NBC News anchor Chuck Todd made an on-air apology after his show admitted to deceptively editing a video of remarks made by Attorney General William Barr.
“I want to take a moment to talk about something that occurred on Sunday’s edition of ‘Meet the Press,'” he began telling viewers on Tuesday.
Todd then placed full blame for the clip in question on CBS.
“Now, we did not edit that out. That was not our edit. We didn’t include it because we only saw the shorter of two clips that CBS did air,” Todd explained. “We should have looked at both and checked for a full transcript, a mistake I wish we had not made …”
RELATED: President Trump Demands Chuck Todd Be Fired After NBC Admits To Deceptively Editing Video Of AG Barr
Deceptive
The clip involved CBS News senior investigative correspondent Catherine Herridge asking Barr how history would judge the Justice Department after their decision to drop its case against former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
Barr replied with a laugh, “Well, history is written by the winners, so it largely depends on who’s writing the history,” at which point the clip was cut.
Todd used the clip to suggest Barr was “almost admitting that, yeah, this was a political job.”
Both CBS, NBC, and anyone with a working set of eyes, however, could see that Barr was still talking after that, even though the volume had been muted briefly and the video cut.
“I think a fair history would say it was a good decision because it upheld the rule of law,” Barr added unbeknownst to Todd’s viewers. “It upheld the standards of the Department of Justice, and it undid what was an injustice.”
The NBC anchor finally pointed out the exclusion of key context to the AG’s comments.
“The second part of the attorney general’s answer would have put it in the proper context and had I seen that part of the interview, I would not have framed the conversation the way I did,” acknowledged Todd.
Today on Meet The Press, @chucktodd wildly took context out of an answer AG Bill Barr gave about his decision to drop the case into Gen. Michael Flynn.
I cut Todd’s segment along with Barr’s full answer together. Look at how blatantly dishonest this is. pic.twitter.com/tODOEwL48V
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) May 10, 2020
RELATED: Trump Shares Message Suggesting It’s Time To Investigate ‘Obamagate’
Very Sorry
Despite pointing the finger of blame at his colleagues at CBS, Todd would like you to know he’s very sorry for the error of his ways.
“I am obviously very sorry for that mistake. We strive to do better going forward,” he claimed.
Fair enough. It’s conceivable that the staff at “Meet the Press” said ‘wait until you see this clip’ and in his haste, Todd ran with it.
Of course, it’s just as conceivable that the staff said ‘CBS helpfully clipped this to create a false narrative’ and Todd said ‘great, let’s run with it!’
Which scenario do you believe?
WATCH: NBC’s @ChuckTodd just gave an on-air apology for @MeetThePress‘s deceptive Barr edit, blaming partial CBS clips. He called it “a mistake that I wish we hadn’t made and one wish that I hadn’t made… I obviously am very sorry for that mistake.” pic.twitter.com/q55eHN7tMA
— TV News HQ (@TVNewsHQ) May 12, 2020
President Trump on Monday called for Todd’s firing after the deceptively edited clip had been aired.
Tagging the FCC an Chairman Ajit Pai, Trump tweeted, “Sleepy Eyes Chuck Todd should be FIRED by ‘Concast’ (NBC) for this fraud.”
“He knew exactly what he was doing,” he added.
