“I wonder how long real journalists from NBC like Todd are going to let themselves be debased this way by their association with MSNBC.” That is not me asking that rhetorical question; that is the Baltimore Sun’s media writer David Zurawik, who is no right-winger.
The context surrounds the MSNBC disaster of not having a delay ready to bleep out the F-word during the prosecutor’s opening statement in the George Zimmerman trial. This happened on Todd’s watch and was a total debacle. Zurawik continues, “Really, I am not using that word [debase] loosely. Todd is way too good to have to front for such ineptitude.”
Todd could survive relatively unscathed on MSNBC if the network would agree to compartmentalize his morning show, “The Daily Rundown,” from lunacy like the George Zimmerman and Jodi Arias trials. You need not possess psychic abilities to sense his reluctance to pollute his own show with sensationalism.
But let’s not forget that Todd is a left-wing reporter and that when it comes to his own partisan politics, he is a perfect fit for the network. If there was any reluctance emanating from Todd when it came to obsessively running with and aggressively pushing stories that would win Obama his re-election, I sure didn’t see it.
Todd did everything in his power to keep the Todd Akin nothingburger sizzling and the Benghazi scandal way on the backburner.
More recently, when it came to pushing gun control, Todd did so for months, and at times with such zeal he made Rachel Maddow look like Charlton Heston. These days, his immigration reform coverage has been just as terrible. He is aggressively using his MSNBC platform as a propaganda tool to shame the GOP congress into creating millions of new Democrat voters.
Yesterday was a perfect example.
Like BuzzFeed’s Ben Smith, Todd is a very capable guy and personally likable. I just wish he would use his powers for the good of the country and his profession. Until then, 98% of the time, MSNBC is exactly where he belongs.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC
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