In defense of Tweety (Chris Matthews)

[janekat]

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/gossip/story/132040p-117838c.html
Guys - I know that Tweety (and others) pisses us off at times - but we need to stick up for him/them when he does something good IMO. If someone has the guts to stand up to Bush & Co. we should encourage them to keep on doing it. Instead of whining about how we never get good "press" let's do something about it.

My right wing Republican brother who used to idolize Bush listens to Tweety and because of him my brother is now almost considering voting against Bush. THIS is something I never thought would be possible.

What Tweety does is draws in the centrists and the right wings by talking nice at times about Reagan and Bush - and then whammo - he sucker punches them by ripping into Bush & Co. If he was anti-Republican all of the time he would probably lose ALL of his audience.

Apparently Tweety has gotten into trouble a few times and lost a lot of his audience because he spoke out a few too many times about Bush and about Iraq. Right now he says he supports Dean.

Yes I know he's schizophrenic and flip-flops all of the time and really shot Gore in the foot BUT in the last several months I've heard him attack Bush about 80% of the time and stick up for him about 20% of the time.

The Freepers write in every time he speaks out against the war or criticizes Bush and what do we do? Gang up with them too... Not very good strategy. We're shooting ourselves in the foot. He is someone the main stream listens to and we need him on OUR side. Are we going to allow the right to silence him and turn his totally into another voice for the right wing?

Instead of sitting back and bitching and moaning about the media and acting like victims - let's actually act like WE'RE in charge. Let's start writing letters to the media and to corporations like the freepers do. We need to fight fire with fire!

We saw with Mari's son and Will Pitt that it does make a difference when we do this sort of thing.

Let's kick some ass!

[CMT]

1. Matthews doesn't bother me much

he is insane but sometimes his insanity is on our side such as being against the Iraq war. But he did vote for Bush over Gore last year and hopefully he will be one less Bush vote in 2004.

[janekat]

2. There is certainly much much worse pundits than Tweety

n/t

[Cocoa]

3. it's difficult to express how strongly I disagree

It's the same as when I hear people fall for Tom Friedman's ostensibly anti-Bush columns.

Tweety is dishonest so often you may have stopped noticing. The Daily Howler has done a good job of keeping track of him, it might be worth going there and getting a little perspective.

http://www.google.com/custom?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&cof=AWFID%3Ac32a032061318778%3BAH%3Acenter%3B&domains=dailyhowler.com&q=hardball&btnG=Google+Search&sitesearch=dailyhowler.com

[dennis4868]

4. I disagree...

with you respectfully. Tweety is no good for us. He and others like him truly helped Bush and Company get in the White House. Night after night before the 2000 Presidential election he was attacking Gore over such nonsense...i.e., whether Gore invented the Internet which Gore never said he did. He would aggresively take Gore to task for every little thing he said or did and all the meanwhile talk up Bush even when there was not reason to do so. He ignored Bush's past and never challenged Bush on his so called plans for the country. He is a horrible humaN being. Then after the 2000 Election and during the Recount he blasted Gore with his so callled balanced panel of guests. He would call Gore a sore loser and never cared that not all the votes were being counted. The only time he got disgusted that not all the votes are being counted was when the military votes (which most people thought were Bush votes) that came in late would not be counted (which Gore pushed to be counted and in the end it was).

He has such hate for Bill and Hillary is scares my wife and I. The hate he has for President Clinton is at the level as if Clinton broke into Tweety's home and killed his family. Why? Because Clinton lied about a blowjob? WTF!

You say that once in a while he does attack Bush but I am sorry. When Tweety talks about Bush's looks in a military uniform and how great he looks, and talks about how smart our Commander and Chief is, and how he is a great President.....that is where he loses me and I will never watch him or support his so called show! HE IS A MEDIA WHORE!

[bearfartinthewoods]

9. you might want to tune in again

tweety is pissed at bush. tweety hates cheney with a white hot fire.

it's been very cool to watch him change his mind just as America is changing it's mind.

[dennis4868]

10. That's the problem with Tweety

he keeps changing his mind to the position that helps him keep his job and keep his viewers. THAT IS WHY HE IS A MEDIA WHORE!

[bearfartinthewoods]

31. yeah......but it's still fun to watch <grin> eom

[corarose]

32. What's wrong did Jr break a date with Tweety?

He's pissed allright!

Jr must have missed a payment on Tweety's house and now he is going to attack him until he pays up.

[Terwilliger]

33. I want your drugs!

Tweety is a sycpphantic little pisspot who loves to masturbate every time he hears the word Bush.

[MoonAndSun]

5. No, I will not give that nutcase any breaks,

he bashes Clinton & Gore at any opportunity and he revels in it. If we all stopped watching this fool his show would be at .1 instead of .3 and then maybe he would get fired.

