MSNBC
may have dropped Chris Matthews as “news anchor” of major
political news events, but he was a major presence during
coverage of Friday’s debate between John McCain and Barack
Obama. Immediately following the debate and in a special
Hardball that aired at midnight EDT, Matthews insulted John
McCain as “troll-like” and insisted the Republican nominee
showed “contempt” for Obama by looking at moderator Jim Lehrer
instead.
But Obama was sensational, correspondent Andrea Mitchell gushed:
“He seemed to be a lot more genial than you might have expected.
But, boy, he did show a command of foreign policy in terms of
the nuts and bolts of it.” Matthews, however, wasn’t especially
pleased with the Democrat’s performance, wishing he had heard a
lot more bashing of Republicans: “Why didn’t he talk more about
the terrible state of the economy, the jobless rate,
unemployment, the degree of deficit we’re in right now, the
degree of national debt....He said at the convention, in
accepting the nomination, he was going to make John McCain own
the failures of the last seven and eight years, and he didn’t do
it tonight. He didn’t focus on those failures.”
As for McCain, Matthews was immediately scornful. “He was
crunched over, almost grumpy in his physical manner. I think a
lot of people will take that body language as contemptuous of
his opponent,” Matthews announced moments after the debate
concluded.
After midnight, Matthews renewed his partisan spin, disparaging
McCain for the imagined slight against Obama: “I’m not sure
contempt is an admirable trait when you’re up against an
opponent who has every right to be there against you, in fact
has equal footing, to treat your opponent with such contempt
that not once throughout the evening do you give him the
courtesy of looking at him....Is that an inferiority complex? Is
that embarrassment? Is that guilt? Or is it contempt?”
Half an hour later, interviewing New York magazine’s John
Heilemann, Matthews used language no TV journalist would be
permitted to use against Barack Obama: “Let’s start with John
McCain. Do you think he was too troll-like tonight? You know,
too much of a troll?...Sitting there angrily, grumpily, like a
codger?...Is every press conference going to be like that? A
troll-like performance, angry at the world?” [Audio/video
(0:37): Windows Media (2.34 MB) and
MP3 audio (169 kB)]Does MSNBC really think that they can become fair and balanced
merely by letting Matthews express his liberal bombast from a
different chair?
For more, see the
September 29
CyberAlert:
