Chuck Todd GTFO
Replacement Kristen Welker is an improvement but almost anything would be.
It's been a tough year for mediocre men in TV news. Fox News fired Tucker Carlson. CNN ditched Don Lemon. Now, Chuck Todd is leaving NBC's "Meet the Press." (Obviously, we realizeCarlson is the worst of the three. Don't get huffy.)
However, Todd's departure is apparently voluntary, and he'll remain NBC's chief political analyst. He delivered this "personal announcement" Sunday morning after yet another disappointing installment of "Meet the Press."
“I’d like to ask *why* he’s proud, but I know that would violate Chuck Todd’s rule against asking any follow up questions”
— Kevin M. Kruse (@Kevin M. Kruse) 1685890842
TODD: While today is not my final show ...
Damn, and I'd just added champagne to my Sunday morning orange juice.
TODD: This is gonna be my final summer here at "Meet the Press." It's been an amazing, nearly decade-long run. I'm really proud of what this team and I have built over this last decade, and frankly over the last 15-plus years that I've been here at NBC.
So, having actually seen Chuck Todd commit "journalism" over the years, I have to ask: Just what is it he's proud of, exactly?
PREVIOUSLY:
Chuck Todd Yanks Pants Up, Demands To Know Who Sh*t On The Floor
Chuck Todd Pretty Sure Biden’s Historic Infrastructure Bill Is DOOOOOM For Democrats, DOOOOOM
Todd was an embarrassingly lightweight journalist at a time when the nation needed someone who'd ask politicians — especially the members of an increasingly fascist Republican Party — tough questions or at least an occasional followup. We were desperate for anything more aggressive than polite smiles and nods whenever Republicans pushed talking points and outright lied every Sunday.
He practiced absurd "both sides" journalism, which almost always benefitted Republicans. He minimized President Joe Biden's historic infrastructure deal in November 2021, claiming it was all too late to salvage his agenda and Democrats' political hopes before the midterms ... a full year later.
"Look, yesterday that event ... I'll be honest, it felt like — it just felt like an event out of time," he lamented. "That event might have been impactful in August or September, or October. It feels more like an epilogue to the ending of what's going to — might not be a good story for Democrats in 2022."
Sure, he couldn't know at the time that the Supreme Court would overturn Roe v. Wadeabout six moths later, though an actual reporter might have suspected. Still, this is all the more reasonnot to make doom-and-gloom predictions about an election that is almost a lifetime away in political years.
Todd sometimes viewed his supposed profession as a tedious burden. When Justice Anthony Kennedy retired in June 2018, teeing Trump up to replace him with Beer Kavanaugh and a let's say fractious confirmation hearing in the Senate, Todd tweeted, "About the last thing our politics can handle is an open SCOTUS vacancy and Kennedy’s seat no less. Let’s hope I’m wrong." Sorry if this spoiled your summer plans, dude, but at least explain to your audience why filling this seat would inevitably prove a disaster. (Hint: It's because of what Republicans had done and would do.)
This weekend, after Biden prevented a catastrophic default and saved (more) Americans from living with their parents, Todd mostly shrugged off the president's achievement because Republicans remain mean and that's apparently Biden's failure. He whined that the rhetoric from Republican primary candidate Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis is just a "preview" of a what a "long slog" it's gonna be until 2024. Oh, Calgon, take Chuck away!
During a 2019 interview with Rolling Stone, Todd seemingly acknowledged that he might've actively contributed to democracy's downfall when he let Republicans come on his show and spout lies, unchallenged, like a common chump.
"I fully admit, listening to you ask that question now, and me giving you the honest answer of, yeah, I guess I really believed [Republicans] wouldn't do this. Just so absurdly naive in hindsight. Donald Trump's entire life has been spent using misinformation. His entire life.
"So I mean, look, if people want to read my answer to your question, 'Boy, that Chuck Todd was hopelessly naive.' Yeah, it looks pretty naive. I think we all made the mistake of not following Toni Morrison's advice, which is when people tell you who they are, believe them. (Ed note: Maya Angelou is the author of this quote.)"
Yes, Todd publicly confused Black woman authors Toni Morrison and Maya Angelou. It's like something from a sitcom. He probably thinks Halle Berry stars in The Little Mermaid.
Here's more of his "well, duh" epiphany: "So look, whether we'd liked it or not, our platform has been used, or they've attempted to use our platform to essentially disseminate, or to sort of, what I would say, is lay the groundwork for this."
Chuck Todd communicates for a living, yet those were the words he assembled into a deformed Frankenstein sentence.
Replacing Todd on "Meet The Press" is Kristen Welker, who is only the second woman moderator after Martha Rountree launched the show in 1947. Walker is the first Black woman to host "Meet The Press" or any Sunday morning news program.
She'll start in September, and we hope Todd doesn't claim she is "overprepared" for the job.
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