In a recent The Atlantic blog post, blogger Matt Yglesias inexplicably writes he "100% agrees with" a Jonah Goldberg recommendation to turn Meet The Press into a panel-show hosted by Chuck Todd.
A Matt Yglesias commenter (in a comment typical of those on the thread) writes: "I think Chuck Todd would be a great choice. Cerebral, likeable, not overtly ideological, not a blowhard, projects competence."
But Chuck Todd is a typical corporate media shill who uses his position in the mainstream-media to trim the facts presented to the public and to promote Republicans!
This is the latest in a disturbing little trend of support for Chuck Todd as the replacement for Russert on the liberal side of the blogosphere. But Todd is nothing more than a punk who shouldn't be in charge of anything close-to-being political any more than someone like the babysitter who hits your kids with a wooden spoon for crying or being noisy when you're out, or takes off with his/her boyfriend/girlfriend when he/she's supposed to be watching the kids, should.
On the contrary, it would be nice if liberals were calling for someone kind of, you know, liberal to be the moderator/host.
Chuck Todd is the same thing as Russert was: a Nazi doing a nice-guy impression. Any liberal who likes him is only fooled by Todd's using a non-combative tone of voice and displaying a superficial familiarity with a smattering of cherry-picked facts here and there. Todd is no apolitical professional. He is a Media Matters repeat offender.
If you are not convinced, here are a few headlines and links to stories on their page dedicated to him:
NBC's Todd touted McCain as a "moderate," but McCain's own words and record tell a different story
In "[s]eriously stunning" critique of Media Matters "debate 'don'ts,' " NBC's Chuck Todd left out all those referring to NBC's Russert
Will NBC ask Todd about prediction that Bush approval would top 50 percent by July 4?
There are 18 other Media Matters articles tagged with his name! Check out their page!
Fuck that guy.
I also have to say this is the latest in a long string of failings by former heavyweights like Matt, Kevin Drum, and Steve Benen over a period of something like 6 months to a year. Hopefully they will get with it and stop printing weird recommendations and statements on their blogs, and get over whatever influence is being asserted on them to make them act this way.