Posted on 08/20/2004 12:20:22 AM PDT by beaversmom
Here's a peek behind the cable TV curtain. It's not pretty.
So, my publicist arranges for me to go on MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews on Thursday night to talk about my recent columns on the FBI and national security profiling and my new book. Despite the show's basement ratings, we figure it's a good opportunity to reach out to a new audience. FOX News, with whom I have a contract, has generously allowed me to appear on some competing networks to talk about the book. Thursday was the second to the last day that I could make such appearances.
A few hours before the show, a producer calls to tell me I will be on for two segments--the first topic will be the Swift Boat Veterans, the second topic will be related to the book. Fine. This is the news business. I understand the need to go with the flow and cover the hot issues of the day. I am prepared to discuss both topics.
In a pre-interview, the producer goes over general questions about Kerry's response to the Swift Boat vets, whether the charges will be an issue in the presidential debates, and the basic themes of my book and its implications for the current War on Terror. I am originally scheduled to be on with the Washington Post's Dana Milbank. This was scratched and I am informed at the last minute that the other guest will be former San Francisco mayor Willie Brown.
As I am seated at the table with Matthews, who I am meeting for the first time, he cracks a joke--and not in a well-meaning way--about how I look. (There are quite a few people who are hung up on this.) "Are you sure you are old enough to be on the show? What are you? 28?" I grit my teeth. He badgers me again with the same question. I politely answer his question and supply my age.
(I wonder how Matthews' wife, the respected TV journalist Kathleen Matthews, who hosts a show about working women, would react if informed about her husband's treatment of a fellow female journalist. I've been in the business a dozen years and would be happy to talk to Mrs. Matthews about my firsthand experience with Neanderthal chauvinism in the workplace.)
Needless to say, things went downhill, fast and loud, from there.
1) Matthews introduces me, says we'll get to the subject of my book "in a minute," and launches into a spiel about how Bush should order the Swift Boat Vets to stop running their ads. Matthews intentionally mischaracterizes me as "speaking on behalf of the Bush campaign," when he knew full well I was there (with special permission from FOX News) to talk about my book, which he had sitting right next to him on the table and which he had chatted with me briefly about before the start of the segment. I correct him. He does not acknowledge his error.
2) When I tried to make a point about how the mainstream media ought to subject John Kerry to as much skull-pounding interrogation as private citizens such as Swift Boat Vet Lenny Thurlow had endured from Matthews and the Washington Post, Matthews cut me off and snorted that he had never been thought of as "mainstream." Yeah, keep snorting.
3) In response to Matthews' claim that the Swift Boat Vets campaign was orchestrated by the White House, I noted that the Boston Globe--hardly a hothouse of GOP operatives--had raised many of the same questions about Kerry's war record as the Swift Boat Vets had. No response from Matthews.
4) Willie Brown expresses exasperation over Swift Boat Vets' questions about Kerry's wounds. He says: "There are questions about the shrapnel wounds. So what else is there? How much he got shot? How deep? How much shrapnel does he have?
Note that I didn't bring the subject of shrapnel. (Got that, Keith Olbermann?) Willie Brown raised the issue.
Here is how I responded verbatim:
"Well yeah. Why don't people ask him more specific questions about the shrapnel in his leg? There are legitimate questions about whether or not it was a self-inflicted wound."
Matthews frantically stuffed words down my mouth when I raised these allegations made in Unfit for Command that Kerry's wounds might have been self-inflicted. In his ill-informed and ideologically warped mind, this transmogrified into me accusing Kerry of "shooting himself on purpose" to get an award.
I repeated that the allegations involved whether the injuries were "self inflicted wounds." I DID NOT SAY HE SHOT HIMSELF ON PURPOSE and Chris Matthews knows it.
Only someone who had not read Unfit for Command would interpret what I was saying the way Matthews did. The book raises questions by vets, many of whom were with Kerry, about whether there was or wasn't enemy fire during the Dec. 1968 incident that led to his first Purple Heart (Patrick Runyon is quoted in a Boston Globe account on p. 35 saying "I can't say for sure that we got return fire or how [Kerry] got nicked. I couldn't say one way or the other. I know he did get nicked, a scrape on the arm.") and whether the injury came from a self-inflicted wound after he caught a tiny piece of shrapnel when he fired a grenade from his M-79 grenade launcher too close (p. 36); whether or not there was "intense rocket and rifle fire" during the Feb. 1969 incident that led to his second Purple Heart (Rocky Hildreth, officer of an accompanying boat on Dam Doi Canal that day, says there was no "intense rocket and rifle fire" on p. 78); and whether the shrapnel wound in his buttocks, which Kerry says he sustained in March 1969 and led to the awarding of his third Purple Heart, was the result of a mine explosion while on a mission or from a wound from his own grenade that he set off too close to a stock of rice he was trying to destroy (p. 87.). See also pages 30-31.
