Hardball

MSNBC’s Chris Matthews on Tuesday asked a Mitt Romney supporting Congressman, “Why do you call the Washington Post a liberal newspaper?”

After the Hardball host told his guest, "It’s the most hawkish paper in the country," Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fl.) marvelously responded, "By your standards the New York Times is a right-wing newspaper” (video follows with transcribed highlights and commentary):

MSNBC's Chris Matthews on Monday's Hardball comically used a little known Yiddish term to bash Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich.

"I'm rooting for Newt of course to stay in this thing. It will create mishegas for the Tea Party world and a compelling political spectacle for us" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

MSNBC’s Chris Matthews had some harsh criticism for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney Monday.

In a discussion about the viciousness in the GOP race, the Hardball host said, “I’ve never seen one, but it’s like a snuff movie we’ve been watching here” (video follows with transcript and commentary):

There was a truly delicious moment on MSNBC's Morning Joe Monday as the gang discussed the Republican presidential race from Florida.

When host Joe Scarborough recollected John F. Kennedy buying the West Virginia primary in 1960, Hardball host Chris Matthews, one of JFK's biggest fans, was seen visibly uncomfortable shifting position in his chair (video follows with transcript and commentary):

MSNBC's Chris Matthews is so hell-bent on trashing Arizona's Republican Governor Jan Brewer after her dust-up with President Obama that on Friday's Hardball he dragged out a poll from November showing a high disapproval of her in her state.

I guess Matthews - who just Tuesday revealed that he had never heard of Congressional insider trading until the President mentioned it during the State of the Union address - missed a poll released two days ago showing high favorability numbers for Brewer (video follows with transcript and commentary):

MSNBC's Chris Matthews claimed Thursday that the unemployment rate is lower now than when Barack Obama took office.

Such was said during a contentious Hardball discussion with Republican Arizona Congressman Trent Franks (video follows with commentary):

As NewsBusters predicted earlier, Obama-loving media were going to use Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's just-released tax returns to misinform the public for the benefit of the current White House resident.

Doing his part Tuesday was MSNBC's Chris Matthews who not only told his Hardball viewers "Romney paid a much lower tax rate than most Americans," he completely falsified recent Internal Revenue Service data by claiming that compared to Romney's "14 to 15 percent in taxes...most people who work hard, do well in this country pay about 35" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

The levels America's media will go to protect Barack Obama often stagger the mind.

On MSNBC's Hardball Tuesday, the Huffington Post's Howard Fineman not only complained about how the former Speaker of the House refers to the current White House resident - "I've never heard Newt Gingrich call President Obama 'President Obama.' It's usually just 'Obama'" - his assertion was totally false (video follows with transcript and commentary):

As NewsBusters reported Tuesday, MSNBC's Chris Matthews accused Republican voters in South Carolina of being racist.

On Thursday's Hardball, former South Carolina first lady Jenny Sanford told Matthews this depiction of her fellow residents "is absurd and nonsense and frankly just, you know, stirred up by people in the press" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

A day after calling South Carolina GOP voters racist, MSNBC's Chris Matthews on Wednesday referred to the Republican electorate as "lemmings" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Keith Morelli of the Tampa Tribune is not much of a fact-checker. His story on Chris Matthews on Tuesday began: "Veteran newsman and 'Hardball' host Chris Matthews will be in Tampa this weekend, touting his new book about John F. Kennedy."

The next sentence quoted Matthews from a Monday phone interview: "No. 1 on The New York Times best-seller list for 10 weeks." The problem? Matthews lied. He has been on the best-seller list for 10 weeks with "Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero." But it's never been number one on the NYT's Hardcover Nonfiction list. It debuted at number three on the November 20 list and sat at number 14 on the January 22 list.

As NewsBusters previously reported, MSNBC's Chris Matthews has been making the rounds accusing everyone associated with Monday's Republican presidential debate of racism.

