An offhand comment by NBC’s Chuck Todd last week about the media’s role has exploded into a backlash, even prompting a liberal petition excoriating him.
The White House’s poor messaging over Obamacare came up when Todd, NBC’s political director, was a guest on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” Sept. 18, according to The Daily Caller.
“What I always love is people say, ‘Well, it’s you folks’ fault in the media,’” Todd said. “No! It’s the president of the United States’ fault for not selling it.”
Todd said he also felt that the White House’s bumbling communications job encouraged the Republican Party to turn the Affordable Care Act into a major issue that’s turning public opinion its way.
Other media outlets began putting words in Todd’s mouth.
“Chuck Todd: It’s Not Media’s Job To Correct GOP’s Obamacare Falsehoods,” a Talking Points Memo headline said. “Inform the Public? Not My Job, Says Chuck Todd,” Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting’s headline said.
Todd sent out a couple of tweets to correct the misinterpretations:
Somebody decided to troll w/mislding headline: point I actually made was folks shouldn't expect media to do job WH has FAILED to do re: ACA
— Chuck Todd (@chucktodd) September 18, 2013
I was NOT saying it isn't job of journos to call out lies, I said it was not job of media to sell WH's health care message, it is WH's job
— Chuck Todd (@chucktodd) September 18, 2013
Clearly, the point Todd was making was that the media are not the White House’s personal Madison Avenue ad agency — it’s up to the president to sell his own legislation. As it turned out, no one listened. Todd was merely tweeting into the wind.
Liberal media critic Nicole Belle launched a petition titled, “Tell NBC News: Correcting Republican lies is part of your job.” The petition begins:
Chuck Todd’s assertion that correcting Republican lies isn’t his job is factually incorrect and counter to the purpose of journalism. Hold Chuck Todd accountable by issuing a public apology for his outrageous statement and ensure that all NBC News/MSNBC journalists know that correcting political misinformation and lies is part of their job description.
As of Saturday morning, the petition had over 160,000 signatures.
Some days, it just doesn’t pay to get up in the morning. In August, it appeared as though President Obama flipped the bird at Todd. His transgression? He asked the president a question at a news conference.
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