This month, the public has witnessed the mainstream media at its very worst in circling the wagons to deflect or dismiss the new evidence on how government officials, including President Barack Obama, laid the foundations for the Russian collusion hoax. However, the most telling admission may have come from Chuck Todd on the mentality of many in the media. In denouncing the decision to interview Hunter Biden, Todd lamented how the coverage was bad for the Democrats and the Bidens. He then declared, “I make choices,” which is precisely why he was widely criticized for bias as a former Sunday show host. His “choices” often seemed to run in favor of one party.
I have been a long-time critic of Todd’s for his slanted questioning, open bias, and misleading coverage (here, here, here, here, here, and here). He used his position to denounce investigations into the Bidens while giving false accounts of conservative court rulings.
Now, he is irate over the Hunter Biden interviews last week. What is telling, however, is that he is not lashing out at the content but the fact that the media interviewed a figure who proved so damaging for the Democrats and President Biden.
Let’s take a step back for a second. Hunter Biden is news. He was at the center of a massive influence peddling scandal, the subject of a controversial presidential pardon from his father, and recently accused of exercising inappropriate control over his father as president. He was also a key witness on his father’s alleged mental and physical decline in office.
By any measure, he is news.
Yet, Todd is irate that he was given a platform after it backfired on Democrats, including suggesting that his father was on Ambien. The profanity-laced interviews made headlines around the world, but Todd felt that the media should have prevented the public from seeing them.
On his podcast, Todd declared:
“I will never book Hunter Biden. Number one, he’s not the candidate. He wasn’t on the ballot. Anything he says in defense of his father, I don’t know whether it’s true or not, but it doesn’t matter. He’s a son defending his father…I have a real problem with the folks that are booking him. If you’ve chosen to book Hunter Biden, you’ve chosen to book spectacle. You’re not interested in – and you know, the two interviews that have gone viral were both designed to get attention, not to surface new facts, not to give you a better understanding of what may have happened. It was just, ‘Let’s give him a platform to settle some scores that maybe he wants to settle.’…I don’t think this does Hunter Biden any good. I don’t think this does Joe Biden any good. It certainly doesn’t do the Democratic Party any good. That’s why it’s surprising to see the former DNC chair start a podcast and decide that the best way to market it is Hunter Biden.
…It’s a choice who you book. I make choices. Everybody makes choices. It’s a choice who you book. If you’re putting Hunter Biden on, you know what you’re doing. Look, I think there’s a lot of things going on there.”
Todd could argue that he was merely noting that one of these interviews was conducted by a former head of the DNC, who should have known it could backfire on the party. However, the two interviews produced real news from an insider in the White House. Nonetheless, Todd felt that the two interviews should have been scuttled.
That was the signature of Todd’s journalism. He routinely chose to conduct interviews with a heavy slant in favor of Democratic talking points or slamming Republicans. He is still advancing that type of advocacy journalism in slamming interviews that were newsworthy but bad for the party and the Bidens.
In these interviews, Hunter Biden gave his own account of his father’s mental and physical conditions while suggesting a previously unstated cause for the former president’s disastrous debate performance. Todd would have prevented the public from hearing that account because he “makes choices” for them.
When Todd was called to account for misleading clips, the network shrugged and blamed it on editing that was “inadvertently and inaccurately” performed. His choices included running clips that were widely denounced as misleading. Conversely, he would conduct interviews with figures like Hillary Clinton without asking about breaking news on her campaign, secretly funding the Steele dossier despite earlier denials.
During my two contracts with NBC, I had the honor of working with Todd’s predecessor Tim Russert. Tim was the ultimate professional and honest journalist. He would ask probing questions of all sides and pursued the news regardless of its potential political impact for either party. I respected him greatly for his integrity and his intelligence.
NBC’s former political director, Todd brought a different approach to the chair. He would often use questions to make statements like asking whether Trump supporters “just want to be lied to?” However, when it comes to Democrats, Todd would prefer to make choices for them in refusing to air news that was bad for the party, as he did as host on Meet the Press.
It is all part of Chuck Todd “making choices.”
If Hunter had any balls he’d come out and reveal who took “advantage” of daddy using the auto pen while daddy was under the influence of ambien.
” he’d come out and reveal who took “advantage” of daddy using the auto pen”
You seem to assume that those controlling the autopen would have been foolish enough to let a big-mouthed, undisciplined, drug-addled, self-entitled moron know the details about it. I don’t think they were geniuses, but I doubt they were quite that stupid.