Well, guess what? This foaming jerk Matthews, who called me irresponsible and kicked me off the show admitted that a) he himself had not read the damned book, b) he was not interested in asking Kerry about the specific doubts raised by vets about his wounds, and c) he had not and would not question Kerry about these specific allegations.
"Are you saying he shot himself on purpose?" Matthews hammered. I repeated myself again clearly that I was referring to the allegations about self-inflicted wounds in the book. When I tried to explain that the vets who were with Kerry had cast a lot of doubt on whether enemy fire occurred during the first two incidents, Matthews cut me off again. "Why did you say that?" he badgered. Because, I said, I was talking about what was in the book, which he had admitted he hadn't read.
"Don't you wonder?" I asked.
"No, I don't," he bellowed. "It's never occurred to me."
With that, I was kicked off the second segment.
As the show broke for commercials, Matthews scrambled for his producers to see if what he said was true. And I'm irresponsible? One staffer ran to the office where I had left my copy of the book, and handed it to Matthews, who--for the first time, apparently--started flipping through it. I asked for my book back and politely said thank you. After I left, he trashed me again on the air and his scurrilous charges were repeated by his MSNBC colleague Keith Olbermann, who called me an "idiot."
I am used to playing hardball. I expect it. I am used to ad hominem attacks. I get more in a day than most of these wussies have received in their lifetimes. But what happened last night was pure slimeball and the unfair, unbalanced, and unhinged purveyors of journalism, or whatever it is they call what they do at MSNBC, should be ashamed.
What I take away from all this is that the Democrat Party waterboys in the media are in full desperation mode. I have now witnessed firsthand and up close (Matthews' spittle nearly hit me in the face) how the pressure from alternative media sources--the blogosphere, conservative Internet forums, talk radio, Regnery Publishing, FOX News, etc. --is driving these people absolutely batty.
Keep bringing it on.
***
By the way, the full MSNBC Hardball transcript is here. Matthews and Olbermann's blog bloviations are here. Olbermann expresses incredulity that I was simply reporting what the Swift Boat Vets' book says, rather than spouting off in a half-baked manner:
Ms. Malkin wouldn’t even go so far as to attribute the suspicion to herself. It was in the book.
Olbermann, alleged journalist, is smearing me because I agreed to discuss and analyze claims made by the authors of Unfit for Command and actually referred to what was in the book--rather than cluelessly spew uninformed opinions about the book a la Chris Matthews (of whom Olbermann drools, "never prouder of you, Chris.") Parroting Matthews' conspiratorial line, Olbermann ignorantly suggests that I am following orders from the Swift Boat Vets to "steer the Kerry-Shot-Himself flotsam into the mainstream media." I suggest he talk to the producer who booked me about the circumstances of my appearance on the show and ask whether I was dispatched by the Bush campaign or Swift Boat Vets operatives or anyone else associated with the vets' book.
The producer who booked me is Dominic Bellone: 202-824-6706.
The feedback e-mail for Hardball is hardball@msnbc.com.
Chris Matthews' phone number is listed in the Spring 2004 News Media Yellow Book as 202-885-4600.
***
Just wanted to end with what I think was the most significant exchange on the show involving Wille Brown, who made a stunning admission from a fellow Democrat about John Kerry's core deficiencies:
BROWN: John Kerry is the kind of a guy who is always laid back. He is always been dealing with people who were gentle, who were in every way respectful, who have a sense of dignity about themselves and a sense of honor. John Kerry may not be fit for the terrible battles and wars of the world of politics.
He may be absolutely perfect as a president. But in term of a candidate, he probably has a series of imperfection that‘s may be fatal in his successful, in his pursuit of a successful candidacy. That‘s not to take anything away from his integrity. He should have been doing exactly what he‘s doing today. He should have been doing that from day one.
MATTHEWS: Do you think Massachusetts politics is softball?
BROWN: I think Massachusetts politics is always been very respectful of the other person‘s view and very committed to the idea they don‘t want to seem negative and they don‘t want to be criticized for an absence of integrity.
MALKIN: He is a boy in the bubble, Chris. And...
MATTHEWS: What does that mean?
MALKIN: He hasn‘t been subjected to this kind of heat. And as Willie Brown is suggesting, if he can‘t stand the heat from his fellow veterans, do we really want to trust him to stand up to Islamic extremists?
This needs a bump for the early risers from us late-nighters...
Michelle belongs in politics. She is marvelous! Michelle for veep!
Well I guess I'm outta here--time to let the morning shift take over. It's been a fun night yapping on the internet.
I emailed Chris Mathews several times last night after the show, and each one began with
"Chris, you ignorant slut"
Anyway, he's a copy of my letter to MSNBC. I know it will be trashed and ignored by MSNBC, but it was therapeutic to write.
TO: MSNBC
"In the Malkin segment today, Chris Matthew's treated his guest as every liberal accuses Rush Limbaugh of doing (falsely, of course). He was rude, immature, and embarrassingly unprofessional. He was also highly partisan, and dead-wrong on his facts.
"Matthews ought to look in a mirror carefully, tonight. Is this who he wants to be? His "trailer park trash-slut" treatment of Malkin was simply reprehensible. Unbelievable! MSNBC ought to think twice about putting this such garbage on the air. They need to put a leash on some of their employees.
"By the way, as a matter of full disclosure, I'm not a Kerry fan, I'm a military veteran, and in fact, a former Senior Navy Officer (USNR). Having heard both sides of the story (but having few documented facts at my disposal -- what happened to the curiosity of the impartial media.. they can get one of the 250 decorated Swift Boat Vet's military records, but not Kerry's??), in view of my personal military experience, I believe the Swifties, and think Kerry has a lot of explaining to do.
"The guys call themselves "Swift Boat Veterans for truth". Agree or disagree with them, they're using their God-given and Constitutionally recognized rights as American's to express what they know as the truth, and to challenge a man who would be President to disprove their accusations on the basis of factual argumentation. These men were attacked as "baby killers" when they came home the first time, and now the same left-wingers (now safely ensconced in their media positions) are going after them again. These guys are the liars? Prove it. Put some skin into the game. Take apart Kerry's military record, if you can get it, and his history (he's got an extensive, public record, i.e. his own statements on Vietnam), and then do the same to the Swifties. Again, I'm talking about PUBLIC and MILITARY record, not sleaze about the individual private lives of these military men.
"Some sort of journalistic award is out there for the guy who gets to the bottom of this mess.. who reconciles this mess between the relatively few pro-Kerry Swifties, and the hundreds of guys who are testifying in opposition to Kerry's record. Why isn't MSNBC, as a news organization, interested in finding out the truth? Instead, you send out Chris Matthews and that guy Olbermann to ambush and beat up this poor Filipina-American woman?? She hasn't even written on the Swifties, as far as I know. Why did Matthews set her up, bash her, and then kick her off the air before she could respond.
"What happened to common decency? What happened to journalistic standards? This would never happen on Fox News, or even CNN.
"Unbelievable! If I could take MSNBC off my cable channel, I would do so. In fact, I'm going to call Cox Cable and see if I can do so tomorrow."
SFS
I saw Matthews talking to a group of teenagers on C-Span once. He was very SARCASTIC to those kids for no reason. He had a real attitude.
OVer the years I came to realize he's a Democrat wise guy, and I stopped watching him. I encourage conservatives like Michelle not to go on his show. Don't tune him in. He voted for Clinton twice and will vote for Kerry.
Don't watch Imus either, who bashes Bush (Pres. Forest Gump) and Cheney (Pork-chop sucking war criminal).
Imagine the crude Matthews of all people ordering Bush to tell the vets what they can or cannot do. Now it forces Bush not to do it -- otherwise it would looke like he takes orders from Chris. As for Willie, he was an adoring groupie of Rev. Jim Jones and his personal life is such that he is in no position to talk about ethics.
STOP WATCHING MATTHEWS. The best thing we can do is buy the book, especially as birthday gifts. My local Barnes & Noble didn't have it, but I'm trying Borders tomorrow.
I heard Hannity say once for a book to get on the NY Slimes Bestseller list, you can't buy it in a discount store.
thanks so much for Michelle's email addy.
LOL! I'd hate to be on the receiving end of your wrath.
It's Brian Lamb Friday and the first call-in question is: "Does Military Service Matter?"
OMG he does! this needs to be photoshopped! what a great idea. hope someone follows through with it!
ping to that reprehensible fat pantload chrissy.
A video of the encounter can be found at-
http://www.oliverwillis.com/node/view/329
This is the best expose of the inter workings of the media since Bernard Goldberg's book.
Malkin Rocks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Thank you. My cable doesn't get C-Span. What will you call the thread?
"the show's basement ratings" -- headed for the sewer.
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