Talk:Chuck Todd

All the Mentions of Todd's "Education" Ignore the Fact That He Never Finished College

A biography of a fairly young person who is portrayed as an expert on politics is not complete unless it mentions the salient fact that Todd didn't finish college. Also, with regard to Todd's journalistic neutrality (or lack thereof), he worked for a Democrat's campaign. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.44.147.74 (talk) 00:08, 22 March 2010 (UTC)

Birth name and date

We need more biographical material. Is "Chuck" his given name at birth - or a nickname? Davidpatrick (talk) 16:38, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

"Far left"

Removed "far left" from the first sentence describing Todd's career. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 132.236.216.241 (talk) 18:42, 22 April 2009 (UTC)

Need for Consensus

I added personal information for Chuck Todd's wife thusly: "Kristian Denny Todd is a Democratic operative and communications professional."

I did not add this information to skew NPOV, but, rather, because my research shows that Todd's spouse is an active and well-profiled political professional in her own right. If you check source [16], you'll see a diagram of her professional relationships. A search returns many results for 'Kristian Denny Todd.'

What do folks here think?

Thanks. Mrs. Peel (talk) 23:42, 1 July 2009 (UTC)

Opposition to investigation of government officials

Todd's oppostion to investigation of government officials has not received much media attention but it is relevant because the role of chief White House correspondent for NBC News is one that would traditionally involve holding high government officials to account. Is there a more appropriate way for this material to be presented? Should it be included in an article about other major media that have expressed opposition to investigations?

Controversy

In a July 16, 2009 interview with civil liberties attorney and author Glenn Greenwald, Chuck Todd discussed his opposition to the investigation and possible prosecution of U.S. government officials who authorized torture. In clarifying his argument, Todd stated that he was simply representing the views of the Obama administration. However, as Greenwald observed in the interview, Todd's language and questions from Mika Brzezinski clearly indicated otherwise, and his reporting of the debate completely excluded the contrary opinion on the subject--namely that elected officials should be held to account for committing crimes. In the interview with Greenwald, Todd justified his opposition to criminal investigations due to the image of acrimony in Washington it would present:

Is it healthy for our reputation around the world - and this I think is that we have TO do what other countries do more often than not, so-called democracies that struggle with their democracy, and sit there and always PUT the previous administration on trial - you don't think that we start having retributions on this going forward?

Look, I am no way excusing torture. I'm not excusing torture, and I bristle at the attack when it comes on this specific issue. But I think the political reality in this, and, I understand where you're coming from, you're just saying, just because something's politically tough doesn't mean we shouldn't do it. That's, I don't disagree with you from 30,000 feet. And that is an idealistic view of this thing. Then you have the realistic view of how this town works, and what would happen, and is it good for our reputation around the world if we're essentially putting on trial the previous administration?

24.201.79.203 (talk) 15:21, 20 July 2009 (UTC)michael

Controversy Section

I hardly think the following rates the designation of Controversy, under its own section:

"Controversy

"Due to his generally uncritical commentary on the President's economic policies and other matters, Todd has been characterized by commentators including Rush Limbaugh as 'the stenographer of the Obama administration.' [20] [21]"

The clause, "Due to his generally uncritical commentary on the President's economic policies and other matters..." is a matter of opinion, not fact.

Therefore, I am deleting this section. Mrs. Peel (talk) 05:18, 3 January 2010 (UTC)

Indeed, primary sources and blogs are not sufficient reliable sources for a Controversy section. If an actual controversy can be sourced to reliable third-party coverage then it's of note. Otherwise it's "this guy said mean things about that guy" with no end in sight. - Dravecky (talk) 23:00, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

The controversy section specifically referenced at least two statements by Chuck Todd (including an interview) which caused commentators across a broad political spectrum (NYT best selling author Glenn Greenwald and radio show host Limbaugh) to question his impartiality, impartiality which is expected from a political analyst in Todd's position. Clearly this is a significant element in Todd's bio, as this controversy has resonated among activists of all political shades, as evidenced by the referenced sources, which are no less authoritative than those in comparable "controversy" sections in other articles. How many more sources must one cite to confirm this? Also, why not relabel or rephrase the content, rather than remove it outright? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.134.160.52 (talk) 19:59, 12 January 2010 (UTC)

