Anyone see this tonight? CM's personal fear at the thought of the mortality of the great (such as he) was palpable. He couldn't stop talking about it. Eventually he greeted some encouragement of his own type A pathology by a "guest" with a visible sigh of relief.
Why doesn't MSNBC get rid of this contemptible clown? Are his ratings in the toilet like Olberman's? pl
You’re watching him.
Matthews is quite a piece of work — “boob in a cage” are words that come to mind. What drives me a bit nuts is when people who are left of center cozy up to Matthews when he’s attacking one of the figures they deeply dislike — e.g. recently, Sarah Palin. In most cases I too dislike those figures, but why can’t those who momentarily celebrate Matthews under such circumstances see the danger in giving any legitimacy, even in passing, to the corruption of public discourse that he has exemplified for some time now?
To paraphrase a remark of the late Viennese satirist Karl Kraus, the problem is that the people no longer understand the language, but one can’t tell them that in the language we’ve commonly come to speak.
graywolf
I feel an obligation to see what the jackass is doing.
I watch Fox News for the same reason. pl
If you have equally low opinions of both Matthews and Fox News, whom do you actually like (if any)?
graywolf
As an elitist, I like the Newshour and I confess to enjoying watching Willi Geist on “Morning Joe.” pl
The mystery deepens:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/12/world/americas/12haiti.html
The police in El Salvador have begun an investigation into whether a man suspected of leading a trafficking ring involving Central American and Caribbean women and girls is also a legal adviser to many of the Americans charged with trying to take 33 children out of Haiti without permission.
I feel an obligation to see what the jackass is doing.
I watch Fox News for the same reason.
I can’t handle neither, but I do make a daily visit to neocon heaven, a/k/a the WaPo editorial page, where the only things worth reading are pieces by their token liberal, Gene Robinson, and the political cartoons. Otherwise, it’s appalling what a rag that paper has become. Krauthamer, Broder, Cohen and Kristol: need I say more?
I caught a glimpse of Chris Matthews some years ago when I lived in Alexandria. Saw him dining at the Peking Gourmet on Leesburg pike.
He looked a lot older than he does on tv.
I can’t handle neither,
Jeeze, the ole double negative. I need to proof better.
Unlike some others like the deceased former host of a Sunday talk show, Chris Matthews repeated uses half/truths and non-objective body language to influence his audience. I would argue that he displays continuous cowardice in the role of journalist if that is what he calls himself. He is not a credit to any profession that I know of.
Col: Matthews to used to squawk a little in favor of the Palestinians. I guess that ended when he found out this his Washington power cronies only support a “two-state solution” as defined by the GOI.
Since Gaza, the press has been even more ardently pro-Zionist than usual. I suspect they fear that we minions are beginning to doubt the AIPAC line, and might actually believe our own lying eyes.
This and other like programs are celebrity journalism about celebrity politics – something akin to what the Jerry Springer had to do about human social problems. This is about display (power) posturing, that push actual polemics into a secondary position. And is endemic to the broad failure of the “institution(s)” of both journalism and the media, that reaffirm their intimate and self serving interests. You could watch a million of these shows and learn nothing more (about policy) than what a Chris Matthews happens to be “feeling” on that particular day.
Every time I Matthews I think of a scene from I Claudis, the BBC series.
In the scene Claudius, just returning, dripping wet, from being tossed into the Rhine on orders from his certifiably insane nephew, the Roman Emperor Caligula.
The Emperor, seeing that Claudius is still alive, orders him down on his knees and, with huge sword in hand, prepares to chop off Claudius’s head….but pauses, eventually relents and then asks Claudius a rather odd question:
“Tell me Uncle, do you think I am mad?”
Now what is Claudius to say? He’s on his knees, the Emperor hovers over him, with sword in hand……it’s a tricky situation to say the least and the predicament shows on Claudius’ face. There is a pregnant pause as Claudius grapples for an answer…which finally comes to him:
“You mad? No, I don’t think that possible. Why, you set the standard for sanity in the world today”.
Matthews sets the standard for sanity in DC today.
What’s wrong with Olbermann?
Jonst,
Great quip.
SP
I doubt people will remember Chris Matthews for moral courage.
Among progressives, I give the “moral courage” award to Glenn Greenwald and Phil Weiss. Just extraordinary.
Pat:
I can’t help but think you are playing a bit of a joke on us with the drawing of the reptilian hominid illustrating a post about Chris Matthews. Though I don’t have the stomach any more to watch him or others of his ilk (some years back I pulled an Elvis and executed my Tee Vee with multiple rounds from a 12 guage shotgun, and administered the coup de grace with .357 revolver…just like the old time firing squads of yore), you wouldn’t happen to be suggesting that Mr Matthews is a secret member of the New World Order, up to and including his status as a shape shifting reptilian alien hybrid from the Drako constellation? It is widely believed (by the more gullible, paranoid or just absolutely batshit crazy insane citizens of our grand republic) that these creatures have been secretly living in underground caverns on this planet for some time, and have intermarried over the years with members of influential families (House of Windsor, the Bush family, the Clampetts of Beverly Hills, et al) producing a race of human/alien hybrids that are secretly running everything.