[janekat]

7. Yeah get fired and replaced by Dennis Miller

or someone else like him.

[Melinda]

6. Fuck Tweety.

"Or side"? "Start writing letters"?

Where have YOU been, janekat?

I'm with someone else up ^^^, I can not begin to express how repulsed I am by your suggestion that "WE" stick up for Matthews... If you honestly believe that he possesses even the remotest shred of journalistic integrity, then YOU stick up for him and YOU BEGIN writing THOSE letters - but count ME out. Matthews is NOT on anyone's "side" but his own.

*edited to add I am BLOWN AWAY to see a "Defense of Tweety" thread on DU... :wtf: is this??

I want the real DemocraticUnderground back!!

[janekat]

17. We should be writing to HIM to encourage that behavior NOT to MSNBC

to have him keep his job. Look I worked on the Gore campaign - so yes I was very pissed about his stunts in the last election more than anyone BUT getting petulant is not going to help the Dem Party.

[Melinda]

24. "Encourage that behavior"?!?!

I'm banging my head against my keyboard here... Matthews is a 50 year old, janekat; not a child susceptible to having his behavior modified.

Why are an apologist for Tweety again?

[janekat]

25. Because lately he is helping us more than he's hurting us....

n/t

[Terwilliger]

34. what are you talking about?

Tweety slams Democrats at any and all opportunities to do so...you got Repukelicant ears, or something?

[MoonAndSun]

18. I'm with you, Melinda,

I also want the real DU back!!

"Defense of Tweety"!!!! :grr:

[janekat]

22. real nice....

n/t

[Melinda]

29. Screw that, I'm done being nice

You support this, jane:

"We’re proud of our president. Americans love having a guy as president, a guy who has a little swagger, who’s physical, who’s not a complicated guy like Clinton or even like Dukakis or Mondale, all those guys, McGovern. They want a guy who’s president. Women like a guy who’s president. Check it out. The women like this war." -Chris "Tweety" Matthews, 05/01/03

Or this gem -- Tweety discussing Bush's carrier landing with (gag me) Peggy Noonan:

MATTHEWS: We have a visual while we're looking here. In Hollywood, they say how did you get the part. I fit the costume. You know, it's an old joke in Hollywood. I fit the costume...

NOONAN: Right.

MATTHEWS: ... because they have the -- this guy fits the costume, doesn't he?

NOONAN: Yes.

MATTHEWS: I mean Bill Clinton -- do you think they had jump-suits in Bill Clinton's size?

NOONAN: The key with Bush, however, is that, you know, he seems like one of these guys and one of these gals because he's just like them. He's a regular American male. He also... I've got to tell you what I think -- can I tell what you I think the key to the great landing on the aircraft carrier was?

MATTHEWS: That's why you're here, Peggy.

NOONAN: All right. This is what I think it was. It wasn't just it was showy, it was showbiz, it was "Top Gun," it was Tom Cruise's suit, it was all that wonderful stuff. It's that the American president not only put himself in harm's way going to see American troopers, but he showed them by coming in on that ship I trust you.

Hardball, May 2003

With G. Gordon Liddy

MATTHEWS: What do you make of this broadside against the USS Abraham Lincoln and its chief visitor last week?

LIDDY: Well, I -- in the first place, I think it's envy. I mean, after all, Al Gore had to go get some woman to tell him how to be a man.

--Hardball May 7th, 2003

--end--


Make nice? Count this woman out.

[janekat]

8. All I know is that he brought my brother back from the "dark side"

and if we can keep Tweety on the straight and narrow - we might get somewhere with centrists and a few Repukes.

Someone who is giving a mixed message is better than a "Rush Limbaugh" in my book.

[el_gato]

11. i think your on to something

I don't need to watch him but these people like your
brother need a window of some sort

[VolcanoJen]

14. It's not up to us. Tweety serves Tweety, and Tweety alone.

I don't want to befriend him. He'll turn on us on a dime.

The blood is too bad between our sides. I'll never forgive him for 2000, or the gushing over Chimpy McFlightSuit on that aircraft carrier.

I'm glad your brother has left the dark side, but you should give your bro more credit. Tweety's not on our side. He's on his own side.

[Cocoa]

19. I doubt that he did that

Tweety is so devoid of truth and substance that I doubt he has the ability to "convert" Republicans into Democrats.

Hardball is propaganda, and the feints toward criticism of Bush are part of the pretense that Tweety is a journalist.

It reminds me of those infomercials that pretend to be real shows. Like the one with the central-casting slimy salesman pretending to be the host of a show called "To your health" or something, selling some really expensive placebo that's supposed to clean your blood or something.

[The Backlash Cometh]

12. Tweety voted for Bush. He's not pretending.

"My right wing Republican brother who used to idolize Bush listens to Tweety"

Need I say more?

