Subject: RE: Linda Ronstadt pulls a Dixie Chicks
From:
Nerd
Date: 28 Jul 04 - 05:41 PM
In defense of "another GUEST," LarryK, Chris Matthews is not a self-proclaimed Liberal. Although he has worked for liberal causes and politicians, he came to prominence in the media as a high-profile Clinton-Basher. Like Christopher Hitchens, he used to be liberal and now is something else: liberal on some social issues, hard right on some political issues. He most resembles moderate republicans like my own Senator, Arlen Specter.
Matthews's show Hardball was created by Roger Ailes (founder of Fox News) for CNBC. It later moved to MSNBC and Ailes founded Fox News, where he picked another guy to fill the role Matthews had filled in his old lineup. So he needed a fast-talking, loud Irish-Catholic to bash Clinton. Who did he find? Bill O'Reilly.
Here is how Salon (which is liberal) describes Matthews:
Chris Matthews barreled into American living rooms during the Clinton impeachment saga, when his CNBC show "Hardball" became the official cable clubhouse for Clinton haters -- and must-viewing for Clinton defenders with a masochistic streak. Nobody who watched Matthews' shouting, spittle-spewing performance art night after night could question his sincerity: Here was a one-time Peace Corps volunteer from a blue-collar family -- and a lifelong Democrat who had worked for House Speaker Tip O'Neill -- and he clearly loathed Clinton for bringing shame to his office and his party. But it was also true that Matthews saw the rightward drift in cable's audience, and he knew there were ratings in his rants against a liberal president.
And then there's what Matthews said himself on the issue:
This demographic doesn't want to see the young, the hip -- they don't want celebrities. I had Mia Farrow and Brian Dennehy on recently -- it did terrible! I love Brian Dennehy, but the audience doesn't. They're angrier than I am. I'm not angry.
Oh, you still seem angry sometimes. But how much do you think about this stuff when you're programming?
A lot. I tell my staff, we're riding a tour bus around, and we're going to stop and look at some weird stuff -- but we're taking our viewers around safely. They're just looking out the window at it. I'm trying to create a sense of comfort for my center audience. My audience is much more center right...
So there you have it, whatever his personal political beliefs he is trying to create a safe feeling for a center-right audience. His show, in other words, is conservative.
As for Wolf Blitzer, he may be liberal; I don't know. But he defiantly refused to take any responsibility for letting the current administration get away with half-truths and alarmist propaganda. On The Daily Show, he shrugged it off with "haven't you ever made a mistake?"
So liberal or not, he doesn't let his personal politics interfere with repeating Republican Party talking points.
CNBC, MSNBC and CNN are pretty conservative, in fact. Headline News moreso than the regular CNN, oddly enough. Watch it for a while and see how often they show a liberal politician for a soundbite, then cut to a co-anchor who says "Wow, I guess there's some crazy ideas in Washington, ha, ha!" Then they'll show the president and say "President Bush, appearing self-assured." It's pretty infuriating.
Finally, another Guest said "many newspapers," not "all newspapers," so your ability to find counter-examples is irrelevant. He could say "Washington Times, New York Post, Times, News of the World,etc). In fact, according to their own website, Rupert Murdoch's company is:
"the world's leading publisher of English-language newspapers, with operations in the UK, Australia, Fiji, Papua New Guinea and the US. The Company publishes more than 175 different newspapers, employing approximately 15,000 people worldwide and printing more than 40 million papers a week."
And that's just one conservative organization.
It's time for conservatives to stop whining about the liberal media.
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sj
