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.
Pope Backfire: Trump’s Support Among Catholics Went Up After Trump Fired Back at Pope Leo
Ilhan Omar Husband’s Winery Suspiciously Shutters After Investigation Is Launched Into Her Finances
FLASHBACK: Obama tried to make Trump a punchline at 2011 dinner before rise stunned Washington
Trump cancels Witkoff and Kushner’s trip to Pakistan for Iran negotiations
U.S. Government Monitors as British Authorities Prosecute Christian Pastor Who Quoted John 3:16
Fetterman backs Wicker’s call to restart attacks in Iran
Trump to headline 2026 White House Correspondents’ Dinner for the first time as president
Rat Poison Found in Baby Food Jars Leads to Total Recall
Barricaded suspect faces murder charges after 2 doctoral students vanished from campus, 1 body remains missing
Father recalls horror after son murdered his 5 grandchildren: ‘I knew he killed them’
My Brother’s Teacher Told Him to ‘Draw What Brings You Most Joy’: Since His Answer Was the Cross, It Wasn’t Allowed
Parents in Bronx neighborhood plead for NYPD guard as Mamdani cuts cops, halts hires: ‘Horrible situation’
British Christian Nurse Accused of ‘Misgendering’ a Patient Cleared of Consequences
Radical activist groups circle wagons around Southern Poverty Law Center amid federal charges
US turns to drones after retiring minesweepers to reopen Strait of Hormuz amid Iran crisis
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.
Pope Backfire: Trump’s Support Among Catholics Went Up After Trump Fired Back at Pope Leo
Ilhan Omar Husband’s Winery Suspiciously Shutters After Investigation Is Launched Into Her Finances
FLASHBACK: Obama tried to make Trump a punchline at 2011 dinner before rise stunned Washington
Trump cancels Witkoff and Kushner’s trip to Pakistan for Iran negotiations
U.S. Government Monitors as British Authorities Prosecute Christian Pastor Who Quoted John 3:16
Fetterman backs Wicker’s call to restart attacks in Iran
Trump to headline 2026 White House Correspondents’ Dinner for the first time as president
Rat Poison Found in Baby Food Jars Leads to Total Recall
Barricaded suspect faces murder charges after 2 doctoral students vanished from campus, 1 body remains missing
Father recalls horror after son murdered his 5 grandchildren: ‘I knew he killed them’
My Brother’s Teacher Told Him to ‘Draw What Brings You Most Joy’: Since His Answer Was the Cross, It Wasn’t Allowed
Parents in Bronx neighborhood plead for NYPD guard as Mamdani cuts cops, halts hires: ‘Horrible situation’
British Christian Nurse Accused of ‘Misgendering’ a Patient Cleared of Consequences
Radical activist groups circle wagons around Southern Poverty Law Center amid federal charges
US turns to drones after retiring minesweepers to reopen Strait of Hormuz amid Iran crisis
“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.
