Chuck Todd must go

I have watched 'Meet the Press' for many, many years.  Perhaps I should say I used to watch 'Meet the Press' but I can't really stomach it much anymore.

Tim Russert gave the show the legitimacy that it needed as a valued news program.  Then he passed away from a sudden coronary thrombosis on June 13, 2008.  It was a great loss.  Not just of a good man but of a good political show.

It was also a great loss for NBC.  Their news program collectively is crap.  It is totally biased, nonobjective and non journalistic.  They maybe able to convince themselves that they have integrity but it only exist within the minds of their own small group of bobbing heads sitting around their round table discussions.

When Chuck Todd is the cream that raises to the top of your cup and is considered the best choice to take control of the most prestigious political show on your network then you have a serious credibility, integrity and believability crisis in what is usually the core strength of any national network and that is its' news coverage.  Without that you are sitting on a chair that is missing one of its' legs, all wobble and little comfort.

Of course the other networks don't have any better bragging power.  Chris Wallace on Fox and George Stephanopoulos on ABC (and who does CBS have I can't recall); what have any of them got to offer?  Where does a person turn to get real, unbiased, objective, true journalistic news?

I recently did a survey about this years political election coverage and the type of questions and multiple answer format was interesting.  It gave me the impression that they do not get it either.

I don't think that anyone with a more than passing interest in politics and the election is able to get all the information they need from one source.  Not legitimately anyway.  I also don't believe that any reporting is complete and unbiased enough to accept one version, and that it requires several different versions and much reading between the lines to get a more complete picture of any given topic.  It cannot be done by visiting only one site.  It takes effort.  Sometimes a lot of effort.  You might not find it worth the effort.  Many don't.

As the noise gets louder and more voluminous it is good to install filters that cut out the worst of the worst and ensure that the sites and sources with little or no value added are cut from your view.  Shove it to the peripherals or off the screen entirely.

And that is where Chuck Todd belongs.  I have added him to my automatic 'switch the channel' list.

This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farrwest.