But he kind of got screwed.

He basically did the right-wing show the network wanted. He brought on mostly right-wing guests, he didn't challenge them, and in truth, contrary to the memory of the dead Tim Russert, he did not either. So they diagnose it as Gregory as the problem, and replaced him with another guy, who just did the same thing, the show booked the same right-wing guests. They viewed all the issues from the right-wing perspective and offered few guests, usually muted, from the center, and none from the left.

If they want to attract new people, they should choose to do a show with a left-wing host, and have at least half the guests at "least" be Democrats, if not actual liberals.

out here. Perhaps thinking that will get chucky todd even more rwingers?

So what happened!?

The usual conservatives, a few supposed "middle of the road" guests, and, as usual, a complete lack of any real liberals. This was "left leaning?" You ARE kidding, right?

with a host like that, and it will in effect, become the same fare we already get from Rev. Al, Rachel, etc. If the show wants to appeal to a broader audience, with a wide range of voices, they need to find a host who isn't seen by the left or the right as ideological. I could see a Jon Stewart or Colbert type pulling it off, if it's just ratings they're after, but no one who currently works for MSNBC is going to turn the show around.

framing things like they used to. During the Bush years, yes, they had the luxury of doing that, but political momentum is swinging OUR way now. Just my $0.02.

gang of "journalists" considered main stream enough for MTP and like Sunday shows ( except maybe Moyers, who's usually "gentle&quot The major networks need to either "shape up" or get out of the game. Increasingly younger audiences and old liberals like myself will not be tuning in much longer. FOX is their for all the aging conservatives.

WHY NOT make it more leftward-leaning? I think a "left wing host" might do EXACTLY that: change the trajectory. And MSNBC with its lineup during the week would be the perfect place to experiment along those lines.

It's not as though we've had some long parade of decidedly left-leaning partisans hosting "Meet the Press" up til now, have we? I'd give Rachel Maddow a shot at it, if it were my decision to make. Besides, a female host is a big change, in and of itself.

who would watch Rachel anyhow, but if it's audience growth they're after, I don't see any of their current hosts doing that. Since I don't watch any of the Sunday news shows with any regularity, I could be wrong. Too much of either ideology can be predictable & boring after awhile.

The panel that he on the show was filled with right wing nut cases and hacks last week. I saw no reason to waste any time watching MTP to hear these idiots

....then invite a member of the Obama Administration on a monitor to ask a bunch of RW talking points then end their interview and turn to the panel to call everything they just said either wrong or a lie.

I usually sleep in later on Sundays anyway.

"It may seem hard to believe..."

Fabulism! Balderdash! Tommyrot!

It's not hard to believe at all.

Gregory was a boring rw hack but Chuck Todd is a smug rw prick hack.

i was going to post those exact words

Gregory was smug as well.

"Mouthpieces for the Republican Party" and be done with it. No one watches-its format and hosts are dull as dishwater and not informative.

eom

Though MFTRP is certainly accurate.

so they subject themselves to purely mindless pain instead as they try to make sense of totally worthless television programming.

That "not mentioning Syria" bit was such a scripted 'gotcha', and Todd so lame and not up to the task, that he couldn't even think of a way to switch gears instead of going along with the script, even though the president had mentioned Syria 4 times already.

And they bought this clown on to replace the other one — NO IMPROVEMENT.

Like they were only invited for the sweet table.
The whole show seems like a hodgepodge of desperate ideas.

with the camera following him leapfrogging the tables just looks so lame.

MTP used to have some greatness in it's classic days, now it's just a piece of crap. But, I will admit, on Sunday, I will switch to it before This Week starts running some sob story at the end that doesn't involve real news or a discussion of it.

Syria would really reel them in Sunday after Sunday.. Oh Wait a sec.. the opposite. Rofl

They already have FOX news, why have more FOX news programs on TV, week after week all saying the same damned thing. Especially since this country knows that nobody in congress have never tried to help the President.

Now, there's a story....talk about why congress remains on vacation practically all year long, and getting paid. I'm sure the country would be interested, instead of looking for new ways to blame President Obama.

