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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsEric Boehlert: Chuck Todd and the myth of Liberal Media Bias
https://pressrun.media/p/chuck-todd-and-the-myth-of-liberalChuck Todd and the myth of Liberal Media Bias
GOP bullying works
Eric Boehlert
1 hr ago
snip//
The good news is that every 12 or 24 months Todd emerges and makes these types of welcomed, clear-eyed pronouncements about the press, calling out right-wing lies, and urging his colleagues to do better in fighting against dishonest GOP attacks.
The bad news is Todd then goes back to work at NBC and rarely follows his own advice. He makes no structural changes to the programs he oversees to make sure they dont fall prey to GOP tactics. Its easy to view his pronouncements as performative, directed at those who are concerned about journalism and about the state of our democracy in the face of a Republican Party that broke its pact with common sense and instead now worships at the alter of a Mar-a-Lago retiree.
Todd refuses to follow his own lead and produce consistently clear, aggressive journalism, while not fretting about potential GOP pushback.
A quick example.
During Trumps second impeachment trial, Todd introduced a Meet The Press segment in which voters from a toss-up district in Michigan were interviewed about the House proceedings. Touted as a way to take the temperature of everyday voters outside of the "Beltway," the sit-down with six voters from Kent County, Michigan, offered a chance to hear if heartland denizens "cared" about impeachment. Except there was a problem: Every voter interviewed was a Republican, and every voter interviewed opposed impeachment. ("I dont even care. It's just noise."
This makes no sense. If you wanted anecdotal evidence of the nations response to impeachment, youd interview a wide cross-section of voters. Instead, Todd only talked to Republicans even though the Michigan district he focused on is evenly split among Democrats and Republicans. What would explain this type of illogical press behavior other than a fear of upsetting conservatives of being tagged with the Liberal Media Bias charge?
Todd lamented to The Verge that the press has fallen into a both sides trope, where journalists strain to place blame on Republicans and Democrats even when it should not be distributed that way. Yet earlier this year, after another deadly gun rampage in America, and after the Republican Party once again categorically refused to support any possible gun safety legislation, Todd went on Meet the Press and blamed Congress Both Sides for not doing anything to stop the deadly plague.
snip//
Still, the Liberal Media Bias myth persists and remains a driving engine of the conservative movement. Its arguably more potent today because Trump made it a centerpiece of his political appeal to hate the press. It would be helpful if journalists like Chuck Todd actually took their own advice and combated the fiction head on.
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Eric Boehlert: Chuck Todd and the myth of Liberal Media Bias (Original Post)
babylonsister
Jul 2021
OP
CrispyQ
(36,424 posts)1. There is a very clear & simple way to counter the Liberal Media Bias charge:
"The media is only as liberal as the conservative corporations that own it." ~bumper sticker
ShazamIam
(2,564 posts)2. Another successful, "big lie," the MSM is liberal.
All while the MSM pushed conservative talking points about crime, women's and minority rights, and religion.
twodogsbarking
(9,680 posts)3. Liberal is middle to me.
Don't tell anyone.
LT Barclay
(2,594 posts)4. I made a wingnut sputter when I told him I don't watch
MSNBC because it is too conservative.
Champp
(2,114 posts)5. Corporate Media Bias is what we have
Money, money, money - makes Corporate Media go round. Not meekly subservient to that fact? You ain't getting hired to spew your heresy.
Paladin
(28,243 posts)6. "Both Sides" Todd is a piss-poor excuse for a journalist.
MSNBC should have canned him, years ago.