Update (Ken Shepherd | 09:16 EDT): Matthews appeared with Joe Scarborough a few minutes ago on MSNBC to discuss the matter. Expect more coverage in a followup post on NewsBusters shortly.
Chris Matthews should keep his evening job. Appearing on this morning's "Today," the Hardball host was manifestly bleary and off his game.
Matthews was in, at 7:12 am EDT, to discuss with "Today" co-host Meredith Vieira the dust-up on last night's "Hardball," reported here by NewsBuster Geoffrey Dickens, between Ann Coulter and Elizabeth Edwards. Matthews couldn't keep his names straight. He first referred to Coulter as "Ann Edwards," then recycled the "Ann Edwards" moniker in referring to Elizabeth Edwards.
HARDBALL HOST CHRIS MATTHEWS: Well that was a pretty tough [translation: pro-Coulter] crowd, and if you think Ann Edwards is over the top, she had a lot of people behind her last night who agreed with her.
And later . . .
MATTHEWS: Unfortunately, you're dealing with a real-life situation with Ann Edwards' medical challenges, which we all know about, and the fact that they did lose their son Wade, and you don't make jokes about that.
View video here.
Hear that, Ann Edwards? Stop taking those shots at Ann Edwards and her husband, John Obama.
Speaking of shots, Matthews took one at the readers of Ann's [Coulter, in this case] books.
MATTHEWS: She's an agent provocateur, she sells huge numbers of books, because I think a lot of relatively boring guys like to walk around carrying her books, to be honest with you.
JOURNALISTIC ASIDE: Note that Vieira never put the journalistic question to Matthews as to the propriety of the Hardball host apparently having blind-sided Coulter with the Edwards call-in. Matthews referred obliquely to the sand-bagging, stating that "Elizabeth Edwards wanted to call in yesterday when she knew that Ann Coulter was going to be on the program." During the 6 am EDT hour of "Morning Joe" on MSNBC, host Joe Scarborough criticized that kind of gotcha tactic, saying he certainly hoped that Ann had been given advance notice of the Edwards call.
Contact Mark at mark@gunhill.net
—Mark Finkelstein is a NewsBusters contributing editor and host of Right Angle. Contact him at mark@gunhill.net.
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SEt Up/SEE SIGNS
June 27, 2007 - 08:14 ET by PawpawNAnyone who says the show the day before wasn't a setup is crazy. Today mistakenly let video be shown of people holding signs that stated EDWARDS/COULTER. Let's see, if this not known, how did they run get materials, fix sign and get it on TV before segment over! Wow, then they blatantly lie that it was not planned!
The MSM is incenstuous the wa
June 27, 2007 - 12:31 ET by TobysMom97The MSM is incenstuous the way they operate. They invent a controversy with EE and AC and then today Chrissy is all over the news talking about it like it was some big event and wasn't cleverly planned. Chris Matthews needs Prozac.
Slobbering, drooling, on-ai
June 27, 2007 - 08:59 ET by FairlightSlobbering, drooling, on-air belches, and now this. Sounds like Chris Olbermann could use a bib and a sippy-cup.
Clearly, he's suffering from
June 27, 2007 - 09:10 ET by drillanwrClearly, he's suffering from dehydration from all the slobbering ... and try as he might, sitting for an hour looking at a long, cool woman in a black dress caused him to drool even more, and under the hot Plaza sun no less.
Seriously, since I don't watch this garden slug that often, is Matthews losing weight? Look at his neck in the video. That's what happens when someone loses too much weight too fast.
He's so mad now that he can
June 27, 2007 - 09:23 ET by BacchusHe's so mad now that he can't keep all of his talking points in order; he mentioned both ladies in that "Today" clip by the same wrong name, "Ann Edwards." He wasn't any better on Hardball. "Chubby thighs?" Where did that one come from, CM? Ouch!
The Hardball interview with Ann Coulter is up at MSNBC. Go to the MSNBC-TV section and their video player, then you'll find 5-6 separate clips with Ann, and the one has "Edwards" in the title. It's surreal.
Of course, this was coming.
June 27, 2007 - 09:24 ET by Iron LadyOf course, this was coming. They'll play it up big all day, or for days if they can. Even without the signs, even without him admitting it the day before, you'd know it was a setup. Any real man would have come on to talk to her himself - and in person, too. That would be real.
But this is a case in point - the "infallible victims" used to say things the liberals think can then not be responded to. Just like libs used certain widows of 9/11 to spout their nonsense, knowing no one can say anything without being attacked as having no heart. So CM, in his obvious collaboration with the Edwards campaign, picked not John Edwards, but Elizabeth. She not only lost a son etc, but she is dying of cancer. What bigger victim could you find? Even CM spouts it in his foaming performance here - she can't be wrong because she is dying, right?.