As conspiracty theories go, it’s doozy, and among my favorites. Personally, I think guys like Matthews are just the modern day equivalent of Snake Oil Salesmen. In a just society, they would all be tarred and feathered, and run out of town on a rail.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Icke#Reptilians_and_shape-shifting
Pete Deer
SubKommander,
Snake Oil Salesmen is an apt metaphor for the cuurent crop of TV personalities.
Which leads me to this question for anybody who knows, who behind the scenes of network news makes the actual editorial or program decisions?
Which sub did you command? I served on SSBNs from 1984-88.
Subkommander,
This may be the origin of Icke’s Lizard People fantasy. The following article is from the frontpage of the LA Times, 1934, about an engineer who is searching for the lost 5000 year-old city of the Lizard People under LA. It must have been a slow news day.
http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/
Opti: Seems like everything old is new again, eh?
Thomas: Alas, unlike our host (and yourself) I have not had training or experience in the combat arts, as it were. SubKommander is a completely made up rank, in much the same way as my alter ego, The Very Reverend Doktor Onan Agitprop, D.D. (and in actuality an ordained minister of The Church of the Subgenius- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_the_subgenius). Yes, you too can become an ordained minister with a Doctorate in Divinity for just 40 bucks. Eternal Salvation guarrenteed or triple your money back.
Thus, it is given my status as a church member that I can recognize patent cranks and con men when I see them (being of like mind, myself) such as the likes of Matthews, O’Reilly, Beck, Ailes…the list is a rather lengthy one, and would probably be composed in excess of 90% of the academic, medicine, business, political and military leaders running things today. Never before in the history of the human race have we had so many highly educated, credentialed and worldly individuals act like complete idiots.
Now, if you’ll pardon me, I am off to write a sermon for my congregation, “The Cult of Unlimited Credit.”
Pete
I believe Matthews is paid his 5 million dollars/year precisely to do what he does. His network (and whoever stands behind that network) wants to keep the public mind dulled and the public emotion-base febrile and trembling. Matthews does what he can to keep his audience dulled and febrile, and his network loves him for it.
You can’t beat National Public Radio, no pix or annoying graphics, and it makes a long commute somewhat tolerable. And BBC World News, while I’m on the treadmill.
Undeniable world-class moral courage of the progressives Weiss and Greenwald aside…
I really wish a few white progressives would use Greenwald and Weiss as a role model and would quit using the “n-word”, as if they are so hip they can do so. Very annoying and disrespectful. I mention this because it seems to pop up every now and then among a few youthful progressives in the music world. It’s a strong indicator one did not grow up around blacks.
I am all but certain those little ol ladies of Virginia DAR would agree with me.
This thought leads me back to Chris Matthews. I sometimes believe that Chris Matthews type progressives — a subset that, one hopes, represents a small percentage of progressives at large — have an inner struggle with racism. Three step analysis. First, their ego has a racist or racial thought. Second, their superego says to their ego, “NO, you must not have this thought. You are a progressive. This thought must be repressed. Immediately and with full force.”
An inner conflict thus appears, ego vs. superego, if you want to use such language. This dynamic leads to attempts to resolve the inner conflict and, ergo, step three, which, upon reflection, is evidence of a progressive in a regressive state , meaning someone who cannot look within, meaning Chris Matthews:
Step three: said progressives blame our nations’ racism on Robert E. Lee. Typically the more strident the condemnation, the greater the magnitude of the inner struggle.
The attempted resolution sometimes takes different forms. Matthews’ latest manifestation of his inner struggle was his recent, very disrespectful, comments made about President Obama following the State of the Union address If Strom Thurmond had uttered the same words as Matthews, something like I didn’t know Obama was black, Matthews would have had a program condemning Matthews’ own words. Probably would have lead to ersatz progressive outrage vs. Thurmond.
But, again, another alternative resolution to the inner conflict, at least among a few of the younger progressive set, is to try to act so hip that they think they can use the n-word. As I say, disrespectful of our (including Southern) black brothers and sisters, at least in my view.
But to each, his or her own.
I am not sure if one can “not have a thought”. Perhaps the best and highest one can do is admit to having the thought, think the thought through, and try one’s best not to act on the thought. Keep the thought in a dark cage in the “brain’s basement” and shine a mental flashlight on it every now and then to make sure the thought is still in its cage.
If you read your Nielsen ratings, you’d know his ratings, are not as good as Olberman’s, but still quite strong. They’re not as high as Fox, but Fox owns TV stations. MSNBC has an audience strictly limited to cable. The story about them having “bad” ratings was actually made up by a Bush speech-writer and repeated on some Right-wing blogs. It’s just not true. The math does not bear it out.
Jose F.
I have no aptitude for Nielson. Tell me. pl