On Tuesday's Hardball, the host finished the program by claiming former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich was race-baiting by calling Barack Obama The Food Stamp President (video follows with transcript and commentary):

This is what they think of you, South Carolina. Roger Simon, Politico's top columnist, smeared the audience of Monday night's GOP debate, warning of a "kind of blood lust in the air" after the crowd booed a question of Juan Williams, an African American.

Appearing on Tuesday's "Hardball," Simon sneered  at "that audience, with that kind of blood lust in the air, an audience that was way over the line, way over the top." [See video below. MP3 audio here.] He added that Gingrich was "playing a dangerous game by playing to the audience and baiting people and appealing to their worst instincts, instead of their better instincts." Chris Matthews piled on, insisting there was a "Birth of a Nation" aspect to the audience after a Rick Perry comment.

On Thursday's Hardball, Chris Matthews preposterously insisted that Barack Obama added "only 13 people" to the federal workforce in 2009 and that the total number of individuals working for the U.S. government (as of 2010) was 4,443. 

[UPDATE, 8:55 PM EST: Two hours later, in the otherwise identical 7 PM EST re-play, MSNBC inserted a new graphic and a new audio overlay in which Matthews corrected his incompetence without noting any change from his first broadcast: Video below features both versions. In the 5 PM EST hour, Matthews claimed “the federal workforce totaled forty-four hundred and thirty people in 2009 when Obama took office. In 2010, a year later, the number increased to forty-four forty-three people – a difference of only thirteen people.” In the re-do, Matthews realized “the federal workforce totaled four million, four hundred and thirty thousand in 2009...”]

Is Chris Matthews subconsciously starting to realize he represents a so-called cable news network that routinely plays fast and loose with the facts?

On Wednesday's Hardball, the host accidentally called his station "M-BS-NBC" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Chris Matthews on Tuesday accused a Republican strategist participating in MSNBC's New Hampshire primary coverage of being a Mitt Romney surrogate.

Even more surprisingly, colleague Rachel Maddow quickly realized the absurdity of the accusation saying, "He's no surrogate" (video follows with transcribed highlights and commentary):

As NewsBusters has been reporting, Chris Matthews has clearly joined the Anyone But Romney for Republican presidential nominee crowd.

Appearing on MSNBC's Morning Joe Tuesday, the Hardball host enthusiastically endorsed one of the former Massachusetts governor's New Hampshire primary rivals actually saying on live television, "If I were voting here I’d vote for Huntsman because he’s American" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Now that Mitt Romney appears to be the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination, the Obama-loving media are out in full force attacking him.

Such was clearly evident on Monday's Morning Joe when Hardball host Chris Matthews compared the former Massachusetts governor to a whore, said he was "dog-trained," and mocked him for wearing "Mom jeans" (video follows with transcribed highlights and commentary):

An angry Chris Matthews on Thursday denounced Rick Santorum, smearing the Republican as wanting a "theocracy" to "trump" the Constitution. The MSNBC anchor ranted about birth control after playing a clip of Santorum on "The Bill O'Reilly Show." [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

Santorum told O'Reilly on Wednesday that states do have the right to ban contraception, but added, "[States] shouldn't do it. I wouldn't vote for it if they did. But that doesn't mean they don't have a right to do it." Talking to Robert Traynham, a former staffer of Santorum, Matthews interpreted, "Let me tell you what he said. He's said 'My religion should dominate, should trump issues of the Constitution.'"

At this time four years ago the liberal media was just starting its flirtation with Barack Obama in Iowa, while others still carried the torch for Hillary Clinton. On the eve before the Iowa caucus Chris Matthews, on Hardball, hoped that an Obama win in Iowa would send the message to the world that a "despised" America was truly ready to "change." For her part, then Today co-host Meredith Vieira was still caught up in Hillary hype as she touted that, "up close the Senator and former First Lady is natural, confident and warm."

On the January 2, 2008 Nightly News, NBC's Andrea Mitchell did her part to advance the notion of Obama's centrism as she sought out "a lifelong Republican, who twice voted for George Bush, now canvassing for Obama" as "a precinct captain" in Iowa.  (video after the jump)

Twenty-four years ago, Los Angeles Dodgers VP Al Campanis was forced to resign his position for saying on national TV that blacks lack "the necessities" to be baseball managers and executives.  

