Chris Matthews to Clinton Campaign Kneecappers: Screw You?

Unfortunately, Chris Matthews’ anti-Clintonism and frequent misogyny has kind of become my issue so I feel duty bound to cover the latest development in the Matthews versus Clinton media war. Seriously, if you were Hillary Clinton (and you’ve reviewed the years of insulting Matthews statements, do you blame her for trying to “kneecap” him? Who’s the real kneecapper here anyway? I agree with Kirk Caraway about the Clintons’ reputation among the press. Its a reputation well earned, however, perhaps Chris Matthews is not the best person in the media to be making this argument given his history of open and often irrational Clinton bashing. Even some conservative bloggers are calling bullshit on Matthews’ sudden realization that the Clinton campaign plays “hardball.” Matthews has made it personal for a long time–Greg Sargent’s analysis of this situation is right on:

A couple of quick points on this. First, should Matthews really be going here? Is he really going to complain about the Hillary camp’s pushback against MSNBC in recent days? They primarily objected to David Shuster’s suggestion that they had “pimped out” Chelsea — a comment that is pretty clearly indefensible. What’s more, Matthews himself apologized for some of his own less-than-gallant remarks about Hillary recently.

I happen to think that the Hillary campaign’s aggressive campaign against Shuster was over the top in some key ways. But it seems ill-advised, to put it charitably, for Matthews, of all people, to be denouncing the Hillary camp’s objections to his and Shuster’s remarks. It makes it fair game to question whether there was all that much to his apology and to ask whether he thinks Shuster’s remarks are objectionable. Come to think of it, maybe someone should ask him this stuff.

At any rate, Matthews has clearly decided to ratchet up the hostilities with Hillary’s press people, perhaps partly in response to their aggressive behind the scenes campaign against him.

In a somewhat related post, Sargent looks at Howard Kurtz’s recent analysis of the political press coverage, noting:

I mean, the presidential race isn’t being conducted to provide drama and amusement for members of the media. It’s being waged to pick the next president. You know, most powerful person in the world, critical moment in history, finger on the nuke button, environment in crisis, all that boring and earnest stuff.

While Kurtz doesn’t say so directly, he’s clearly floating the notion that a key thing driving some media figures and their editorial choices is a preference for the Fall of Hillary narrative. To be clear, this isn’t to knock Kurtz, He’s the ultimate D.C. media insider, and it’s good to have someone suggesting — from inside the belly of the Beltway media beast — that this is part of the media dynamic at play here.

It shouldn’t be, of course, but as Atrios has repeatedly noted, press coverage is determined to a lopsided degree by whichever narrative is deemed more entertaining by members of the media. It’s just one of the many ugly realities we keep having to deal with in cycle after cycle.

Besides being somewhat surprised that Kurtz made this point, its something that several pundits, particularly Matthews, need to keep in mind. Matthews has soooo much credibility these days as is clear in this Matthews interview on the Daily Show. And of course he starts off with talking about how Bill Clinton got women in to bed. Where is Tom Brokaw when you need him? Cable news is ruining this country.

Similar Posts:

• Shuster’s Suspension Really About Chris Matthews
• Okay, A Close Race Between Clinton and Obama Is Also Good for The Nevada Caucus
• What Obama Needs To Be Prepared For

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