To see the stark difference in reporting on this issue, watch how Chuck Todd reported about it on tonight's NBC Nightly news:

Q: For the past three years, all everybody's been told is "don't worry, we'll take care of you." How are you going to do it, in two months before the election to convince everybody, you've got to take care of yourself? Mitt Romney: There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you name it. That that's an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what. And I mean the president starts off with 48, 49 4--he starts off with a huge number. These are people who pay no income tax. Forty-seven percent of Americans pay no income tax. So our message of low taxes doesn't connect. So he'll be out there talking about tax cuts for the rich. I mean, that's what they sell every four years. And so my job is not to worry about those people. I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives. What I have to do is convince the five to ten percent in the center that are independents, that are thoughtful, that look at voting one way or the other depending upon in some cases emotion, whether they like the guy or not.

Chuck Todd: That's right, and you don't necessarily know, is the candidate saying what he truly believes? Or is he saying what he thinks the audience wants to hear? Particularly at a place like a fundraiser where partisan red meat is had, not just rubber chicken if you will that they eat. But, you know, in this video tape, which of course, our National Investigative Reporter Michael Isikoff acquired, you do get a sense of at least what the campaign is thinking sometimes. And in many ways Mitt Romney was sounding like a pundit. Right? He was saying there's 47% of the country that is going to be with the president, no matter what. But the part that he said talking about that they pay no income taxes; that they want to part of the government, it's probably going to have legs and something's he's got to deal with. He's put out a statement, sort of a non-innocuous statement that the campaign has, trying to deal with this a little ways. And it's a reminder, President Obama when he was candidate Obama had a similar incident where he was overheard talking about analyzing folks in the State of Pennsylvania saying that they cling to their guns and religion. And Brian, it's a political comment to this day that's still a political problem for the president to deal with in those states.

Brian Williams: And a couple of things here. Number one, the kind of storyline politically today already was some infighting among members of the Romney campaign staff, a lot of it going back to what happened or didn't happen at the GOP convention. Has the Romney campaign responded yet tonight about this?

Chuck Todd: Well again, on this comment they said, "Hey, Mitt Romney wants to be president of all Americans." And that's the part of course the Obama campaign is trying to drive home, "Hey, he's writing off 47% of Americans; he's trying to divide the electorate." Frankly, that's what campaigns end up doing. They both accuse the other side of being divisive in this case. As for the Romney campaign, there is sort of a retooled feel to it. They've got new advertising out. Little more of a coherent message they want to put out. So let's see what happens. We've got a couple of weeks until the first debate. That's the next moment to be watching in this campaign, Brian.

Brian Williams: Of course, it's another eye of the beholder issue. People will make what they make of these comments coming out tonight. Chuck Todd, our political director. Chuck thanks.