Chris Matthews Displays Graphic Image of Target on Capitol Building with Crosshairs in Foreground
Chris Matthews on Thursday actually showed a graphic image of the Capitol building with a red target on it and crosshairs in the foreground.
This hypocritically occurred moments before a lengthy segment on "Hardball" about violent rhetoric wherein he complained about "over-the-top references to guns all the time by people like Sarah Palin" (video follows with transcript and commentary):
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Leading off tonight: Words and actions. Are people affected by what they hear? If not, why do people speak? If the messages people get day after day have no effect on their behavior, why do big corporations spend millions on advertising? Why do politicians? Does the daily climate of attack, the constant torrent of angry attack and questioning of loyalty, of legitimacy, of Americanness, stir people up? Does it trigger the zealots, the unstable, those who are a bit of both?
The politically correct judgment is that we can`t blame anyone for what we`ve seen recently, that words don`t matter in this discussion of people`s violent actions. But do we really believe words don`t matter, that they don`t incite, that they don`t cause trouble? Do we really believe you can say anything you want about someone and not expose them to the actions of a zealot or a nut?
Michael Hirsh has written in a cover article in "The National Journal" that no assassin is an island. The history of this country has proven that turbulent political times have often given way to political violence. And it doesn`t just happen once. Look at the 1960s -- JFK, Dr. King, RFK, Malcolm X. So is it time for politicians to rethink how they talk about their opponents in public? Is it time to do away with the killing metaphors and gun talk? That`s our top story tonight.
As Matthews said this, the following image was displayed on the screen:
Less than two minutes later, Matthews began a segment on how violent rhetoric can lead to criminal acts against our leaders:
MATTHEWS: Let`s start with the connection between political rhetoric and violence. And with us is Michael Hirsh of "The National Journal." He wrote this week`s cover story, "Why political violence erupts in times of political division." And former mayor Willie Brown, of course, of San Francisco, the former Speaker of the California Assembly.
Let`s start with Michael Hirsh and your view. Give me your sense here of the connection here between this wild talk from the birthers about the president not being one of us, not being American, the very, I would argue, over-the-top references to guns all the time by people like Sarah Palin. What`s the connection between talk of guns, talk of hatred of government, and action with guns against government?
Are Matthews and his producers oblivious to the hypocrisy here?
For approaching two weeks since the shootings in Tucson, the "Hardball" host and the rest of his colleagues at MSNBC have been pointing fingers at the Right claiming their use of violent rhetoric and imagery are hazardous to the health of members of the government and therefore should be immediately stopped.
Yet here was Matthews presenting an image of a target on the Capitol building, with crosshairs in the foreground, just twelve days after a Congresswoman was shot.
Either Matthews and Company are staggeringly stupid, or it is clear that all this hand-wringing about rhetoric and imagery has nothing to do with preventing violence against elected officials.
Instead, it is most obviously another attempt by media to demonize and silence conservatives.
Are there any other possible answers to this graphic being shown twelve days after the attempted assassination of Gabrielle Giffords?
(Very grateful hat-tip to the good folks at Hot Air Pundit)
- Noel Sheppard's blog
- Login to post comments
Comments
shift to the left
Submitted by SouthJersey1953 on Fri, 01/21/2011 - 12:58pm.
The target needs to shift 25 degrees to the left on that screen shot.....
Uh hoh geez...
Submitted by NeoKong on Fri, 01/21/2011 - 1:11pm.
Good one.
25 degree shift to the left
Submitted by vyger on Fri, 01/21/2011 - 2:28pm.
Bwahahahaha! Perfect. Made my Friday!
Graphic designers--I am tellin' ya
Submitted by StarAZ on Fri, 01/21/2011 - 2:30pm.
At the crux of this is an underappreciated profession--graphic design. This is so achingly stupid I can hardly drag myself to the keyboard anymore. But I see so many "ironic" things done by designers.
The other day on Fox, the obligatory segment on Palin was titled FIRING BACK.
