It Chuck Todd Had Said This In 1988, I Would Have Been Impressed

I'm convinced this whole anti-media deal is designed to condition his base so when more shoes drop, they'll believe it's all fake.

— Steve Schale (@steveschale) July 12, 2017

This is my great fear. That this is somehow a strategy. It's beyond cynical https://t.co/WYxVDri93Z

— Chuck Todd (@chucktodd) July 12, 2017

Of course it would be unfair to have expected Mr. Todd (who was only two at the time) to have come out strong against the Nixon Administration's full-frontal assault on the "nattering nabobs of negativism" (aka the free press), but what about 20 years later?  In, say, 1990?

Would it have been unfair to ask 22 year old political junkie Chuck Todd to bother to notice that the Right was already aggressively entombing itself under layer upon layer of bullshit, racism and conspiracy mongering?  The same year that a notorious lying grifter and adulterer named Newt Fucking Gingrich set up GOPAC to teach Republicans how to lie on an industrial scale?

Or in 1994, when the Republican's Pretty Hate Machine decided to set up shop on Vince Foster's grave as part of their plan to overthrow a popular sitting president?

Or in 1996.

Hell, if Todd had begun to notice the GOP's War of Reality in 1998, I'd have definitely credited him for being not-very-bright-but-willing-to-learn.

Or in 2000.

Or in 2002.

Or in 2004.

Or in 2006.

Or if, in 2009, he'd spoken up with even a tepid suggestion that, say, featuring a notorious lying grifter and adulterer named Newt Fucking Gingrich as the most frequent guest on "Meet The Press" was taking this whole "journalism" thing in the wrong direction?  Well if he'd done that, I would at least have acknowledged that Mr. Todd was aware of what "journalism" was and what it was supposed to do.

And if at any point in the past eight years he would have indicated that he noticed how the leading lights of his profession were trashing their professional reputations by using their First Amendment privileges to appease the wingnuts by doing  thinks like publicly wiping Newt Fucking Gingrich's ass over and over and over and over again?  Well, I would have said, "Sure, there are household appliances that are smarter that ol' Chuck, but you have to admit that he's finally acquired the same object permanence skill level as a 9-month-old baby." 

But oopsis, it's already 2014 and Mr. Todd is now hosting "Meet The Press"!  And Chuck has definitely learned how to play the Beltway game of ignoring the terrifying direction in which GOP was now racing at breakneck speed.  In fact, were he is explaining why he does not challenge guests when he knows they are lying to his face:

And by 2015 Mr. Todd had burnished his wingnut-appeaser cred even further by getting himself  new right wing crackpot BFF named Hugh Hewitt!  I wonder what that wacky duo will get up to!

So now we arrive in the year of Our Lord 2017, Mr. Todd is suddenly gripped by a sneaking suspicion that, just maybe, those darn Republicans might be tangled up in some kind of plot to discredit his noble profession of journalism so that they can "steal a hot stove and then come back for the smoke” as the kids used to say.

Journalism.  Boy.  I don't know.