NBC News’ Chuck Todd dismisses notion of a liberal bias in the media as GOP talking point that stuck
'We did let Republican critics get in our heads'
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}NBC News anchor Chuck Todd dismissed the notion that there is a liberal bias in the media as a Republican talking point that has been repeated so many times that the left now believes it – but he wishes his mainstream media colleagues fought back to combat the theory.
"I think objectivity and fairness are not the same thing in some ways. You can’t define objectivity as sort of being equal, that we know. You can’t balance the truth, that we know," Todd told The Verge editor-in-chief Nilay Patel when asked how he maintains a sense of fairness.
NBC News political director and "Meet the Press" moderator Chuck Todd dismissed the notion that there is a liberal bias in the media. (Photo by: William B. Plowman/NBC)
"So you have to be fair and have an open mind," Todd added. "Where we did get lost in this, and this sort of happened to mainstream media in particular, is that we did let Republican critics get in our heads, right?"
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Todd, the host of "Meet The Press" since 2014, then said conservatives claim there is "a liberal bias in the media" and implied the concept isn’t accurate despite decades of mainstream media organizations favoring Democratic ideology and even suppressing news that’s harmful to the left.
"The Republicans have been running on, ‘There’s a liberal bias in the media,’" Todd said. "If you say something long enough, there are liberals who say there’s a liberal bias in the media when you see polling now."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"I think I’m one of those liberals," Patel responded.
"Right. The point is, if you say it enough, a lot of people believe it," Todd said.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"The Republicans have subsumed all of this and it’s turned into this. We should have fought back better in the mainstream media. We shouldn’t [have] accepted the premise that there was liberal bias. We should have defended," Todd said. "I hear the attacks on fact checkers where they ‘fact-check Republicans six times more than they fact-check Democrats.’ Yeah. Perhaps the Republicans are being factually incorrect more often than the Democrats."
Todd feels the mainstream media "overcorrected" the talking point that there is a liberal bias in the media.
"We ended up in this both-sides trope. We bought into the idea that, oh my God, we’re perceived as having a liberal bias," he said.
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Todd's remarks come on the heels of more mainstream figures like fellow NBC anchor Lester Holt who reject the notion of having to treat both sides of an issue equally, with Holt saying fairness was "overrated." While some observers appreciate the honesty of more reporters not pretending to be objective, others told Fox News that blending opinion and reporting undermines trust in journalism further.