Oh, incidentally--Fox also had a map spelling The Netherlands--with an "a"--Neatherlands. Graphic designer, yup. No, no, poor Sarah did not spell it that way.
I see runners and titles that say "Controversy" where it is none. We are just being led along. By those graphic designers!
.
Ooo, Shift
Submitted by StarAZ on Fri, 01/21/2011 - 2:33pm.
You said screen SHOT.
Domino's and Jared Loughner
Submitted by ebayer on Fri, 01/21/2011 - 1:14pm.
I'd really like to know how it is that Jared Loughner was able to pass a background check and buy a gun,when he was denied employment to Domino's for failing a background check.
And all this pontificating by this blowhard (Matthews) is being done in order to create the same exact effect he's preaching about.He's stirring up hatred against people who have views opposite of Obamas.
Oh, Cissy...
Submitted by PJRyan on Fri, 01/21/2011 - 1:20pm.
"The politically correct judgment is that we can`t blame anyone for what we`ve seen recently, that words don`t matter in this discussion of people`s violent actions."
The ultra-phony inference that you are anything but absurdly politically correct is...well...absurd.
"But do we really believe words don`t matter, that they don`t incite, that they don`t cause trouble?"
No. But, those of us with accountability and the filter that comes with proper mental faculties know how to process the words from lots of different sources, even sycophantic, delusional, intolerant ideologues.
"The horror......."
Submitted by almostacowboy on Fri, 01/21/2011 - 1:22pm.
-Col. Walter E. Kurtz
Apocalyse Now
Good grief
Submitted by forest on Fri, 01/21/2011 - 1:38pm.
By his own logic, he will be guilty if anything violent happens at the capitol building.
It's still the same old story...
Submitted by tanstaafl4 on Fri, 01/21/2011 - 2:16pm.
"Either Matthews and Company are staggeringly stupid, or it is clear that all this hand-wringing about rhetoric and imagery has nothing to do with preventing violence against elected officials."
Benjamin Franklin lined it out almost 300 years ago...
“Whoever would overthrow the Liberty of a Nation, must begin by subduing the Freeness of Speech; a Thing terrible to Publick Traytors…"
Oblivious? YES!
Submitted by Cappmann1962 on Fri, 01/21/2011 - 2:20pm.
Are Matthews and his producers oblivious to the hypocrisy here?
Crissy and his producers envy the I.Q. of a cabbage...
Mathews and crew know that
Submitted by Ashrak on Fri, 01/21/2011 - 2:23pm.
Mathews and crew know that they get more exposure around the blogsphere by doing this than they do by airing it on their own programming.
Their desire to be the focus of attention, their narcacism, has overtaken their ability to even care why the attention is on them to being with.
Mathews has created a legacy of shame for himself.
What next
Submitted by grammajane on Fri, 01/21/2011 - 2:56pm.
First the tingle up his leg from Obama, then he is in love with a male radio liberal talk guy, now doing the same thing he blamed Palin for the past two years with his tagets. This is elite and arrogant behavior to the max. Praising two men and bashing an attractive woman. Weird.......
Matthews
Submitted by driguana on Fri, 01/21/2011 - 3:13pm.
...staggeringly stupid.....
This may shock and surprise
Submitted by Beukeboom on Fri, 01/21/2011 - 3:52pm.
This may shock and surprise some of my fellow conservatives but I have to give Matthews some slack and the benefit of the doubt on this one.
I worked 10 years in local television news and am familiar with how OTS grahics (a.k.a. - box graphics) are normally requested, produce and aired. In most all instances the on-air talent is the last one to see it and it's usually well after the fact. Most of the time well before the airing of the show the producer or asst. producer will give the graphics person a run-down of all the OTS graphics needed for broadcast with the story slug of each (sometimes with the script itself). In some instance, depending upon the process, the producer may give instructions on what the graphic should be but often it's left in the hands of the graphics person to come up with the graphic based upon the story slug and/or script. This will be stored in a computer which synchs up the graphics with the scripts.
