I'm speechless.

CHUCK TODD: I'm way more obsessed than usual. In fact, there's an issue that is literally keeping me up at night. I don't like navel gazing about the press. I don't feel sorry for us, ever. But we are facing a challenge unlike any before. It used to be we believed Presidents they talked or we believed they had facts to back up their statements. Lying got them in trouble and impeached. It forced another to resign. So what do you do when the President-elect is willing to spread outright falsehoods like 'voter fraud got him the popular vote and the media is covering this up'? What do you do when he tells top national reporters that half of them are blatantly dishonest at the job they do and says it to them in their face. And what do you do when millions choose to believe fake news stories simply because they like what nay hear... and the candidate they like retweets the stories? When one half of the country believes a set of facts and the other half of the country believes another set of something. In short, what do you do when millions don't want to believe the media anymore, and have a candidate or a President that will encourage them not to? We will keep working at what we do. We will try to distinguish real from fake, fact from fiction, and news from propaganda. We will be fair. We have always been fair. Here's what we won't do, is somehow "balance" facts.

There are three possible explanations for this remarkable statement from Chuck Todd:

1. He's got his panties in a twist because Trump is threatening the privilege of his media tier "top national reporters."

2. The social media kick back on Trump's lies is actually being noticed upstairs at NBC/Universal, so much so that if they don't say something, it might actually threaten ad sales in the "moderate to severe plaque psoriasis" remedy market.

3. This isn't Chuck Todd -- he's been replaced by aliens.

Notice that Chuck Todd never says the word "lie." Notice that he reserves showing examples of Presidential lying to those Presidents who have been impeached, Clinton and Nixon, which is real convenient because then you don't have to mention George W. Bush and Iraq. (Thanks for keeping that off the table, Nancy Pelosi.) And notice he doesn't mention all of the times he has somehow "balanced" facts, repeatedly, as an employee of NBC.

Thank goodness Crooks and Liars has searchable archives. Hey Chuck!

Remember your analysis of the two political conventions this year?

You know, Doris, if there was one thing, I thought Donald Trump's speech felt darker than I feel like America is, and sometimes there were times that Hillary Clinton's speech felt more optimistic than where we are in America. I mean, it did feel as if they both exaggerated points.

And who could forget the time you equated (equated!) the GOP obstruction of Obamacare to Democrats resisting George W. Bush's privatize Social Security plans. Because BOTH SIDES!

Don't pretend you didn't put your finger on the scale to keep this a both sides Presidential race. Because believe me, Chuck, we remember the time you said this to Cory Booker:

Senator Booker, I understand you made the case against Mr. Trump, but how does Hillary Clinton, who is almost as polarizing and as divisive, how does she make the case that she's the candidate here for reconciliation?

As Driftglass wrote for C&L two years ago:

If it were 1860, Shuck Todd would be whining that rumors of slave state secession were nothing but a fundraising trick by the Lincoln campaign. If it were 1930, he would be reporting that the whole idea of a "Great Depression" was just a gimmick to drive down Herbert Hoover's poll numbers. But it's 2014, and so we find Chuckles contractually and ideologically committed to pretending in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary that this is one more "Both Sides" issue rather face the fact that the GOP is now owned and operated by people who would use the Statue of Liberty to sodomize Mount Rushmore if they thought it would bring Barack Obama down.

And now you're lying in bed wide awake, because the President YOUR NETWORK helped elect with "Hillary is just as bad" horserace BS because of RATINGS tweets and taunts your noble profession.

Pardon me if I just send everyone to a long-standing petition to your bosses demanding that you start correcting Republican lies and fact-checking like a news director should.

Memo to Chuck Todd: It's a year of impossibles. He's President-elect. How about you start fact-checking and calling lies by their real name?