Far-left journalist Chuck Todd has stepped down from anchoring the weekly TV newsmagazine “Meet the Press” after nearly a decade, but he wasn’t offered much in the way of congratulations on social media.
Todd, well-known for his Democrat-friendly, anti-conservative schtick, was lambasted by critics online after a clip of his hand-off to NBC White House correspondent Kristen Welker and sign-off went viral.
“For nearly a decade, I’ve had the honor of helping to explain America to Washington and Washington to America. And it’s that education piece that I’m hanging my hat on for the rest of my professional life,” Todd said.
Todd actually announced in June he would be leaving the show. But following his send-off, many on the right celebrated his departure, even if they didn’t really expect Welker to be much different.
“Chuck Todd is the worst host ever for Meet The Press. I do thank him for being the first person to open my eyes to media bias. I hadn’t noticed it until he took over for Tim Russert,” wrote another user.
“Breaking … Chuck Todd has reached his limit in lies and is stepping down,” the Catturd account quipped.
The conservative media watchdog group the Media Research Center put together a montage of Todd’s “greatest hits” in advance of his last day to showcase his left-wing bias.
Newsbusters, a division of MRC, added:
Todd has been moderator of the Sunday roundtable show since 2014 and in that time he put down a pretty big stamp of his own liberal bias on NBC’s political programming.
During his tenure Todd called the conservative Supreme Court “rigged,” attacked Republicans for having “blood on their hands” on COVID and blamed 2nd Amendment supporters for mass shootings.
Todd also repeatedly pushed progressive takes and promoted liberal heroes like former Vice President Al Gore.
“It’s been an amazing nearly decade-long run. I am really proud of what this team and I have built over the last decade,” he said during the show in June. “I’ve loved so much of this job, helping to explain America to Washington and explain Washington to America.”
He plans to stay as a part of the NBC News team as a chief political analyst and focus on long-form journalism.
“When I took over ‘Meet the Press,’ it was a Sunday show that had a lot of people questioning whether it still could have a place in the modern media space,” he said. “Well, I think we’ve answered that question and then some.”
NBC News’ president of editorial, Rebecca Blumenstein, and NBC News’ senior vice president of politics, Carrie Budoff Brown addressed his departure in a memo to staff.
“‘Meet the Press’ has sustained its historic role as the indispensable news program on Sunday mornings,” they said. “Through his penetrating interviews with many of the most important newsmakers, the show has played an essential role in politics and policy, routinely made front-page news, and framed the thinking in Washington and beyond.”
NBC News reported further at the time:
Welker joins the ranks of hosts that included Tim Russert, who presided over the show from 1991 until his death in 2008. She is the second woman — following its inaugural host, Martha Rountree — and the first Black journalist to moderate “Meet the Press.”
“Meet the Press” is the longest-running show on American television, celebrating its 75th anniversary last year. It has led its rival shows in total viewers for more than eight years and won its first Emmy during Todd’s tenure for a special report titled “Schools, America, and Race.”
Under Todd’s tutelage, the show declined steadily over the years, bottoming out in recent months.
“In top-secret rating data that has caught the attention of network brass, RadarOnline.com learned Meet The Press — the longest-running show in television history — recorded its lowest-rated quarter over the April-May-June period. Todd peaked at more than 4 million viewers in the first quarter of 2017 (January-February-March) in the midst of Donald Trump’s presidency,” Radar Online reported in June.