This is still sourced only to primary sources, a couple of blogs, and a YouTube video. It's also given WP:UNDUE weight in the article as it's longer than the section on his entire career with NBC News. If there was a controversy then it would have been covered by other media outlets, this gaining reliable third-party coverage. Without such coverage, this section does not belong in any biography of a living person. - Dravecky (talk) 21:34, 12 January 2010 (UTC)

Hi, Dravecky: Glad you're on this and WP:UNDUE weight. Otherwise, it would go on ad infinitum. Cheers. Mrs. Peel (talk) 21:45, 16 January 2010 (UTC)

Dravecky and Mrs. Peel are not following Wikipedia policies. WP:NPOV requires us to include opinions on all sides, and blogs can be WP:RS:

WP:BIASED "Wikipedia articles are required to present a neutral point of view. However, reliable sources are not required to be neutral, unbiased, or objective. Sometimes non-neutral sources are the best possible sources for supporting information about the different viewpoints held on a subject."

WP:BLOGS "Self-published expert sources may be considered reliable when produced by an established expert on the subject matter, whose work in the relevant field has previously been published by reliable third-party publications." --Nbauman (talk) 09:59, 15 September 2017 (UTC)

Twitter

I have replaced the link to Chuck Todd's verified Twitter account in the External Links section, this time using {{Twitter}} as WP:ELNO is not a blanket prohibition on linking to Twitter accounts and I believe this is a useful link. I have also started a discussion at Wikipedia talk:External links#Proposal to Amend Policy for Journalists proposing a slight amendment to WP:ELNO. Thanks. --Flyguy33 (talk) 08:37, 9 April 2011 (UTC)

External links modified

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to one external link on Chuck Todd. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add {{cbignore}} after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add {{nobots|deny=InternetArchiveBot}} to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:

• Added archive https://web.archive.org/20130926223805/http://www.maverickstrat.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2&Itemid=5 to http://www.maverickstrat.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2&Itemid=5

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true to let others know.

This message was posted before February 2018. After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{source check}} (last update: 5 June 2024).

• If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with this tool.
• If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with this tool.

Cheers.—^{cyberbot II}_{Talk to my owner:Online} 00:03, 19 February 2016 (UTC)

Criticism by Young Turks

Here's a good critique of Todd. I'm parking it here for now because I first want to see what other criticism is around of Todd.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bl3JjBS_G1w
Chuck Todd: Bernie And Bannon Are The Same
Published on Sep 14, 2017
Chuck Todd thinks that Bernie’s Medicare-For-All bill is the same as Steve Bannon’s racism. Cenk Uygur, the host of The Young Turks, breaks it down.
(Chuck Todd says there is a purge of moderate governing wings on both parties. There is a wedge between the progressive and moderate left.)
"He just put Steve Bannon in the same category as Bernie Sanders. Are you insane? Bernie Sanders is the most popular politician in the country, and you just put him in the same basket as a total right-wing fringe lunatic whose in favor of white nationalism?"
--Nbauman (talk) 10:05, 15 September 2017 (UTC)

Interview with Ana Marie Cox

In this interview with Cox, Todd addresses many of the issues that people (including editors here) often complain about or discuss. Unfortunately, these quites are hard to summarize, because this feature in the New York Times Magazine is salready highly condensed. But it should go in, probably in the "NBC News" section. And it should go at the top, along with the "falsehoods" quote, because it's easier to understand the journalistic issues when you go from general to specific. For example, his comment about "coziness" should go before the dinner with Palmieri. I think there should be a "Journalism" section that gathers all his comments and controversy about his journalistic style and decisions.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/04/magazine/chuck-todd-thinks-its-important-to-stay-neutral.html
Chuck Todd Thinks It’s Important to Stay Neutral
Talk
Interview by ANA MARIE COX
New York Times
OCT. 4, 2017

My biggest change is that I feel the need to reinforce the wall between the news media and the politicians. The wall has always been there, but sometimes there have been too many holes in it. One legitimate criticism of the political press over the last two decades has been the appearance of coziness between people in the media and the political elite.

I don’t advocate — that’s the big difference. Now, that said, we’re all human beings. We’re born with original bias. By our very nature, we’re subjective. It’s not as if you can eradicate bias out of anything, but it’s about fairness.

--Nbauman (talk) 16:19, 8 October 2017 (UTC)