*. DJT is chickening-out in Obama prosecution.
AOC has a chief of staff? I’m paying for it?
Over and out
This comment from above made no sense
Chuck who?
Well…because of his choices…Chuck doesn’t have to worry about booking much any more.
Dear Chuck Todd,
All Democrats are bad for Democrats and Biden. Including you. Democrats will remain bad for Democrats until they get some ‘common sense’ policies.
Sincerely,
Jake
Much truth coming out (inadvertently of course) about the left lean of our media. I particularly enjoy the video clips of various dem politicians and their media admirers saying exactly the same things in response to events. I just wonder who writes their daily scripts.
Pravda, or the CPC–Peoples Daily Online most likely.
-Oddball
My understanding is that Todd’s wife owns a consulting company that does a lot of business with Democrat candidates. Her income from this business directly benefits Todd by enriching the marital estate. But he never disclosed this conflict of interest with his viewers. Shameful!
I often think when I see Chuck Todd et al on Meet the Depressed, whatever would Tim Russert say about the sorry state of affairs of a program he captained for 16 years. I go on to wonder if Russert, a liberal, but fair journalist, would have been swept up in the current of advocacy journalism had he lived. Based on the hard questions he was asking BHO and Hillary, I think he would have been the last man standing for fair and honest reporting, someone like Prof. Turley who loves the country more than an ideology. Would Mr. Russert have let the Dems off the hook with the Hunter Biden laptop story or Russia hoax? I want to think he would not have. Sadly, we’ll never know.
Tim Russert was a brilliant Democrat and apparently a nice guy, but not so much an unbiased journalist. His credentials were that he worked for NY Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan as chief of staff and counselor for NY Govenor Mario Cuomo. His brilliance came with the white board, where he always wrote Socialist Democrats in BLUE and the Republicans in RED, and not the other way around.
He was also a Roman Catholic. Do you remember him doing one story about the priests raping little boys? Once again, not so much an unbiased journalist.
By today’s standards, he was a saint!
This post is even more unhinged than normal. The only hoax in regards to the Russian hoax was that it was a hoax. The bulk of the allegations were true. The only one that was not proven or disproven was if Trump knew about it.
Hunter’s influence peddling allegations were a nothing burger. Influence peddling is not a crime, Hunter did not do in anyhow, and Trump is 1000x worse on this anyhow.
Terrific satire!!
ROFL
Bless your heart.
George Stephanopoulos (ABC) was/is as bad as Todd (NBC). –But George’s tactic was/is to cut off/interrupt a guest,- finish the sentence for the guest by inserting what GEORGE wanted to hear), -then quickly move to a new topic to avoid rebuttal. Anyone ever notice that?
I can’t say I have noticed since I can’t stomach him or the other Sunday morning surrogates for the DNC. I am pleased to read Prof. Turley’s well-deserved praise of the late MTP host, Tim Russert. He was the last intellectually honest host of a Sunday morning political talkshow.
It appears the media monolith and its leftward march has become broken. Chuck Todd now “makes choices”. Stephen Colbert has a 10 month fade to black as he has discovered the new economics require him to make money or not lose too much and that it pays to be funny. The “View” is on pause and hopefully soon slips beneath the waves of the Sea of Hate that they perpetuate, hopefully forever.
What will Washington D.C do now that ABC, NBC, and CBS, MsNBC are increasingly failing and can no longer protect their favored politicians from their own stupidity. (That includes Republicans and Democrats) .
Kaiser Permanente has paused “gender affirming care” and surgery as well as other medical centers who have suddenly decided to really rediscover biology and abnormal psychology and know the difference.
Obama is almost at a loss for words (when was the last time you saw that?)
Are we actually seeing a cultural shift? Time will tell.
Some things remain the same. Newsome still assaults the voters of California and they like it. Lindsey Graham is pontificating again just before he disappears back into hibernation after accomplishing nothing.
Hamas still wants to die and the Isreali’s are doing their best to accommodate them and Putin insists on eliminating a generation of Russian men and France is still France.
And Ozzy, Hulk, and Malcom Jamal Warner are all gone, unfortunately.
Chuck Tood, as Mr. Turley pointed out, one of the mainstream media’s many poster children for advocacy journalism, giving rise to the many alternatives such as Bari Weiss’ Free Press, Michael Shellenberger, Matt Taibi, John Solomon etc.
