Mathews gets it from both sides…
CNSNews’ Nathan Burchfiel writes about Hardball and its host Chris Mathews getting picked for year end raspberries by both sides of the political spectrum.
Note: CNSNews is an appendage of the MRC.
The host of MSNBC’s “Hardball with Chris Matthews” is being slammed by two opposing media critics in their annual roundups of the worst examples of media bias.
The conservative Media Research Center (MRC) awarded Matthews the “Crazy Chris Award for Chris Matthews’ Left-Wing Lunacy,” criticizing Matthews for his support of anti-war activists and attacks on President Bush.
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But another group that monitors “conservative misinformation in the U.S. media” also slammed Matthews for promoting the right-wing agenda and praising President Bush. The liberal Media Matters for America (MMFA), founded by former conservative activist David Brock in 2004, gave Matthews its “Misinformer of the Year” award.
You know MSNBC is really tanking when Media Matters speaks out against it. “Misinformer of the Year” - I bet he had some stiff competition; but yet MSNBC took the title.
Comment by Skippy — December 28, 2005 @ 3:31 pm
The problems with Matthews seems that he feels if he attacks the right on something, then he has to attack the left on something, and it is frequent he can make an illogical argument or appear to support something just for the sake of balance.
I still remember back at the last elections when Edwards and Cheney were about to have a debate he was ready declare Cheney the victor before it even started, and you just knew what he was going to say afterward no matter what happened.
I much prefer when David Gregory hosts. He’s much more fair.
Comment by AnonymousHere — December 28, 2005 @ 5:55 pm
The worst legacy of Chris Matthews is that his substitute hosts all follow his “hair on fire” methods. They all start the program with that “Ah Hah” tone in their voices, implying that if your stick around they’ll lead you to a Bush scandal.
Comment by Cara — December 28, 2005 @ 7:28 pm
Skippy. “MSNBC” didn’t take the title, MATTHEWS did. Please stop trying to slam the whole network collectively because Matthews got a slam, OK? It won’t work, it’s too transparent.
As for me, I agree with AnonymousHere. Normally, I would say that when a pundit gets slammed by both right and left, it’s proof he must be doing a really good job of walking the middle ground, because extremists on both sides hate him. In Matthews’ case, though, I have to make an exception. He’s hated by both liberals and conservatives because he says things that make him sound to liberals like a radical conservative and also says things that to conservatives make him sound like a way-out-in-left-field liberal. It’s like he’s always racing from one extreme position to the other…never taking a middle ground. His problem is not that he refuses to take sides; it’s that he keeps racing from one to the other.
It all reminds me very much of the story of the monkey who decided to start a fight between the lions and the elephants by infiltrating each group and telling it lies about what the other group was saying about it…to the point where the lions and elephants almost got in a full-scale war…until they realized neither side was insulting the other, it was all the monkey’s doing. At which point, both the lions and the elephants ran the monkey clean out of the jungle.
Of course, in this case the contempt between the “donkeys” and “elephants” is not made up. But it sure does seem as if Matthews is giving his utter loyalty to one side on one day and the other side the next. Which makes it a lot harder to respect him than if he just said “Look, I am going to give both sides chance to air their opinions and step aside and just let them do it, without making my own idiotic comments.”
Comment by tanne — December 28, 2005 @ 8:06 pm
Well, after watching Norah O’Donnell on Hardball today, I am guessing Matthews’ job is safe. She is interviewing a CIA agent who wrote about bin Laden escaping from Tora Bora and she stops him mid sentence to ask him whether he’s a Democrat, as if that is germaine to what he’s saying or that it would discredit anything he has said.
I swear they brought her on the show to guest host this week just to make Matthews look good. Gregory, on the other hand, makes Matthews look as bad at his job as he really is.
Comment by moi-meme — December 28, 2005 @ 8:54 pm
Well, if he’d make up his mind he might only get rapped by one side or the other. Or he could simply be objective. He seems to prefer to take a different road. Political junkies tune into him mostly to see which way the wind is blowing him on any given day. I believe there’s heavy betting involved when big issues arise.
Comment by zenyenta — December 28, 2005 @ 9:07 pm
“olitical junkies tune into him mostly to see which way the wind is blowing him on any given day. I believe there’s heavy betting involved when big issues arise.”
According the latest programmer rankings unfortunately it doesn’t look like too many political junkies are tuning in.
Comment by Anthony — December 29, 2005 @ 1:32 pm