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.
Karoline Leavitt reveals next role after leaving White House press secretary post
Alaska Republicans scramble to educate voters on suspected Dem plant as ‘ballot fatigue’ threatens race
Ford Adds Thousands of Jobs in United States as Move Away from China Continues
Report: Meghan and Harry’s Brazen Attempts – and Embarrassing Rejections – at Becoming US Political Operators
Nevada brush fire spreads to 10,500 acres as governor declares state of emergency
Christian Club Files Lawsuit After School District Blocks Volunteer Mentors
White House revs up ‘iconic’ Freedom 250 race as IndyCars prepare to unleash American muscle on DC streets
African Witchcraft, Blackmail, and American Boys: How Nigerians 6,000 Miles Away Are Killing US Teens
Florida couple allegedly held four children in tractor-trailer cab for nearly seven years
‘Barbaric’ abortion provision fuels Christian push to crack down on Dem governor
Mixed support from black voters threatens el Sayed’s Michigan Senate hopes
Trump plays nuclear poker with Kim Jong Un — but who holds the cards?
DOJ silence in major gun cases tests Second Amendment advocates’ trust in Trump
Fetterman aligns with Trump on AI push, warns China benefits from US ‘overreaction’
Bear crashes couple’s anniversary getaway, rummages through Tennessee tea shop before jumping on counter
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.
Karoline Leavitt reveals next role after leaving White House press secretary post
Alaska Republicans scramble to educate voters on suspected Dem plant as ‘ballot fatigue’ threatens race
Ford Adds Thousands of Jobs in United States as Move Away from China Continues
Report: Meghan and Harry’s Brazen Attempts – and Embarrassing Rejections – at Becoming US Political Operators
Nevada brush fire spreads to 10,500 acres as governor declares state of emergency
Christian Club Files Lawsuit After School District Blocks Volunteer Mentors
White House revs up ‘iconic’ Freedom 250 race as IndyCars prepare to unleash American muscle on DC streets
African Witchcraft, Blackmail, and American Boys: How Nigerians 6,000 Miles Away Are Killing US Teens
Florida couple allegedly held four children in tractor-trailer cab for nearly seven years
‘Barbaric’ abortion provision fuels Christian push to crack down on Dem governor
Mixed support from black voters threatens el Sayed’s Michigan Senate hopes
Trump plays nuclear poker with Kim Jong Un — but who holds the cards?
DOJ silence in major gun cases tests Second Amendment advocates’ trust in Trump
Fetterman aligns with Trump on AI push, warns China benefits from US ‘overreaction’
Bear crashes couple’s anniversary getaway, rummages through Tennessee tea shop before jumping on counter
“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.
