Everything that is broken with the Beltway media in easy-to-swallow pill-form.
First, this headline in The New York Times magazine:
Chuck Todd Thinks It’s Important to Stay NeutralSecond, the interviewer is Ana Marie Cox, of Crooked Media/Pod Save
-- and The Latest Shiny, New, Coastal Liberal Media Thingie That Will Be The Solution To Everything That Is Wrong With Our Political Media.
Cool.
Cox: You’ve been moderating “Meet the Press” for just over three years. Do you think your job is the same today as it was, say, 10 months ago?Todd: What the audience expects hasn’t changed. People come to us for the same reasons: to be educated and informed. My biggest change is that I feel the need to reinforce the wall between the news media and the politicians. The wall has always been there, but sometimes there have been too many holes in it. One legitimate criticism of the political press over the last two decades has been the appearance of coziness between people in the media and the political elite. It’s a lot easier for me, say, as a sports fan...
Ruh roh.
Cox: O.K., but you did vote for someone. You have opinions. Is that the same as being biased?Todd: No. I don’t advocate — that’s the big difference. Now, that said, we’re all human beings...
Yes, we are indeed all human beings.
Except for Hugh Hewitt.
Who is, as has been long-established, a cyborg sent from the future to destroy America.
And who has also been (for reasons no one dares to explain to us rubes out here in flyover country) jumped up from Crackpot Wingnut Radio Drone to Chuck Todd's BFF and a regular in the rotation on "Meet the Press".
Just like Charlie Sykes!
And Rick Wilson. And Bill Kristol. And Joe Scarborough. And David Brooks. And Danielle Pletka (The American Enterprise Institute.) And Rich Lowry. And Peggy Noonan. And on and on and on. Each with long established records of being horribly fucking wrong about everything, and each repeatedly refurbished with unearned credibility by the mere fact that Chuck Todd keeps giving them a seat at the "Meet the Press" table along with his personal guarantee that no one will bring up the inconvenient fact of their ongoing horrible wrongness.
Because Chuck Todd just loves neutrality so god damn much!
Which brings us back to Hugh Hewitt, who was once again called up to the Big Kids Table on "Meet the Press".
Which, in turn brings us back to Ms. Cox's ruthless cross-examination laid-back, beanbag-chair rap session with Mr. Todd:
Cox: If someone is a bad character, what is your role as a journalist?Todd: You just point it out. At the end of the day, it’s still up to the voter, not me.
Sigh.
Cox: Do you think you did a good job covering the events of 2016?
Oh! Oh! Call on me! I know the answer to this one! Like most of the rest of his caste, Mr. Todd did a fucking godawful job --
.@chucktodd: #debatenight exposed Trump's lack of preparation, but Clinton seemed over-prepared at times.— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) September 27, 2016
-- covering the events of 2016.
Now, let's see how close I got to Mr. Todd's actual answer!
Todd: I’m going to give you a Donald Rumsfeld answer...
Sigh. Again.
Mr. Chuck Todd's searching and fearless moral inventory goes on like that for a bit longer, until it sorta just piddles out.
Mr. Chuck Todd's searching and fearless moral inventory goes on like that for a bit longer, until it sorta just piddles out.
You know, speaking only for myself, if enjoyed the kind of privilege and network of personal contacts that could swing me a sit-down with Mr. Toddler under a New York Times byline, I do not think I would use that opportunity to ask him "If you could be any kind of tree, what kind of tree would you be?"-level questions. After all, at least theoretically, with great mission statements come great responsibility. And if I am marketing myself as The New, Coastal Liberal Media Thingie That Will Be The Solution To Everything That Is Wrong With Our Political Media, then I believe it would have been my responsibility not to go all Uncle Fluffy (as happened both here and on-stage with Mr. Michael Steele last week) but instead use my privileged access to people like Chuck Todd to ask some very hard and pointed questions about how he and his caste have fucked the media up almost beyond redemption.
Sure Chuck Todd, and his people, and the corporate myrmidons who negotiate these little marriages-of-media-convenience would all probably never speak to me again. But by that time I would have already done the Ed Sullivan Show.
