Instead of Men Behaving Badly, MSNBC Strains for a Polite Primary Night

[DeepModem Mom]

NYT: The TV Watch
Instead of Men Behaving Badly, MSNBC Strains for a Polite Primary Night
By ALESSANDRA STANLEY
Published: February 13, 2008

At its best, which is usually on election nights or after a debate, MSNBC makes viewers feel that they are in a neighborhood bar with political insiders, listening in on the banter and smart assessments. At its worst, the cable news channel makes viewers feel they are in a neighborhood bar waiting on political insiders, the butt of their banter and smart-aleck assessments. And Tuesday night, MSNBC tried very hard to be on its best behavior.

Chris Matthews, who on “Hardball” often refers to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton by her first name, switched to “Hillary Clinton, Senator Clinton.” Mr. Matthews was so intent on not causing offense he introduced a senior Clinton adviser, Lisa Caputo, by saying: “What a nice person she is. And I mean this, she’s a friend of mine, they are all nice friends.” MSNBC was the only one of the three cable news networks that showed Mrs. Clinton’s speech at a Texas rally almost in its entirety; Fox News and CNN cut away much sooner to the primary results. Tuesday night’s coverage of the so-called Potomac primaries on MSNBC was so polite it was almost comical: the channel’s usually brash, voluble anchors were like schoolboys sent to the principal’s office, straining to look penitent and extra attentive.

MSNBC calls its stars “the best political team” on television, but at the moment some players are in disgrace. A reporter, David Shuster, was suspended by the network for saying that Chelsea Clinton had been “pimped out” by her mother’s campaign. Last month, Mr. Matthews was forced to apologize for saying that Mrs. Clinton had won her Senate seat and become a presidential front-runner because of a husband who, as he put it, “messed around.”...

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...MSNBC has a vein of bratty, adolescent insensitivity, especially toward women, that keeps popping out. MSNBC, after all, was the cable news network that used to simulcast Don Imus’s radio show and had to fire him after his demeaning description of a women’s college basketball team. From Joe Scarborough, the host of “Morning Joe,” who took offense at Mr. Matthews’s apology, saying that it was unnecessary, to Mr. Matthews, Keith Olbermann and Mr. Carlson in the evening, MSNBC provides a strong dose of angry — or at least highly caffeinated — white males.

Caution and even contrition were noticeable on MSNBC on Tuesday night, but it is unlikely to last. Cable anchors are not really journalists; they are opinion-mongers, news personalities who are expected to entertain viewers, either by amusing them or appalling them. On election nights, especially when NBC News veterans like Tim Russert and Tom Brokaw join them, Mr. Matthews and Mr. Olbermann are insightful and quick-witted. On a slower news day, MSNBC’s anchors show signs of Cable Insecurity Syndrome, trying to outshout their rivals at the better-rated Fox News....

Tuesday night, after MSNBC projected Mr. Obama’s victory in Virginia, Mr. Matthews apologized for using the words “white men” to describe the breakdown of the vote. “White men, I hate doing it like this,” Mr. Matthews said. “White men, that’s how we talk now, are voting for Barack Obama.”...And the host of “Hardball” looked shaken by his own experiences when he noted that in these times, matters of ethnicity, gender and race are “so tricky.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/13/us/politics/13watch.html?_r=1&ref=politics&oref=slogin

[Berry Cool]

1. Once again, Alessandra Stanley is an idiot.

She paints all of MSNBC with the nasty misogynist schoolboy brush, when she's really only talking about three people: Tweety, Tucker and Joe. *sigh*