Chuck Todd has some explaining to do
It’s almost too easy to beat up on Meet The Press host Chuck Todd. He clings to the political middle and pretends both sides have the exact same virtue, honesty, and odds of winning, in the apparent belief that this gives him “credibility” – or perhaps simply gives him better ratings.
On Tuesday afternoon, Chuck Todd made the bizarre assertion that if Republicans were to win the races for Governor in red states tonight, it would somehow be a sign that impeachment is working in Donald Trump’s favor. Considering that Republicans are supposed to win in red states, the sheer absurdity of Todd’s claim resulted in his name trending atop Twitter for much of Tuesday evening. Then came the results.
Democratic candidate Andy Beshear won the race for Governor in Kentucky, knocking off Republican incumbent Matt Bevin, even after Donald Trump held a major last minute rally for Bevin. So how is Chuck Todd going to explain this? Will he now assert on his show on Wednesday that Bevin’s loss is a sign that impeachment is hurting Trump and the GOP, or will he simply ignore the entire story and move on to the next round of false equivalence?
Chuck Todd is clearly savvy when it comes to politics, and could do the job properly if he wanted to. He just doesn’t want to do the job properly. We saw a brief flash of fierce honesty from him last month, but it only lasted a day or two, and then he went right back to false equivalence. It’s one thing to try to steer your commentary toward the middle. It’s a whole other thing to consistently frame news developments in misleading fashion in order to create the false appearance that things are skewed toward the middle. That’s why Chuck Todd is as widely reviled as he is.
