At the very end of Sunday’s Meet the Press, moderator Chuck Todd despaired, at how Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s characterization of a BuzzFeed story as “incorrect,” would be exploited by media critics:
“We’ve got to remind people, though, there are people who want to exploit this. They want to see us be put this way. And they’re just doing it for exploitation purposes. So let’s not give them the ammunition.”
But Todd failed to recognize that he and NBC, among many media outlets, provided the ammunition by promoting the story without regard to its accuracy.
On Friday, Savannah Guthrie opened NBC’s Today show: “Breaking overnight: Bombshell. The new report that says President Trump himself ordered his lawyer Michael Cohen to lie to Congress, a potential game-changer with claims that the special counsel, Robert Mueller, has e-mails, documents and testimony to prove it. What the president’s side is saying this morning.”
In the subsequent segment, Todd backed the importance of the allegation: “You can’t overstate how significant this development is, with the caveat of the ‘if true.’”
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