Hell, she might end up number one in the time slot!

I mean all I need to do is come here on the DU and see that same talking point that a few constantly spew on the board.

It's meet the corporate whores and hacks.

It's the same thing over and over and I like to have quiet sunday mornings listening to music instead. There's only so much politics I can stomach every day and DU is my home page. That's more than enough. Life is too short to waste all of your time reading politics and listening to talking heads blather on.

too bad.

Needs a complete new approach. The traditional is not working.

They could totally maintain traditional format of leaders being grilled by an intelligent panel balanced with left and right (no more rw loonies though).

The current format of rw and then rw loonies repeating rw propaganda is a sure looser.

enough said.

guffaws. Who's his handler?

Luke Russert!

...why there are so many stupid warning labels on products warning people not to do stupid stuff. Thank whomever/whatever that Romney was not elected.

so to speak!

as a weekly contributor on the show, It will definitely get worse now.

things that Mittens has ever done for himself. Now that he may campaigning again, it's just too much.

They needed to bring back the original format, where the invited guest met REAL journalists, and several at once, not the same partisan hack week after week.

Instead, they just replaced one Republican hack with another, and can't understand why the results are the same.

Who wants to watch Fox Lite when all you have to do is switch channels to the real thing?

Real journalists asking questions not the same beltway talking heads.

that is old, like Phil Donahue. Not too many of the youngin's know who he is and certainly would not suck up to the right wing.

More honest, certainly.

hiring Chris Jansing would have made a strong statement.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Jansing

Who cares what happens to some hack show on some corporate network. They might as well be doing little comedy skits specifically for the Koch brothers.

There are other places to actual news and analysis that isn't just "the world according to GE".

Learn your lesson, NBC.

that everyone in Chuck Todd's MTP is standing up when they pontificate on whatever they're talking about, while most of the guests sat down when Gregory was in charge.

who invites liberal guests who tell the truth..let the righties go hang out at Fox (where they belong).. We are well past the time where we need "debate" on issues. There is truth and there are lies..

More and more people are tired of seeing the same old "debate" week after week with the usual people on.. We need a Sunday show that focuses on REAL EXPERTS who will tell us the hard truth we need to know..

These people exist, but they have been pretty much blackballed or are triple-teamed when one of the does manage to slip past the corporate filters.

his bitter attitude is now truly out there, no holds barred).

Then let her run it.

Don't know if she would take it but that is their only chance IMHO.

Where they can switch to it and get their fill 7 days a week at their leisure. Why would they wait until Sunday for this one show? Honestly, it's missing a desired market. How many people do you know who are into what they sell on MTP who don't have access to cable "news" channels already? They need something nonpartisan that skewers politicians on real issues. Not the meme du jour already beaten to death by cable. Investigate, invite politicians and ask real, not pre-approved questions, depending on what's really taking place in American politics. I'd watch a program like that. As it is now it's just another boring chapter in the book of partisan political TV. Which has been stuck in a continuous summer rerun cycle for years and years.

Rewrite the formula and find someone who isn't a hack to moderate. It could work. As it sits now it's doomed to fail, and fail it will.

give Joe Blow Scarborough the job next once they get tired of CT.

CNN has the same prob.

Not that I ever watched Leno's show on a regular basis anyway, but after he had Rush Limbaugh on his very first show after he came back, it only solidified my suspicion that Leno is a conservative Republican at heart.

I don't care for Republicans on tv, pretending to be "fair and balanced".
Billo the Klown does that act on Faux Snooze already, and his show was only good for a few laughs for just the first few years.

Many years ago Keith Olbermann pointed out repeatedly what an assklown Billo was, and yet, there he is, still on tv, pretending just like he always used to . . . that he is somehow important in today's society.

Chuck Toad has bent over backwards to appease the Republicans by having more of them on his program than Democrats.
The same formula that David Gregory used.

Yet, the President is a Democrat.

Doesn't take a genius to figure out what NBC is all about.

