Chuck Todd Finally Getting the Boot From 'Meet the Press'

After a long nine years, the head honchos at NBC finally came to their senses and are dumping Chuck Todd from their once-flagship Sunday show, "Meet the Press" (MTP).  

When Todd was elevated to host of "Meet The Press" in 2014, we already knew it was the potential death knell for a show whose legacy was built by the great Tim Russert.  In an NPR interview, Chuck Todd made it clear that he didn't believe it was his job to educate viewers and inform them when politicians spread misinformation.  Todd thinks his job is merely to convey politicians  pronouncements-- with no care about whether they are true or false.   But the fact is that scrutinizing claims (particularly those from powerful officials) is an essential part of journalism.  It should have been an embarrassment to Todd to have media observers cite such elementary principles to one of the nation’s most influential reporters-- but the Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics (under the heading “Seek Truth and Report It”) says that the very first tenet implores journalists to “test the accuracy of information from all sources.”

Joan Walsh, National Affairs Correspondent for The Nation, once said that Todd was the poster model for journalistic ineptitude, and that his claim to fame may be his inability to push back on fallacious claims and outright lies.  His performance at the first 2019 Democratic presidential debate was widely criticized, after viewers were left with the impression that the debate was more about Todd pontificating about the issues instead of giving the candidates a forum for their views.  That assessment was actually backed by data: A tally of words spoken during the debate showed that he spoke more than seven of the candidates-- despite having four other moderators, no less!

Todd has also long faced criticism for conducting interviews that are overly friendly and lacking in appropriate follow-up questions. Critics argue that he fails to press politicians on important issues, allowing them to dodge difficult questions. This has led to accusations of bias and a lack of journalistic rigor.  In a 2019 Rolling stone interview, Todd was finally forced to admit he was “naive” about the GOP and Trump administration’s disinformation campaigns.  At last year's White House Correspondents' dinner, comedian Trevor Noah openly mocked Todd, as a sign that Todd had fallen out of favor, even with the progressive-learning audience.  During the dinner, Noah poked fun at Todd by asking him, “How are you doing?” before dropping the punch line.  “I’d ask a follow-up, but I know you don’t know what those are,” Noah quipped.

In 2020, Chuck Todd came under fire once again, after letting Donald Trump's trade adviser Peter Navarro claim that Democrats wanted more Americans to die during the coronavirus pandemic to boost their chances at the polls in November.  Instead of pushing back against such an outrageous claim, the lightweight host let the comment slide by responding, "I take your point."   Todd's failure to call out the Trump aide for what one Twitter commenter called a "disgusting" comment led to an avalanche of criticism for the NBC political director.  Around the time of the incident, Todd lost his 5 pm weekday slot on MSNBC in favor of the eminently more qualified Nicolle Wallace.

Then there was that infamous LA Times interview in which Todd said it wasn't his job as a journalist to correct every falsehood on his show."You can sit there and go down those rabbit holes of accountability interviews on generic political rhetoric, and you’ll have wasted 10 minutes. At the end of the day I believe my job is to surface as much information as the viewer needs. I also am a believer in light not heat," Todd claimed.  "There is no utility in lecturing somebody on air," he continued. "I’m concerned that we’ve conflated news and opinion too much." The fact that Todd views pushing back on false narratives as “lecturing” tells you everything you need to know. Todd comes across as a spineless journalist who is easily steamrolled, and who has given liars a platform, thus legitimizing them.

In the face of criticism over his predilection for false equivalencies, Todd defended his pattern of booking election deniers on his show-- saying "You don’t know when somebody you think deserves to be banned is suddenly somebody that you’ve got to deal with. Because you may not like them, but they have the power."  In the face of intense backlash for that position, Todd seemed to genuinely not realize that election deniers mostly get that “power” by being handed a media platform and attention.

In March 2022, No-luck Chuck stuck his foot in his mouth when he tried to claim that President Joe Biden didn't have a "loyal fan base." The criticism was swift and harsh.  "Chuck is an uninformed idiot. Just because 81 million of us don’t wear T-shirts, wrap up our cars in banners, and build golden idols, doesn’t mean we aren’t out there," replied one angry Twitter user. "Hey, Chuck, are you assuming Biden doesn't have a loyal fan base because we haven't stormed the Capitol, vandalized the building, and assaulted police officers?" said another detractor.  For the record, Joe Biden's 81 million votes in 2020 was 15% more than Obama garnered in 2008.

Later that year, Todd suffered another blow when NBC brass moved his "Meet the Press Daily" from MSNBC to the streaming service NBC News NOW.  The change was widely seen as a demotion.  Rumors of efforts to bounce him from MTP began to circulate soon thereafter. 

In May 2023, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse had to school the uninformed Chuck Todd during a live interview, after Todd tried to argue that Congress does not have the power to regulate ethics rules for the Supreme Court.  "The work that we're doing on ethics in the court ought to be easy, and yet it's not," Whitehouse said during a MTP special program on the Supreme Court. "So I think that the first step is going to be for the judicial conference, the other judges, to put some constraints around the Supreme Court's behavior and treat the Supreme Court the way all other federal judges are treated, and that happens inside the judiciary."

"The Chief Justice has to make this decision, though, right?" Todd asked. "Separation of powers, whether, I mean, it's pretty established, Congress can't make a law that does that, right?"  Whitehouse informed the host he was mistaken about how the Constitution work-- "No, it absolutely can," the Senator laughed.   "Well, it doesn't mean it's constitutional," Todd replied, clearly struggling.  The Senator helpfully explained, telling Todd, "It's constitutional because the laws that we're talking about right now are actually laws passed by Congress. The ethics reporting law that is at the heart of the Clarence Thomas ethics reporting scandal is a law passed by Congress." 

Chuck Todd leaving Meet the Press is a big win for journalism. Chuck Todd being replaced by Kristen Welker is an even better thing.  Welker will be the first Black woman to serve as host on the show.