Hardball

NBC's Chuck Todd on Tuesday, moments before President Obama addressed the nation from Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan, compared the assassination of Osama bin Laden one year ago to VE and VJ Days marking the end of World War II.

The following was actually said by NBC's Chief White House correspondent on MSNBC's Hardball (video follows with transcript and commentary):

"There is no slur against conservatives that's off the table" for the so-called journalists at MSNBC, NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell told Sean Hannity last night. The Media Research Center president made that remark after viewing a clip of Hardball host Chris Matthews calling the GOP the "Grand Wizard crowd," a not-so-thinly veiled suggestion that conservatives are violent racists.

What's more, "Chris Matthews is lying," Bozell argued, pointing back to a January 13 quote about Romney wherein Matthews called Romney a "moderate." "Even Chris Matthews doesn't believe that lie that he told." Also addressed on the April 26 "Media Mash" segment was how Matthews's colleague Martin Bashir callously suggested that Mitt Romney was "intentionally using" his multiple sclerosis-suffering wife to close a "gender gap." [watch the full Media Mash segment video below page break]

NewsBusters reported Monday that MSNBC's Chris Matthews got into a heated exchange with former Republican Party chairman Michael Steele when he called the GOP the "Grand Wizard crowd" and Mitt Romney a "flat-earther."

Fox News's Bill O'Reilly started his program Tuesday by saying the Hardball host's comments were "simply madness" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Washington Post political writer Chris Cillizza definitively declared on Tuesday's Hardball that for the 2012 race, Barack Obama is "cool" and Mitt Romney is "not cool." Host Chris Matthews, trying to prove his hipness, wondered aloud, "Can you dig it?"

Fellow Post writer Nia-Malika Henderson then attempted to explain what the "kids" these days are saying. After a clip of Obama on the Jimmy Fallon show, Cillizza proclaimed, "The one thing that I would point out that I think is fascinating about this race...[Obama] is cool. Mitt Romney is not cool."

An unhinged Chris Matthews on Monday excoriated Republican primary voters as racist, deriding them as the "Grand Wizard crowd." Former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele fought back,  slamming "this Grand Wizard nonsense." "Don't go there with me," he warned. [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

After Steele informed the Hardball anchor that subjects such as climate change weren't big issues in the GOP primary, Matthews slimed, "It certainly was in the Grand Wizard crowd over there." The liberal host tried to move on, but his guest stopped the conversation dead: "Wait, I resent that! No. Come on. What is this Grand Wizard nonsense? Are you saying that we're Ku Klux Klan?" "Give me a break," the former RNC chair dismissed.

Geraldo Rivera on Friday accused MSNBC anchors of not caring at all about the evidence concerning the shooting of Trayvon Martin and instead "cheerleading for the conviction of George Zimmerman."

Appearing on Fox New's The O'Reilly Factor, Rivera specifically pointed his finger at Martin Bashir, Chris Matthews, Lawrence O'Donnell, Al Sharpton, and Ed Schultz (video follows with transcript and commentary:

Maybe it's time for MSNBC's Chris Matthews to retire.

On Friday's Hardball, the 66-year-old host actually said that people's view of the Trayvon Martin-George Zimmerman case is impacted by "so much history ever since the first slave arrived in the United States" (video follows with transcribed highlights and commentary):

It seems a metaphysical certitude a meaningful percentage of Americans in 2008 supported Barack Obama out of an historical sense to have elected the nation's first black president.

On MSNBC's Hardball, host Chris Matthews made a somewhat similar case for this upcoming election asking guests Chuck Todd of NBC News and Howard Fineman of the Huffington Post, "Is there going to be a reluctance on the part of the voters and the political community that talks politics as we get into November about dumping the first African-American president?" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Apparently, Hardball anchor Chris Matthews doesn't watch his own network. On Wednesday, the liberal cable host piously proclaimed that liberals would never compare a conservative to a dictator such as Joseph Stalin: "...People don't do that," he sputtered. However, on February 14, 2012, MSNBC host Martin Bashir outrageously linked Rick Santorum to genocidal murderer Joseph Stalin. [See video of both clips below. MP3 audio here.]

After highlighting a critic who insisted the Republican was straight out of the 13th century, Bashir smeared, "If you listen carefully to Rick Santorum, he sounds more like Stalin than Pope Innocent III." Yet, according to Matthews on April 18th, "But if you were to say that to a conservative...you're really on a slippery slope to extreme rightism...you're basically over there with Mussolini and Hitler- But people don't do that." Maybe just MSNBC hosts do such things?

