Hardball

Phil Griffin, the President of MSNBC, apologized Thursday for Chris Matthews calling the Koch brothers “pigs,” but Matthews has refused and MSNBC won’t require him to do so.

As NewsBusters reported, this disgusting incident took place on Tuesday’s Hardball as Matthews talked to Congressman Ed Markey (D-Mass.) about Hurricane Sandy’s connection to global warming.

MSNBC's Chris Matthews on Thursday lashed out at Rush Limbaugh and his criticism of Chris Christie, deriding the conservative radio host as "the guy from Deliverance." Matthews played a clip of Limbaugh joking, "New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has decided to play the role of a Greek column today for President Obama."

Matthews fumed, "He reminds me more of the guy from Deliverance– 'Squeal like a pig,'" a reference to the sodomy scene in the 1972 film. Matthews followed up, "...It just seems like he's squealing like a pig essentially here."

MSNBC's Chris Matthews on Tuesday called the Koch brothers "pigs."

In a Hardball segment about the connection between global warming and Hurricane Sandy, Congressman Ed Markey (D-Mass.) for some reason took the conversation in a decidely disgusting direction (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Like ambulance-chasing lawyers, the heavy-handed liberal activists who populate much of the media raced to exploit Hurricane Sandy even as the storm was lashing the East Coast last night, citing it as proof of “climate change” and a reason to oppose Mitt Romney.

Yesterday afternoon, MSNBC’s Martin Bashir started a panel discussion by claiming that “people are wondering today if the current hurricane has anything to do with global change, climate change, global warming,” and then mentioned the “right-wing nut jobs” supporting Romney.

For at least 24 hours, the mainstream media have been trying to figure out a way to make Hurricane Sandy an aid to Barack Obama's re-election.

On Monday, MSNBC's Chris Matthews had a related concern asking guest John Nichols of the Nation magazine, "How long do you think it’ll take for Donald Trump to take a crack at the President for engineering this?" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

The Media Research Center is out with the latest edition of our Notable Quotables newsletter, a compilation of the most outrageous, sometimes humorous, quotes from the liberal meda. This week's lowlights: Liberal pundits insist that the unfolding details of Obama's incompetent handling of the September 11 attack in Benghazi is an "utterly contrived" story, an "October Mirage."

The ever-wacky Chris Matthews is even sticking with Team Obama's now discredited first response: "Everybody knows it's about the video. It's all about the video."

This week's best quotes are after the jump; you can read the entire issue at www.MRC.org:

Over the past several months, MSNBC has been on a tirade criticizing attempts by mostly Republican state legislatures to ensure voting integrity by requiring a photo ID in order to vote. 

As NewsBusters has documented, one of the leaders of the anti-ID movement is none other than the host of the 6 p.m. Eastern program Politics Nation, the Rev. Al Sharpton, who on numerous occasions has suggested that such laws are thinly-veiled, racially animated attempts to depress minorities of their right to vote.  [See video below break.]

A shrieking Chris Matthews on Thursday smeared the Republican Party, comparing the abortion stances of candidates such as Paul Ryan and Richard Mourdock to those found under Sharia law. The hyperbolic Hardball anchor snarled, "I don't like to comparing anything to Sharia, but there's something about this theocratic notion that we're going to apply all our philosophical beliefs, our metaphysics, our religious training and turn it into law and turn it into criminalization."  [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

Matthews continued, "And it's not quite like stoning, but it has that same sort of impulse which is we're going to punish women." Terry O'Neil, the president of the National Organization for Women appeared on the show and screeched, "I think that it's kind of the creeping Talibanization of American policy." Speaking of Mitt Romney, she insisted that the Republican is in the "thick of this very fringe but very dangerous line of thought."

It appears as though MSNBC has gone into overdrive covering up for the Obama administration over the terrorist attack on our consulate in Libya.  Following emails uncovered by CBS News late Tuesday evening showing the White House knew within two hours that the attack was terrorist related, MSNBC has run a grand total of two stories on these shocking developments. 

Unlike yesterday, NBC's Today did provide a news brief on the emails Thursday morning as well as a story during Wednesday night’s Nightly News, but their sister cable network MSNBC has only covered the story once today, on The Daily Rundown at 9:00 a.m. Eastern.

As NewsBusters reported, MSNBC's Chris Matthews on Wednesday said Sarah Palin's recent "shuck and jive" comments about Barack Obama's ever-changing story on the attack on our consulate in Benghazi, Libya, were a racist "dog whistle."

