Chuck Todd Defends Not Challenging Republican Lies On Meet The Press

[JDPriestly]

52. What Chuck Todd does not understand is that if you present falsehood as truth, people eventually

recognize and reject the deception you are allowing to be perpetrated. The intelligent stop trusting you.

Jon Stewart reveals the truth by exaggerating falsehoods in such an obvious manner that viewers see the deception (unless they are really stupid, and many conservatives are really stupid).

Moliere's comic shtick was to, for example, portray such an extreme miser that everyone recognized the elemental characteristics of the miser and could then recognize those traits not just in others but maybe, hopefully in themselves.

That's what Jon Stewart and Black do. They take an obvious lie that is being pushed off on Americans, blow it up, exaggerate it so that we can see its components very clearly. There humor or satire is like a magnifying glass focused on the political lies and liars of our time.

Their humor works only because they enlarge some sort of lie -- a conceit, that is some belief we have about ourselves that is flattering but not honest -- an outright falsehood that we are being persuaded to believe.

Chuck Todd, in allowing lies to be told on his show by people who impress him as being very important, is hiding the truth, allowing falsehoods to be passed off as truth. People are sick of it. That's why we are cynical.

Jon Stewart joins the cynicism that is in us already and serves it up for all to see. He presents the falsehoods in such exaggerated form that their falseness becomes obvious -- clear. Watching him is relief. "Ahh-- we say, here is someone who understands why we feel so disillusioned, so cynical. Here is someone in sync with us. Here is someone we can like and trust." We watch Jon Stewart and Black because we get a feeling of relief from watching someone express the cynicism that the dishonesty of mainstream media elicits in us.

If Chuck Todd, our politicians and our other media started presenting the truth, examining the statements of politicians more critically, sure, the politicians would not appear on their shows, would not be showcased, would not be seen by the public, would lose name recognition, become less popular, lose elections. Would that be a bad thing? Who knows?

Maybe some of the dishonest crowd that now predominate on Chuck Todd's show would become less influential, would lose elections?

Wouldn't that be great? Imagine an America in which politicians had to tell the truth to get elected. Wow! I sigh in relief at the thought of it. Whoopee!

How about that, Chuck Todd? You've got the power. Why don't you try to shake some of the scum that you present on your show out of politics? Don't you think the nation would gain if you do?

The frustration on the part of "serious" (meaning lying or complicit in the lies of others scumbag) "journalists" like Chuck Todd with Jon Stewart is that Jon Stewart is doing what they should be doing, and they know it.

Jon Stewart shines the line of ridicule on the ridiculous lies that the mainstream media including Chuch Todd and corporations are trying to sell us.

Go, Jon Stewart, Go. You are doing your job. When you are no longer needed, your ratings will go way, way down. But don't worry. The truth never wins out completely. Satire is always needed. Especially at times like ours when great change is coming but is still just a speck on the distant horizon.

Moliere helped sow the seeds that eventually brought down the do-nothing but fight wars phony French aristocracy. And he did it with ridicule. He reflected the justified cynicism of his time. He pretended to ridicule the rising middle class, but his real targets were the established fat-cats fo his time. He won at least to some extent, never completely. Eventually. It took time. But eventually, women were not married off to boring old men and were allowed to choose their life's mate.

And Chuck Todd -- be ashamed. Be very ashamed. You are not a journalist. You are a patsy. Straighten your back and do what is right and not what is easy. For a change. You have surely made enough money by now that you can afford to be honest and to demand honesty from those you place in the center stage of American life by interviewing them on your show.