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There’s a feeling among many people I know that the US media has almost completely lost the thread, abdicating their responsibilities by reporting falsehoods as truth, refusing to fact-check, and generally treating journalism as a horse race in which the only thing that matters is who wins.

And today MSNBC host Chuck Todd made this attitude explicit in an appearance on Morning Joe in which he said it’s not his job to point out lies about the Affordable Care Act, because that would be helping President Obama by “selling” it: Chuck Todd: It’s Not Media’s Job to Correct GOP’s Obamacare Falsehoods.

During a segment on “Morning Joe,” former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell (D) speculated that most opponents of the Affordable Care Act have been fed erroneous information about the law. Todd said that Republicans “have successfully messaged against it” but he disagrees with those who argue that the media should educate the public on the law. According to Todd, that’s President Barack Obama’s job.

“But more importantly, it would be stuff that Republicans have successfully messaged against it,” Todd told Rendell. “They don’t repeat the other stuff because they haven’t even heard the Democratic message. What I always love is people say, ‘Well, it’s you folks’ fault in the media.’ No, it’s the President of the United States’ fault for not selling it.”

And as usual, when someone points out the intellectual bankruptcy of this attitude, the response is to deride and attack the critic:

Somebody decided to troll w/mislding headline: point I actually made was folks shouldn’t expect media to do job WH has FAILED to do re: ACA

— Chuck Todd (@chucktodd) September 18, 2013

Welcome to 21st century journalism.