Chuck Todd To Exit NBC News

I shared some career news on my podcast today. Enjoy!

That’s how Chuck Todd confirmed on X that he’s leaving NBC News and will no longer serve as the organization’s Chief Political Analyst.

Todd elaborated on his decision in the latest installment of The Chuck Toddcast, which saw the longtime Washington, D.C.-focused journalist chat with Marty Baron, the former Executive Editor of The Washington Post and The Miami Herald.

At the start of the nearly hour-long podcast, Todd disclosed that he had some news of his own to announce. “Today is my last day at NBC,” Todd shared. “Look, I’ve been here a long time. I started as Political Director in 2007. It was a month before my son was born. He’ll be graduating high school in a few months … I am leaving a bit earlier than frankly we had all originally planned, but there’s a reason for it.”

Todd’s contract is not up until later this year.

On the podcast, Todd hinted at some new projects “that are on the cusp of going from ‘pie in the sky’ to near reality,” with most related to the future of local news — a conversation he had with Baron later in the podcast. “I’m grateful for the chance to get a jumpstart on what I want to do in what I think is a very important moment.”

The Chuck Toddcast will continue, but is going on hiatus as he explores a new distribution platform.

The reason he’s ready to move? “I think the media has a lot of work to do to win back the trust, and national media isn’t going to be the place to do it,” Todd said, adding that his comments “weren’t an indictment of the national media.” Rather, “the farther something away is the more skeptical we are of it.”

Local media? It is something consumers get to fact-check every day, Todd explained. “It feels like you know who these folks are,” he said. “You’re not going to fix credibility by gaming an algorithm with a headline just because you get to increase traffic.”

A 1994 graduate of The George Washington University, Todd served as the moderator of Meet The Press between September 2014 and September 2023.

RBR+TVBR OBSERVATION, by Adam R Jacobson

It’s funny how one fateful decision can change an entire career trajectory, and one’s life. Thirty-five years ago, I had been wooed by The George Washington University’s communications and journalism program. With an interest in international affairs and government, I applied Early Decision and submitted my applications and terrible SAT scores to six other schools. I got in … and was accepted everywhere else. But, GW was my triumph … until I woke up one day and gave it a second thought. After a parental discussion, I called the GW admissions office and told them that I’d changed my mind. Where was I going, UMiami? Um … I was going to American University. The rival.

Had I not changed my mind, I likely would have been classmates with Chuck Todd. Hell, we could have ended up becoming roommates, best buds, Rosh Hashanah companions, Miami-Fort Lauderdale home visit twins, professional colleagues. He worked on the Harkin campaign; I worked on the Clinton-Gore campaign. Perhaps in an alternate universe that would have transpired.

Todd would go to the National Journal and, in March 2007, to NBC News. I would bounce around D.C. and Northern Virginia until joining the Radio & Records staff, and by March 2007 was in Coral Gables, working at Hispanic Market Weekly and enjoying a South Beach condo.

Outside of the broadcast media industry, and the running community in South Florida, no one knows who I am. Everyone knows who Chuck Todd is … or, at least, his public persona. And that’s pretty much who Chuck Todd is as a person: forthright, honest and determined to be a good journalist in a tough environment. I wish my “could’ve been colleague” well on his future endeavors, and if he’s up for a burger at Titanic the next time he’s in the Gables, I’m reachable at [email protected].