Palin responded on Facebook Wednesday evening:

Liberal cable anchor Chris Matthews, who in 2010 used the phrase "shuck and jive," on Wednesday assailed Sarah Palin as racist for using the phrase "shuck and jive." Referring to a Facebook post the former Alaska governor wrote about Obama and Libya, Matthews ranted, "You know, a dog whistle is a dog whistle...A trumpet call is another."

The MSNBC host insisted that "shuck and jive" has "a particular ethnic connection" and "to throw it at the president as an ethnic shot is pretty blatant." On July 7, 2010, Matthews, while talking to Rachel Maddow about her visit to Afghanistan, wondered, "What has it been like, as you shuck and jive, hang out with the men over there, the women over there, in uniform risking their lives every day?" The late Tim Russert also used the term on July 18, 2003.

In an article for the November Philadelphia Style magazine, a cocky Chris Matthews wistfully recounted a considered 2010 run for Senate, bragging at how incredible he would have been: "I'm not dreaming here. I would be one of the stars of the Democratic Party—there aren’t that many."

The liberal MSNBC anchor flirted with, but ultimately decided against, running in the Pennsylvania Democratic primary. Perhaps wondering what might have been, he lamented, "I know this: If I had run and won and beaten [Senator Pat] Toomey, I would be one of the Democrats people talk about today." The Hardball host also took some disgruntled shots at Barack Obama.

Talking to two fellow liberals on Monday, an unhinged Chris Matthews trashed conservatives and Republicans who opposes Barack Obama's birth control policies as "Nazis." Matthews smeared, "Is it in society's interests for [a young woman's] boss to be able to be the birth control Nazi to decide who gets it and who doesn't?" [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

Matthews has previously railed against calling one's political opponents Nazis. On April 28, 2010, the liberal host ranted, "But let's agree, can we, to drop the Nazi stuff?" On Monday, Matthews invented a hypothetical woman: "A young woman who works in her 20s or 30s and is not ready to have a child, that's her decision, I think we all agree on that. She wants birth control. Isn't it in society's interest for her to get that as part of her health care?"

In a bit of light-hearted segment on Thursday’s O’Reilly Factor, FNC’s Megyn Kelly described a recent run-in she had with MSNBC’s Chris Matthews. 

Kelly described her encounter the following way:

When he saw me in the airport, he had no idea who I was. So I said it is Megyn Kelly with Fox News. And then he said, oh I didn't recognize you with your stringy hair.  [See video below.  MP3 audio here.] 

President Obama apologized to MSNBC's Chris Matthews at the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation dinner Thursday.

Speaking of his own horrible debate performance in Denver against Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, Obama said with regard to Matthews, "Four years ago, I gave him a thrill up his leg. This time around I gave him a stroke" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

A few days ago the liberal media was all abuzz over how Paul Ryan supposedly muscled his way into back of a soup kitchen in Ohio and started washing already-cleaned pots and pans as a photo op.

It turned out later, however, that soup kitchen staffers had left some dirty pots and pans for Ryan to wash. Yes, it was part of a campaign photo-op, but the pots and pans were actually dirty and Ryan actually cleaned them. NBCNews.com's "First Read" blog noted the crucial update to the tempest-in-a-teapot on Tuesday. But judging from today's Hardball, MSNBC anchor Chris Matthews doesn't read his sister network's website.

With just a fortnight until Halloween, Chris Matthews thinks he has just the story to scare the bejesus out of his viewers: Corporate executives sharing with their employees via email why they think a vote for Mitt Romney is better for the company's business.

I kid you not. Matthews attempted to blow a few such incidents into a grand scandal of "voter suppression" proportions on his October 17 program. Here's how Matthews introduced the segment:

Liberal MSNBC anchor Chris Matthews on Wednesday hinted that Mitt Romney's confrontational attitude during the debates might have a sinister undertone. After playing a clip of the Republican telling the President to back off and that "you'll get your chance" to speak, Matthews derided, "...Through it all he looked down at the President. He looked down at him as a person."

As for the reason, Matthews began to speculate and then backed off: "I don't even want to get into-- but we can guess and none of it good." (The left-wing journalist sees racism everywhere.) After guest James Lipton considered a motive, Matthews cut him off and suggested that "many" of the possibilities are "bad." He also somehow derided Romney as a constitutional illiterate for questioning Obama.

MSNBC's Chris Matthews on Tuesday made a rather startling prediction about viewers of the upcoming presidential debate.

