ripe for a con. Trump is a trojan horse. He and Brexit are a head fake. The next economic disaster (and it will be a doozy and begins this year) will be blamed on nationalism. Enter WW III and eventually their Hegelian Dialectic comes to fruition when everyone greets with open arms their new savior: a global government. The average person plods forward, one chess move at a time, while the puppeteers are thinking many moves ahead. They literally run circles around average Joe.
Duality is a lousy platform for consciousness, automatically inviting parasites, and humans are lousy vehicles for it because they are easily deluded and like to imagine they have great minds. Democracy is a lousy form of government and is automatically favored by the foolish.
We’ve been in the Kali Yuga folks. In this age every leader is the worst person for the job and everyone is slave to their tongue (gossip, monologues, sex, drink, food). .001% rule from the shadows, and .001% have wisdom. These two minorities do not overlap.
The very act of consuming the news means you are a fool.
David Mendez – since NYC has officially been named the rudest city in the United States, what do you expect from a President who comes from there?
The Hill had an article in the spring that reported a poll showing 65% of Americans say Trump is dishonest–including 69% of Independents and 26% of Republicans. Since his approval runs around 90% among Republicans and ~40% among Independents, it raises the question of what causes some to both view him as dishonest and to approve of him. There could be lots of reasons. Still it makes Chuck Todd’s question a legitimate, if somewhat sensitive, query to understand our current politics.
Maybe the same reasons some approved of Al Capone back in his day…
Still it makes Chuck Todd’s question a legitimate, if somewhat sensitive, query to understand our current politics.
It never occurred to him or you to ask that question about people who’ve supported the Clintons, Princess Spreading Bull, Joe Bribem, Adam Schiff, or Robert Mueller et al, all of whom have engaged in consequential frauds well above what is ordinary among people in their respective trades and none of whom bother a substantial bloc of partisan Democrats. You take the Pecksniff award away from David Benson.
I ignore replys from Anonymous.
This elitist bigotry against conservatives is one of the reasons Trump got elected. People are getting tired of just sitting there and taking all that hate.
It’s been so many years of this.
“against conservatives”. No, against the igoranti. There is a difference and the Republicants have become the party of the latter. The actual conservatives are found in the Democratic camp, Clintonites and the like.
If Benson is representative of the level of intellect and knowledge of the Democrats, the GOP appears to be in very good shape.
-Anonymous, bensonizdizzy
TRUMP AND THE TRUTH
On Trump’s first weekend in office he sent Kelly Ann Conway to ‘Meet The Press” where she attempted to introduce ‘Alternative Facts’ with regards to Trump’s inauguration crowd. Perhaps Chuck Todd was thinking of that instance when he asked if Trump supporters wanted lies.
Let’s get serious here: Trump entered office unmoored from the truth. His dismissals of ‘fake news’ regarding Russian interference is the weirdest spectacle we have seen from a president.
Trump’s entire cabinet was acknowledging the interference. So it appeared unreal that Trump was denying a threat acknowledged by everyone else. That denial earned Trump the Mueller Probe and subsequent impeachment.
One could cite many examples of falsehoods Trump has pushed. Denial of Climate Change is obvious. Trump has gone so far as to gag government scientists. That’s a war on truth.
Chuck Todd could easily defend his question with multiple examples. So Professor Turley’s claims of bias are a denial of events. And it leaves us wondering if Turley is compromising his reputation in defense of Trump.
Bwahahahahaha! Laughable twaddle…
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Idiot