“Tim Russert was the ultimate professional and honest journalist.” Well said Professor Turley! I have not heard Tim Russert’s name in years but always enjoyed his honest approach to news. We lost a good one when Mr. Russert passed to soon.
What is amazing in the Age of Rage and the Democratic National Communist Journalist movement, is they think we actually believe anything that hide (as Todd suggests) or what they broadcast. It is now clear to 80% of the American Public is the attempt at manipulation the MSM put into public view………
Todd is wrong. Hunter Biden is the most effective spokesman out there for everything the Democrats truly believe. He should run for President, and I believe he is.
Elect Hunter 2028: Invade El Salvador and get our criminal illegal aliens back!
lol
They’re eating cats and dogs.
Not anymore – they are being deported.
Nice one John.
It seems reasonable that the goal of a newscaster, TV talking head, or podcaster would be to attract and hold as many listeners as possible. That sells the talker and her advertisers, who look to maximize their exposure to customers. Hunter Biden is a draw, as they say, in the business, and Todd knows this. He is upset by it, not because of any animus towards Hunter, but because he has been unable personally to capitalize on Hunter’s fame.
The public is intrigued by the extent of corruption in the Biden family, including that of Hunter. Like it or not, Todd, he’s a link to finding the truth in between his self-serving lies. Even a broken clock tells the correct time twice a day. Hunter is telling the story that Todd and his colleagues in the leftwing media covered up for years and years. That’s what bugs Todd, not the fact that Hunter has a bigger audience than Todd.
the people of Germany made Choices in the 1930’s they VOTED for Fascism…Democrats since 2008 have been VOTING for FASCISM!
Democrats as they were in the 1850-60’s…the ANTI-America Party!
The Democrats are FIGHTING A CIVIL WAR…siding with Illegals, Ukraine, criminals, drugs….AGAINST America!
We need to jail Democrats for the 10,000’s of CRIMES!
Giving one penny of Government to ILLEGALS…is CRIME.
Trump JAIL THESE PEOPLE….till they learn to LOVE America!
Currently the DEMOCRAT Party creates FAILURE…so more government money is required…which they then STEAL
Think USAID…or Camden NJ…60 years of democrats…High School Students 2% are proficient at reading, 0% at math.
Guaranteeing more failure…and more FREE STUFF…paid by the TAX PAYER!
Ukraine is a smart investment. It will become the moral, economic and cultural anchor of Eastern Europe after Russia crumbles. Lo-info types swallow Putin’s lame propaganda and approve his rancid dictatorship.
You know, it’s entirely possible to bemoan the sad state of affairs in Russia while still acknowledging that Ukraine is/was a corrupt mess. There’s a reason why a monetary parasite like Hunter Biden operated in Ukraine.
@Anonymous
Agreed. Ukraine is nothing to brag about, either. Zelensky is just as crooked as Putin. 🤷🏽♂️Europe is in a heap of trouble all around at present, and that’s just all there is to it.
Let’s not forget that Ukraine was and is *our* disaster. The country was well on its way to arriving at a reasonable accommodation of Russia’s legitimate concerns about NATO on its borders when we had Victoria Nuland foment the 2014 coup that prompted the Russian invasion.
The world is finally insisting that people identify with their biological gender . . . Perhaps people who, “self identify” as journalists should also be required to come clean?
So, we have here this tale of two classy characters.
Chuck: Totally biased with specious facts for proofs.
Hunter: Totally biased with f-bombs to accentuate.
It is important to remember all the progressively stupid people that insisted there was irrefutable evidence of Russia collusion. So still do.
Then you can understand chuck todd
There was proof, plenty of it. It is a historical fact that Russia provided assistance to the Trump 2016 campaign.
That would be a lie.
Thanks for playing
Hahahahahaha! Still beating that exceedingly dead horse are we??!!
“Still beating that exceedingly dead horse…”
https://farm5.static.flickr.com/4085/4995902337_9296c59a07_b.jpg
“There was proof, plenty of it. It is a historical fact that Russia provided assistance to the Trump 2016 campaign.”
Folks, just point and laugh.
Hahahahaha!!!!!
This is just the new troll tactic designed to derail the conversation: throw out any lie as a “fact” and everyone will trip over themselves to refute it. Just ignore it, or laugh.
“Just ignore it, or laugh.”
I would note that even the “laughing” draws attention to it…