Chuck Todd (cc photo: Tarek Rizk/Aspen Institute)
NBC White House correspondent Chuck Todd‘s declaration that it’s not his job to inform viewers when politicians spread misinformation was noted by several progressive blogs today, including Talking Points Memo.
Appearing on MSNBC‘s Morning Joe today (9/18/13), Todd responded to Ed Rendell’s claim that Obamacare opponents are full of misinformation about the program by explaining that this was because Republicans “have successfully messaged against it.” But wasn’t journalism’s job to expose misinformation? No, Todd insisted; if the public was misinformed about the Affordable Care Act, it was the president’s fault for not pushing back:
What I always love is people say, “Well, it’s you folks’ fault in the media.” No, it’s the president of the United States’ fault for not selling it.
It’s sad that NBC‘s White House correspondent thinks his job is merely to convey politicians pronouncements, with no care about whether they are true or false. In fact, scrutinizing claims, particularly those from powerful officials, is an essential part of journalism. It’s embarrassing to have to cite elementary principles to one the nation’s most influential reporters, but Todd should consider reviewing the Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics, where, under the heading “Seek Truth and Report It,” the very first tenet implores journalists to “test the accuracy of information from all sources.”
Todd isn’t alone among influential journalists claiming that factchecking sources is outside their job purview. In 2004, NPR‘s Ron Elving declared that journalism was incapable of calling out the lies about John Kerry’s military record spread by the Swift Boat Veteran’s for Truth, claiming: “There is no way that journalism can satisfy those who think that Kerry is a liar or that Swift Boat Veterans for Truth are liars.” Journalists’ throwing up their hands when it came to the distortion of Kerry’s military record may have determined the outcome of the 2004 election.
The stenography model of journalism was so strong in 2002 that it prompted New York Times columnist Paul Krugman (9/6/02) to quip sarcastically about journalists failure to challenge Bush White House lies:
The next time the administration insists that chocolate is vanilla, much of the media–fearing accusations of liberal bias, trying to create the appearance of “balance”–won’t report that the stuff is actually brown; at best they’ll report that some Democrats claim that it’s brown.
Todd not only seems to have a hard time understanding the basic principles of his job, he may also be guilty of false advertising. In an MSNBC promo that ran in the not-too-distant past (e.g., 9/21/11), Todd gave a pretty good account of what his job should actually be about:
My job is to bring up issues that Americans care about.
It’s my responsibility to ask the tough questions. No matter who’s leading the country, they need to be held accountable.
I have unique access to the president, his advisers, the candidates and members of Congress.
I’d better use that access for a greater good. Use it for people who can’t get through the White House gates. For people who can’t be heard.
The American people deserve answers.
It’s hard to square that Chuck Todd with the Chuck Todd who thinks calling out lies about public policy isn’t his job, or, for that matter, the White House correspondent who appears on the news day after day.
P.S. Todd responded on Twitter (9/18/13) to the criticism he was getting: “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 healthcare message, it is WH’s job.” But the Affordable Care Act is not a “message” to be “sold”; it’s the law of the land, and NBC‘s viewers need to understand it. That’s Todd’s job, and he’s clearly not interested in doing it.
Featured image: Chuck Todd (by Gage Skidmore)
Todd could also call out the lies from the administration about the ACA, which present it as a panacea for the deadly disease of a profit driven health system, when in fact many millions will remain uninsured, and those that are will be forced to pay the same bastards that rake in that filthy lucre.
He could point out the fact that the US is one of the only “developed” nations without some form of universal health care, and that this program was conceived in order to keep it that way, as was Clinton’s precursor twenty years earlier.
Now that would be balance, wouldn’t it?
Todd is just another corporate sock puppet whose m.o. is to convey propaganda from politicians to the masses. Whether something is true or false is irrelevant, his job is simply to report what was said. Caveat emptor. The news media bends over backwards to give equal billing to truth, half truth and lies, and it doesn’t behoove Todd or any ‘reporter’ to question the veracity of what they hear. Not if they want access.
Actually, he and others could inform their audiences that the U.S. is the ONLY developed country which does not have health care for all its citizens, and that the U.S.–contrary to those who claim we have the best health care system in the world–costs 2-3 times as much as in other countries with guaranteed health care and gets much less for its bucks than other countries. Life expectancy at birth in the USA, 78.49, is 50th in the world, below most developed nations and some developing nations. Other statistics on outcomes are just as dismal.
Seem that Chuck has joined the teaparty. I would like to know what Obama has not done.
Doug Latimer. I need some sources on your statements. I think you have been listening to those folks that are detractors. Medicare for all would insure everyone and bring the cost of health care down.
