Chuck Todd, former moderator of Meet the Press and current host of The Chuck ToddCast, urges young journalists to start out small and take risks while they are younger to grow and learn early.
“I’d jump in, even if it’s a small newsroom, I’d find a startup,” he said. “You’re in a position where if you’re going to fail, fail in your twenties,” Todd said in an exclusive interview with The Carroll News. He was at John Carroll University to deliver the keynote at the undergraduate commencement on May 17. “It’s not just doing what you want to do and reporting, you also learn a whole bunch of other things…there isn’t going to be some great big job out there right now. But I think the stuff like that would be more fulfilling,” Todd said.
Chuck Todd, former moderator of Meet the Press and current host of The Chuck ToddCast, discussed his experiences after NBC News and the changing journalism climate. Todd was the moderator for Meet the Press from 2014-2023. “I feel that I can be more direct. I never pulled punches but I might have rounded the edges,” Todd explained. When working in newsrooms in the past, Todd always had a boss to turn to, but he is now his own boss. “Now actually, I don’t have a boss; I am the boss, so I don’t feel like I have to round the edges,” he said.
However, with the current political climate, Todd explained the continued difficulties with finding guests to speak to on his podcast. “Some people just won’t come on or don’t want to talk because…they have their own political agenda. And they are looking for somebody to allay their agenda. That’s true on the left and true of this administration,” he said.
Social media has also influenced Todd’s experience. “Gaming the algorithms is an art and it’s also a trap,” Todd said. Oftentimes, people focus on gaining a large audience, but that is not always the answer according to Todd. “The thing that I’m constantly wanting to avoid is audience capture. You’re in a hurry to build an audience. The fastest way to do it is to just basically pick a side. But the minute you do that, you’re in a trap. You’re stuck,” he explained.
Todd, who holds honorary doctoral degrees from George Washington University in Public Service and from Marymount University in Humane Letters, wants to cover politics in a different way. “I cover politics as it is, but now I also want to ‘Well, here’s what I think it should be’ at Meet the Press, I was just there to cover politics as it is. Now I can do both of those things,” he said.
