Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Tweety Off the Rails

There was a period of time around 9:30PM on primary night in New Hampshire that MS-NBC pundit and host Chris Matthews rolled totally off the rails. Coverage by the network was bad enough, but when Matthews said the following (from my live blogging of the evening), I almost blew out a chip on my laptop as I transcribed his drivel:

"I wouldn't put it past the Clintons if it looked like it was moving toward a victory for Barack to pull a quick press conference while it's still vague and say it's too early to tell and go to bed with some kind of vague victory statement."


This is word for word. I'm sure there's a YouTube of this moment floating around somewhere, or perhaps on the MS-NBC transcript of the remarks.

Between Chris Matthews and Andrea Mitchell, there could not be a more vitriolic pair of "reporters" dogging Hillary's campaign. I mean, I know that Mitchell dislikes HRC tremendously - and it comes through so clearly in her live reporting - but someone in Matthew's position has got to exhibit a degree of restraint. His mouth should have been in restraints last night.

I'm still having a hard time processing that a network anchor such as Matthews all but accused the Clinton campaign of getting ready to stage a victory dance if it looked like Obama was going to pull out a win in New Hampshire later in the night. And the way that he spewed his venom - the look on his face, the tone of his voice - was almost frightening.

I don't know if Chris Matthews needs a vacation or what, but clearly, he needs some time off. I hope that MS-NBC boss Dan Abrams reviews the coverage today, and gives Matthews some forced time off.

There is no place for that kind of behavior (allowing a personal distaste for a candidate) to drift into network coverage. None.

1 comment:

Melina said...

Oh God, I almost spit soda on my keyboard when he said that...WTF?
And how did he become such an ardent Obama supporter. To hear him tell it, its like he just saw god, MLK, and JFK all wrapped up in a bundle. Who was saying today that if MLK and JFK had a baby it would be Obama! HAH!
That was either a joke by Sammy Seder or it was Bill Scher on his own podcast; cant remember!

But anyway...I believe that Danny-A is no longer the "boss" over there. They put him back in his job and some suit came in (according to my Mom, who knows everything about everything newsy and political.)
And whoever it was, slapped a contract on Maddow and put her on every show in a row, every nite! Thats a good thing...(and watch out for her on "lock up!!" this weekend when they go to the stock footage! Shes the new host(ess)! (just kidding)
he does need some west and weewaxation....
Ever since he slimed all over Thompson, I thought his days were numbered...but then, Willie Geist cant seem to get fired, nor can Carlson with around 10 watchers...so...
Long live the king!!
"I'm king of the world!!"-then the ship sinks...right?