Not his job? NOT HIS *#@^%* JOB????? It’s precisely his job! He’s the White House’s representative to the press, which in turn is the public’s main source of information. He needs to see that we get accuracy, or crawl away & let someone else do it properly. Democracy cannot survive without truth.
“final tweet on this topic: thanks to a misleading headline and lack of context, folks are getting wrong idea about what I said.”
Complaining about inaccuracy of reporting!
Ironic!
Orinda–I’d love to see your sources on how “medicare for all” (which was a largereason for the costs of healthcare going up over the last 50 yrs) would bring the costs down? It doesn’t make sense if your considering this thing we like to call…”economics”. Can you find economists who shill for various parties or the state in general (like those that say increasing debt forever will do nothing bad:-) as “sources”…of course! But can you find plenty of the more honest ones who still believe in supply/demand/cost relationships saying the opposite? You sure can. If you haven’t come across any very well researched information saying the ACA will actually increase costs…or showing the relationship between the trillions of dollars pumped in the “medical industry” over decades contributing to the rising costs than you need to do a little bit of research…not have Doug spoon feed it to you.
And this “developed nations” with “universal healthcare” canard pretends those nations live in a vacuum and haven’t benefited greatly from the advancements in healthcare the US developed (and they then borrowed) because their systems have so little incentive for innovation. Have you considered that?
Was our system good before? NO! Why? Because govt was already too much in it and it had become a crony capitalist system like all their other programs. Why don’t you explain to us Orinda how ACA is going to cut the profits of insurance companies and big pharma? The bill appears to actually provide legal mechanisms to insure their profits forever in to the foreseeable future. How does requiring by force (threat of violence) everyone buy a product (health insurance in this case…like car insurance before) translate in to the cost of that product going down in price? How does increasing the pool of consumers for healthcare not lead to higher prices OR eventual shortages in service providers? Why does someone who spends time and resources becoming a Dr or Nurse or whatever lose their rights to their own labor? Where in economics does any of this make sense? I don’t need a pundit to tell me one thing or another…I CAN READ AND THEN APPLY FACTS TO ANALYZE THINGS AND COME TO CONCLUSIONS THAT HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH MYTHS OR BELIEFS. It’s an amazing talent I have:-)
Jack Y invokes myths to make his argument. Here are some things no one can dispute: Living within America’s generally capitalist system we have some 320 million people. In capitalism there are always winners and losers. And now we know who the winners are: The Corporations.
Now its time for a new system, unless the corporations running things want to step up and ensure that the rest of us, who still need to buy a home, go to school and have health care may do so.
Your move, corporations. Don’t wait to long to do something meaningful for the rest of us.
Orinda, the ACA isn’t “Medicare for all”, and I’m curious as to how you came to that perception.
As for sources, you can search at my blog for a number of pieces dealing with the issue.
The US is a signatory – not that that means squat to a gummint for whom broken promises are as plentiful as nuclear weapons – to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Read Article 25, and tell me if you think the ACA jibes with the obligations delineated therein.
Orinda, here’s something to get you started
Physicians for a National Health Program
‘Stronger Medicine than Obamacare Needed to End Uninsured Crisis’: Health Expert
Citing latest Census count of 48 million uninsured, researcher says Affordable Care Act will cut that figure by only half, leaving tens of millions vulnerable to unnecessary suffering and premature death
http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2013/09/17-2
It is just too bad that I keep voting for Democrats and keep getting Republicans. Obama is so painfully conservative it hurts. We really need to rebuild the Public Health Infrastructure before it is too late, as it may already be. All of this “self serving responsibility” crap is killing us, and HIV/AIDS was just the first shot. TB and Malaria are beginning to run amok, and we no longer have a structure to stop it.
The ACA is indeed not even close to what this country really (universal single payer) needs, but it is better than nothing. The President is a Republican, and he put in place a Republican plan. It’s telling that the nutzoids in the Congress are now trying to blackmail the President into getting rid of “Obamacare” as a price for allowing the country not to default. Very, very bad.
You know what, Jack? It’s utterly irrelevant that other countries might have benefitted from the good old USA’s “advancements” in “healthcare.” Your entire screed is utter nonsense and bullshit. Is that really you, Michael e?
Chuck Todd care nothing about the truth. He is a liberal democrat, not a journalist.
A journalist he’s not , certainly, but he is NOT a “liberal democrat”, he’s a lazy, responsibility-shirking jerk. There’s nothing “liberal” about evading truth. Mouthing platitudes like that makes you look the opposite of smart.
Those of us who are working to provide accurate healthcare information are chagrined by Todd’s abdication of his journalistic responsibility. I often wondered why he and others like him let misinformation slip by without so much as a factual alternative reported. Now I know. “It’s not my job!.” Well, I know now that avoiding his program is high on my list.