In the wake of the Ann Romney-Hilary Rosen stay-at-home mom dustup, Salon's Joan Walsh on Thursday predictably made the totally false claim "being able to stay home with your children [is] a choice for the wealthy only."

Fortunately, former RNC chairman Michael Steele was also on MSNBC's Hardball to set the record straight saying, "This isn’t about just rich women. There are a lot of middle class women out there who stay at home with their kids too" (video follows with transcribed highlights and commentary):

How detached is Chris Matthews from the rest of the country? The Hardball host on Thursday appeared bewildered as he conceded to being "totally unprepared" for the prospect that Obamacare might be "ripped off the books." Talking to Chuck Todd, Matthews asked his fellow MSNBC colleague if he would be "surprised" to see the Supreme Court strike down the health care law.

Matthews then confessed, "I was totally unprepared because of the way people talked." The anchor insisted that "intellectually," he knew it could be a problem, but "I never heard it discussed politically as a prospect, that they actually might get his major achievement just ripped off the books." He never heard it discussed? [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

Here's a joke for you this Tuesday morning. Did you know that hyperpartisan Democrat Chris Matthews sees himself as a "centrist?" In an aside during a conversation with MSNBC contributor Joan Walsh, the leg-thrilling pundit emphatically claimed the moderate label for himself, stating that he could understand President Obama being criticized by both liberals and conservatives on the Keystone Pipeline.

"Take it from a centrist. I know what it's like," Matthews proclaimed. Video, transcript and commentary below the break.

Next week, the Supreme Court will hear arguments on the constitutionality of ObamaCare, but if the media were the judges, the Court would rule 9-0 in favor of it. During its coverage of the health care debate, the liberal press never permitted questions about ObamaCare’s legality to interfere with their dream of a government takeover of the health care sector.

Starting even before Barack Obama became President, the press has been campaigning hard for passage of the most liberal version of health care reform as a cure-all elixir to all of America’s health problems. First, they pitched the public on the desperate need to, as ABC’s Dr. Tim Johnson demanded, fix America’s “national shame” of no universal coverage. (Worst of the Worst quote compiliation with videos after the jump)

A seemingly befuddled Chris Matthews on Tuesday interviewed former Senator Arlen Specter, gleefully (and incorrectly) referring to the Democrat as a Republican. Downplaying the fact that Specter switched parties, Matthews bellowed, "Your party has become a right-wing party."

After mentioning the plight of Charlie Crist, who was defeated by Marco Rubio in a Republican senatorial primary, Matthews shrieked, "He lost the Senate race because he contacted [hugged] the President physically once. This is what is going on in your party." Again, the Republican Party is not Specter's party. Just getting warmed up, Matthews complained, "And so the party of Lincoln has became the party of Strom Thurmond, hasn't it?" [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

Chris Matthews doesn't think much of southerners. The Hardball anchor appeared on MSNBC's primary night coverage, Tuesday, and mocked the supposed thought process of the Republican voters: "They've got three RCs, or two RCs- two Roman Catholics- running and a Mormon, so three cultists running, and they gotta pick one of the three cultists, as they see them."

The host sneered, "...But it is ridiculous to pick a guy they think is really the other, the heretic, the Muslim. What a strange stew of religious prejudice is at work here." Trying to explain the mind set of conservative primary voters, he added, "They are willing to outsource [defeating the President] to a Mormon...It's almost like calling up India or somewhere in the third world to get your computer fixed. You don't care who's fixing it, just fix the damn computer." [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

MSNBC's Chris Matthews on Wednesday actually attacked children at a Mitt Romney campaign event.

"Who are these featureless, young people waving those placards?" asked the Hardball host. "Are they androids?...They all are exactly in unison. Is this North Korea?" (video follows with transcribed highlights and commentary):

Chris Matthews doesn't just hate American conservatives.

On MSNBC's Morning Joe Wednesday, the Hardball host said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should "stay out of our elections" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Chris Matthews on Tuesday said that people he has spoken to in the White House are thinking about attacking Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney in the general election the way he's gone after his opponents in the primaries.

Appearing on MSNBC's coverage of the Super Tuesday primaries, the Hardball host said, "They can’t wait" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Liberal cable host Chris Matthews, who once dismissed Michele Bachmann as a "balloon head," on Monday derided the supposed sexism of "horse's ass" Rush Limbaugh. The Hardball anchor sparred with Senator Rob Portman. Speaking of Matthews' coverage of the Sandra Fluke controversy, the Republican  mocked, "...It sounds like maybe you're keeping it alive more than [Limbaugh] in the eyes of the voter."

