In an interview with Breitbart News Editor-at-Large John Nolte, new Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd took what some interpreted as a dig at Fox News chief Roger Ailes, telling Nolte “there are some practitioners in the media that view things as a campaign” and “it doesn’t help when any former political operative is involved as a news executive in any form” because “it’s all winning and losing.”
In response, a Fox News spokesperson told Breitbart News: “Chuck Todd should focus more on his declining ratings which have dropped each week since he took over. After all that drama, it’s remarkable his ratings are no higher than his predecessor.”
Fox News gave a similar response to other outlets like Politico that reported Nolte’s interview with Todd.
Ailes was once a media consultant for Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon, and George H.W. Bush. Todd himself was once a staffer for Tom Harkin during the Democrat Senator’s 1992 presidential campaign.
There are plenty of mainstream media heavy hitters who have worked for Democrats. George Stephanopoulos of ABC News is a former political operative and Clinton White House press secretary. The late Tim Russert worked for Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY), as did Lawrence O’Donnell at MSNBC. MSNBC’s Chris Matthews worked for Democrat House Speaker Tip O’Neill.
Todd told Nolte that he wanted to rehabilitate his business. Regardless of Todd’s viewpoints, he sincerely cares about the news industry and its future at a time when Americans’ trust in the mainstream press is at a record low, mainly because, as Todd has recognized, Americans view the media as being out of touch with their lives.
Though Todd may feel uncomfortable that Ailes was once a Republican operative, they both would agree that mainstream media journalists should be looking out for Americans who live far away from the Acela Corridor and, as Todd repeatedly emphasized to Nolte, have not done as well in an economy that has left many people behind.