I seriously doubt Matthews had any foreknowledge of the graphic and probably didn't see it beforehand. He may have glanced it on a side or desk monitor while he was reading it but I figure he saw it afterwards and may have raised hell over it later. Maybe the executive producer raised hell about it afterwards.
Normally there are multiple levels where an objectionable or flawed graphic can be removed or altered before and even during the show, but once that graphic airs, it's too late. The last line of defense rests with the technical director who should have seen the graphic in "preview" just before it would be visible to the viewer and if they were up-to-speed on the controversy AND quick-thinking could and should have made the shot a close-up while still in "preview" so when they went to camera, the OTS wouldn't have appeared. He could have explained his choice later IF anyone at MSNBC raised a fuss.
So although there is literally a myriad of possibilities of why this graphic was created and how it got on-air, I have my doubts that it was intentional and I really doubt that Matthews had anything to do with it.
No Passing Zone
Submitted by Ashrak on Fri, 01/21/2011 - 4:42pm.
The affront has been willingly engaged in all along. We are way passed a "pass" like the one you offer, which is a good attempt I will even agree with to an extent.
At this point, it is a situation where " We can say these things about others doings (wether they do them or not), do them as we lament others doing them (whether they do them or not), and there is nothing you can do about it, it doesn't matter, becasue our microphone is bigger than yours, our pockets are deeper than yours and we have so many cohorts in the media doing the same thing that nobody will take us to task for doing it."
Sad it is.
To clarify: I'm not giving
Submitted by Beukeboom on Fri, 01/21/2011 - 5:20pm.
To clarify: I'm not giving Matthews an automatic pass on this. What I am doing is explaining, based upon ten years of personal television news experience, why I believe the possibility he had to do anything with the OTS graphic is very low. I'm not ruling the possibility out but think the possibility is minimal. I am no fan of Chris Matthews, but to be fair, I felt obliged to explain the typical process.
Regardless, it was a very stupid graphic to create and air. I am just not convinced Matthews had anything to do with it and considering the way the political climate is with the libs in the MSM, I think the likelihood he raised hell over it after the show with the production staff is quite high.
Unless his so called "
Submitted by Barack_must_go..... on Fri, 01/21/2011 - 5:38pm.
Unless his so called " production staff " are outsourced offshore in say, Sri Lanka, they are well aware of the atmosphere in this country over the past two weeks, so I for one aren't buying into your explaination.
The fact of the matter is Matthew's is a left wing zealot stirring a big ol pot of Obama stew each & every night. No mystery or underlings screwed up this time. He knew exactly what the graphic and caption read.
Let's see if tonights broadcast kicks off with a heart felt apology and a retraction. Just listen to the accomanying ( matching ) vitriolic rhetoric spewing from his mouth, you'll have a change of heart on this one too.
Barack_Must_Go.....
Please re-read my posts
Submitted by Beukeboom on Fri, 01/21/2011 - 10:41pm.
Please re-read my posts again. I'm not letting the production staff off the hook. All I am saying that I do not think Matthews had advanced knowledge of the OTS graphic. That's all. It had to have taken several idiots to have made this graphic AND allowed it to make it on air. I'm just saying that based upon my personal experience in the tv new biz (a portion of which was making graphics as well and I was good...damned good) Tingles probably didn't have anything to do with it.
I must ask how much television news experience you have. I have ten years worth so I think I know of which I write on this topic.
That's all. Please don't read into it things that aren't there.
You're entitle to your
Submitted by Barack_must_go..... on Sat, 01/22/2011 - 5:18am.
You're entitle to your opinion, as am I. Your pompousness belies the fact you've only got ten years on me, seems like many mor - on.
PS: I've got a lifetime of watching the news under my belt. A record I'm equally proud of.
Barack_Must_Go.....
Bracky.
Submitted by The Vet on Sat, 01/22/2011 - 6:17am.
Winning friends and influencing the monkeypeople.
You just a big ball of fun ain't you Bracky. Hey, there are a couple of people left you have not torqued. Better get busy.
