Chris Matthews thinks Usama bin Laden sounds just like Michael Moore. And I have to admit, they do like to touch on some of the same themes. For example, they are both somewhat nonplussed by Bush’s reading of My Pet Goat during the destruction of Lower Manhattan. And neither of them were overly impressed with Bush’s silly appearance on the aircraft carrier. Certainly, they have engaged in significantly less swooning than Peggy Noonan over how manly Bush looked in his jumpsuit.
What Matthews and other conservative commentators fail to note, is that to any objective observer George W. Bush is a ridiculous, bumbling, fool. And a liar.
The media has done an admirable job of trying to pretend otherwise, but after five years the effort is no longer credible. Nobody tries harder than Chris Matthews who has spun out some real gems:
“sometimes it glimmers with this man, our president, that kind of sunny nobility.” [Hardball, 10/24/05]
“Everybody sort of likes the president, except for the real whack-jobs, maybe on the left.” [Hardball, 11/28/05]
If Usama bin Laden occassionally opines on some of the more obvious shortcomings of our President, that doesn’t make him like Michael Moore. It just means he isn’t a total fucking idiot, like Chris Matthews. While at least half of the country is seriously considering whether the President should be impeached, Matthews recently said:
If [Bush’s] gamble that he can create a democracy in the middle of the Arab world” is successful, “he belongs on Mount Rushmore.” [Hardball, 12/16/05]
Which leads me to question whom is the bigger whack-job? Usama Bin-Laden, who actually follows the news, or Chris Matthews who seems totally oblivious to the significance of events that are transpiring in front of his eyes?
And it isn’t just Tweetybird that is showing signs of psychosis; the effort to ignore the criminality of this administration is straining all mainstream pundits’ credibility.
After all, actually asking tough questions and demanding honest answers of Republicans leads to exchanges like this:
Helen Thomas: Why do you keep linking Iraq and 9/11 and so forth? Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11, and you keep — we started the war in Iraq. We brought the terrorists in, so-called.
MR. McCLELLAN: I think that’s a misunderstanding of —
Helen Thomas: — and 20 to 50 people are dying every day in Iraq
MR. McCLELLAN: I think, one, that’s a misunderstanding of the global war on terrorism that we are engaged in
Helen Thomas: We invaded.
MR. McCLELLAN: Some people take a narrow view of the war on terrorism. The President recognizes —
Helen Thomas: Innocent Iraqis are paying the price.
MR. McCLELLAN: The President — well, first of all, the Iraqi people, we have heard from many of them who have expressed their appreciation for the removal of a brutal and oppressive regime —
Helen Thomas: Many are dead. Thousands are dead.
MR. McCLELLAN: Second of all, Zawahiri, bin Laden’s number two leader, has talked about how Iraq is the central front in the war on terrorism. We know that the terrorists want to create a safe haven from which they can plan and plot attacks. The stakes are high in Iraq. And that’s why it’s critical that we prevail in Iraq, because it will be a major blow to the ambitions of the terrorists. They don’t want us in the Middle East. The Middle East is a dangerous region of the world. It has been a breeding ground for terrorism, a breeding ground where people are —
Helen Thomas: They don’t want a foreigner in their country.
MR. McCLELLAN: — planes into buildings and attacked innocent civilians across the world. And that’s why it’s so critical that we prevail in Iraq, as well. And we will. And the Iraqi people no longer live under a brutal, oppressive regime, a regime that was responsible for the systematic torture and killing of people who simply spoke out against that regime
Helen Thomas: Scott, if I could follow
MR. McCLELLAN: I’ll try to come back if I can. I think — go ahead.
And no one wants to sound as ‘whacky’ as Helen Thomas. Right?
I am outraged and frustrated on a nightly basis with what our so called “liberal” media is spewing. Nothing but lies and coverups. It makes me sick. I email these idiots and get the standard form letter in return, if anything at all. I keep saying this, we need to protest at the media headquarters.
I’ve been wondering if the blogs could get behind something like a National News Out Week-like the National Smoke Out Day-and let all the stations know regular and cable that we are simply not going to watch Any news show(except Olberman and C-Span)for a week.
It’s all about money/ratings and could we get several million of us to tune out? Would it do any good?
I think we’d still get enough news from the internet about what is happening from Media Matters and everyone else out in the blog world to know what is going on for that week.
Excellent idea. let’s get the ball rolling. Go for it Chocolate!!
Hi Chocolate and Everyone,
I used to work for Nielsen TV Ratings. The ONLY way they get ratings is to attach an electronic meter to your TV. Then your viewing is counting for roughly 245,000 households. Without the box meter, the only way Networks KNOW you are NOT watching is if you call or email them.
A TV Out day would work only:
I’ll be happy to answer any questions anyone has.