Ann should use this as the exemplar of the liberal tactics she wrote about.
Ann Edwards ? ? Gee,
June 27, 2007 - 09:26 ET by JayTeeAnn Edwards ? ? Gee, he Insulted both women with his incompetence. If he's not an AM kind of Guy, and his PM ratings are in the Tank, what Time is MSNBS gonna put him on ?
Tha' Boy is running outta time.
I like Ann C., but I don't know if I would like her enough to watch Chris Matthead. I'm glad I missed it........of course, I always miss his show.
What good is a Free Press, if it is a False Press ? David Foote GoE
John and Elizabeth Edwards gi
June 27, 2007 - 09:47 ET by TobysMom97John and Elizabeth Edwards give me the creeps. Can you imagine the blood bath a republican would go through in the media if he kept campaigning when his wife had cancer and they had two small children.
TobyMom97 - you mean like the
June 27, 2007 - 11:38 ET by ding7777TobyMom97 - you mean like the media bloodbath they gave Tony Snow?
Tony Snow is running for pres
June 27, 2007 - 12:24 ET by TobysMom97Tony Snow is running for president and his wife is dying of breast cancer? Wow! I didn't know that.
Liberals have no self-awareness of how nasty they really are. But of course in their world view, it is perfectly acceptable to be mean to anyone who doesn't agree with them because in their mind, they are the saviors of us all. WHATEVER!
Ann Coulter can be nasty and funny and completely spot on. A lot of people are too emotional to understand her dry wit.
FYI -Ann Coulter will be on G
June 27, 2007 - 09:56 ET by drillanwrFYI -
Ann Coulter will be on Glenn Beck's TV show (CNN Headline News- 7:00, 9:00, and 12:00) tonight.
Beck said when he began hearing about this all this morning all over the place he thought badly about Coulter ... But then he listened to the whole ABC interview from the other morning that started the feeding frenzy and got the full context and he seems to be on Coulter's side in that the MSM is only cherry picking and using sound bites to make Coulter look bad, and not giving the context or the point she was trying to make.
Anyhow, it should be interesting to see these two chatting together ...
Ann never made a joke about t
June 27, 2007 - 10:02 ET by BeanManAnn never made a joke about the Edward's son Wade. She merely pointed out that Edwards continually reminds people that his son died. He's the one trying to make political points about the death of his son. Ann is not bringing up the son, she's bringing up the fact that there is nothing, absoutely nothing, that John Edwards won't say or do to become president.
This is a typical liberal straw-man approach. The media and cry-babies such as Matthews did the same thing when she mentioned the NJ widows in her book. Liberals try and pretend that a grieving widow or couple has untouchable moral authority and we should never ever question their motives. Ann, in her book, took on the substance of what the NJ widows said and did, for money as it turns out. When this was pointed out the liberals gasped in feigned shock and horror "how can you say that about these poor women who lost their husbands in the 911 attack? You mean mean person." Then they hied to their fainting couches.
Elizabeth Edwards does the same thing. It is so predictable that I get tired of hearing it over and over and over and over and over again.
Sometimes I want to be like Winston Smith and be sent to Room 101 so it won't hurt so much anymore. Life would be so simple as a liberal. There is no thinking required, no requirement to ever know the facts, no need for common sense. Just my feelings matter.....sigh!
May we remind Mrs. Edwards, a
June 27, 2007 - 10:33 ET by drillanwrMay we remind Mrs. Edwards, and Matthews, that her husband, in a 2004 VP debate in Cleveland, Ohio, cheaply outted (I know she was already out, just using the term for lack of a better one here) Cheney's lesbian daughter for little or no apparent reason to make a very weak and very lame non-point to a question asked by the NPR babe. This, I believe if my timing is correct, came on the heels of Kerry publicly and cheaply and unfairly outted Cheney's daughter in answering a debate question with George Bush.
Both of these outtings were deliberately done as personal attacks for media effect. (I believe there were even gasps in the live audience at the Kerry/Bush debate when he said it). They USED Mary Cheney as gay rights fodder in the political arena. The whole thing was creepy.
MATTHEWS: “Unfortunately, y
June 27, 2007 - 10:37 ET by USA4freedomMATTHEWS: “Unfortunately, you're dealing with a real-life situation with Ann Edwards' medical challenges, which we all know about, and the fact that they did lose their son Wade, and you don't make jokes about that.”
Real-life situations like getting sued when you do any thing wrong?
Real-life situations like you cant find a baby doctor in parts of the US because of people like Edwards?
Real-life situations like how the very people who treat her for her cancer will be sued by the likes of her husband if something goes wrong?
