NBC’s Chuck Todd Explains Why He’s Changed How He Reports On Republicans – The Daily Wire

In a revealing recent interview with Rolling Stone, Chuck Todd, host of NBCs Meet the Press, discusses what led him to begin approaching Republicans and others on the right with more skepticism and reporting on their claims in a less naive way than he had in the past. In his comments, Todd indicates that he does not view Democrats and their claims in the same skeptical light.

The interview was conducted as part of an upcoming Meet the Press special on the weaponization of disinformation, which, according to Todds comments to the Rolling Stone, appears to approach the topic from a glaringly one-sided angle.

Asked what made him decide to devote a show to the topic of disinformation and fake news, Todd said it began with an interest in the impact of social media on politics, which he said is ultimately really about misinformation.

This is bigger than social media, said Todd. The Ukraine story for me really crystallized it. And for good or bad, our show has been at the forefront of this.

Todd then traced the topic back to what he suggested was its source: the Trump administrations claims about his inauguration.

The first Sunday of the Trump administration is when the phrase, alternative facts was debuted, he said. It was on Meet the Press Rudy that Giuliani used the phrase Truth isnt truth.'

So look, whether wed liked it or not, our platform has been used, or theyve attempted to use our platform to essentially disseminate, or to sort of, what I would say, is lay the groundwork for this, Todd explained.

After describing the dissemination of misinformation for which he and the interviewer only give examples from the Trump administration and Republicans as an epidemic, Todd addressed the issue of political advertising.

I think our biggest problem going into 2020 is that we have two sets of standards simply on political advertising, he said. If you choose to advertise on cable or television, on linear television, theres a certain set of standards on fact that you have to surpass in order to get your ad on television. Not the case on social media. And we have seen the Trump campaign literally use two different ads one that allows them to say their misinformation about Biden in the areas that they can.

Asked if he was surprised by the consistency that the Trump administration was willing to spread disinformation about the crowd size at the inauguration, Todd said yes.

I fully admit, listening to you ask that question now, and me giving you the honest answer of, yeah, I guess I really believed they wouldnt do this, said Todd. Just so absurdly naive in hindsight.

Todd then presented his succinct summary of his view of Trump:Donald Trumps entire life has been spent using misinformation, he said. His entire life.

But its not just Trump and his administration that Todd now views in what he described as a less naive way, its Republicans and everyone else on the right.

The fact is, and by the way, this isnt going to be easy to show, but I actually think when we outline this it will, the right has an incentive structure to utter the misinformation, he said in response to a question about Republicans supposedly pushing Russian talking points about Ukraine. I do think one of the things that I want to explore on this is the incentive structure. One of the things we dont fully appreciate in mainstream media on these attacks is that its become fun to attack the press, if that makes sense, on the right. It doesnt matter if were right or wrong, attack them anyway.

Throughout the interview, neither Todd nor the interviewer acknowledges even the possibility that Democrats and those on the left have spread misinformation and made overtly false claims on the airwaves; instead, the problem is presented as a purely Republican/right issue.

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NBC's Chuck Todd Explains Why He's Changed How He Reports On Republicans - The Daily Wire