Hardball

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…

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…

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…

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…

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:…

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…

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…

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…

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…