What I'd like to see on November 9th is McCain going on Meet the Press, right after the mid-term elections are over, and have him on that program for a 30-minute exclusive conversation with Chuck Toad.

Just so he could explain in detail -- while they delve into excruciating detail of the final voting results of several districts in several states, using many different maps, charts, and diagrams -- to explain exactly why the Republicans lost so many seats in the House of Representatives at the polls on the previous Tuesday that they will no longer control the next session of Congress.

And have McCain also explain exactly why the Republican party failed to become the majority party in the Senate.

That's what I'd like to see.

Chuck Toad is going to kill the franchise, the same way Leno killed The Tonight Show.

why most of their guests were Republicans. The reply was that, since the Democrats were in power, it provided more balance (but didn't deny it). Then, of course, Dubya was in office, and still there were more right wing guests. Back around to Obama and, guess what...?

Why would I watch that on a Sunday Morning - when Melissa has better guests and fosters an actual conversation? I just think MTP has run its course.New host or not - there is a hunger for an actual conversation in America.

You aren't going to get that from that show anymore than you will O'Reilly.

Someone tipped me off that Erik Prince was going to be on O'Reilly earlier this week so I flipped over. I wanted to hear what he had to say - doesn't mean I have to agree with him . . . Just wanted his perspective. For the six minutes he was on - I think he got to speak for a minute and a half.

Again - no conversation. You have the founder of Blackwater and current chief of Frontier Services Group whose parents funded the expansion of the religious Right in this country on Fox effing news and you won't let the man speak?

I have no taste for "news making news folks" anymore - and the ratings of MTP show I'm not the only one.

like Clint!

That'll raise the ratings if they give free hand.

People who want to watch a GOP attack ad watch Pox News. They're a cult and believe everyone but Pox is lying to them. Perhaps they forgot what happened to MSNBC ratings when Keith Olbermann started the push back against the Bush cartel. Normal people need a place to get information and will flock to it when it appears.

I am boycotting all TV and radio programs that display a clear right wing bias.

MTP, NBC News, ABC News, CBS News, CNBC, 60 Minutes and NPR are now officially dead to me.

I urge you to join me in this boycott.

If we don't, we will be sorry!

The president in charge of programming at NBC is a former right wing hack from Fix News, problem solved fire the person.
This oligarch owned and operated by Comcast has how many Liberals in its employ, I think there is eight total, and not one is on a Prime Time like Meet The Press----why?
CBS Face the nation is the Lindsey Graham/John McCain family show of rant and ABC and CNN once use to be credible but are now George Will and Cokey Roberts fun filled facts of what, and Candy Crowley let me see if I can get more Wolf Blitzer stuff.
The public is in need of a transparent journalistic facts not talking points, we are not stupid---I hope.

IMHO has no curiosity - is unable to think on his feet - and I thought the Prez was masterful in exposing chuckies lack of intelligence..me thinks the Prez has wanted to do that for a long time...chuckies opinions have NO merit...fantasy based where fact is an afterthought if any at all! - Okay - I'm done...

Gregory drove the deceased to the funeral home from the hospital.

Meet the press has been dead for quite a while.

Still waiting to see officiates the burial.

and telling the doctor your head hurts after hitting yourself on the head with the hammer. I have been a MTP viewer for years, plan to continue, if I did not like the program I just would skip it.

Myself, let's see, now just who would be, got it, it would be you.

Some might call that self-destructive.

Anyway, you can go back to watching Chuck, while you reminisce about Dave.

And ultimately settle upon the true heir to the throne, Puke Russert

how about talk show host mike malloy?

same mind pablum that is on 98% of our corporate radio and TV stations and adding a little
sugar to the pablum is not going to make it edible .

I had to see if he'd been married to Elizabeth Taylor.

Their basis of news operations is focusing on "the get" and controversy or sensationalism. You need Republicans for that.

Republicans won't come on if they are going to be challenged. There is a reason they won't go on Rachel.

This being the case, they have no one in their stable with a personality that cannot be matched by the other networks Sunday shows.