Later, Matthews introduced left-wing columnist David Corn by arrogantly pronouncing, "[Republicans] could have gotten rid of this problem last Wednesday if they had all stood up and said this guy is a horse's ass."

NewsBusters readers likely know Kirsten Powers as one of the many intelligent, reasonable, liberal contributors to Fox News.

On Sunday, Powers published a piece at the Daily Beast entitled "Rush Limbaugh Isn’t the Only Media Misogynist" that is guaranteed to be applauded by the Right and heavily ridiculed by her colleagues on the left:

MSNBC anchor Chris Matthews on Thursday connected Don Imus's firing in the wake of the "nappy-headed hos" remark to Rush Limbaugh, hinting that the conservative commentator could face similar problems for referring to "sluts" who "must be paid to have sex." (MSNBC, of course, is no stranger to contorversial comments. One anchor on the network recently compared Rick Santorum to mass murderer Joseph Stalin.)

Matthews played a clip of Limbaugh's comments, made after college student Sandra Fluke testified before Congress on the issue of birth control. The anchor linked the two radio hosts: "You know, this cost Don Imus a lot of career, you know? A lot of career,  this kind of talk. Calling people sluts, whores. This kind of stuff."  [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

About three years ago, Andrew Breitbart, who sadly passed away suddenly this morning in Los Angeles, joined the Media Research Center at our 2009 Gala, featuring the annual “DisHonors Awards,” where he accepted the “Media Messiah Award” in jest for Chris Matthews.

The MSNBC host “won” the award for his infamous boast about how “I felt this thrill going up my leg” during a speech by then-Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

Less than 24 hours after Salon's Joan Walsh trashed Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's Mormon faith, she was invited on MSNBC to attack him and his colleagues further.

Appearing on Hardball, Walsh said of the GOP, "They’re writing off women, they're writing off Latinos, they’re writing off Asians, they’re writing off young people. It’s really the party of old white men basically" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

That didn't take very long.

Within five minutes of the start of MSNBC's coverage of the Arizona and Michigan primaries Tuesday evening, Hardball host Chris Matthews falsely claimed Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum wants to "outlaw birth control" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Former Newsweek senior editor Howard Fineman on Tuesday slammed Rick Santorum as regressive, sneering, "Well, I think Rick Santorum is posing a more fundamental challenge to the modern world."

Fineman made his mocking comment while talking to Hardball's Chris Matthews. The liberal anchor wondered who liberals should "fear" more, "Romney's elitist attitude towards the economy, where he looks at everything from the top, economically? Or Santorum's, sort of, gut sense that his religion should trump the Constitution if necessary?" [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

Just how far is MSNBC's Chris Matthews willing to go to shield President Obama from criticism this election year?

On Monday's Hardball, the host defended Koran burnings saying, "In Western religions when you have a religious article, the proper way of disposing it is burning it. So it's not a desecration...An American would never burn something to desecrate it. That would be a way of treating a holy object" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Far-left comedian Bill Maher appeared on Monday's Hardball to smear Rick Santorum, inisisting that, unlike John F. Kennedy, the Republican is saying, "Yes, I will take my marching orders from the Pope!"

The smug comic delighted Matthews, who eagerly agreed, "Ha! Exactly! That's what he's saying!" Earlier in the show, the MSNBC anchor, yet again, slammed Santorum as a "theocrat." Matthews poured praised on Maher, touting, "You're the best. You're the funniest, smartest guy around." [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

Rick Santorum’s recent rise in the polls in the GOP primary has escalated the liberal media’s attacks on the former Pennsylvania Republican Senator, primarily on his socially conservative views. This is not surprising since journalists have admitted, in several surveys, to being far more liberal on social issues like abortion than even the general public. One such survey of journalists, from top media outlets, found that nearly all of the media elite (97 percent) agreed that “it is a woman’s right to decide whether or not to have an abortion,” and five out of six (84 percent) agreed strongly.” For more please visit the MRC’s Media Bias 101 page. 

The disdain for Santorum from that media elite began almost as soon as he arrived in the Senate in 1995. The following is a collection, in chronological order, of the 10 most vicious anti-Santorum quotes from the MRC’s archive: (videos after the break)

Christian evangelist Franklin Graham made some comments about President Obama on MSNBC's Morning Joe Tuesday that have liberals across the fruited plain hopping mad.

So angered is MSNBC's Chris Matthews that on Tuesday's Hardball he said, "I think we should stop inviting this guy to talk about politics...he ain’t his father’s son" (video follows with transcript and commentary):