Chuck Todd is not alone but seems to attempt a gravitas with a foundation of false knowledge that gives Right Wing and Trumpian fallacies plausibility.
Chuck Todd shows why media many times not a serious institution
Chuck Todd became a part of the Right Wing misinformation campaign with a statement he made discussing Mark Cuban & Gennifer Flowers possibly attending the debate. After finding out that Cuban, the Texas billionaire, may be sitting in the front row in support of Clinton, Todd suggested he would invite Gennifer Flowers. She is the woman who had an affair with President Clinton for 12 years.
Chuck Todd had some unsolicited advice for Donald Trump. He said it would be more appropriate to use grieving Benghazi mothers. That is a media fail in several respects. First, he is suggesting tactics for the Trump campaign. Worse, however, he gave credibility to the Right Wing Benghazi conspiracy misinformation campaign.
Chuck Todd: the idea of gamesmanship, which is the Clinton Campaign deciding to put Mark Cuban in the front row.
Obviously, the Donald Trump campaign may or may not be following through with Trump’s pledge to bring Gennifer Flowers, there’s some question here. My guess is others are trying to talk him out of it. But you guys did this in ’04. Give an example of gamesmanship that you did.
Stephanie Cutter: Well, I seem to recall that we had some 9/11 widows in the audience in 2004 just to make the point that we had a lot of work to do to get back on track in Afghanistan and Iraq took us off course. And Iraq took us off course because of Bush not telling the truth about weapons of mass destruction.
What Clinton and Trump are doing are trying to throw each other off their game. The difference is Hillary Clinton is doing it with a legitimate businessman, also, a celebrity. And as John Podesta put it earlier on your show, Trump is just jumping right down in the sewer and swimming in it by inviting Gennifer Flowers. I think part of what you want to do in putting somebody in the audience is to reinforce a positive about your campaign or make a legitimate point about your opponents. What he’s doing is not going to help him.
Chuck Todd: Steve Schmidt, it would have made more sense to me had Trump responded with bringing a grieving mother of one of the Benghazi grieving family members, that seems to be- would have been the counter that would have made policy sense.
Steve Schmidt: Well, you just saw the effectiveness of the tactic. It was clearly designed to provoke Donald Trump and it provoked Donald Trump, it provoked Donald Trump into going down the Gennifer Flowers rabbit hole, as opposed to doing what you’re suggesting, Chuck.
We need better news media. Our democracy depends on it.