Chuck Todd Slips & Refers To Conservative Critics As "WE" & Implies Obama Is Muslim Leader

[kpete]

Run time: 01:36 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GYyIZYJONs   Posted on YouTube: January 08, 2010 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: January 10, 2010 By DU Member: kpete Views on DU: 5517

 
Did an MSNBC Host Refer to Obama as a Muslim Leader? (VIDEO)

Friday 08 January 2010

by: Jan Frel | AlterNet

Chuck Todd also admits a conservative bias.

Chris Matthews asks Chuck Todd about Obama's "liberal" approach to fighting terrorism. Toward the end of the clip Todd slips up and refers to Obama's conservative critics as "we." And he also implies Obama is a 'Muslim leader.' (h/t Crooks and Liars)
more:http://www.truthout.org/topstories/10910vh1

Transcript:

Matthews: Chuck, do you think he can hold this line that we're going to remain a liberal society in terms of human rights and trial by jury and habeas corpus, Miranda and also not get really angry in a reactive way to the Islamic world generally. Get that bunker mentality that Israel takes from time to time. The whole neighborhood hates us, we've got to be reactive to that. Can he keep us from that point of view and that mentality?

Todd: I think it's tough but the greater challenge is that there aren't enough other Muslim leaders around the world who stand up and criticize al-Qaeda publicly enough, You know this is the great challenge here and I think this is what makes it harder for him to win this argument with the right in this country. There aren't enough examples around the world where we have leaders of other Muslim nations who stand up and loudly yell, these guys in Yemen are thugs....

The president believes in his heart that 99% Muslims around the world believe this is not a violent religion, an extremist religion, but there is so much fear in the middle east form some of these leaders that they're going to be toppled by this extremist movement that they're afraid to speak out about it and that of course puts the president in a box here politically with his own domestic critics because we sit here, I think you see conservatives sit here and say hey, it doesn't seem like the Muslim world wants to stop these guys.
http://www.truthout.org/topstories/10910vh1

[benld74]

1. CHuck Todd is a snake in a goatee and suit, corporate shill,

[bkohatlanta]

15. Edward R. Murrow, Helen Thomas, Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart are Journalists

Because they sought the truth and spoke the truth to Power.
Dr. Joseph Goebbels was not. He was the anti-journalist and neither are you, Chuck Todd.
As to you, Chuck, Zieg Heil! Keeping the Dream Alive(FROM BERLIN AND THE BUNKER 1945)

[Enrique]

2. that's right out of right-wing radio

it's really spooky to see Todd saying this shit.

Why exactly is Obama responsible for what "Muslim leaders" say?

Was Bush "in a box" because of what Muslim leaders said or didn't say? He had much deeper ties to "the Muslim world" than Obama does.

[housewolf]

3. I interpret the words differently

I heard "we" as meaning "the world", "doesn't have enough", and "other muslim leaders" as meaning non-terrorisn-supporting muslim leaders.

[pundaint]

11. The "we" in question was 10 seconds from the end, not the first one.

[eringer]

4. Chuck Todd Needs to Go

This is one example of his critical nature toward our president. I noticed this many months ago and wish he would just go away.

[AlbertCat]

5. "I think... I think....I think...."

Who cares what you "think" Chuck? You're an actor in a suit. You are no expert. You're not even a journalist because journalists report news, not tell us what they "think".

[Zoeisright]

6. Fuck Todd is an asshole of the first order.

I can't believe he hasn't slithered over to FAUX News.

[Meldread]

7. That's not how I interpreted his comments.

Actually listening to it rather than reading the transcript gave me a different impression. It felt contextually different to me.

It seemed to me that he was talking about the mainstream media AND the conservatives. Not saying that he himself was a conservative, as both are questioning and criticizing Obama. Chris Matthews, while not a DU liberal, is a firm DLC Democrat and he was referring to him in particular in that "we sit here" statement. Chris Matthews since the Fruit of the Boom incident should be called Chicken Little. He attacks Dick Cheney, but he is almost as bad and doesn't even realize it.

[Cosmocat]

35. Flat out, he exposed the fact that 95% of the MSM ...

view themselves as having the job of advancing right wing bullspit ...

[Stinky The Clown]

8. That's one tortured interpretation of the video/transcript. The writer's implication is wrong ......

......... in my view.

The context of "other Muslim leaders" is referring to the jihadists/extremists vis a vis the rest of the Muslim world.

The context of "we" was just bad talking head speak.

[LeftyMom]

16. The real reason to throw Chuck Todd under the bus got explained on the thread.

He's critical of the President. We can't have that in a political analyst now, can we. He's supposed to take what the White House says at face value. You know, like we all rightly criticized many media figures for doing during the Bush years. But it's different now, or something.

Anyhow, he doesn't appear sufficiently enchanted with Obama, so it's time to make some shit up about him being a closet right wing nutcase and try to discredit him. Word must have come down from high atop Mount Pom Pom on that one.

