This week’s Mainstream Media Scream features “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd giving retiring Attorney General Eric Holder a pass on claims he ran a political Justice Department.
During “breaking news” coverage of Holder’s announcement Thursday on MSNBC’s NewsNation, Todd said:
“What’s interesting about him, he’s a very nonpolitical person. And I think people used to mistakenly think that this guy was this long-time political operative who happened to be an attorney general. That’s not him at all. In fact, that used to get him in some hot water with some of the president’s own political aides who sometimes felt that Eric Holder wasn’t thinking about the politics of an issue. …
“Those type of issues where he’d get heat inside the White House because they felt he wasn’t political enough. And yet, to the outside world, he’d get criticized, say from Republicans on Capitol Hill, because they thought, ‘Oh, he’s being too much – too political.’ The guy wasn’t political at all and in many ways just ended up being the point person to attract a lot of – a lot of attacks.”
Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains our pick: “File this one under ‘Clueless in D.C.’ If Todd can’t recognize how political Holder has been as attorney general, he needs to focus on Holder a ‘What Everyone in Washington Knows, but is afraid to say’ segment on ‘Meet the Press,’ where he highlights what’s common knowledge amongst those in DC, so he can discover what is obvious to everyone else about Holder.”
Rating: Three out of five screams.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected].
