NBC's Chuck Todd Pushes False Equivalency That Obama Is "Swift Boating Romney"

[NNN0LHI]

http://mediamatters.org/video/2012/07/22/chuck-todd-pushes-false-equivalency-that-obama/187275

July 22, 2012 2:05 PM EDT

Video at link

[chelsea0011]

1. Didn't take long for the media to bite onto a RW talking point. Nice job Mr Journalism

[still_one]

10. The last week before the shootings the MSM has been trying to do that. Most of their talking point

was that polls were showing people were not persuaded with the negative ads Obama was posting. That is an incorrect assessment. It takes time for things penetrate, and relative to the constant negative coverage the media has been slamming this administration with for most of his presidency, without equal time, I believe that does not look good for romney

Look at Wisconsin. As disgusting as the results of the recall were, the polls at the same time indicated that Obama was leading romney in that state

The corporate media and wall street are worried, otherwise why would they be throwing everyone into trying to defeat Obama

[flamingdem]

2. They need to muzzle Mr. Todd

He's getting rabid

[gordianot]

3. Where was his concern when they swiftboated John Kerry? n/t

[karynnj]

12. The media, with a few exceptions, condoned and amphlified the SBVT - ignoring that it was the Navy's

account that was being disputed. The sad thing is that the media's duplicity extends even beyond the election with the AP often defining the SBVT as having "questioned" Kerry's service - rather than "lied about".

However, they did rise in near unison when the essentially true Rather story possibly had a fake document.

Here, Obama's comments are backed by SEC, Massachusetts and FEC documents signed by Mitt Romney. The difference with 2004 is the official documents in 2004 were ALL on Kerry's side and no proof was asked of the SBVT. In fact, the editor of the WP said that they were not responsible to arbitrate on the truth and refused to call swiftboating unfair until after the election. Now, they seem to be calling Unfair when the Democrats have proof that questions need to be answered.

Here is a link to a Bloomberg article that is appearing in various places that does the same thing - and calls out Obama more than the SBVT! It then goes on to make the bizarre point that Mormons are good kind people - Romney is a Mormon - so he should own his faith and he is good and kind as well. http://brainerddispatch.com/opinion/columnists/2012-07-22/romney-campaign-should-have-faith-his-faith Sorry for snarky summary, but this is a thoroughly disgraceful piece on both points and on defending the SBVT by implying Kerry overplayed his military experience - as if a war hero Republican would mention it less. Kerry actually rarely spoke of his heroism - just that he served - and his expertise was 20 years on the SFRC for foreign policy and the Finance, Small Business and Commerce committee for domestic policy. The debates showed how competent he was on all issues.


This bias extended even to the wives. Teresa was always negatively characterized even though she was highly praised when her first husband was alive as charming, beautiful and brilliant. There was no mention of her very real accomplishments with her foundation including the fact that she initiated the effort in the 1990s where Pittsburgh's philanthropists revitalized the then troubled city. Meanwhile, Laura was Mrs Perfect. (Note the longer term pattern - Hillary, Michelle and (to a lesser degree) Tipper were all considered fair to criticize - unlike Laura and Ann.)

[Fumesucker]

4. Wait a minute..

Is Swiftboating a _bad_ thing now?

It's so damn hard to keep up..

[LynneSin]

6. Only when democrats do it

Just saying!

[Vinca]

5. Revealing the truth isn't "Swiftboating."

[KansDem]

7. Corporate media is coming out swinging for Romney

Obama is "swift boating" Romney?

Let's rehash--

Swift boating is what Bush operatives did to Kerry: lying about his record as a bonafide war hero in order to make TANG deserter Bush more appealing (it didn't matter; DIEBOLD won the election for him)

Obama campaign is simply asking for what Romney's father did: release 12 years of tax records. And when Romney refuses and Obama campaign asks "why?", the Romneys call this "swift boating?"

OMG!
GOP?
WTF!

[xocet]

8. "Swift-boating" meme starting at Time Index 2:43

Dan Rather does not dispute Todd's characterization. In fact, the whole panel seems to go along with it.

They are simply a chorus singing a refrain.

[jillan]

9. Lies vs Truth is just too complicated for Chucky!

[Gidney N Cloyd]

11. The unfortunate thing is, Todd's probably doing this because he's a dope and not because he's...

...TRYING to establish an equivalency. I'll bet he really doesn't fathom the meaning of the expression. To Todd, 'backstabbed' is just another word for 'knifed.'

[tsuki]

16. I have to agree. Chuckie was probably presented

with this talking point and thought "kewl, makes me look smart".

[Arugula Latte]

13. The media went right along with the real Swiftboating in '04

Now they think "pointing out facts" is swiftboating and they're outraged. Outraged, I tell you!

[progressivebydesign]

14. Unfucking believable... Since WHEN is asking a candidate for the BASIC info "swifboating?"

That is so unbelievable.

More unbelievable is that the MSM did nothing when the Rove's mentor handed out those purple band aids to trash a Purple Heart recipient. The media did NOTHING.

Perhaps their idea of swiftboating is to aggressively pursue a topic, in order to discredit your opponent. I suppose if I lived in a 3 million dollar apartment in the Upper Westside, and had a driver to take me to work at the studios every day, I might lose the ability to think like a regular person. But when you live like fucking royalty because you sit and bellow all day, and get millions from a right wing corporation, I could see how you'd be so out of touch that you don't know the difference.

Those assholes. They SHOULD be angry that Romney has erased his Gov. records, hidden the Olympics records, "retired retroactively" and lied to the SEC or FEC and the media, AND has not even disclosed one FULL year of tax returns!!! Corporate America (Bain) has destroyed the media. These guys are a bunch of manicured twits in Italian suits who haven't done their own laundry in 30 years. .

[Quantess]

15. Yuck.

That felt like they were all shilling for Romney.

[young_at_heart]

17. Last week Peter Alexander copied Fox News with out-of-context Obama statement

We wrote to NBC complaining about their untruthful story. Now we have this!!