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Showing Original Post only (View all)WaPo's Margaret Sullivan: The real reason Chris Matthews had to go [View all]
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/media/the-real-reason-chris-matthews-had-to-go/2020/03/03/e769f850-5d58-11ea-b29b-9db42f7803a7_story.html
By Margaret Sullivan
Media columnist
March 3, 2020 at 12:20 p.m. EST
<snip>
But this casual sexism wasnt at the heart of why he had to go. One of the most prominent and well-paid hosts in the cable-news game didnt listen, didnt do his homework, and treated politics as a game in which noisy confrontation was a necessity. The problem was less about green-room boorishness and far more about what you could see and hear on the air especially in recent weeks, but also going back a long way.
For years, Matthews was a harsh and misogynistic critic of Hillary Clinton once calling her a she-devil, and attributing any of her success in the 2008 presidential primary to the fact that, as he put it, her husband messed around. More recently, his comparison of Bernie Sanders winning the Nevada primary to the fall of France to the Nazis was a horribly offensive gaffe given Sanderss Jewish heritage and his having lost family members to the Holocaust.
But for me, an occasional member of the Hardball audience, there was something worse.
With his reported $5 million annual salary, he wielded enormous influence. For many years, he had the power to sway public opinion on the crucial topics of the day. Not infrequently, he failed the main test of someone in that role. He was ready to offer his own views, but not prepared to hear those of his guests or to bring deep knowledge to the conversation.
Frequently described as bombastic, and certainly an excitable yeller, Matthews had a tendency to ask a question, and then, just as his subject was beginning to answer, interrupt, asking it differently or inserting his own opinion.
</snip>
By Margaret Sullivan
Media columnist
March 3, 2020 at 12:20 p.m. EST
<snip>
But this casual sexism wasnt at the heart of why he had to go. One of the most prominent and well-paid hosts in the cable-news game didnt listen, didnt do his homework, and treated politics as a game in which noisy confrontation was a necessity. The problem was less about green-room boorishness and far more about what you could see and hear on the air especially in recent weeks, but also going back a long way.
For years, Matthews was a harsh and misogynistic critic of Hillary Clinton once calling her a she-devil, and attributing any of her success in the 2008 presidential primary to the fact that, as he put it, her husband messed around. More recently, his comparison of Bernie Sanders winning the Nevada primary to the fall of France to the Nazis was a horribly offensive gaffe given Sanderss Jewish heritage and his having lost family members to the Holocaust.
But for me, an occasional member of the Hardball audience, there was something worse.
With his reported $5 million annual salary, he wielded enormous influence. For many years, he had the power to sway public opinion on the crucial topics of the day. Not infrequently, he failed the main test of someone in that role. He was ready to offer his own views, but not prepared to hear those of his guests or to bring deep knowledge to the conversation.
Frequently described as bombastic, and certainly an excitable yeller, Matthews had a tendency to ask a question, and then, just as his subject was beginning to answer, interrupt, asking it differently or inserting his own opinion.
</snip>
Brutal, but true...
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WaPo's Margaret Sullivan: The real reason Chris Matthews had to go [View all]
Dennis Donovan
Mar 2020
OP
Andrea Mitchell is like the Joan Rivers of the Red Carpet but not as stylish, LOL
Backseat Driver
Mar 2020
#101
Yep. Once Trump is out and the GOP reverts to something akin to Bush-McCain mode...
JaneQPublic
Mar 2020
#57
YEP!!!! If a Dem wins the WH - they'll revert to insufferable assholes they always were.
tenderfoot
Mar 2020
#94
cons who analyze politics as if limbaugh and co didn't rule their party are worse than the dems who
certainot
Mar 2020
#98
Joy Reid deserves it if she wants it. Smart as a whip and not afraid to say it like it is.
Pepsidog
Mar 2020
#73
Immediate 'cancellation'? There is more to this story than 'bombastic ' habits, etc.
empedocles
Mar 2020
#7
Same for me. Frustrated about that frequently. Wanted to hear answers but he'd interrupt.
SharonAnn
Mar 2020
#87
I heard that there was a young female guest in the green room and he went in and exposed himself
PSPS
Mar 2020
#12
Borrowed the old McLaughin Group format of shouting and talking over....
Peregrine Took
Mar 2020
#18
Matthews left because he was old, slipping, and didn't want to deal with the criticism
Azathoth
Mar 2020
#40
He was a big mouth. Big mouths don't make room for brains or other perspectives. . . . nt
Bernardo de La Paz
Mar 2020
#46
Bump Nicole Wallace up to prime time. I have to say Claire McCaskill offers a LOT to 52% of viewers.
ancianita
Mar 2020
#48
I like how she frames, and articulates political talk and action. I like Nicole because she's no-bs.
ancianita
Mar 2020
#77
I got turned off during the impeachment with her constant texting with people on the floor.
Grasswire2
Mar 2020
#97
annoying asshole. Hated him last time I watched TV 12 years ago - seems things only got worse.
NRaleighLiberal
Mar 2020
#55
He got along well with W until Barack Obama was elected. I didn't know he was a Democrat ...
marble falls
Mar 2020
#62
Chuck Todd has to go next he is worse than Matthews treating politics as a game
uponit7771
Mar 2020
#66
"Matthews had a tendency to ask a question, and then, just as his subject was beginning to answer...
Trueblue Texan
Mar 2020
#76
They should just cancel "Hairball" altogether rather than replacing Tweety. n/t
TygrBright
Mar 2020
#84
Nailed it on asking a question and then not listening or waiting for an answer
jcgoldie
Mar 2020
#88
"Matthews had a tendency to ask a question, and then, just as his subject was beginning to answer"
Demovictory9
Mar 2020
#99
After the fall of Baghdad, MSNBC's Chris Matthews declared, "We're all neocons now."
90-percent
Mar 2020
#107
One of the things I can't stand is the constant interrupting of guests.
Liberal In Texas
Mar 2020
#124