Thursday, August 14, 2014

Meet the Press, Episode IV: A New Host


It is a period of civil war at the Mouse Circus.
Upstart copycats, striking
from a both sides of the dial, have won
their first ratings victory against
the arteriosclerotic Meet the Press 

During the battle, competing networks
managed to steal secret
plans to the Meet the Press' secret weapon:
"BOTH SIDES DO IT" -- 
an impregnable fortress of 
Beltway Conventional Wisdom,
with enough power
to destroy an entire country....

From Politico:
Chuck Todd to replace David Gregory on 'Meet The Press'

By DYLAN BYERS

Chuck Todd, the NBC News chief White House correspondent and political director, will replace David Gregory as moderator of "Meet The Press," network sources confirmed early Thursday afternoon in the wake of a CNN report.
...

In Todd, NBC News is hoping it can restore the show with the passion and insider credibility it had under Tim Russert, Gregory's predecessor and Todd's mentor. Todd, who rose to fame as editor in chief of The Hotline, is a political obsessive and extremely knowledgable about all manner of politics and policy matters.

Gregory, by contrast, did not seem very engaged with politics and policy, the bread and butter of Sunday public affairs programming. He was also widely disliked within the organization, and his ambition and vanity rubbed important colleagues at NBC the wrong way. Under his watch, NBC’s once-dominant Sunday show fell to the bottom of the ratings race...
From CNN:
"Meet the Press:" Gregory out, Todd in
By Brian Stelter  @brianstelter August 14, 2014: 1:32 PM ET

NBC will name Chuck Todd the new host of "Meet the Press" as soon as Thursday afternoon, according to people with direct knowledge of the network's plans.

The sources confirmed widespread speculation that David Gregory, who moderated the show for the past six years, will be replaced by Todd, and is expected to leave NBC.

The people spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment on the record. One said that the transition will be swift -- so swift that Gregory will not even host "Meet the Press" this weekend.
...
From driftglass:

Dear Mr. Ailes,

Thank you so much for the roses and lovely card! 
The people here continue to be mean to me and refuse to believe I am Superman.
Enclosed you will find a copy of my resume along with personal references from Rich Lowrey, John McCain and Karl Rove...

14 comments:

Kathleen said...

A tad off topic, but Dylan Byers wrote in Politico that the two reporters who were arrested in Ferguson were not heroes - they were just "doing their jobs". Of course being handcuffed and having your head slammed into a glass window or soft drink dispenser is nothing compared to making sure every strand of blown dry hair is moussed just right, the shadows under your eyes are erased, your access to the last cocktail weenie in Sally Quinn's chafing dish is unimpeded, and your cool guy libertarian curious hip brand is assured because Rand Paul texted you even though you're one of those MSNBC "liberals". Now that's real journamalism! Braving physical danger to report real stuff - meh. Also, too, Chuckles Toddler has real passion for shit that's meaningless to real people. Priorities, sheeple!

RoninMichigan said...

Damn! And I was so sure it would be Lil Luke.

gratuitous said...

Ah, our man Chuck Todd. Protegé of Tim "Off the Record" Russert. NOW we'll see some real journalism on Meet the Press, boy.

Kathleen said...

Again, your Chucky photo shop is pitch perfect. It reminds me of a wannabe preppy Chucky doll.

bowtiejack said...

Kathleen

It turns out Ferguson is about 20,000 people, 2/3rds of whom are black.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferguson,_Missouri

And yet the police force is very predominantly white. Funny how that works.

The town I grew up in was about the same size, so I'm sure the dynamics of small town bullshit, nepotism, etc are pretty much the same.
I would also bet they have a rigorous screening process for law enforcement hiring and state of the art training (see "nepotism, bullshit,etc" supra).
We do know they have state of the art military jungle camo ("hey, it's a jungle out there"), fire power, and hardware.
After all, Ferguson might be an Al Qaeda target and they have to be ready.

Kaye said...

I'm actually slightly optimistic - David Gregory was just so damn awful that a used piece of gum would be better. But I like Chuck Todd and I have seen him on his show on MSNBC push back on right wing talking points, so there's that.

Cirze said...

And your infamous photoshops had nothing to do with this choice.

Kudos!

Robt said...

CCC;
Daddy Murdock, Murdock Jr., R Ailes

Everything worked as planned. As you wished I dragged down Meet the Press's ratings as much as I could. Injecting the conservative FOX News style as much as possible to get your message out.
many people now feel all media is the same just like politicians.
Please let Chares and David Koch that the Heritage Foundation overwhelming input was so very vital. I may not have been able to do it without them.
Looking forward to our meeting with Americans for Prosperity.
I have some great ideas I believe you wil like that I can sell. From the "everybody does it" network. Oops, you know I meant the "Fair and Balanced Network".
I hope Megan doesn't mind moving to another time slot too much.
After all,It was not Megan that danced with Karl Rove and provided all those distraction questions to GW and Dick in all those White House Press Conferences. Even when Tony Snow needed an answer escape, I was there for all of us.. Therefore, Megan should understand who is the star and who gets what time slot..
PS
It feels good coming home. Chuck Todd should be coming right behind me.
Yours truly, David G.

Roy Ferguson said...

Gregory rarely could detect a guest's pants on fire. Will Todd also let undocumented bombast go unchallenged? Let's watch closely.

Dan Hagen said...

I am always reminded that "Todd" is close to the German for "death," as in the death of professional journalism and truth-seeking.

Kathleen said...

@bowtiejack
Cincinnati had a similar situation in 2001 when a Cincinnati policeman shot and killed Timothy Thomas,a young, unarmed African American male. The police department had a long history of targeting and mistreating African Americans and that incident prompted what the media referred to as a "riot" (I won't digress into a discussion of my disagreement about use of term "riot"). While some police were heavy handed in treatment of protesters, they did not dress like combat troops and the level of violent police action was not as extreme as what we saw in Ferguson (this incident took place prior to 9-11 so high tech combat toys had not yet been procured by local law enforcement agencies). My perception was supported by a reporter Greg Korte who tweeted that he had covered the riots in Cincinnati but they were nothing like what he was seeing in Ferguson. Cincinnati then initiated the community policing program, which has greatly improved relations with the AA community; CNN interviewed our police chief, who is going to Ferguson as an adviser. BTW, I thought the Today Show actually did an excellent job of reporting latest developments in Ferguson this morning.

Pinkamena said...

@Dan Hagen
Komm, schamlos Todd.

@Roy Ferguson
I wish Blogger had some kind of rating system for comments because I wish to promote the phrase "undocumented bombast".

Equus said...

I have to ask: Is the any chance that NBC recognizes that the reason why people don't watch MTP anymore is because it is a weekly "Both sides do it" edition of Kabuki theater?

I am asking in hopes they might realize this and say "maybe we should create some must-see-TV by telling the truth and pissing off the GOP in the process because this both sides do it meme did not work":

I know I am deluded to think this but where else can they go?

jim said...

"I have altered the spin. Pray that I do not alter it further."

- Darth Turness