Chuck Todd and the producers of
Meet the Press are scrambling to make amends for an
epic screw-up Sunday, in which they ran a segment about gun violence featuring only black criminals ... days after and during a discussion of a racist mass murder involving a white killer and black victims. Todd introduced the segment by noting that it had been planned ahead of the massacre in Charleston, then, in the face of criticism, gave an intro to the segment trying to make things right:
The circumstances you are about to see are very different from the racist violence in Charleston. In this case the inmates are African-American that you’ll hear from. But their lessons remain important. We simply ask you to look at this as a colorblind issue that’s about simply gun violence.
Not. Good. Enough. "Let us show you a series of black men talking about their past crimes and you can just see it as colorblind. Go ahead, we won't stop you."
Todd took another crack at it Monday morning, tweeting that "We’ve heard you. We clearly got it wrong and we are sorry."
Being sorry is all very well. Getting it right, or at least not quite so egregiously wrong, would be better.