NBC News’ Chuck Todd has apologized for airing a gun violence video this weekend featuring only African-Americans, a programming choice that many called inappropriate following a racially motivated mass shooting event in Charleston, S.C., that left nine black people dead.
“We’ve heard you. We clearly got it wrong and we are sorry,” he said in a brief message posted to his Facebook page.
The “Meet the Press” segment, which featured the testimony of convicted African-American murderers at New York’s Sing Sing Correctional Facility who say they regret using firearms in the crimes they committed, referred to the issue of gun violence as “color blind.”
The video aired just days after nine African-Americans were shot and killed at Charleston’s Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church by an alleged white supremacist.
Dylann Storm Roof allegedly told victims prior to the shooting that they were targeted because they were black.
Washington Post columnist and regular “Meet the Press” columnist Eugene Robinson, an African-American, pushed back on the segment’s seeming disconnect.
“I thought that was a very powerful piece,” he said. “One small thing I would mention, because I haven’t seen the whole piece, is there wasn’t a terribly diverse set of people who were talking. Right now, we’re talking about a horrific crime committed by a white man.”
“We’re talking about the search for two escaped murderers who are white men. So, we should point out that this is not just an African-American problem,” he added.
Online media was also quick to condemn the video segment.
“The racist insanity of ‘Meet the Press’: How can Chuck Todd be so oblivious?” Salon asked in a headline.
The Huffington Post noted, ” ‘Meet The Press’ In Hot Water After Airing Gun Violence Video Featuring Only Black Shooters.”
Raw Story featured a story titled “WTF? NBC’s Chuck Todd airs ‘color-blind’ segment with all-black shooters to address Charleston massacre.”
By Sunday afternoon, the Twitter hashtag “#FireChuckTodd” had gained a full head of steam.
Todd originally stood by the Sing Sing video, reiterating that the topic of gun violence “wasn’t meant to be a black and white issue.”
“[T]he last thing we wanted was to cloud the discussion of the topic,” he wrote in a blog post Sunday. “We decided against delaying the segment because we wanted to show multiple sides of what gun violence does in this country. We thought the issue of gun violence in our culture and society was an important conversation to continue — too important to put off for another week.
“‘Meet the Press’ should make all viewers uncomfortable at some point or we are not doing our job,” Todd added. “I hope folks view the gun video as a part of the conversation we should all be having and not the totality of it.”
