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dajoki

(10,678 posts)
Thu Jan 2, 2020, 11:54 AM Jan 2020

Chuck Todd now realizes he's being used for propaganda. The real question is what happens next

Chuck Todd now realizes he's being used for propaganda. The real question is what happens next
https://m.dailykos.com/stories/2020/1/1/1908612/-Chuck-Todd-now-realizes-he-s-being-used-for-propaganda-The-real-question-is-what-happens-next?detail=emaildkre

At the website PressThink, Jay Rosen had a post-Christmas examination of Meet The Press host Chuck Todd's startling new realization that, golly gee, it turns out that Republicans have been intentionally using his show and others to spread false information. Yes, Todd just realized that now. Yes, he is one of the top political "minds" in Washington, which ought to clarify just how boned we all are, as the nation's political press continues to somehow degrade into something even worse and more vapid than the chummy gullibles that brought us the Iraq War.

I don't have much to add to Rosen's diagnosis, so go read that, but here's a key point.
http://pressthink.org/2019/12/the-christmas-eve-confessions-of-chuck-todd/

So what will they do now? My answer: they have no earthly idea. This is what I mean by an epistemological crisis. 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

Whether we truly believe that Todd or any of the other hosts on any of the other shows have been previously mystified as to why Kellyanne Conway, Ted Cruz, the phalanx of House Republican Trump defenders, Trump himself, or the rest of the Republican Party moved into overt disinformation and propagandizing, with the networks' willing help, is irrelevant. We have our suspicions, but it is irrelevant. The pertinent question is what happens to Meet the Press now that its host has confirmed, in his own mind and to the public, that Republican guests have been intentionally lying to the American public, relying on network and journalistic conventions to broadcast those lies with little or no pushback.

As Todd himself realizes (just now, allegedly), his show's current format rewards lying over honest behavior. So what now?

There are a few possibilities, and all of them would require an integrity among the Sunday shows that I don't think any of the Sunday shows have, or want. First, pervasive liars such as Conway and the vaporous White House press secretary do not need to be on the airwaves at all: There is no information they can convey to guests that cannot be accessed elsewhere and more accurately, and both have a proven record of repeatedly using media as disinformation outlets.

/snip/

22 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Chuck Todd now realizes he's being used for propaganda. The real question is what happens next (Original Post) dajoki Jan 2020 OP
Chuck Todd is no unwitting victim dalton99a Jan 2020 #1
Truly if he were to get his reality on Chuck would lose R guests StClone Jan 2020 #17
Imagine the fool who thought Chuck was qualified to be ... GeorgeGist Jan 2020 #2
He's qualified for the job he's doing... JHB Jan 2020 #8
We have to keep remembering that lunatica Jan 2020 #9
He should resign for being too JenniferJuniper Jan 2020 #3
He challenged Conway on "alternative facts" wryter2000 Jan 2020 #4
He did that with the ghoul also... dajoki Jan 2020 #14
I know it costs more money to do actual Journalism TheRealNorth Jan 2020 #5
I never saw him as fair journalist BlueJac Jan 2020 #6
Blaming both sides always exonerates the Republicans too. lunatica Jan 2020 #11
What happens now? The same thing that always happens... JHB Jan 2020 #7
You may have uncovered Wellstone ruled Jan 2020 #10
He's one of those people who believes he's smarter than lunatica Jan 2020 #12
Pompous he is, Wellstone ruled Jan 2020 #13
He is the King of Bothsiderism. A walking mouthpiece for the Reich Wing. kairos12 Jan 2020 #15
His famous words after letting a Republican lie and spread falsehoods........ Fla Dem Jan 2020 #16
+1. He's not fooling anyone except the cult dalton99a Jan 2020 #18
it would be nice... stillcool Jan 2020 #19
Todd only realizes it after he became the face of chief fake news promoter in most websites. TheBlackAdder Jan 2020 #20
Well, he now has a choice Leith Jan 2020 #21
When did MTP ever have a reasonably fair moderator? YOHABLO Jan 2020 #22

StClone

(11,688 posts)
17. Truly if he were to get his reality on Chuck would lose R guests
Thu Jan 2, 2020, 03:01 PM
Jan 2020

Most of them. He wouldn't have a show. He feigns offense then continues with the show.

