NBC’s Chuck Todd was accused of “aiding and abetting” violent leftists by giving an Antifa sympathizer a platform on the air.
Todd came under heavy fire for his “softball” treatment of the radical anti-fascist group on Sunday’s “Meet the Press” following a similar stance on MSNBC’s “MTP Daily” last week. Todd introduced a debate about the group’s use of violence to shut down free speech.
Dartmouth Professor and Antifa supporter, Mark Bray, justified the group’s “self-defense” tactics as a “legitimate response to white supremacist and neo-Nazi violence.”
Todd excused the group as “a far-left political movement that argues it’s necessary to confront hate groups sometimes with force,” completely downplaying and ignoring the assaults on police officers, Trump supporters and, most recently,clashing with “Unite the Right” rally goers in Charlottesville, Virginia.
“You seem to be a very small minority here who is defending the idea of violence, considering that somebody died in Charlottesville. Why do you defend confronting in a violent way,” Todd asked Bray. He did not push back against the group’s definition of fascist or how violence is justified to shut down the free speech of anyone who disagrees with them.
Brent Bozell, founder of the Media Research Center, slammed Todd for giving Bray and the violent group a platform – twice.
“Violent leftists have broken into the mainstream and Chuck Todd is guilty of aiding and abetting. It is abhorrent that NBC and Todd believe it acceptable to normalize extremist groups like Antifa which use terror to silence their opposition,” Bozell said in a tweet Monday.
Here is my statement on Chuck Todd after he gave the violent, antifa movement a platform on his program twice in under a week. pic.twitter.com/0w1xtZ7eIL
— Brent Bozell (@BrentBozell) August 21, 2017
Todd had the chance to “correct his mistake” after the weekday show, Bozell said, but pointed out that Todd “chose to again allow a radical to promote domestic terrorism with little push back.”
The conservative media watchdog called on NBC to ” cease giving legitimacy to supporters of this violent left-wing movement immediately.”
Todd’s other guest on Sunday, Richard Cohen, president of the Southern Poverty Law Center, did note the group’s violent tactics and pointed to the First Amendment.
“I think it’s a spectacularly bad idea to give one group of people the right to silence another group of people,” he explained.. “It’s contrary to our values embodied in the First Amendment. It’s likely to drive the people who are trying to censor underground where they may resort to illegal means to express themselves like bombs.”
“There’s a big difference between confronting fascism and confronting other forms of violence,” Bray responded, and continued mostly unchecked by Todd for the rest of the segment.
Todd never did mention the violence and chaos perpetrated by the group which, earlier this year in Berkeley, Calif., prompted the cancellation of an appearance by former Breitbart News editor Milo Yiannopoulos. During Saturday’s “Boston Free Speech Rally,” an Antifa thug dragged an elderly woman when he grabbed the flag she was holding.
Twitter users blasted Todd for his lack of a spine, and obvious bias, during his segments on the radical leftist group.
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I seriously cannot believe this is going on. Congratulations @chucktodd , your an official public icon promoting violence in our country
— Joe Dandan (@JoeDandan) August 20, 2017
Violence against police, Jews (BDS) and citizens carrying American flags is condoned by antifa. antifa are the real domestic terrorists!
— D Lesh (@DLesh) August 20, 2017
Why are you giving hate groups a platform?
— Stephen (@Mouse_About) August 20, 2017
Todd is nothing more than a registered Dem who pushes their disgusting leftist propaganda daily
— William McClain (@WilliamMcClain2) August 21, 2017
Neither whitesupremacists nor antifa should be allowed to hijack the important debates of our time.
— QuirkySquark (@QuirkySquark) August 20, 2017
Gospel spoken.Thanks for taking the time to be the voice of NORMAL HARDWORKING INTELLIGENT Americans. These antifalala will stop when jailed
— April Redden (@a4beach) August 21, 2017
Hopefullly Antifa will be designated as terrorists and be dealt with accordingly.
— Lawrence Devore (@LawrenceDevore) August 22, 2017
Another tool pretending to be a journalist. I use to love watching Meet the Press with Tim Russert. Chuck Todd ruined a once great show
— K.Arilli (Planbee) (@karen_arilli) August 21, 2017
Chuck Todd literally bringing on violent socialists https://t.co/07Xvdw1CDH
— Jack Posobiec ?? (@JackPosobiec) August 20, 2017
This is the Progmedia. They don’t care about reporting news. They care about shaping news in a way that advances their ideology & worldview.
— Skin that smokewagon (@heatpacker) August 20, 2017
Chuck Todd’s special talent for missing the point is obviously the reason a career in political journalism was such a perfect fit.
— emigre80 (@emigre80) August 22, 2017
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