[Yavin4]

9. Chuck Reveals The Biggest Flaw In The US Strategy

Like a lot of other loudmouths, Chuck believs that Muslim leaders of nations have this magical ability to completely control the actions and behaviors of their citzenry. Yemen, like Afghnistan, like Pakistan, like Iraq have large and small population clusters who don't give a rat's ass what, in their eyes', their U.S. puppet leaders have to say.

By focusing on building these centralized puppet governments, we're only giving more power and more say to these disparate population clusters which may or may not give aid and comfort to people who want to harm us.

[bertman]

10. Whoa, that's a BIG stretch to interpret his comments that way. I'm no Chuck Todd fan

but I didn't think he implied or meant what the OP says he did.

[EFerrari]

13. Grammatically, he did include Obama in the group "Muslim leaders"

at the top of his remarks, ("around the world, there aren't enough other Muslim leaders") and at the very end, he did say "we sit there, I think you see conservatives sit there and say" --

So, the claim the OP makes is literally true.

But none of it seemed malicious to me. Maybe sloppy but not malicious. Maybe the real take away is that Chuck Todd isn't in good control of his own mouth.

[bertman]

14. I agree about Chuck and his mouth.

[jberryhill]

27. He also referred to "other muslim countries"

Which, if you wanted to be a grammar stickler, also meant that Chuck Todd believes the US is one.

[EFerrari]

29. Exactly. He was being sloppy, not mean.

The thing about Todd is that he does have a mean streak but I didn't see it here, anyway.

[EmeraldCityGrl]

12. Chuck Todd is an inarticulate slob.

but I don't think either of his comments were meant the way you interpreted them.

[davidpdx]

17. I agree, it was more about Todd being inarticulate then

pushing right wing talking points. I am not a fan of Todd per se, but some of his coverage during the 2008 election wasn't bad. Maybe he's gone down hill since then.

The OP makes it sound like he's a birther.

[ChiciB1]

28. EmeraldCityGrl... I Agree With You! While I'm No Big "Fanny" Of Todd's

I can't say that the comments were meant the way the poster looks at them! As a Liberal, I do feel Todd is much more to the RIGHT than me! Still, I have seen him defend Obama at times.

[Enthusiast]

18. I'm not a Chuck Todd fan

but I don't believe he intentionally meant to say President Obama is a Muslim leader.

[Ichingcarpenter]

19. 2007 since joining MSNBC Todd only good things about the GOP- Bad things Democratic

Since Chuck Todd assumed duty as NBC News political director on March 12, he has made numerous appearances on the network in which he spoke positively about Republicans, making broad, unsupported, and, in some cases, rebuttable assertions, while making negative, equally unsupported comments about Democrats.

For example:

On March 12, Todd asserted that former Sen. Fred Thompson (R-TN) is "one of these people that can probably keep the entire conservative coalition together, the social conservatives, the economic conservatives, and the religious conservatives." Approximately two weeks after that comment, prominent social conservative James C. Dobson, Focus on the Family founder and chairman, said of Thompson, "I don't think he's a Christian; at least that's my impression," and added that "such an impression would make it difficult for Thompson to connect with the Republican Party's conservative Christian base and win the GOP nomination."

On March 28, Todd asserted that "t would be easy for" Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) "to criticize the war. The maverick thing to do is to actually take the unpopular stand." In saying this, Todd suggested that McCain's position on the war is one of a "maverick," despite the fact that other leading contenders for the Republican nomination also support President Bush's Iraq policy. As NBC News chief Washington correspondent Norah O'Donnell noted during the same segment, "McCain's chief rivals for the Republican nomination, Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani, also oppose a timeline for withdrawal and support a surge of U.S. troop strength." In addition, McCain voted with the vast majority of Senate Republicans to remove a redeployment goal from the Senate's Iraq funding bill, as Media Matters noted. And, contrary to Todd's suggestion that McCain has taken the politically unpopular approach of not criticizing the war, McCain has described himself as the "greatest critic of the way the war was being conducted."

On March 30, NBC News congressional correspondent Chip Reid noted that "some political analysts" say that President Bush's veto of an Iraq spending bill that includes a timeline for withdrawal "could strengthen Bush's hand." Reid then aired a clip in which Todd asserted that a veto would allow Bush "to look like the commander in chief," "stand up to the congressional Democrats," and "potentially put Democrats in a position of not funding the troops." Todd did not indicate why "stand up to the congressional Democrats" on a timeline for withdrawal might help Bush politically. A March 23-25 USA Today/Gallup poll found that 60 percent of respondents favored Congress "setting a time-table for withdrawing all U.S. troops from Iraq no later than the fall of 2008." Moreover, it is unclear why Bush's veto would put Democrats "in a position of not funding the troops." It could also be said, as Rep. John P. Murtha (D-PA) did on the March 29 edition of CNN's The Situation Room, "if Bush vetoes this bill, he's the one that's cutting off the money to the troops."