Real-life situations that these same doctors spend much more money on insurance to protect them selves from blood sucking parasites like Edwards? Then pass the cost on to us or our insurance companies (us in the end).
Real-life situations that woman that cant find baby doctors, don’t get pre natal care to the detriment for themselves and their babies.
MR AND MRS EDWARDS ARE LAWERS, ITS PERFECTLY OK WHEN YOU CRAP ON DOCTORS BUT WHEN SOMEONE DUMPES ON YOU CRY.
These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc.
Ronald Reagan- 40th Anniversary of D-Day
Exactly, Beanman
June 27, 2007 - 10:37 ET by RJExactly, Beanman. Once again, there will be the predictable whining about Coulter's "insensitivity", but what she does so well is stick pins in the hot-air balloons of the liberals' own cynical and hypocritical behavior.
----------------
In exchange for his "legacy", George W. Bush is willing to destroy the Republican Party and this country.
Ann never made a joke about
June 27, 2007 - 11:49 ET by balboaAnn never made a joke about the Edward's son Wade.
I don't know that that's completely true. She made a joke about Edwards discussing the death to prove a point. It's a good point, but she chose the "Ann Way" to make that point.
Ann Coulter represents ever
June 27, 2007 - 10:44 ET by JDWAnn Coulter represents everything the dems claim does not exist in women. She is intelligent, hard working, and successful. Her law degree, in the Constitution, provides her with the ability to make intelligent comments.
Neither the news media nor people such as Mrs Edwards will ever address Ann specifically yet spin her comments into areas which have absolutely no relevance. It's painful to have family deaths yet we are aware of her's. How many either in office today or running have family who died in service to our country?
Why has Ms Coulter become a prime target of the dems?
JDW
News media: Scoreboard for terrorists
Besides being conservative?
June 27, 2007 - 10:49 ET by Iron LadyBesides being conservative? She is a woman who didn't have to marry someone to finance/promote/bribe people into paying attention to her.
Just as liberals have left "liberty" out of their concerns, the feminists seem to suck up to women whose only real attribute is whom they have married. How else do you explain Hilary Clinton and Elizabeth Edwards?
(Yes, I know its an exaggeration but it is funny how often it applies. It should be the libs who eschew HC because she only got where she did via her husband's connections and their money.)
You are on track. Think mor
June 27, 2007 - 12:51 ET by JDWYou are on track. Think more in terms of the moneymakers you described above and relate those thoughts to Ms Coulter.
JDW
News media: Scoreboard for terrorists
And another thing, I believe
June 27, 2007 - 10:52 ET by drillanwrAnd another thing, I believe Ann's shrillness growing over the last couple years is a brilliant calculation for two reasons:
1) were she polite and not-so-colorful in her remarks and observations no one would hear her in the MSM
2) Ann also knows how the MSM will misrepresent and spin what she says/writes, so being aware of this makes it possible for her to show the public just how dishonest the MSM is and continues to be
The woman markets herself and her message brilliantly. She works and uses the media for the whores they are.
JDW, I know Ann can be a li
June 27, 2007 - 10:56 ET by MightyMouthJDW, I know Ann can be a little controversial and "corse" at times, but without that, she would not be getting the opportunities to express those Ideas we love from her.
Does anyone think she would be getting one tenth the press she is getting by being "nice"? I think not, and in addition to selling books, she is in her own loveable way speaking the good news of conservatism.
Being in the crosshairs of the dims IS helping to get the message across, IMO.
"There are two types of people in this country; those who provide freedom and those who enjoy it." MM says...
Ann Coulter represents ever
June 27, 2007 - 10:57 ET by balboaAnn Coulter represents everything the dems claim does not exist in women
You've gotta be kidding me. Where are you getting these "facts"?
Why didn't John Edwards cal
June 27, 2007 - 14:35 ET by JDWWhy didn't John Edwards call in?
JDW
News media: Scoreboard for terrorists
What does that have to do w
June 27, 2007 - 14:41 ET by balboaWhat does that have to do with your Ann quote?
At one point, I thought Mat
June 27, 2007 - 10:45 ET by usinkoreaAt one point, I thought Matthews might be an adequate TV "news" host even if clearly for one side over the other, but he has proven to be just as corrupt and useless as most.
So, Ms. Edwards just wanted to call in when Ms. Coulter was on the show? How quaint. I'm sure it had nothing to do with politics. I'm sure it had nothing to do with her husband's election campaign. I'm sure Mattews saying "yes" had nothing to do with his dislike of Coulter. I'm sure it had nothing to do with Matthews wanting to get buzz the next day to boost viewership...