Sure Chuck Todd, and his people, and the corporate myrmidons who negotiate these little marriages-of-media-convenience would all probably never speak to me again. But by that time I would have already done the Ed Sullivan Show.
Behold, a Tip Jar!
10 comments:
It was handy, though, to have that reminder of what a horror show we could be living in if the chief occupant of the White House was over prepared. I mean, knowing stuff and all; just think where that could lead!
Hammer meet nail on head.
You know, speaking only for myself, if [I] enjoyed the kind of privilege and network of personal contacts that could swing me a sit-down with Mr. Toddler under a New York Times byline, I do not think I would use that opportunity to ask him "If you could be any kind of tree, what kind of tree would you be?"-level questions.
Nor would I. But it is precisely because we "believe it would have been [our] responsibility to ask Mr. Todd some very hard questions about how he and his caste have fucked the media up almost beyond redemption" that we would never have been allowed that sit-down even in the universe where we somehow got into the Big Club with that belief intact. (See also Mann and Ornstein.)
So did Toddles end up being an upgrade from Fluffy or a horrible downgrade? I'm finding kinda hard to tell.
-Doug in Oakland
Nevermind Kristal, Steele, Godawful Hewitt, DFB, etc. Why the fuck is anyone talking to MFing Rick Santorum about anything? Jesus Christ on a crutch, he's unspeakable AND despicable. His own constituents couldn't stomach him.
Let me do what the other side does for a moment.
4 military personnel were killed in Niger, and a couple wounded.
Why did Trump and Tillerson send them to their deaths?
Why does Trump hate the military so much that he sends them to their deaths and DID NOTHING.
They all using personal email. Lock them UP !!!
I now return to the outer limits of both sider.
Thank God St. Ronnie got rid of that awful Fairness Doctrine so they don't have to have any icky liberals on.
Could you imagine how rude and impolite they would be ?!
Relative to Robert, I saw that about our half-dozen casualties in Niger. I also take your point about the 4 whom were killed in Libya on Clinton's "watch", as SecState. Which leads me to remind other posters here about the 4500 of our troops who've died in "Operation Enduring Clusterfuck" (Which term..I'm not sure, but might have been another good zinger from Driftglass, years back…) as well as the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who died, and ARE dying, in the worst and most dishonest foreign policy decision in our history. I would say that 90% of the carnage and chaos that is going on in the middle east just now, is a direct result of that.
Surely it's not a lick amiss to keep track of that ongoing misery and it's enablers?
Those 21 democratic senators and Lincoln Chafee, whom had the intelligence and courage to vote "no" on the War Authorization vote, at a time when "Let's go kill some rag heads!" was writ neon-sign large in the amurkan conscience ought to be remembered with every anniversary of the vote.
Maybe it's finally time for an episode of The New, Coastal Liberal Media Thingie That Will Be The Solution To Everything That Is Wrong With Our Political Media in which the uncomfortable conversation is between Liberals-Who-Have-To-Worry-About-Their-Careers-And-Not-Much-Else and Liberals-With-No-Careers-Who-Have-To-Worry-About-Everything-Else?
That is the actual messy collision that will defeat Trump and start peeling back 30 years of Republic political fuckery. It is also probably the actual divide in the Democratic Party and not the Hillary/Bernie thing.
Expecting the gaggle of conservative hacks and media careerists (seriously, has the signature on Steele, Wilson, Lowry, Pletka, Brooks, paychecks changed since November? my money is absolutely not) and the Chuck Todd's to do anything for Democrats is beyond naïve.
I look forward to the messy collision in 2018, when I think a substantial number of people who helped install the political Edsel that we now have in the White House, will quietly admit what a rolling POS they voted for, and help us start the salvage operation. The GOP are already shitting their collective trou at the thought of running with Trump hanging around their necks.
Corker's (R-Tennessee!) recent description of the White House as an "Adult Day Care Center", is, I think, only the tip of the iceberg. Even though he's not running again, getting stuff like that out front will help. Over the next year, it'll be fun to watch McConnell and Ryan, etc., turd-polishing themselves cross-eyed.
I mean, what are they going to brag about?
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