"If it looks like [Obama's] getting beaten again, they’re going back to the fourth inning" of the Yankees-Tigers American League Championship game (video follows with transcript and commentary):

"Instant Karma's gonna get you. Gonna knock you right in the head." - John Lennon

With Lennon in mind, a day after MSNBC Hardball host Chris Matthews said for the umpteenth time that no one will sell senior citizens health insurance, AARP ran ad on his show promoting - wait for it! - Medicare Supplement Insurance (video follows with commentary).

It was widely believed after last week's horrible debate performance by Barack Obama that the media were going to gush and fawn over Vice President Joe Biden at the conclusion of Thursday's debate with Paul Ryan regardless of how either one of them did.

Holding up his end was MSNBC's Chris Matthews who moments after the debate's conclusion said, "A clear victory for Joe Biden" (video follows with transcript, file photo):

As Election Day nears, the on air personalities at MSNBC are dropping all pretense of impartiality and journalistic integrity.

On Thursday's Hardball, at the conclusion of a lengthy segment about the upcoming vice presidential debate, host Chris Matthews actually said, "Biden better win" (video follows with commentary):

As NewsBusters reported, MSNBC's Chris Matthews had an on air meltdown following Barack Obama's terrible performance in last Wednesday's debate with Mitt Romney.

On Tuesday, CBS Late Show host David Letterman ended his monologue by showing a video of Matthews' head exploding (video follows with transcribed highlights and commentary).

As NewsBusters previously reported, MSNBC's Chris Matthews had an on-air meltdown Wednesday after the presidential debate.

NBC Tonight Show host Jay Leno mocked this incident Thursday showing a video clip of Matthews giving his rant in a straight jacket as he's being taken away by men in white coats (video follows with transcript and absolutely no need for additional commentary):

In a display of just how badly President Obama performed in Wednesday's presidential debate, Friday's NBC Today played a clip of Daily Show host Jon Stewart ripping into Obama: "There is no red America. There is no blue America. There is only the America that can't believe how bad this guy did in the debate. Romney won with the sound up....Romney won with the sound off." [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]

Stewart mockingly implored the President: "...think of your supporters. Look what your performance did last night to one of them." A sound bite followed of the meltdown of MSNBC's Chris Matthews: "What was he doing tonight? He went in there disarmed? Where was Obama tonight?!" Stewart declared: "Mr. President, you broke Chris Matthews!" The Today show hosts all laughed as weatherman Al Roker quipped: "And he's still broken."

Picking up where he left off Wednesday night, on Thursday's NBC Today, MSNBC's Chris Matthews continued to whine over President Obama's poor debate performance and ranted that Mitt Romney has "been accused of etch-a-sketch, last night was his greatest achievement. Everything he said within days ago, he's ignored." [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]

Prior to Matthews' appearance, co-host Savannah Guthrie noted that he had been "very vocal" during MSNBC's post-debate coverage and played a sound bite of the Hardball host blasting Obama: "I don't know what he was doing out there. He had his head down, he was enduring the debate rather than fighting it. I don't know how he let Romney get away with the crap he threw out tonight about Social Security. Where was Obama tonight?!"

In a bizarre display, Chris Matthews began his show on Tuesday by singing "If I Were a Rich Man" as a way of mocking Mitt Romney for being wealthy. [See video below. MP3 audio here.] Chris Matthews makes an annual salary of $5 million dollars.

Matthews opened the program by announcing, "Let me start tonight" by singing a selection from Fiddler on the Roof. Highlighting a leaked video of Romney at a private fund-raiser, he then derided, "It's one thing to be rich and have the majority of voters convinced you're out to help the rich. Is there anything dumber to be caught pandering to your fellow rich?" Later, while talking to journalist Joe Klein, Matthews insulted potential GOP voters, comparing them to the racist TV character Archie Bunker.

Once again serving as the broadcast arm of MSNBC, Monday’s NBC Nightly News devoted a full segment to the supposed outrage over what Mitt Romney said in a surreptitiously-recorded video promoted by the left wing Mother Jones magazine, remarks which Chris Matthews, Ed Schultz and Rachel Maddow put at the top of their MSNBC shows. And CNN soon joined in the hysteria with Anderson Cooper 360 treating it as “Breaking News.”

Of course, Romney had simply provided an obvious assessment of the state of the electorate where many have an “entitlement” mentality and nearly half avoid the income tax.