MSNBC’s Hardball host Chris Matthews put forth a theory on Thursday night that the reason droves of everyday Americans aren’t as obsessed with the Trump-Russia investigation (aka removing Trump from office) as the New York City and Washington D.C. liberal media are due to the decline of local newspapers featuring national news stories about Russian collusion.
The Hardball Roundtable was mocking the ongoing Trump rally in West Virginia with Matthews quipping that the crowd “was nodding at everything he said” and “just waiting” for the proverbial “match to be lit” with red meat rhetoric.
Matthews fired back that the people who actually matter like Robert Mueller and the impaneled grand jury do care about Russia.
Moments later, Matthews showed his contempt for the peons outside the Acela Corridor, arguing that they’d be much more sophisticated when it came to their current political views if they had a newspaper filled with wire stories (like ones by Werner) to tell them how Russia matters to them:
Erica, I think you got a point. But I think part of that is the loss of newspapers in many parts of the country. I was out — no, I was just out in the west with my wife. We were driving around, you know, in Colorado and Utah and Wyoming. There is no local, big, serious newspaper in the — the Denver papers, they’re — you don't pick it up in the morning when you go down the drive way or whatever, the mail box — there's no newspaper telling you what's going to nationally.
“There are local newspapers that are okay but the days where people had a pretty good newspaper to read. So, how are you going to keep up with Russia? Even if you're slightly interested, there’s no story to read. That’s a fact,” he added.
Matthews lives and breathes politics, perhaps even more so now that wife and failed congressional candidate Kathleen is the chair of the Maryland Democratic Party. Unfortunately, he’s missed the point that there’s millions of other issues out there (some local, some national) that directly affect people’s lives a lot more than this.
In most elections, people vote with their pocketbooks. So, what does Russia have to do with people being able to keep more of what they earn?
Anyway, Werner agreed, lamenting it as “a bigger issue” due to “[t]he bifurcation of the party and where we get our sources of news that is just confirmation bias.” What’s amusing is when the media talk about confirmation bias, they always direct it at conservatives and not themselves.
Whether you’re on Amtrak train between D.C. and NYC or at a ritzy party stocked with establishment politicians and journalists, there’s plenty of sources that people all flock to read such as The New York Times, New Yorker, Time, or Vox. Before lecturing conservatives about branching out to other news sources, perhaps Matthews and company should examine themselves first.
Here’s the relevant transcript from MSNBC’s Hardball on August 3:
MSNBC’s Hardball
August 3, 2017
7:46 p.m. Eastern
CHRIS MATTHEWS: They were ready. That group was nodding at everything he said. That group was just waiting for the match to be lit.
JEREMY PETERS: Of course. Exactly. Hillary —
ERICA WERNER: But that said, even apart from the reaction of a group like that, we hear from lawmakers of both parties, including liberal Democrats that, when they go home, people do not care about Russia. So, you know, we're obsessed with it in the bubble.
MATTHEWS: Do you know who cares about Russia?
WERNER: Robert Mueller?
MATTHEWS: The people investigating it.
PETERS: The grand jury.
WERNER: Correct.
MATTHEWS: I think if you're sitting, waiting to be prosecuted, I would be more worried that the prosecutor than the fan base. Go ahead.
PETERS: No, but, I mean, this is all part of a broader —
MATTHEW: By the way, from Watergate, a lot of the Republican faithful, said — I remember the bumper sticker: Get off his back. I mean, that was until it got later on.
PETERS: Until the day Nixon resigned, he still had 50 percent approval rating among Republicans. So, the support among conservative base should not be surprising, but at the same time, it also shows you that trump is going to have a certain amount of durability going into 2018 and 2020 even. I just don't, their strategy is protect the base, keep what you have, and attack your opponent mercilessly.
MATTHEWS: Erica, I think you got a point. But I think part of that is the loss of newspapers in many parts of the country. I was out — no, I was just out in the west with my wife. We were driving around, you know, in Colorado and Utah and Wyoming. There is no local, big, serious newspaper in the — the Denver papers, they’re — you don't pick it up in the morning when you go down the drive way or whatever, the mail box — there's no newspaper telling you what's going to nationally. There are local newspapers that are okay but the days where people had a pretty good newspaper to read. So, how are you going to keep up with Russia? Even if you're slightly interested, there’s no story to read. That’s a fact.
WERNER: I mean, that's a bigger issue, right? The bifurcation of the party and where we get our sources of news that is just confirmation bias.