JHB

(37,163 posts)
8. He's qualified for the job he's doing...
Thu Jan 2, 2020, 01:22 PM
Jan 2020

It's a different job from the one implied by his titles and job descriptions, but clearly his employer hasn't found fault with his performance.

lunatica

(53,410 posts)
9. We have to keep remembering that
Thu Jan 2, 2020, 01:27 PM
Jan 2020

So thanks for the reminder.

It’s like forgetting that photographs aren’t just about what you see in them. There’s always a photographer making the human decision to take them.

JenniferJuniper

(4,515 posts)
3. He should resign for being too
Thu Jan 2, 2020, 12:24 PM
Jan 2020

stupid to handle job.

But he won't and it will be more of the same going forward.

TheRealNorth

(9,500 posts)
5. I know it costs more money to do actual Journalism
Thu Jan 2, 2020, 12:38 PM
Jan 2020

But maybe pair investigative journalism with the panel. That way, the networks can frame what "is true" on whatever issue is going to be discussed.

BlueJac

(7,838 posts)
6. I never saw him as fair journalist
Thu Jan 2, 2020, 01:09 PM
Jan 2020

It is passed time he be replaced, I was never a fan of his! Just another Republican trying to blame both sides for the mess we are in. What a fool!

lunatica

(53,410 posts)
11. Blaming both sides always exonerates the Republicans too.
Thu Jan 2, 2020, 01:29 PM
Jan 2020

The blame just rests on the Democrats, even if only by implication.

JHB

(37,163 posts)
7. What happens now? The same thing that always happens...
Thu Jan 2, 2020, 01:16 PM
Jan 2020

...nothing. He's made his pro-forma mea culpa as part of hyping a new project. Now he's free to go on doing the same "naive" things, and keep collecting his big paycheck.

 

Wellstone ruled

(34,661 posts)
10. You may have uncovered
Thu Jan 2, 2020, 01:27 PM
Jan 2020

the real story. Chuckie's Ego was just exposed. Will he change to a Journalist Model,he is incapable of that. He is a tool of the Corporate Media Empire and as long as he gets the big payday,F the rubes.

lunatica

(53,410 posts)
12. He's one of those people who believes he's smarter than
Thu Jan 2, 2020, 01:39 PM
Jan 2020

the audience. He’s enamored of his own so called cleverness and thinks we’re all fooled because he actually sees the emperor’s fine clothing. And he’s a little Napoleonic strutter too. Pompous.

I’m sure he thinks, just like Trump, that we can’t see right throughout his thinning hair.

 

Wellstone ruled

(34,661 posts)
13. Pompous he is,
Thu Jan 2, 2020, 01:46 PM
Jan 2020

and if one doubts,ask him,and he will tell you he is the best thing since sliced Bread.

kairos12

(12,882 posts)
15. He is the King of Bothsiderism. A walking mouthpiece for the Reich Wing.
Thu Jan 2, 2020, 02:53 PM
Jan 2020

He is beyond disgusting.

He learned from Russert who got used and abused by Cheney.

Matthews also fell for Shrub's codpiece strut on that carrier.

None of them have any credibility.

Fla Dem

(23,785 posts)
16. His famous words after letting a Republican lie and spread falsehoods........
Thu Jan 2, 2020, 03:01 PM
Jan 2020

"Well, we'll have to leave it there." No rebuttal, just ending the interview on a lie.

stillcool

(32,626 posts)
19. it would be nice...
Thu Jan 2, 2020, 03:28 PM
Jan 2020

to believe that Chuck was duped, into being a vessel of the GOP. Unfortunately, by his own inflections, how he, all by himself nuances a story, he has revealed himself, over, and over, and over. Don't know why he's trying to do a remake now. That's probably the only story, to the story.

TheBlackAdder

(28,230 posts)
20. Todd only realizes it after he became the face of chief fake news promoter in most websites.
Thu Jan 2, 2020, 03:35 PM
Jan 2020

.

He did not come to this on his own volition, he must have been pressured to change his tune.

.

Leith

(7,813 posts)
21. Well, he now has a choice
Thu Jan 2, 2020, 03:41 PM
Jan 2020

a. Keep doing the same. Consequence: he is now a witting dupe.

b. Hold rethug feet to a newly kindled fire. Consequence: fewer rethug guests (this one is okay by me because he has years of catching up to do with Democratic guests).

c. Quit in disgrace and fade away forever. Consequence: he will be replaced by another rethug dupe and nothing will change.


He will probably choose (a) and claim that he is now "knowingly nonpartisan."

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