Chuck Todd's important message on media's future

It's the trust, stupid.

(Chuck Todd/Photo via Wikimedia Commons)

FON (“Friend of the Newsletter”) Chuck Todd announced on Friday that he was leaving NBC after 18 years.

I asked Chuck if he would share the email he sent internally to tell his colleagues about his departure because I had seen it and thought it said something very important about the state of media — and where we need to go.

He graciously agreed. It’s below (bolding is mine):

Today is my last day at NBC. I started as political director in 2007, a month before my son was born and he’ll be graduating high school in a few months. So I guess this means I’ve been here a while.

There’s never a perfect time to leave a place that’s been a professional home for so long, but I’m pretty excited about a few new projects that are on the cusp of going from “pie in the sky” to “near reality.” So I’m grateful for the chance to get a jump start on my next chapter during this important moment.

The ChuckToddcast is also coming with me (thank you NBC). Stay tuned for an announcement about its new home soon. Needless to say, I do plan to continue to share my reporting and unique perspective of covering politics with data and history as important baselines in understanding where we were, where we are and where we’re going.

The media has a lot of work to do to win back the trust of viewers/listeners/readers and I’m convinced the best place to start is from the bottom up. At my core, I’m an entrepreneur — I spent my first 15 years professionally working for the company that started the political newsletter craze that dominates today. And this is a ripe moment. The only way to fix this information eco system is to stop whining about the various ways the social media companies are manipulating things and instead roll up our collective sleeves and start with local. National media can’t win trust back without having a robust partner locally and trying to game algorithms is no way to inform and report. People are craving community and that’s something national media or the major social media companies can’t do as well as local media.

As I said when I announced my exit from MTP, I leave feeling concerned about this moment in history but reassured by the standards I and others at NBC have worked so hard to set. We can’t tolerate propagandists. But it doesn’t mean sticking your head in the sand either; if you ignore reality, you’ll miss the biggest story. Being a real political journalist isn’t about building a brand, it’s about reporting what’s happening and explaining why it’s happening and letting the public absorb the facts without judging them for coming to a different conclusion. If you do this job seeking popularity, or to simply be an activist, you are doing this job incorrectly.

I’m really proud of the work I’ve done with the incredible team of folks I’ve been lucky enough to work with over these two decades (and five presidents). The beauty of NBC is that one can’t succeed without being an incredible collaborator. I fear if I start name checking folks, I’ll leave someone out and that won’t be right. I was proud to be able to work at the former home of David Brinkley, Tom Brokaw and Tim Russert. I still can’t believe I got to follow in their amazing footsteps. That will remain an honor of a lifetime.

Please, don’t be shy about staying in touch. My personal info is below. Thank you NBC and I can’t wait to work with many of you again down the road. And needless to say, I’ll also be watching!

It’s no surprise that I agree with all of that.

It ALL begins with trust. Remember this Axios chart — built on Gallup data — on trust in “mass media.”

While Chuck didn’t say this directly, it’s my belief that it is virtually impossible for big media companies to rebuild the trust they have lost with the public. I think we are too far down the road on it — and, with every passing day, the billionaires and corporate conglomerates who own these media companies are making moves that put profits first and journalism second.

Chuck points to local news as a place where the trust relationship can be rebuilt. I think that’s a very good idea; those reporters, editors and the like are far closer to the ground in a community. It’s hard(er) to hate (or distrust) people who you actually know.

For me, the trust re-build starts on places like Substack. And newsletters like this one that are totally independent. It’s just me — giving you my honest and authentic takes on what’s happening in politics (and the broader culture). No corporate bosses. No hidden agenda. Just me.

The point: The legacy media is simply not positioned to meet this moment, this crisis of trust in how the public views journalism.

We need to build from the bottom up. But, to do that, we need YOUR support. While investing in some big media company owned by a billionaire might feel pointless, I can assure you that investing in me means that your money is being entirely spent on doing the sort of journalism you have come to expect in this space. If you aren’t a paid subscriber yet, I hope today is the day you become one.

As for Chuck, I cannot wait to see what he does next. As he said in his note, his podcast will continue on — and you can follow it here:

I am hoping Chuck will continue to do our Monday chats (I really like enjoy them!) and am eager to see if we can do some other cool things together now that he’s on his own.

Stay tuned!