[Armstead]

13. The Tweetster

I respectfully disagree too. I'm glad Tweety managed to get your brother to wake up and smell the coffee. But if he is that susceptable to what some TV pundit says, will he go back to Bush when Tweety does?

Tweety is maddening. Not only because he never allows guests to answer a question.

He turns on a dime. I was thrilled with how hard he went against the war. But then the day Bush landed on that damn carrier, Tweety was drooling over what a great leader Bush is, and Tweety even said is he rethinking his opposition to the war in light of Bush's great victory.

He may be on the case now, but next week he'll be singing Bush's praises to the sky again.

[BlueHeron]

15. Nope! No support here for "Tweety Twist in the Wind." DU'ers have given

reasons over and over about what Matthews did to Al Gore and other Dems. He's not redeemed himself from the slime of that. He talks out of both sides of his mouth. Too many other true Dem sources to read that to waste time with him.

[CWebster]

16. Is this as good as it gets

that we should be appreciative?

[janekat]

23. right now - I'd say yes

things are pretty bad...

[CWebster]

26. I say you must be tweety then

no one else would rally, so sportingly, in his defense.

[lovedems]

20. When I saw Tweety tell Ann Coulter she was one hell of a writer

I turned him off never to turn him on again. He doesn't get my sympathy and I wouldn't waste my time telling him how good it is to see him bash Bushco. I realize he has changed his mind but the damage from him has been done.

[janekat]

21. Dammit! We need to start operating strategically NOT emotionally.

How are we going to win JACK if we all act like a bunch of petulant children. "I'm mad at so-and-so he voted for such-and-such ONCE so therefore I'm going to run out and vote for Nader/Perot/fill-in-the-blank. Who cares if Bush wins again - I'll have a self-satisfied smug little smile on MY face. I can then place a bumper on my car saying "Don't blame me I didn't vote for Bush."

Yeah THAT'LL teach em......

Meanwhile - the Bush & Co. bulldoze over every vacant lot to add a oil well and a Walmart.

[Cocoa]

27. write to him and thank him if you want

he doesn't care. He despises little people like you, he sucks up to people that can help him.

I saw him once mercilessly destroy a woman in his audience who disagreed with his guest on the war. She was expressing her actual views, and expressed them pretty well, but Tweety wouldn't have it. He abused his position of power and jumped down this person's throat the way he does.

I can see the smirk on his face when he reads you letter. He'll say "sucker!"

[UTUSN]

30. This Argument of Appreciating/Encouraging Him Is Not New Here

It used to be used a year or two ago when support for him at DU was much stronger than it is now.

Without going into a long repeat, I'll say briefly that Tweety has been LOST to Dems for a long time. When he tosses a CRUMB to Dems, it's just for a little spice. The key to him is that he THINKS he's really really "smart." (He's not.) He has said many times, "I can PLAY Left and and I can PLAY Right----and (piss off) the opposite side." He was writing Lefty columns (Lefties READ) at the same time he was "pander bearing" (one of his few coinages) to wingnuts on wingnut cable. I've had it with CRUMBS. The VAST (if his ratings count as "vast") amount of help he has given anyone has gone to Shrub and wingnuts. During 2000, 17% of the media references to President GORE's "dishonesty" came from Tweety alone. During the recall he has continued to refer to the 38B deficit that no longer existed (it might NOW, again), despite proof to the contrary and after he had acknowledged the error. He LOVES attention, so all fans by all means go forth and give him all the appreciation till you run dry (he's insatiable).

Other old arguments for Tweety that have fallen by the wayside: 1) He's anti-war. 2) He's anti-war because his kids are draft-age (there was/is no draft). 3) In a fight, there's nobody better and that's when I want him on OUR side.

[Doomsayer13]

28. Matthews is bad but not that bad

compared to Bill O'Reilly, Joe Scarborough, and Sean Hannity he might as well be Karl Marx.

[KG]

35. matthews to mark furman - 'i'm a big fan!'

:puke:

'nuff said.

[alcuno]

36. He scores points with me all the time.

When he asked the chair of the RNC, Ed Gillespie, if * would "duck" the debates next year, I couldn't believe he said it. Yeah, Matthews sucks a lot of the time, but his questions to right-wingers are often like bullets to a firing squad.

He hates weakness and that's why he likes Dean and Clark. Why he voted for * is beyond me, but there are a lot of people asking themselves that question right now.

[UTUSN]

37. He *is* Weak n/t

[chascarrillo]

38. Tweety ain't so bad, but poor choice of guests

If you surround Matthews with intelligent folks, he's really darn good. The problem is, he has an amazing propensity for booking the worst guests imaginable. You'd think that someone in his position could find better pundits than G. Gordon Liddy, Jerry Falwell, and Mike Barnacle.