I always wanted to be a Nielsen family…;)
I’m looking at this now and finding advancements that were made at the turn of the century and dropped from the news. I Think the current cable boxes with interactive capabilities have been collecting and reporting our viewing habits for several years.
One of the technologies in monitoring services such as Tivo uses audio digital fingerprints that are special, inaudible beeps that identify the work. It can be also identified if it’s an original or a recording…yikes!
Did you have any experience with any of this?
There was a big flap with TIVO about 3-4 years ago, because their original technology allowed you to eliminate ads/commercials altogether. After lots of pressure by Nielsen, Ad Agencies and Networks, TIVO agreed to put in the audio digital fingerprints that are special, inaudible beeps that identify the work. It can be also identified if it’s an original or a recording.
They track whether it is a recording or the original so that they do not duplicate effort. The purpose is to see which type of shows you are interested in TIVOing. By defining the type of shows they then get to send you the ads for the correct “junk mail” or drive you crazy with telemarketing. TIVO agreed to it basically to save their business IIRC. Otherwise, Nielsen, owned by the Dutch Company VNU and put up for sale last month, and ad agencies promised to bring several law suits regarding “unfair business practices” that TIVO would have had to file bankruptcy just to pay the legal fees.
Hope that is what you wanted to know.
Let’s just watch Olbermann and CSPAN permanetly. Fuck those other jerkoffs.
and lately it has really super sucked and it is really fucking hard and some of them get hurt or killed. I didn’t tell these people to be reporters or journalists in the United States of America. They chose that and it really super sucks right now but it is time to do the fucking job and do it right….and some are beginning to do it and some have died in Iraq attempting to make us all knowledgeable about the situation. But if television journalists and Senate Democrats want to start whining about how hard it all is and how all out war scares them, all I have to say is “Shut the fuck up and do your job!” That’s what they all tell my husband to do right now!
whine and simper very well either. She’s been a lone gunman out there for years now. If the rest of them would do their job then she could just be the pistol she always has been.
Thanks again for all you and your family does for all of us. It really is appreciated and not said often enough.
When the going gets tough, hang with the other toughs!
Tracy,
Thanks for all you, and your husband and family do for our country and what is left of our Democracy. We are all better for you posting so frankly and wisely on this site.
Considering the bent knee worship that Matthews has adopted toward an undeserving coward like Bush,it is fair to ask if he is one of those paid shills like Armstrong Williams and his ilk.His association with Abramoff and his continued stonewalling of any questions makes me wonder……hmmmm.
Exactly, he can’t be that blind. Whats in it for this guy?
an off shore bank account. I have cut Matthews so much slack, thought maybe he was making a stupid attempt at balanced coverage……none of it fits anymore though. He is either sleeping with Scottie or an offshore bank account. Maybe I need to put that on the Apologize Chris Matthews Blog.
I cut him a lot of slack too. I also thought he gave a half-hearted attempt at being balanced. But he’s in bed with this administration now for sure.
Does make you wonder. Is there a department, accessible to us “average folk” we can contact to find out? Does MSNBC have to tell us if we ask?
Poor Widdle Chris, now he’s claiming he was “misunderstood.” Yeah right.
See the exchange between CM and Joe Scarborough at think progress
Matthews is getting worse and worse. Those quotes make me sick. What the fuck is wrong with him? I heard him on WTOP Washington doing a radio interview after the start of the war. He was talking about how well things are going and how Rumsfeld and Bush will be considered “geniuses” after this victory. I’m serious this guy is worse then Harriet Miers.
via Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting:
Strange anger? Got weird and grew a beard? Matthews speaks of Bush’s “sunny nobility” and compares Al Gore to a “vampire”.
Goddamned liberal media.
i thought he was talking about UBL until he mentioned Gore.
Perhaps a frontal lobotomy will help Chris Matthews perceptions!
through the tear duct with a crochet hook and one only need to wear some sun glasses until the bruising goes down! I think I have an old crochet hook around here if you’ll hold him down.
Be happy to sit on that fat thing. Seems like I could have some fun bouncing up and down.
What size crochet hook you got? Matthews probably has
huge tear ducts!
A new blog has been set up to demand an apology from Matthews. Feel free to add your comments to it.
*”I turn the sound off of my TV and throw peanuts at your mouth and pretend you are the clown at the circus.
Then I pick them all up and wait until I see you again the next day”.*
Fess up MLK, you said this? I can’t stop laughing
Tracy, I wish I were that clever!!
every time Keith Olbermann says, “Let’s play Oddball,” knowing that he is totally skewering Matthews.
