Chuck Todd is Hurting America

In the latest story about how Republicans are in trouble and we're in for 1,000 years of one-party rule, NBC News political director Chuck Todd unintentionally reveals one reasons most political news coverage sucks big rocks:

There are a number of ugly debates going on inside the Republican Party right now.

There is the debate over whether or not there is even something wrong; there's the debate over whether or not RNC chair Michael Steele should be trusted with making financial decisions for the party; there's the debate over whether or not the party should come up with an alternative to being just a party for conservatives; and there's the debate over whether or not all of this is just an over-reaction.

I have no stake in this other than as a junkie who enjoys a competitive political landscape.

And that is what is sad right now for junkies: things don't even look that competitive anymore.

The Republican Party is in deep trouble, Todd asserts, but it's only important to him because he likes politics to be "competitive."

One of the reasons I watch cable news so infrequently is because the TV networks' approach to politics is entirely based on who's up, who's down, who's ahead and who's behind. It's all about scoring points, managing expectations and winning the news cycle. John McCain got beat like a drum in part because he overvalued the opinions of the East Coast TV news producers who set the day's agenda. While his team was using manufactured controversies like "lipstick on a pig" to win that night's episode of Hardball, Obama was out there recruiting volunteers and pursuing voters to win an election.

If everything you knew about politics was learned from TV, you'd have no idea that anything was at stake in the decisions being made in Washington.

The saddest thing is that as far as broadcast journalists go, Todd's one of the smart ones.

Tv · Politics · 2009/05/14 · 8 COMMENTS · Link

Comments

Chuck Todd is a hack, a bobble head used by Matthews and Olberfilth to validate their hateful, left wing talking points.

The entire news organization of NBC/MSNBC is set up as a propaganda wing of the democrats and the hard left.

Todd may have been a real journalist at one time, but that time is long gone. Now is just another shill for the left and a convenient prop for MSNBC.

BTW, why the politcal thread? I thought you stayed away from that on Workbench.

#1 · Rex · 2009/05/15

"It is time for Republicans to provide their own vision."

That last line of the piece is the only that makes sense, the republicans are going to set their own agenda, not a hack for MSNBC.

This, 'the republican party is dead' shtick, is hilarious.

It's a fallacy being created by the hard left in the hope that viewers will fall for it.

I guess Chucky isn't a student of history.

#2 · Rex · 2009/05/15

And where is Todd wrong? All you've said is basically "rawg! I hate cable TV!" Well I'm not a big fan either, but Todd happens to be dead on.

#3 · john irby · 2009/05/15

I don't buy the premise that the Republican Party is doomed now and forevermore. The same things were being said about the Democrats after the 2004 election. Things look good for the Democrats in 2010, 2012 and perhaps 2014, but beyond that it's a crapshoot. If the country is moving to the left, the Republicans will move left when they get sick of losing elections, regardless of what Rush Limbaugh and Dick Cheney think. It's the nature of the beast.

#4 · Rogers Cadenhead · 2009/05/15

The entire notion that America is 'moving to the left' is a fallacy created by the MSM.

People got sick of war, sick of seeing President Bush attacked each night, sick of seeing the left use the death of soldiers for political gain.

They got home after a long day of work and heard 'the messiah' talking about hope and change and then their brains shut off, they only knew what a five minute blurb on their local news told them to think.

No one told them that Hussein was a phony, that his mentors were communists, terrorists, felons, and anti American faux preachers.

Just because a 5% voting block was bamboozled by the media, doesn't mean the country has fundamentally changed.

The last people the republicans need to have telling them how to run their ship is the hard left fringe dwellers, America will wake up to the mistake they have made soon enough and we will sweep this phony out of office in 2012.

#5 · Rex · 2009/05/15

Keep clicking those ruby slippers together, Dorothy. Maybe you'll end up in Kansas.

#6 · Rogers Cadenhead · 2009/05/16

Rogers, you are a smart guy, you know this whole ruse is the left trying to fool the cud chewing public into thinking Rachel Maddow should set the republicans agenda.

I know, the republican party needs great leaders like Nancy Pelosi, Charlie Rangle, and Bwaney Fwank.......yea....that's the ticket!

#7 · Rex · 2009/05/16

"The entire notion that America is 'moving to the left' is a fallacy created by the MSM"???

"a 5% voting block was bamboozled by the media"???

methinks that dude's got his percentages (and his scapegoats) way off.

only 23% of voters self-identify as republicans in the latest pew poll. gallup's poll is about the same.

the key word is "self-identify."

as in - when asked "do you feel the republican party represents your political views," more than 3 out of 4 people say "hells, no!"

ya can't blame the msm or nancy pelosi or babs steisand for that, dude. hint: get a mirror.

#8 · diablo · 2009/05/17