So it's goodbye MTP unless and until NBC decides actual reporting is better than the slop they currently shovel.

Get 3 real reporters in there to do the interviews. No crossfire style. 3 independent journalists.

was one republican talking point after another. It was almost as if Obama were not there. I've refused to watch him from that moment on.

Howard Stern would be much better then the doofus they have on now or talk show host mike malloy.

You haven't mentioned once that Chuck Todd is doing worse than David Gregory.

That's the question of the hour, for those who're determined to step in shit.

First, let me say that I have not read all the replies to this story, so mea culpa if I am repeating someone else's comments, or if I have missed the intended point. As for me, I thought it was refreshing to see Chuck Todd interview Bernie Sanders. I had completely stopped watching Meet The Press because it had strictly become a soapbox for the right wing (in my opinion). I loved it when Bernie Sanders had a chance to present a differing point of view. I would think that a vast majority of viewers of Meet The Press have come to expect to hear only ultra conservative positions that have historically been espoused and defended on this program, so there were probably an inordinate number of 911 calls across the country when Bernie Sanders was on the program and did not toe the ultra conservative line. I'm sure there have been an overwhelming number of complaints to NBC because of this, so let's see if NBC has the balls to allow a different point of view to be aired, or will they tell Chuck Todd to reel it in and get things "back to normal" on Meet The Press.

I watched David Gregory. I winced at David Gregory. And you, sir, are no David Gregory.

MTP needs a real shakeup: a fair and well informed liberal such as Maddow; a sane and balanced liberal/conservative duo; or a panel of three or four different journalists interviewing the guests, like MTP had way back in the early days. Meet the Press should not be just ONE annoying "journalist" inter-viewing the guests.

Millions of people would tune in to see the palins battling it out with cranky McCain, she has a score to settle with that one!

...and it's truly sad, because we need our journalists to stand up and challenge those in positions of power, from any political party.

Meet The Press was created in a different era, when people were far more educated and interested in civics and government. Remember when civics was taught as a class? Now, you go to Foxy News, CNN, or Mess-NBC, and the politicians expect to be kowtowed to by these people. Don't want to lose access now, do we?

The original concept had a moderator (I think the first one was a woman, too) and a rotating board of the "press"--from all media--TV, radio and print. Nowadays, they could add in electronic media too, if they had a mind. The reporters took turns asking questions, and they weren't always friendly or softball questions. It was a seated press conference, essentially.

The moderator did an "opening salvo" interview, and then told each reporter when they could ask questions and when they had to shut up and let the next one ask questions.

Now, the "moderator" is a "host" and he asks all the (pre-approved by NBC brass) questions, which are hard ones to people who aren't all up in the Big Pharma, Big Business, Big Defense Industry, Big Agro-Business Way of Life, and are softballs to people who support those kinds of things. It's so obvious it's not even funny.

I predicted that Upchuck Tawd would fail, Big Time. He looks like Mephistopheles and his Q scores have got to be horrible--he's as warm and inviting as day old cat shit.

Seeing as NBC is really just the SNL alumni channel and nothing more.

I predicted that Upchuck Tawd would fail, Big Time. He looks like Mephistopheles and his Q scores have got to be horrible--he's as warm and inviting as day old cat shit.

If he put on that devil suit, I'd watch!!!!!

It always seemed to me that Chuckie is more of a republican than an MSNBC host.

and... ... ...

NO.

no, no, no.

Andrea refuses to give any time to anyone except RW hacks. She won't challenge the lies any more than Chuckie.

Of course, it doesn't matter to me anymore. I quit watching MTP years ago.

If I wanted to watch Fox, why watch a half-assed version.

I did flip to it one Sunday morn, Gramps McCain was on. Kept going.

either way before, I loathe him now. He's auditioning to replace that 'dean of broadasting', Chris Wallace at Fox. Chuck Todd didn't even listen to the President's remarks, he was so vested in his list of "hard hitting" questions of President Obama.

Went in the make his political hit bones and got his butt kicked.

Wanna save Meet the Press? Two words:

Kieth. Olbermann.