Curse for us Bracky. You are so brave, standing up to the pompousness of love. Curse Bracky. Do it for the children. Curse. Do it Bracky. Come on.
Thank you for your admission
Submitted by Beukeboom on Mon, 01/24/2011 - 11:15am.
Thank you for your admission that you know not of what you write when it comes to how television news is produced and thank you also for conceding the point to me.
I was merely conceding your
Submitted by Barack_must_go..... on Mon, 01/24/2011 - 11:33am.
I was merely conceding your other point, as to the level of pomposity you've unabashedly displayed.
Sorry for any confusion on your part I may have caused.
Sheesh, and I thought the Ass Clown had an unhealthy god complex.......
Barack_Must_Go.....
Hallucinatory reading?
Submitted by Beukeboom on Mon, 01/24/2011 - 12:00pm.
Unfortunately (for you) you are seeing things that are not there.
Let me know when you actually learn something about television production via personal, hands-on experience. And then perhaps you will have something of substance to offer to the discussion. Otherwise you are wasting everyone's time and bandwidth.
Once again I thank you for your admission that you know not of what you write when it comes to how television news is produced and thank you also for conceding the point to me.
anal is as anal does........
Submitted by Barack_must_go..... on Mon, 01/24/2011 - 12:24pm.
anal is as anal does........
Barack_Must_Go.....
You gotta stop telling yourself that.
Submitted by Beukeboom on Mon, 01/24/2011 - 12:59pm.
You gotta stop telling yourself that.
Bracky the ScatBoy wins over another one.
Submitted by The Vet on Mon, 01/24/2011 - 1:13pm.
Gee Bracky, your buddy list must be packed by now. Monkeypeople just love nonstop scat and scat related references. I bet you are just as much fun in meatspace as you are here. They are called friends in meatspace Bracky the ScatBoy. F-R-I-E-N-D-S. Yeah, I know the concept is too weird for you. I won't explain it.
Curse for us Bracky. Do it. Come on. We live to hear your scatplay day after day.
Troll Alert -- The most vulgar profane troll NewsBusters has ever seen - Barack_must_go
This is great news: we have a mole at MSNBC!
Submitted by SickofLibs on Fri, 01/21/2011 - 5:24pm.
Even they couldn't be that profoundly stupid to do that on purpose at this time... it had to be an inside job.
~LOL!
Submitted by Wrathful Brunette on Fri, 01/21/2011 - 5:31pm.
.
Actually there ARE people
Submitted by Beukeboom on Fri, 01/21/2011 - 10:43pm.
Actually there ARE people working behind the scenes in TV who ARE that stupid. Inside job? Nah...stupid job?!? More than likely.
Poor Matthews. He used to be
Submitted by Barack_must_go..... on Fri, 01/21/2011 - 4:08pm.
Poor Matthews. He used to be a pretty good guy, butt then he accidentally sat on his pet gerbil smelly. A gift from fellow MSNBC gerbil enthusiast Dylan Ratigan.
Anyway, from that day forward Chris has become a regular Janeane Garofalo, minus the Doc Martins.
Barack_Must_Go.....
How about violent rhetoric from BoyBlue?
Submitted by Priebles on Fri, 01/21/2011 - 4:27pm.
Remember BoyBlue; The Kos blogger who wrote Giffords "is DEAD to me!" two days before she was shot? His name is Joey Stuart and he has been advocating the death of all Republicans on his Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001576215375&sk=wall
On his bio page he writes, "I'm a VERY committed progressive Democrat and DESPISE conservatives, Republicans and Libertarians. I hope they all die in a fire! If you are a Repug, get the fuck off my facebook page!!!"
He has also blogged on Kos that he shot himself in the face when his lover left him back in January 2010. The dots are there. Let's connect them before there is another tragedy in Tucson.
-----
In a post the night of the election he writes:
Joey StuartHere's what I say to the Republicunt takeover of the House. I hope they all die in a fire. Btw, please scroll below to help my hero Keith Olbermann!!!