Avoiding a Chuck Todd broadcast would not be like missing the news because reporting the news is not Chuck’s job!
Dear Mr. Todd:
Separating fact from fantasy is very important. You should read American history because a guy named Joe McCarthy was counting on reporters who don’t fact check at all!
“I have in my hand a lost of known communistst in the State Dept..” Wow…and no one noticed that this astounding news was given to the Women’s Club of Wheeling West Virginia? It would seem that such huge news would be on a more national stage! And. yet….no one chaallenged Joe.
Joe was counting on people like you Mr. Todd…people who were once called the Fourth Estate because they acted as a legitimate power against the slight of hand world known as politics. Smoke and mirrors…, but you know, mirrors can reflect back the truth….or they can just be a substitute for a selfie. : 0
Chuck Todd a liberal democrat?? Just how do you figure that?
Chuck Todd should turn in his media//journalist badge or card. That is like a teacher telling the media that it ain’t his/her job to educate kids that are in school. We all know where that teacher would find themselves. But Chuck gets a free pass? To me a journalist should be the eyes and ears for the general public. If something is wrong, the journalist should report what is wrong and how it happened. Give us the facts. Chuck is wrong. It is his job to inform the public…honestly and with fairness. Turn in your media badge Chuck. U dont deserve that honor. You disgrace the Helen Thomas’ of the world.
Connectinh the Dots
Connecting the correct dots leads to FAIR reporting!
Well, this confirms that Chuck Todd is NOT a journalist. Talking heads and opinion makers are not required to check for facts. I have to give credit to Candi Crowley for FACT-checking Romney during the last presidential debate against President Obama, as an example of what a journalist does. Every so-called journalist on MSNBC, NBC, ABC, CBS, etc… should be FACT-checking the republican talking points on the ACA and then providing to the public the actually FACTS. It’s their job! Why is this so hard to do? Of course, progressive sites should also be providing those facts to their viewers as well. 1+1 is still 2, I believe, no matter how many ways the Republicans spin it.
I believe he’s supposed to be a journalist and that’s exactly what their job is.
This is all we need to know about NBC’s Chuck Todd and their relationship to/with the news. To play “fair,” NBC should post the following disclaimer before, during and following his show that Todd is is a “talking-head, NOT a journalist and any provision or correction of misinformation on his show is at Todd’s option.
Finally,Chuck Todd,has been exposed as a republican/tea bagger….
If Chuck Todd doesn’t correct the facts in journalism ,perhaps he should change jobs.i.e Go to Fox News where it doesn’t matter.
anyone who values Chuck Todd’s opinion/statements/reports on anything has only themselves to blame for the misinformation they ingest.
Chuck Todd is a non-existent nothing nobody. The fact that he has a job does not imply that you should care about what he says, and certainly not that you should trust it. I’ve studiously avoided him at every turn and I suggest you do the same. He can only hurt you if you let him. Same goes for his larger-headed clone, David Gregory. They are not there to inform you, by their own admission. They are there to sell product. Your fault if you buy it.
Chuck Todd is from Miami Florida and did not complete his college education at Georgrtown University or did he?Perhaps he should take some journalism courses in order to alleviate insecurities with fact finding.
THING CHUCK TODD IS LOOKING FOR A JOB ON FOX SO CALL NEWS TV.
WHY NBC NEEDS A WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT LIKE HIM WHO WANTS
TO LISTEN TO NBC NEWS WITH PEOPLE LIKE HIM
This certainly isn’t surprising. Even “liberal” NPR chooses to parrot the constant stream of Right Wing nonsense about the ACA – and many other issues. Reporting what a politician says without commenting on its veracity is lazy at best, and much closer to giving tacit approval to the propoganda being spewed.
The next time you are with Obama ask him to give the 5% he’s talking about the same medical coverage that congress gets.
Chuck needs a new profession as news correspondent it is clearly not journalism
He should leave MSNBC, him and the rest including that horse’s A_ S Andrea Mitchell. It is great to know that these people are pro republican, and I often wondered, but now researching I see that the media is all in on it, and more so leaning for the wealthy and rich. Why else are they all talking about the same things. In the past 7 months not a peep regarding the unemployed, but rush to talk about the so called border crisis (Humanitarian Crisis), and now Iraq. But regarding the unemployed middle-class they should foot the bill for taxes that fund these humanitarian bull crap, and tax breaks for corporations and these bozos. We will see them all fall. We will tune them out and stop watching their shows and vote out the bums in congress.
If you can’t trust the messenger, you can’t trust the message.
Remember, you too can lose your job.
I think you misinterpreted Ron Elving’s comments re: Kerry & the swiftboat smear. What he was trying to convey, is that people are going to believe what they are already pre-disposed to believe in the first place, and are merely looking for evidence to affirm their original opinions.