Hardball

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):

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.