He'll Need A Weekend To Come Up With A Good Question

I guess we now know how to "fall up" at NBC/MSNBC.

Just ask a couple of idiotic questions at a Presidential Press Conference.



Word came last week that The Freak Show Defender is, perhaps, not filling Little Timmy Russerts' shoes very impressively, so, the suits at NBC are going to give Chuck Todd a crash course in Show Anchoring 101;

MSNBC Developing a Weekend Politics Show for NBC News Chief White House Correspondent Chuck Todd

Get ready for more of the "Goateed Guru."

According to multiple network sources, MSNBC is in the process of developing a weekend political show to be moderated by Chuck Todd, the network’s political director and chief White House correspondent.

[Snip]

The new show on MSNBC, to debut in late spring, would give Mr. Todd more experience as a political moderator and provide him with a good opportunity to develop his long-form interviewing skills. At the same time, it would give MSNBC an original political program to show off on a weekend schedule that is currently dominated by crime documentaries and taped content.

According to sources, the specifics of the show—live vs. taped, one-on-one interview vs. a panel of guests, half-hour vs. an hour, Saturday vs. Sunday—are still being worked out. Presumably the show will originate out of NBC’s Washington D.C. bureau, where Mr. Todd is stationed. Staffing has yet to be determined.

Yeah, that will be a real ratings barn burner - a weekend political show in the heat of the summer.

Ron Chusid, over on Liberal Values points that out;

The only problem is that there are now far too many political shows to even try to keep up with, unless someone wants to spend a big chunk of the weekend watching television. Besides the major interview shows from each network there is a growing number of additional shows. Chris Matthews has one Sunday show where he is generally calmer than he is on Hardball. Perhaps the best of the newer Sunday interview shows is Fareed Zakaria — GPS on CNN.

The Garlic, as did others, noted last month how Todd, for the second time, got called on by President Obama, during a press conference, and absolutely "screwed the pooch" on both occasions.

Apparently, the Obama Press Office hasn't wanted to pull his credentials, feeling, it is good to have a moment of levity during those things.

As the article also noted how Todd was a "breakout star" and was "seriously considered", at the time, to take over MTP.

It would seem like much safer ground, and better juice, for Todd to keep that designation, of "almost getting MTP", than actually opening his mouth and, well, show us all his, ahem, political instincts.

Yeah, he dazzled us during the campaign last year, when he was just a numbers cruncher ("He came to prominence during the 2008 political campaign, when his encyclopedic knowledge of electoral mechanics became a great asset to MSNBC and NBC News during the hotly contested and drawn out Democratic primary."), which, I guess, NBC and MSNBC was hedging their bets that we all couldn't log on to a computer, and pull up Nate Silvers' FiveThirtyEight.com, who was even more dazzling, and dead-on correct with his number-crunching.

A guy that hits home runs in the minors, gets called up, and consistently lines into double-plays, or worse, whiffs at a high percentage, doesn't, typically, last that long.

That NBC/MSNBC will hand Chuck Todd a show at this point, bucks against that old saw.

Hey, maybe they can plug Jay Leno in, since they're going to keep him hanging around.