Chuck Todd used his Meet the Press program Sunday on NBC to attack “fake news” — and blamed Russian disinformation, rather than shoddy journalism, for convincing Americans not to trust the mainstream media.
His show, featuring guests whom he described “top players in journalism, diplomacy and technology,” claimed that “Russian tactics” of “truth manipulation” have migrated right here to the United States.”
Todd’s primary culprit: the Trump administration, which he noted on day one pushed “an easily disprovable lie about his inaugural crowd size.”
He ignored the other “day one” lie: that Trump was colluding with Russia, a lie the media pushed relentlessly.
Todd’s first guest was New York Times executive editor Dean Baquet, who admitted earlier this year that his newsroom had been built around the Russia story for two years.
Todd did not ask Banquet about that: instead, he asked Baquet about whether “the truth itself is on trial,” an idea with which Baquet enthusiastically agreed.
FAA ground stop timeline: Weekend chaos grounds planes and postpones games
North Korean Hackers Hijacked US Employee Webcams to Steal Hundreds of Millions – The FBI Just Put a Stop to It
Duffy: Investigators examining 2 routers after nationwide FAA ground stop, no signs of foreign cyberattack
These AI Startups Want To Predict Your Moves, Speak For The Dead — And ‘Take Your Jobs’
Blue-Collar Electrician Sues Soros-Linked NGOs and Activists for Allegedly Sabotaging Data Center Jobs and Costing Him Work
Pennypinching Over Student Lives? Fiery Crash Killed 15-Year-Old – Lawsuit Says School Ignored Safety Warnings to Score ‘Very Cheap’ Vans
Buttigieg takes swipe at Trump administration amid FAA flight chaos
NYC DSA urges AOC to run for president while planning to take over City Council
Congress’ incoming wealthiest member vows to crack down on politicians getting rich in office
Virginia parents charged after house party draws hundreds of teens, fireworks and alleged underage drinking
OnlyFans model Courtney Clenney moved to new prison, listed as minimum custody inmate: records
Murders plunge in US cities as Americans reclaim their streets from thugs
Trump’s top officials retreat behind military gates as ex-FBI deputy points to what’s fueling threats
Dem Senator Who Called for RFK Jr to ‘Resign or Be Fired’ Is Backed By Big Pharma
Inside Senate GOP’s tense post-election reckoning as Thune clashes with Republican critics
Next, Todd turned to Martin Baron, the executive editor of the Washington Post — another paper that pushed the Russia collusion hoax, and which also led the way in trying to debunk Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA)’s effort, recently vindicated, to expose the truth about the FBI’s abuse of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) courts.
Baron complained: “We live in an environment where people are able to spread crazy conspiracy theories and absolute falsehoods and lies.” He blamed social media — not the conspiracy theories validated by his own paper.
Baron also griped that Americans had become “numb” to the supposedly “15,000 false or misleading claims” by the president that his paper has been tracking. Not only are many of those supposedly false “claims” actually true, or defensible differences of opinion, but the Post is seemingly numb to the major anti-Trump lies it has pushed.
Todd asked Baquet if journalists would have to “market” the idea that they are there to tell the truth — in the course of continuing to push the idea that Russian propaganda, not media malpractice, is to blame to public mistrust.
Baquet said that he and Baron needed to continue “very aggressively defending our institutions, defending the truth and defending our important role in democracy.”
Again, no mention of the corrosive effect that the Russia hoax has had on our democracy — or the role that the media has played in the ongoing impeachment debacle over Ukraine, including the Post‘s own misreporting of leaked testimony from closed-door hearings in the House Intelligence Committee.
Todd would not admit that the media’s leading institutions had failed by their own standards — only that they might be “culturally” out of touch with the rest of America.
FAA ground stop timeline: Weekend chaos grounds planes and postpones games
North Korean Hackers Hijacked US Employee Webcams to Steal Hundreds of Millions – The FBI Just Put a Stop to It
Duffy: Investigators examining 2 routers after nationwide FAA ground stop, no signs of foreign cyberattack
These AI Startups Want To Predict Your Moves, Speak For The Dead — And ‘Take Your Jobs’
Blue-Collar Electrician Sues Soros-Linked NGOs and Activists for Allegedly Sabotaging Data Center Jobs and Costing Him Work
Pennypinching Over Student Lives? Fiery Crash Killed 15-Year-Old – Lawsuit Says School Ignored Safety Warnings to Score ‘Very Cheap’ Vans
Buttigieg takes swipe at Trump administration amid FAA flight chaos
NYC DSA urges AOC to run for president while planning to take over City Council
Congress’ incoming wealthiest member vows to crack down on politicians getting rich in office
Virginia parents charged after house party draws hundreds of teens, fireworks and alleged underage drinking
OnlyFans model Courtney Clenney moved to new prison, listed as minimum custody inmate: records
Murders plunge in US cities as Americans reclaim their streets from thugs
Trump’s top officials retreat behind military gates as ex-FBI deputy points to what’s fueling threats
Dem Senator Who Called for RFK Jr to ‘Resign or Be Fired’ Is Backed By Big Pharma
Inside Senate GOP’s tense post-election reckoning as Thune clashes with Republican critics
“I think we cannot dismiss everybody who supported Donald Trump,” Baquet offered, somewhat generously.
The rest of the program was devoted to the idea that Russian disinformation, and distrust of the media spread by Trump and the Republicans, was to blame for declining public confidence in journalism.
Not once did Todd look at the media’s role in pushing conspiracy theories in a barely-disguised effort to take down the president.
Story cited here.
