Chuck Todd is finally apologizing for what he calls a ‘mistake’ on his segment featuring AG Barr’s interview with CBS News:
Chuck Todd offersa WEAK apology for @MeetThePress's deceptive Barr edit, blaming partial CBS clips as what NBC relied instead of the full interview. He called it "a mistake that I wish we hadn't made and one wish that I hadn't made….I obviously am very sorry for that mistake." pic.twitter.com/UrpxGAZ64w
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) May 12, 2020
As Houck suggests in his tweet, Todd claims he didn’t see Barr’s full answer because he saw a shorter clip of two clips that CBS News aired.
He then admits that they should have watched both clips and should have checked for a transcript, saying it was “a mistake that I wish we hadn’t made and one wish that I hadn’t made.”
So he’s going with lazy, shoddy journalism. You know what? I believe him. I believe that they saw the clip and loved it so much that they didn’t bother checking the transcript, which we posted on FRIDAY MORNING. Yes, several days before he aired his show CBS News had already published a full transcript of the interview on the 12th. It’s the height of irresponsibility that they didn’t bother even checking the transcript.
This is something I try to do as much as possible when vetting stuff. If I can find the transcript, so can Chuck Todd and his MTP team.
Given his platform, there should be serious consequences for this breach of trust. At best a suspension of several weeks for Todd, if not longer. And Meet the Press needs to run this correction at the top of their broadcast on Sunday Morning, not during the last minute of the show, that is if NBC truly regrets this mistake. Yeah, I’m not counting on either.