Chuck Todd channels Jon Stewart
The opening of Meet The Press today was decidedly shocking. One could have replaced Chuck Todd with a more funny Jon Stewart and believe it was the Daily Show.
“He has refused to use the term Islamist or Radical Islam insisting that we are not at war with Islam but with some perversion of a great religion,” Chuck Todd said. “Conservatives argue that in doing so Mr. Obama is failing to recognize the true face of the enemy. So we wondered in this debate about semantics and security. Is there precedents for the President’s position?”
Chuck Todd then began the research journalism that has been lacking by the traditional mainstream media to compare statements from the Bush administration with those from the Obama administration. What was immediately obvious is how similar they were. They both acknowledged America is not at war with Islam. They both acknowledged that Middle Eastern terrorists are perverting the religion.
Chuck Todd then questioned the media for giving comments by Rudy Giuliani attacking the President a national platform. Giuliani questioned the president’s love for country and made otherwise racist remarks. “Should Giuliani’s opinion even matter though?” Chuck Todd asked. “Is it relevant or constructive? Those questions of course weren’t dealt with. Instead we got the inevitable media frenzy that was wholly unsatisfactory and likely met with more than a few eye rolls.”
Chuck Todd in a Jon Stewart’s Daily Show fashion showed snippets of an irresponsible hyperventilating media tripping over themselves to cover Rudy Giuliani’s racist, disrespectful, and outright meritless statements. He also showed timid Republican potential presidential candidates Governor Scott Walker and Governor Bobby Jindal refusing to correct or condemn Giuliani when asked for their opinions on his statements.
Senator Marco Rubio was one of the few Republicans that immediately displayed a rare integrity on the issue. “Suffice it to say I believe the President loves America,” Marco Rubio said. “I just think his ideas are bad.”
Both Meet The Press and ThisWeek covered both the Rudy Giuliani and Radical Islam ‘controversy’. George Stephanopoulos unlike Chuck Todd today, allowed a Republican, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), to go unchecked when he attacked the President for not using the term Radical Islam. He gave some cover to Republicans that refused to condemn Giuliani by falsely stating Republicans get more of the gotcha questions than Democrats.
Kudos go to Chuck Todd and Meet The Press today. One can only hope that he is encouraged by the positive reviews he should get for this episode.