Hardball's Haggard Hillary Promo Pic

If NewsBusters were ever to use in its promotional material a photo this unflattering of Hillary Clinton, we'd be accused of the worst kind of sexism, of unfairly attacking a candidate based on her looks rather than her views. Check out the image of Hillary that MSNBC used in its promo of tonight's Hardball with Chris Matthews that aired at 5:59 AM EDT today just before Morning Joe came on the air.

Hillary, shot from below to highlight her wattles, lit like something in a horror flick about to emerge from a closet wielding an ax. If there's a less-becoming snap of Hillary in MSM circulation, I haven't seen it.

View video of promo, and Carlson's comments, here.

Can you blame ardent Clinton camper Lanny Davis for accusing MSNBC, and Matthews in particular, of being "shamelessly biased" against Clinton? Ironically, during Morning Joe's first segment, panelist Tucker Carlson discussed the same phenomenon, describing "the overwhelming press bias in favor of Barack Obama."

Davis says that a member of MSNBC senior management “told me personally that they were aware that they needed to do something to bring credibility back to MSNBC in terms of balance,” and that Matthews himself told Lanny “I’m going to be better.”

Looks like MSNBC needs to go back to the fair-and-balanced drawing board.

Should you wish to inspect the evidence more carefully, click here for a larger version of the Hillary pic. Warning: not suitable for children under 11.