Saturday, January 2, 2021

QOTD -- On Chuck Todd, Willful Disinformer

 

"... Chuck Todd has essentially said that on the right there is an incentive structure that compels Republican office holders to use their time on Meet the Press for the spread of disinformation. So do you keep inviting them on air to do just that? If so, then you break faith with the audience and create a massive problem in real time fact-checking. If not, then you just broke the show in half.  

"There is simply nothing in the playbook at Meet the Press that tells the producers what to do in this situation. As I have tried to show, they didn’t arrive here through acts of naiveté, but by willful blindness, malpractice among the experts in charge, an insider’s mentality, a listening breakdown, a failure of imagination, and sheer disbelief that the world could have changed so much upon people paid so well to understand it."  -- NYU journalism professor Jay Rosen, focusing on NBC/ MSNBC's Chuck "Not My Job" Todd's role in catapulting Republican propaganda through hosting Meet the Press and elsewhere.  In an interview with Rolling Stone, Todd pleaded to being "naive" about Republican "alternate facts" and disinformation, though for years he has regularly booked Republican liars and rarely pushed back on them.  That Todd continues to be disingenuous about his role as an enabler of Republican "alternate facts," look no further than who he's giving valuable air time this Sunday on MTP -- Dumbest Senator Ron "Tiny" Johnson (R- Sanitarium), a frequent guest, dedicated Trumpist, conspiracy peddler, and all- around dolt:

 

 

Check out the rest of Rosen's article for more details on Todd's willful blindness.

BONUS: