Posted on 09/12/2004 6:33:32 PM PDT by Arnold Zephel
NEW YORK (AP) - It certainly can't be a bad thing for a man with a political talk show called "Hardball" to be nearly challenged to a duel by a U.S. senator. MSNBC has quickly moved to take advantage of Sen. Zell Miller's combative GOP convention interview with Chris Matthews, featuring it in advertisements. It was Matthews' second eye-popping exchange with a guest in a month.
Matthews is hot right now, and not just under the collar.
"Hardball" and parts of Matthews' Republican convention coverage gave his network some surprising ratings victories over CNN. The former print reporter whose volume and energy switches never seem off may just be the man to lead MSNBC out of the wilderness.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.myway.com ...
I happened to see this exchange and Matthews wouldn't allow Michelle to finish her answer. She did not dodge the question. Matthews the fat-headed belligerent idiot wouldn't allow her to answer the question.
How long will the MSM continue to lie, distort, and concoct such obvious slander?
Journalistic integrity is officially dead, and I don't know if can be revived after this election is over. I will never trust another story from the AP no matter how mundane it may appear. I don't care if it a picture of a fuzzy kitten playing with a ball of string, it may not be a ball of string or a kitten.
BOTH!
It's people like Dan Rather and CBS and AP that really burn me up. They are supposed to be subject to journalistic ethics rather than working as partisan political operatives and posting as objective observers.
AP launches a higher number of biased stories, but CBS has more bias per story.
Agreed. Just this afternoon a neighbor said to me that she loved Bill Clinton. She said he did good for his countrymen, that he was a good President. He really knew how to have a good economy, not like it is now. I mentioned we have a war going on now, and she said, 'Yes, that Cheney is a war monger"
Where do you suppose she heard all of this garbage?
His ratings are still in the basement.
Hey, everyone, I can jump higher than a 103-year old man! Aren't I special?
There's a VERY easy way to stop MUCH of the MSNBC garbage, simply notify Microsoft that because of their financial and name support of a corrupt, anti-Republican media organization that you are going into openly publicizing freeware replacements to their software products.
First, Lobby the Republican Party and the Republican party faithful (including business) to stop supporting Bill Gates.
OS - Linux
http://www.linux.org/
MS Office replacement
http://www.openoffice.org/
WEB Server products
http://www.apache-asp.org/
Linux Applications (many are free)
http://www.linux.org/apps/index.html
Web Mail replacement for MS Exchange
http://www.squirrelmail.org/
http://www.squirrelmail.org/
I think you have it exactly right.
Matthews is hot right now, and not just under the collar.
"Hardball" and parts of Matthews' Republican convention coverage gave his network some surprising ratings victories over CNN. The former print reporter whose volume and energy switches never seem off may just be the man to lead MSNBC out of the wilderness.
"Politics is certainly on the top of the minds of people and Chris is the best person on cable doing it," said his boss, NBC News President Neal Shapiro.
Matthews' much-replayed interview with Miller came less than two hours after the Democratic senator spoke to the convention in favor of President Bush, torching Bush's Democratic opponent, John Kerry.
Displeased with the line of questioning, Miller told Matthews to "get out of my face."
"I wish we lived in the day where you could challenge a person to a duel," Miller said.
Said Matthews, in retrospect: "I was as fascinated by the experience as the viewer was."
Bush supporters' suspicion of Matthews was raised a few weeks earlier following his exchange with conservative columnist Michelle Malkin. During a discussion of the Swift boat controversy, Malkin said there were "legitimate questions" about whether one of Kerry's war wounds in Vietnam were self-inflicted.
"What do you mean by self-inflicted?" Matthews shot back. "Are you saying he shot himself on purpose? Is that what you're saying?"
Malkin dodged the question. So Matthews asked it again. And again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again.
Eleven times. Matthews grew increasingly angry, and Malkin exasperated. It was gripping television.
He eventually cut her off.
"We are going to keep things clean on this show," Matthews said. "No irresponsible comments are going to be made on this show."
Malkin, who did not respond to a request for an interview, called Matthews a "foaming jerk" in her column the next day.
"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," Malkin wrote.
Faced with a subject who avoids answering a question, many reporters let it slide, letting the non-answer speak for itself. Sometimes they rephrase the question.
But 11 times?
"You can't just come out like on some blog site or some speaker's corner, throw it against the wall and see if it sticks," Matthews said. "I've got to be their editor, and challenge them, at least ... We don't have a corrections page."
Political professionals aren't naive in how they plant seeds of doubt with little factual basis, he said. If they're not challenged, many viewers will simply believe what they heard, he said.
"My guess is Chris might have wanted to pull back a bit," Shapiro said. "But in terms of not getting an answer, I think it's appropriate to probe."
Miller even had Malkin's interview on his mind during the senator's later exchange with Matthews.
"Don't pull that kind of stuff on me, like you did that young lady when you had her there, browbeating her to death," he said.
Matthews, in an interview with The Associated Press, said: "When somebody comes on my show and makes an allegation that somebody committed a felony, I'm going to browbeat them. I want them to say the truth. And if they can't come out with the truth, they shouldn't be talking."
Miller came to MSNBC convention night after a speech many analysts called angry. He preceded his MSNBC interview with one on CNN that was pointed but with fewer fireworks.
The MSNBC appearance went quickly downhill after Matthews tried to put specifics to some one-liners in Miller's speech. For instance, when Miller used the metaphor of Kerry using "spitballs" for weapons, Matthews asked, "do you mean to say that you really believe that John Kerry and Ted Kennedy do not believe in defending the country?"
Matthews actually went into a defensive stance when Miller's verbal fisticuffs began, the equivalent of someone saying, "whoa," and stepping back from a cocked fist.
"I thought the Miller thing was just funny," said Steve Lovelady, managing editor of Campaigndesk.org, a Columbia University-affiliated site that monitors political coverage. "I don't think Matthews was being aggressive at all. He walked into a cage with a tiger."
It certainly put an exclamation mark on MSNBC's convention coverage.
Having Matthews as host on big political nights has proven wise for MSNBC. It allows his love of politics to shine through yet corrals his heavily caffeinated style, simply because he's forced to involve and interact with other panelists. The same is true for Matthews' successful Sunday chat show.
Coupled with the smart production choice of outdoor studios like Herald Square, MSNBC's coverage made CNN seem sleepy by comparison.
MSNBC will take Matthews on the road to outdoor studios this fall surrounding the debates. His daily show will turn into "Hardball Horserace" on Fridays, offering a week's review of what happened on the campaign trail.
You don't have to tell Matthews that he sometimes talks too much on "Hardball." He's working on it.
"I get so excited by what I'm hearing and what I'm getting engaged in, that I want to keep pushing it," he said. "So I will punish myself by trying to say to my guests, 'but finish your thought.' If I force myself to go through the agony of saying that every time, I will eventually, eventually stop doing it."
"It's not exactly anger management," he said. "It's more like manners."
They left out the part about Chrissy's son starting NYU this week as a drama major. I wonder if he's going to get his boy a job a a page for Barney Frank?
Hasn't Matthews been there all along, while MSNBC's ratings have declined to the point of being practically unmeasurable? Didn't Matthews have a "hot show", before FOX came along? As usual, the endless supply of wishful thinking from the Left masquerading as "news".
["What do you mean by self-inflicted?" Matthews shot back. "Are you saying he shot himself on purpose? Is that what you're saying?"...Malkin dodged the question.]
Malkin did not dodge the question. Through constant interruption, the peacock Matthews never let Malkin disabuse him of his apparent ignorance -- that Kerry's self-inflicted wound was due to his errant firing of an M79 mortar at an unsafe range.
[So Matthews asked it again. And again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again.]
Where do they teach THIS journalistic reporting style? Petulant Democrat Journalists 101?
[Eleven times. Matthews grew increasingly angry, and Malkin exasperated. It was gripping television.]
Actually, it was pathetic television, watching that buffoon Matthews making an utter ass of himself was almost nauseating.
[Matthews said. "No irresponsible comments are going to be made on this show."]
...Unless they are made by me.
["I don't think Matthews was being aggressive at all. He walked into a cage with a tiger."]
He sure did. LOL! A tiger (Miller) with balls that Matthews could only dream about having.
I especially liked Zell's retort: "That was a metafer. You know what a metafer is, don't you? I laughed like hell. Metafer! LOL!
Unfortunately there are several applications that I like that don't have a Linux version or viable alternative, so I do wind up using Windows XP most of the time. Hopefully that will change in the not too distant future, because Linux is much more stable than Windows, and I do like the fact that it is open-source software. Not to mention, I am not a fan of Bill Gates and his activities.
If MSNBC think Matthews technique will lead them somewhere .. they're right .. it will lead them directly into the toilet .. they will not pass GO and they will definitely not collect $200 dollars.
I loved that too! LOL. Zell is my new political hero. He is a man with true courage of conviction. I wish more Republicans would show the same fortitude, but alas that is too much to hope for in an election year.
That nasty little piece of shiite has no place on this thread. What a jerk.
Please help me, here. I've listened to Limbaugh since he
first came to KFBK in Sacramento in 1984-85 and have never
heard him "purport" to be a journalist. Rush's program is
about opinion......his. I have heard him say THAT on many
occasions. Unlike Matthews, he has never pretended to be
neutral. I am not quibbling about your defense of "slime-
ball" Matthews but I would like to know just when Limbaugh
has ever seriously "purported" to be a journalist?
Thanks Arnold,
I think that it is not difficult to get MSN and MSNBC in line. After all, look at what Chris Matthews is saying, he's talking about Microsoft pulling support.
And the fact is, I am a tech consultant and I was reading an article the other day where MS was trying to set expectations lower on earnings based on Open Source. I think we just need to accelerate that trend...
Any ideas on how we can get people looking into MS alternatives and letting MS know that it's because of their media support for the Bush Hate Campaign by mainstream media?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.