Chuck Todd, the former host of NBC’s Meet the Press, has admitted: mainstream media’s attempts to silence or cancel Donald Trump were a spectacular failure and damaged their credibility with the public.

Todd admitted to the podcast “13th And Park” that “All these institutions did want to cancel Trump, did want him inoperable in mainstream public (discourse).” He says he “did not follow the pied piper on this one…You may not like that speech, but speech is speech. This is a First Amendment issue.”

Ironically, the media groupthink against Trump backfired. “The decision to deplatform bit the mainstream media in the ass,” he told a podcast. “Donald Trump started his own information ecosystem. How do you like them apples now?”

Todd notes that newsrooms from both print and video outlets are lamenting their declining influence. But he says journalists won’t admit that: “You did try to deplatform him. It was a mistake. Somebody oughta come up and say, ‘This was a mistake.'”

The major media figures we know are incapable of looking in the mirror and admitting any such fault. So long as that is the case, you can expect more Americans to abandon their platforms and seek out alternative sources of news.