Hardbrawl
Candid Talker Chris Matthews Pulls No Punches
By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
<snip>
On his show, on the street, on the phone, on the party circuit, this 62-year-old refugee from Democratic politics wants to tell you what he thinks. Now. Right away. Not after the next commercial break. Not after the guest finishes talking. He blurts out what's on his mind, seemingly without a filter. And that quality, which is the essence of his television success, also keeps getting him into trouble.
That's precisely what happened last month when Matthews said on his show that Hillary Clinton owed her political career to sympathy stemming from her husband's infidelity. He eventually offered a mea culpa , but in some ways the dust-up was classic Matthews: operating on the edge, praising and prodding and poking people in the eye.
<snip>
Matthews is not easy to pigeonhole. He has liberal sympathies on most issues, but can hammer Democratic guests as aggressively as he grills Republicans, often annoying his left-leaning friends. He is impulsive and unpredictable, reeling off snap judgments, sometimes punctuated with his trademark "Ha!": John McCain, 71, claiming victory in Virginia alongside octogenarian Sen. John Warner, "looks like an army in retreat." If you "don't cry" when Barack Obama gives a speech, "you're not an American." And what made Mitt Romney think "a Mormon guy could win in the Bible Belt"? In fact, MSNBC executives have encouraged this approach -- while also cautioning him to watch his tone.
<snip>
Still, some high-profile women are now holding him up as a symbol of the insensitive male pundit.
He enjoys the towel-snapping banter of the locker room, praising women's looks on camera and off. For that matter, he also jokes about people's ethnicity, saying that the Irish hold grudges and teasing pals about being Jewish.
Matthews has said on the air that he finds Teresa Heinz Kerry "very attractive." He told Gennifer Flowers she is a "knockout." He told Elizabeth Edwards, "I love your smile." He said Michelle Obama was "attractive" and "classy." He told radio host Laura Ingraham, "You're beautiful and you're smart." And he jokingly urged CNBC anchor Erin Burnett to move closer to the camera, calling her "beautiful" and a "knockout." (Matthews says he was in "a whimsical mood" that day.)
He routinely talks over his panelists, but some women feel especially trampled. Matthews challenged Dee Dee Myers, the former Clinton White House spokeswoman, when she argued last month that nobody expected Hillary Clinton to be the inevitable nominee. Everyone thought Clinton would win, he insisted.
<snip>
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/13/AR2008021303418.html******
The story is long and mostly positive - but Matthews' sexism is discussed. Some of the comments on the story are priceless.
<snip>
hihomoron wrote:
Matthews owes HIS career to Bill Clinton's infidelity.
aint2sure wrote:
I just can't watch Matthews. He and Scarborough have the same problem. Besides thinking louder makes right, they both believe women should be seen and not heard. Both will interrupt and talk over female guest and fellow reporters. I've seen Andrea Mitchell, Rachel Maddow, and others treated poorly. Only Keith Olbermann allows others to finish a sentence and doesn't raise his voice (except in his special comments to the President!). I just find Hardball and the old boys club unwatchable, and I'm a 51 year old man!!!
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
