Chris Matthews goes around the bend
Published August 20, 2004
If Kerry's campaign has gone kinda nutsy, then his minions in the media have really lost their little pea-pickin' minds, raging against the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. Check out THIS ACCOUNT by Michelle Malkin of her appearance last night (8-19-2004, TRANSCRIPT) on Hardball. I saw this, and Matthews was every bit as whacked out and hostile as she describes, if not more so.
Matthews was practically foaming at the mouth. Now, he's routinely animated and assertive. I don't mean that. I mean, the guy was absolutely hysterical, insisting on casting her as a representative of the Bush administration for starters. This was just looney tunes, as she has never been anything like that. She's certainly conservative, but has never been a Republican partisan, let alone their spokesperson.
She wasn't even there to discuss the swift boat stuff. This was just put on her. Her reporter/analyst beat is immigration. Here's a reporter with a new book apparently fairly critical of the Bush administration (In Defense of Internment: The Case for Racial Profiling in World War II and the War on Terror), and Matthews apparently expected her to take responsibility on behalf of the Bush administration for the claims of yet a third party on a completely different subject. What was he on, anyway?
Indeed, by rights people like Malkin are among Bush's most damaging critics. Coming at him from the right, she's been raising hell with his administration on immigration. This would be one of his more vulnerable points with a good part of his base. She's goading Bush, not cheerleading for him.
It was really odd just watching the emotional dynamics. Matthews went increasingly hysterical. Now even in the etymology of the word, hysteria is mostly thought of as a female emotional behavior. Yet, there is Ms Malkin carefully concentrating on calmness and civility as Matthews becomes increasingly unhinged.
By the time he dumped her - without ever talking about her book, which was supposed to be her subject of discussion - he'd gone completely around the bend. He made up some claim supposedly in the Unfit for Command book which he's obviously never read that Kerry had purposely shot himself to get one of his Purple Hearts, and seemed to be demanding that Malkin defend this claim on behalf of the Bush administration.
Who did she think she was, anyway, telling these scurrillous lies about Kerry. We'll have none of that on this show! And no, Matthews will NOT be grilling Kerry about any of these details.
To me, Matthews looked like he was just out of his head. Interestingly, another writer took this as brilliant media manipulation by Matthews. It was fascinating either way.
Yeah boy, this was definitely NBC's must-see Thursday program.
- Chris Matthews goes around the bend
- Published: August 20, 2004
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- Section: Video
- Filed Under: Books: Nonfiction, Books: Politics and Affairs, Culture: Media, Video: News
- Writer: Al Barger
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I was able to hear a few audio excerpts on Rush Limbaugh's show today, where Michelle was a guest. She said that after she was "escorted from the set", a couple of Matthews' toad's confiscated her copy of "unfit" from her dressing room! They were furiously going over it to find a reference to back up Mathews' apparantly unreasearched claim that "self-inflicted" meant Kerry had actually turned a gun on himself.
Malkin seemed less irritated by the rude invasion, as being astounded that they didn't even have their own book.
If Mathews would've curbed his absurd barking at her, she would have explained to the apparant madman that "self-inflicted" can also mean that you aren't necessarily attempting harm on yourself.
It was too bad Mathews censored her before she could talk about her new book. I hear it's a thouroughly researched expose' on liberal mythology of the internment of Japanese-Americans during WW-2.
I saw the show and Malkin was definitely whacked out and hostile.
Apparently she could not bring herself to give a straight answer to a simple question - it doesn't seem to be in her
DNA. Matthews pressed trying to get an answer, playing Hardball, but she kept playing dodgeball.
You really should read the transcript rather than getting it second-hand from anyone, even me.
What show were you watching, Hal? Matthews asked her on the show to talk about her book on immigration and racial profiling, then he just starts going batty on her about the swift boat vets. He's braying and carrying on in such manner that could not be in any normal sense called a "conversation."
Just what was she supposed to answer? She doesn't claim to know what happened in Vietnam 35 years ago, and Matthews was absolutely determined to get her to act like she did so he could slam her for it.
He's determined to denounce and debunk this anti-Kerry book, but very obviously hadn't bothered to read it, or even skim through it. Hell, he hadn't even bothered to get a copy of the thing.
Does anyone actually expect the screamer Hardball guy to conduct a normal interview? I can't watch him or anyone like him, even if I agree with his position on something. It's awful television and it's worse that it passes for some sort of informational outlet to the public at large.
Matthews isn't a serious journalist. He's a Democrat shill.
He's worked for Democrats in the past. He hates the entire Bush administration.
And he's a fucking kook to boot.
Wow. I'm just surprised that we have at least three people who actually watch MSNBC.
Man, Thursday night might have been their biggest audience!
BTW:
How can a self-inflicted wound not be 'shooting oneself on purpose'?
Somebody smarter parse this for me.
How can a self-inflicted wound not be 'shooting oneself on purpose'?
Quite easily.
Private Sessions fires his RPG at the enemy. But his aim sucks, and it explodes quite close to him.
Some shrapnel from the blast hits him in the pinky finger. He loses one drop of blood.
Private Sessions then demands a Purple Heart.
A couple more times, and Private Sessions has accrued 3 Purple Hearts, and gets to go home and slander his "Band Of Brothers" as a pack of deranged war criminals, while calling himself a "decorated hero."
Get it?
Let the right wing extremists take to the streets in their brown shirts! If the Republicans can change history, much less rewrite it, then we're all in for a bumpy ride indeed. Take the scary terrorists out of the equation, and you have an opportunity to see just how very ugly the "patriots" are coming off to the rest of the world. America is not the policeman of the world, and we had better get used to the idea that we've made enemies of some very old and loyal friends.
How 'bout another level yellow alert, just to kept the masses in line? George Orwell is smiling somewhere.
Let the right wing extremists take to the streets in their brown shirts! If the Republicans can change history, much less rewrite it, then we're all in for a bumpy ride indeed. Take the scary terrorists out of the equation, and you have an opportunity to see just how very ugly the "patriots" are coming off to the rest of the world. America is not the policeman of the world, and we had better get used to the idea that we've made enemies of some very old and loyal friends.
How 'bout another level yellow alert, just to kept the masses in line? George Orwell is smiling somewhere.
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Mr. Matthews performance was a disgrace. Please see my blog for further comments.
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