November 7, 2010 at 1:45pmOn Sept 26th he suggests killing all Republicans:
Joey StuartI hate Republicans so much. I am doing all i can and giving all the money i can to protect the Democratic Congressional Majorities.
September 26, 2010 at 9:48pm · Like · CommentPriebles, you're right, that's some sick sh*t there
Submitted by SickofLibs on Fri, 01/21/2011 - 5:55pm.
But I'm sure Sheriff Wyatt Earp v2 is all over it.
BTW, how stupid do you have to be to shoot YOURSELF IN THE FACE?
And the $8,000,000 man Olby needs our help? OMG.
~The only thing more pathetic than suicide
Submitted by Wrathful Brunette on Fri, 01/21/2011 - 6:02pm.
is failing at it.
Scratch that. The only thing more pathetic than suicide is failing at it and then admitting it to strangers in the middle of a rant.
Bru, Imagine this:
Submitted by SickofLibs on Fri, 01/21/2011 - 6:12pm.
Shooting yourself in the face... and missing.
Well, the Kos Kids are a very sharing bunch apparently.
"Say, whatever happened to Bufo Americanus? He hasn't updated his diary in a while."
"Oh, he shot himself in the throat sac the other night. We thought he was bluffing, so we ignored it."
~Seems difficult to miss that big 'L' on the forehead..
Submitted by Wrathful Brunette on Fri, 01/21/2011 - 6:23pm.
He's an emotionally/mentally unstable crippled gay guy, I think that earns him Trusted User status on Kos.
Oh, Kos is Mojo-driven. Doi.
Submitted by SickofLibs on Fri, 01/21/2011 - 6:28pm.
No wonder the suicide rate over there 5,000X the national average.
Thanks for the insight.
Hmmmm, shot
Submitted by UpNorth on Fri, 01/21/2011 - 7:14pm.
himself in the brain, and missed? That says just about all that needs to be said about the Kos kids, doesn't it?
No wonder...
Submitted by needle on Fri, 01/21/2011 - 6:27pm.
No wonder the Liberals wanted to deinstitutionalize the insane; they all vote Democrat.
- Looking forward to the self-annihilation of the Manipulated Stories Machine.
If you don't want to kick the habit, you aren't going to
Submitted by needle on Fri, 01/21/2011 - 4:49pm.
Everyone who is an adult knows that among Liberals there is not the least bit of interests in moderating their discourse which has ALWAYS been less civil, more obscene, and more violent than conservatives’ discourse.
It is not as if anybody agreed and formed some sort of pact with the President to clean up their act all of the sudden. That would be like their giving up meth.
- Looking forward to the self-annihilation of the Manipulated Stories Machine.
Wow
Submitted by dave_worrell on Fri, 01/21/2011 - 5:48pm.
You really can't make this stuff up.
And notice the words can be construed as a command to "fire on the right".
I have a theory
Submitted by ant on Fri, 01/21/2011 - 7:38pm.
Similar to Ashraks. It could just be arrogance. It's a statement to let us know that they are officially the propaganda arm of the government and exempt from the rules, the rest of us are supposed to shut up and obey.
A few minutes later on CNN.......
Submitted by GregE on Fri, 01/21/2011 - 10:08pm.
......John King broke in with breaking news and apologized for Matthews.
Bwahahahahaha
Submitted by donabernathy on Sat, 01/22/2011 - 3:40am.
"Does it trigger the zealots, the unstable, those who are a bit of both?"
Seems like you are the perfect person to answer your own question
roflmao
It Doesn't Have to Make Sense
Submitted by IVote on Sun, 01/23/2011 - 10:44am.
Liberals/progressives have never made sense and have a long and consistent history of failure. Yet, they feel superior and immune to the consequences and hypocrisy of their policies. As long as they can talk down to their victims, they feel they have "contributed" to saving the planet.
Any ideology that requires so little thought into cause and effect and disregard for reality should be recognized as an advanced stage of mental illness and/or personality disorder.