Hardball

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):

Putting a question to MSNBC's Chris Matthews at the end of a President's Day panel discussion at Ford's Theater on Monday, I challenged him about the American people growing cynical of media coverage, the left-wing Harball host responded by proclaiming that his own program was "a great positive thing for American civilization." The largely liberal audience applauded the notion. [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]

Matthews suggested his comment was somewhat tongue-in-cheek: "What do you expect me to say? That's what I do every day." However, moments earlier he asserted: "I think what I do every night and the people that watch me appreciate it....I try to bring an entertainment factor into it....I think at the end of my hours every night they know a lot more about American politics than when they begin, and they enjoy it more."

Liberal presidential historian Douglas Brinkley said Monday, "Bill Clinton’s really become a folk figure in America."

Participating in an oftentimes hysterical Hardball segment about how the former President will help Barack Obama get reelected, Brinkley added, "He’s more like Babe Ruth or Buffalo Bill than a politician" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

As NewsBusters reported Friday, MSNBC has officially terminated its relationship with conservative author Pat Buchanan.

Far more surprising was Hardball's Chris Matthews Friday touchingly paying tribute to the man his network dumped (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Salon editor Joan Walsh said Friday that conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh is "a secret Democrat."

Speaking with MSNBC's Chris Matthews on Hardball about the debate over who should pay for contraceptives, Walsh said of Limbaugh, "He is leading [the Republican] party off a cliff on this issue" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

As Noel Sheppard noted, MSNBC's Chris Matthews on Thursday hyperventilated about a joke made by a Rick Santorum donor, frothing that "big money" Foster Friess and his candidate must be from the "Cro-Magnon" era. The Hardball host was only one of several liberal MSNBC hosts to go after Mr. Friess.

On Politics Nation, Al Sharpton offered typical outrage: "Now, This is not just a backer. This is a big money backer....Can you imagine the arrogance of saying that?"  Ed Schultz ominously tagged him as Santorum's "money man" and then segued into a discussion of the "GOP war on women's health." Matthews incorrectly referred to the donor as "a major spokesman" for Santorum, and said of the former senator: "I mean, you're talking about a guy from the Cro-Magnon era, in terms of politics."[See video below. MP3 audio here.]

What is it about MSNBC that seems to make it impossible for its anchors to consistently tell the truth?

On Thursday's Hardball, host Chris Matthews falsely claimed Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum "said it would be fine with him if states outlawed the sale of birth control" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

As NewsBusters reported Sunday, Andrew Sullivan in his most recent Newsweek column claimed, "Obama Set a Contraception Trap for the Right."

Two days later when Sullivan, appearing on MSNBC's Hardball, flipflopped saying, "I think a lot of this was ginned up by the Bishops. They were the ones that set a trap for Obama," host Chris Matthews was seen on the screen doing a facepalm (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Despite the revelations that, while having an affair with an intern, President Kennedy, pimped the teen out to staffers, gave the young girl drugs and helped her look for an abortion doctor, journalists Chris Matthews and former Newsweek editor Evan Thomas insisted that JFK and Jackie Kennedy had a "good," "full" marriage. [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

Thomas appeared on Wednesday's Hardball to spin for Kennedy. After Matthews played a clip of Mimi Alford talking about how she would have rubber duckie races with the President while taking a bath, Thomas deemed Kennedy "complicated." He added, "He obviously compartmented [sic] his life incredibly. I mean, I think, unbelievably, he had a good marriage even as he was doing all this terrible stuff."

Something extraordinarily rare happened on MSNBC Thursday.

One of the network's admittedly liberal anchors, Hardball's Chris Matthews, scolded a liberal guest, New York magazine's John Heilemann, for echoing Obama administration talking points (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Only two days after admitting that Barack Obama has a problem with his "frightening" birth control decision, Chris Matthews on Thursday was back on offense. He berated Rick Santorum as a "theocrat" and knocked Reverend Franklin Graham as a "disgrace."

The Hardball host singled out Family Research Council President Tony Perkins as the representative of all those who would question Obama's faith. Matthews interrogated, "Tony, do you think this president is a Muslim?" He added, "Why [do] your people" make such allegations?

Following a revealing interview with former JFK mistress Mimi Alford on Wednesday's NBC Rock Center, left-wing MSNBC host Chris Matthews, along with liberal historians Doris Kearns Goodwin and Richard Reeves, were invited on the broadcast to give a sycophantic defense of the womanizing president. [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]

Touting his new book, "Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero," Matthews proclaimed: "The greatest heroes are often the most flawed." The Hardball host went on to gush over how Kennedy "colorized American politics....made it a technicolor movie, he made it exciting." In his characteristic fashion, Matthews concluded: "And so with it all, the total picture still arouses the country."

Washington Post political writer Melinda Henneberger shockingly stated, Wednesday, that "maybe the Founders were wrong" to guarantee religious liberty. Henneberger appeared on Hardball to discuss the Obama administration's decision to force the Catholic Church to provide birth control in health care.

Discussing the battle between the left and those who see it as a threat to the First Amendment, she declared, " Maybe the Founders were wrong to guarantee free exercise of religion in the First Amendment but that is what they did and I don't think we have to choose here. " Henneberger's awkward comment came as she attempted to defend the Catholic Church. [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

You don't often see a well-known liberal media member publicly criticizing the liberal media he's a part of.

But when Dan Abrams, the former General Manager of MSNBC and founder of the left-wing Mediaite, trashes his former network - in particular Hardball host Chris Matthews - as well as the New York Times, the Washington Post, and other media outlets for their "Shameful, Inexcusable Distortion Of The Supreme Court’s Citizens United Decision," one should take notice:

Even Chris Matthews, who famously gushed about the "thrill" Barack Obama gave his leg, is troubled by the President's "frightening" decision to force Catholic charities to provide birth control through health care. Discussing the issue on Tuesday's Hardball, the host sputtered, "...How can you make the [religious] teacher pay for birth control without losing their authority, their moral authority?"

Matthews didn't seem sure how to broach the subject. Talking to E.J. Dionne of the Washington Post and Susan Milligan of U.S. News and World Reports, he warned, "It gets to that interesting point to me, which is frightening, when the state tells the church what to do." (Interesting?)

To paraphrase Ronald Reagan, there he goes again.

On MSNBC's Hardball Monday, host Chris Matthews said Barack Obama's smile "is worth five to ten points" on Election Day (video follows with transcript and commentary):