Hey, Mattews, you jerk, if Ms. Edwards wanted to talk to Coulter, how about during a commercial? How about before or after the show? -Well, then it wouldn't be on TV, huh? There would be no chance to generate buzz for your show - and the Edward's campaign - then, huh?
Somebody make a running list of the next two weeks of the Mattews show ---- a list composed of guests on the one side and on the other a list of conservative groups and people you would like to see Matthews agree to let call in to challenge the guest - since Matthews believes in an open line policy....
In all fairness, I must remin
June 27, 2007 - 11:22 ET by fosstenIn all fairness, I must remind everyone of the time that Alec Baldwin was being interviewed on a radio show and they took calls from not only Sean Hannity, but also the great one, Mark Levin. The combination of those two so infuriated Baldwin that he had a meltdown and stomped out of the studio.
A setup? Of course. But look at the difference between the way Baldwin handled himself versus how Ann handled herself.
Very true. But then Baldwin
June 27, 2007 - 11:33 ET by balboaVery true. But then Baldwin isn't a professional target like the Soulless One. He's a hot-head actor.
"He's a hot-head actor
June 27, 2007 - 11:37 ET by MightyMouth"He's a hot-head actor"
BS, he's a loud mouthed political activist, besides being "the greatest actor of all time".
"There are two types of people in this country; those who provide freedom and those who enjoy it." MM says...
he's a loud mouthed politic
June 27, 2007 - 11:41 ET by balboahe's a loud mouthed political activist
Well he's that, too.
"...the Souless One"
June 27, 2007 - 13:35 ET by mattm"...the Souless One"
'You've got to be kidding. Where are you getting these facts?'
From her life. :-)
June 27, 2007 - 13:46 ET by balboaFrom her life. :-)
Bal's trying to be snarky,
June 27, 2007 - 14:02 ET by MightyMouthBal's trying to be snarky, it's from the name of one of her books "Soulless: The Church of Liberalism.
An aside: do a google search for Soulless Ann Coulter. Google's top results are for the parody by Susan Estrich. Wonder why? AND Coulter site is under DOS attack by some tolerant moonbat nut jobs who want to further freedom of ideas by blocking hers. Bal, nice company you keep.
"There are two types of people in this country; those who provide freedom and those who enjoy it." MM says...
Actually, I'd forgotten tha
June 27, 2007 - 14:05 ET by balboaActually, I'd forgotten that was a title to one of her books, and I don't know who Susan Estrich is. I don't condone moonbat attacks, either.
However, I have been claiming Annie doesn't cast a reflection for some time now.
"Soulless" is act
June 27, 2007 - 14:18 ET by MightyMouth"Soulless" is actually the title to the Estrich book, "Godless" is by Coulter, sorry. And you do realize by "moonbat" I mean "leftist-drooling-crybaby- democrat?
"There are two types of people in this country; those who provide freedom and those who enjoy it." MM says...
I get the moonbat reference
June 27, 2007 - 14:29 ET by balboaI get the moonbat reference.
"I get the moonbat refer
June 27, 2007 - 14:35 ET by MightyMouth"I get the moonbat reference"
Excuse me, I thought you were some how suggesting that you aren't one. :-)
"There are two types of people in this country; those who provide freedom and those who enjoy it." MM says...
Hey! Alright, buddyboy...
June 27, 2007 - 14:38 ET by balboaHey! Alright, buddyboy...
Whether Coulter was set up by
June 27, 2007 - 17:23 ET by GalvanicWhether Coulter was set up by Matthews or not, I don't worry about her. She's a big girl with a quick mind and a lot of guts, and I don't think there's anything a weak-kneed dope like Matthew can do to knock her down.
In fact, I'm more confident in Coulter's ability to handle a hostile crowd than I am of Bush's. While conservatives like Coulter continue to battle the Left, Bush has thrown in the proverbial towel and retired to the Lame Duck Lounge to wait out his last term.
Hi Galv....Couldn't ever of s
June 27, 2007 - 17:40 ET by bigtimerHi Galv....
Couldn't ever of said it better myself.
Thank you.
Btw....I love the line or phrase...Lame Duck Lounge .....you said it all.
I hear the foie gras is reall
June 27, 2007 - 19:57 ET by balboaI hear the foie gras is really good there.
If someone hasn't opened a restaurant / bar in D.C. with that name, they should.
Well, well.... we agree on yo
June 27, 2007 - 20:05 ET by bigtimerWell, well.... we agree on your suggestion boa.
Trivia time,The city council
June 27, 2007 - 20:05 ET by botgTrivia time,
The city council of San Diego has banned foie gras in the city limits.
Supreme Court, National Security, Borders, Fiscal Restraint, my litmus test for President.