While Todd has repeatedly praised Republicans during these appearances, his comments about Democrats have been largely critical:

On March 21, discussing the possibility that former Vice President Al Gore might run for president, Todd said: "I think Al Gore doesn't sit well in a long period of time with the American people."

On March 22, Todd said of the congressional investigation into the Bush administration's firing of eight U.S. attorneys: "This is the danger for the Democrats, of looking like they're not doing the job that they were elected to do. They're not talking about Iraq, and instead they're picking a political fight." Since Todd's assertion of political "danger," polls have shown majorities or pluralities of Americans support Congress' investigation into the U.S. attorney dismissals. As Media Matters noted, the March 23-25 USA Today/Gallup poll found that 72 percent of respondents said "Congress should ... investigate the involvement of White House officials in this matter" and that 48 percent of respondents said "Democrats in Congress" were spending the "right amount" or "not ... enough" time on the matter, compared with 40 percent of respondents who said Democrats were spending "too much" time on the matter. Similarly, a March 16-19 Pew Research Center for the People and the Press poll found that 60 percent of respondents said Congress was spending "too little, or the right amount of time conducting investigations of possible government wrongdoing," while 31 percent of respondents said Congress was spending "too much" time.


More of Todd's anti democratic party opinions here, But you get the picture.


http://mediamatters.org/research/200703300009


More of Chuck Todd's Right Wing Slant and they go on for years and pages of documentation

http://clips.mediamatters.org/search/tag/chuck_todd

[BetterThanNoSN]

20. Todd's disrespect

I can still remember an exchange in an early Obama Q and A with reporters when Chuckie Todd was called on by the President he said, 'thank you sir'. It struck me as a blatant show of his disrespect for this man and his office and I was curious if he had any other exchanges with the president in which he refused to call him President Obama or Mr. President. I think Chuck is part of that good ol' boys club.

[Joanne98]

21. And they gave him a show on MSNBC

[Hubert Flottz]

22. I saw through Chuck from day one...

Look at the questions he asks in the pressers. K&R

[Krashkopf]

23. Really . . . there aren't more important things to post about than THIS?!

This is much adieu about nothing.

[grahamhgreen]

26. It's just another example of right wing media bias, is all.

[tomm2thumbs]

31. the video headline was so stretched, it snapped like an old rubber band

and I'm no Chuck Todd fan

[BenjaminFranklin]

24. perfect example

This thread is a perfect example of how similar WE are to the rethugs. If you're not a crazy teabag birther then you're not rethug enough. Conversely, if you're not a DU Liberal or a KOS Liberal or a HuffPo Liberal then you're not donkey enough. I'm about to the point where I'm ready to say screw you guys, I'm going home. Obama hasn't lived up to what he has said he would do. He's caved to the same power and money that monkeyboy Bush gave handjobs to for eight years. I voted for Hillary in the primaries and I know our agenda would be much further along at this point in her presidency if she had won. I hope Obama gets a primary challenge in 2012. I'm not completely bailing on him but I'm not drinking the koolaid, either. He's not above criticism and just because one is a critic doesn't automatically make them a birther teabagging handjob.

[spiritual_gunfighter]

25. I didnt interpret the "other Muslim leaders" quote

as pertaining to Obama. Todd's point is actually correct, you don't see other Muslim leaders condemning the actions of AQ. What was really telling was the "we" slip and how he tried to save it by using the term "conservatives", he actually made his slip worse by using the word "conservatives" which was extremely telling.

I thought the tenuous "other Muslim leaders" quote took away from the substance of this piece, where the real story was the "we" slip.

[California Griz]

30. Your beating a dead horse

I don't think there are many here who don't believe CNN is dominated by right wing corporate shills.

[JI7]

32. if you go by what you are saying, Chuck Todd is also referring to America as a Muslim Nation

[lib2DaBone]

33. Chuck Todd has ALWAYS been a R/W shill since his days at C-SPIN

He has just moved up the food chain at NBC. I look for him to replace David Gregory in the near future on Meet the Stenographers.

[lib2DaBone]

34. Also, there can be no progress, until Americans realize that...

AL-Qaeda is a complete pipe dream and creation of Robert Gates when he ran the CIA in 1981.

Yes.. the same Robert Gates that is our current SOD.

Al Qeada literally means (in arabic) "The list". i.e. A list of mercenaries recruited by the CIA to fight against Russia in Afghanistan in the 80's.

Folks.. it is a scam.. the whole stinking WOT is a giant SCAM.

[orbitalman]

36. Well, I remember what Chuck Todd did to Dennis Kucinich...

in the earlier days of primary presidential debates and he was producing the debate and wouldn't allow Dennis in the debate group because he wasn't as high in the polls as some of the others. For that, I will NEVER forgive him. That kind of shit help kill Dennis.