“Hardball” is more often than not a dribbler to short; a local liberal talk show host actually calls it “Whiffleball”. Matthews is trying to play all sides, so as not to lose his access to the Powers That Be, not realizing that he’s becoming an object of derision by potential viewers, and most likely even his own colleagues in the news media. (Can’t wait till Keith gets the cojones to put Tweety in the “worst person in the world” rotation…)
How do we as a group respond? Writing letters is an exercise in futility unless management can be convinced there will be consequences to their actions. Same applies in politics.
I include myself in the group of people “but for” coordination would constitute the largest voting and purchasing block in the country. A kind characterization would be scattered, fragmented, and unfortunately disengenuous. How else to explain that such a philosophically united, socially diverse group, containing some of the best minds in the field of “media relations”, can’t seem to find it’s collective ass with both hands.
If you want to affect the source of your agitation, you must (legally) strike them where they live: eyeballs. No eyeballs, no sponsors. No sponsors, no show. So. Want to get their attention?
Off the top of my head: Circulate a petition to have the individual removed, containing a clause that all signers agree to forgo purchase of any item by any sponsor of that show for a period of one week, commencing on the xx xx 2006. Kinda like the national “turn off your tv” day, only different. And it’s not a boycott, but rather a simple demonstration, a “rolling blackout” if you will, to express your outrage.
Telling the truth to power sometimes works better when combined with a (rhetorical) swift kick to the balls. Didn’t work the first time? Repeat as necessary using random 7-day periods. Better yet, come up with something better.
Rage and whine do not produce tangible results. Good for the soul maybe, but after five years the bastards are still talking, aren’t they?
it’s a good idea, but the question is, does MSNBC have any audience to lose?
On the other hand, their audience is so small that even a tiny boycott might register in their statistics.
Everybody wants to cut in on the “Fox” market. Fox I’m sure has a base market and then a section of it’s market that is shocked/entertained by it. CNN, Headline News, MSNBC seem so alike and all three boring as hell………shock us all with some damned truth and by God shock the hell out of all of us with some real debate about the real issues! Nothing like reporting a fucking scoop to get some people’s heads turning and dials turning and this administration shovels so much shit all one needs is a fucking scoop shovel anymore to get a good scoop! Now I’m going to go find an aspirin
My post above has a suggestion for a National News Out Week..if we could get a coordinated effort going to not watch any of these idiots for a week would that work? Get their attention to maybe make them stop and think for a few minutes before all the cable shows become like Faux News. Make sure the networks/cable know hopefully hundreds of thousands of us weren’t going to watch their so called news shows for a week..let them know by sending out letters or emails to all the networks to start with..a concentrated effort with thousands of emails then follow through with no news watching…Except for Olberman.
After Alito comes to close however it closes perhaps this is where I can put that angry and not taking it anymore energy.
If you want to affect the source of your agitation, you must (legally) strike them where they live: eyeballs. No eyeballs, no sponsors. No sponsors, no show.
Exactly. Why exactly does anyone watch anymore? Why give him the attention?
for cripes though Cspan has been giving me pause lately too!
Off the top of my head: Circulate a petition to have the individual removed, containing a clause that all signers agree to forgo purchase of any item by any sponsor of that show for a period of one week, commencing on the xx xx 2006. Kinda like the national “turn off your tv” day, only different. And it’s not a boycott, but rather a simple demonstration, a “rolling blackout” if you will, to express your outrage
Perhaps someone with technical skills can come up with a form letter we can modify to personalize it. Then send it to advertisers. If they get enough, they certainly will be talking with the networks and watching their sales that week.
I hope that Michael Moore sues for slander. He needs to sue NBC, GE and Chris Matthews and try to get a very high judgement. That’s the only way you get corporations to listen – sue the crap out of them.
in Flint, Michigan about a month ago on CSPAN. He was very impressive – articulate, passionate and direct. The thing that surprised me, though, was how much he came across as an ordinary, every day citizen of America’s heartland. The speech really gave the lie to the caricature of Mr. Moore promoted by the Chris Matthews’ of this world.
I acknowledge it is presenting a stereotype, but every time I see Chris Mathews I see the overweight bigoted blue uniformed white beat cop of the 1950s and 60s that in his wee little heart he really is. He is a spokesman for the Archie Bunkers of this decade, his clownish prejudices and stupidity obvious to all.
Chris presents his whole persona with a jocular catholic school familiarity just like Archie. With guys like him it’s always “us and them.” and you know who “us” is don’t yah?
What Matthews and other conservative commentators fail to note, is that to any objective observer George W. Bush is a ridiculous, bumbling, fool. And a liar.
Indeed, bin Laden is dismayed and incredulous like everyone else that the Americans could re-elect such an incompetent cretin.
is for every newspaper in the northeast to replace their washington staff with their sportswriters. Sportswriters are the most unrelenting, mean spirited, petty, jealous assholes in all media. Even the most partisan wingnut sportswriter will eat his own in seconds.