NBC’s Chuck Todd said it is unfair to lampoon the media over reporting on a BuzzFeed story that was shot down by special counsel Robert Mueller.
The host of “Meet the Press” told his guests Sunday that sufficient caveats were provided last week amid reports that President Trump directed his former lawyer to lie to Congress about potential business deals with Moscow.
Mr. Todd is worried that media critics will “exploit” the situation, given that Peter Carr, a spokesman for Mr. Mueller office, called key parts of BuzzFeed’s piece “not accurate.”
“I think the bigger thing is the entire media world,” Mr. Todd said. “We could all say we did the ’if trues’, and ’if trues’, and we said ’we could not confirm it.’ And that’s all true. But let’s — It was something the entire media world was telling the public, this is probably true. By the way, we covered this. Now, look.”
White House correspondent Peter Baker concurred.
“Well look, Buzzfeed has gotten a lot of things right,” he said, the media watchdog NewsBusters reported. “And you know, so, let’s not forget that. They have had a number of important scoops on this. … The problem is, in the old days, you know, when one media organization’s competitor got something wrong, you would sit back and say, well ha-ha-ha. Now, unfortunately, it’s blowback on all of us.”
“We got to remind people, though there are people that want to exploit this, they want to see us be put this way, and they’re doing it for exploitation purposes,” Mr. Todd added. “So let’s not give them the ammunition.”
The president thanked Mr. Mueller over the weekend for doing what “was very appropriate.”
“I think that the BuzzFeed piece was a disgrace to our country,” Mr. Trump said Saturday from the White House. “It was a disgrace to journalism.”
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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