On today's Hardball, Chris Matthews was so enjoying himself mocking Rick Perry's intelligence, that he decided to use a slightly mangled version of the same line on the Texas governor. Video after the jump.

Appearing on Friday's Hannity on Fox News, during the weekly "Media Mash" segment, NewsBusters publisher and Media Research Center president Brent Bozell detailed ABC's attempt to paint a rosy economic picture to help President Obama and the liberal media's across-the-board effort to slam Newt Gingrich as a "frightening" "political killer." [View video after the jump]

MSNBC's Chris Matthews ran into trouble on Thursday when an Iowa radio host mocked the TV personality: "I just want to make sure we're starting with some honesty. You're clearly working for the re-election of Barack Obama." WHO-AM's Simon Conway appeared on the December 15 Hardball and promptly started sparring with the liberal anchor. [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

After Matthews' bland introduction, Conway struck: "Well, first of all, it's always a pleasure to welcome a Democrat to the Simon Conway Show, Chris." (The interview was simulcast on Conway's program.) A rattled Matthews responded, "This isn't going to go very long here if you're going into this game of assigning" political labels.                           

Twenty four hours after linking Mitt Romney to the Ku Klux Klan, MSNBC's Thomas Roberts apologized for his "appalling" smear. The News Live host on Thursday waited until the show was 50 minutes over and then conceded, "During yesterday's 11am, we reported on a blog item that compared a phrase used by the Romney campaign to one used by the KKK in the 1920s." [Video of the original comments and the apology can be found below. MP3 audio here.]

He continued, "It was irresponsible and incendiary of us to do this and showed an appalling lack of judgment. We apologize to the Romney campaign." On Wednesday's show, Roberts slimed, "Plus, what Mitt Romney has in common with the KKK. Details on a rare Romney campaign blunder ahead."

If you had any question who the folks at MSNBC would prefer President Obama run against next November, what happened on Wednesday's Hardball should make it crystal clear.

About thirty minutes after host Chris Matthews apologized for his network's pathetic Ku Klux Klan smear of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, he disgustingly attacked former House Speaker Newt Gingrich saying, "You don't give WMD to someone known even by his old former allies to be in a crunch, or even whenever things get edgy, to be himself a weapon of mass destruction" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

MSNBC's Chris Matthews is very upset about Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney saying President Obama is pursuing a foreign policy of "appeasement."

On Wednesday's Hardball, the host was so outraged by this that his Republican Strategist guest, Florida's Sally Bradshaw, ended up laughing in his face and mocking him when he talked about "sophisticated voters" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Former Newsweek editor Howard Fineman on Wednesday trashed Newt Gingrich as a mad bomber, smearing, "...Newt's main appeal and his main skill is as a guy who knows exactly where to put the explosive device to blow up the bridge."

Fineman was appearing on Chris Matthews' Hardball. Matthews has previously decried so-called incendiary rhetoric on the right, but the host just chuckled at Fineman's comments. 

According to Chris Matthews on Monday, the Republican presidential candidates are engaging in a "reign of terror" and "don't like democratic government." In a possible (though confusing) allusion to the toppling of Saddam Hussein, the Hardball anchor smeared, "These are guys who tear down statues. They don't put them up."  [See video below. See MP3 audio here.]

Matthews has a history of comparing Republicans to violent extremists in the Middle East. On July 5, 2011, the MSNBC host foamed, "Well, the GOP has become the Wahhabis of American government, willing to risk bringing down the whole country in the service of their anti-tax ideology."

After MSNBC's Chris Matthews bashed Barack Obama a few weeks ago for having "the worst kind of a notion of the presidency," people were wondering if the Hardball host no longer got a thrill up his leg for the Commander-in-Chief.

Let not your heart be troubled for on Monday the man many in the blogosphere refer to as "Tingles" said the current White House resident's "smile's worth a million bucks" (video follows with transcript and commentary):