Email NBC demanding Chris Matthews be fired for "I owe you" comment

[adigal]

This is my letter:

Dear Sirs:
How embarrassing for you that the host of the absurdly named "Hardball" was caught on camera telling a politician, "I owe you one, no, I owe you two." I have been a Hardball viewer for about 7 years, and have been bewildered by what has happened with Matthews. He is now nothing more than a tool of the Republicans, and he needs to be fired for that comment to Tom DeLay.

You no longer have even the pretense of a fair "reporter" in Matthews - that is why his ratings are tanking and Olbermann's are increasing. The idea of any serious journalist telling a politician "I owe you," is anathema to any idea we still have of a free and objective press.

Adigal

Email addresses at this link:

http://www.firedoglake.com/2006/04/05/oh-get-a-room

[rodeodance]

1. ~~ he sold his soul to the company store~~`

[babylonsister]

2. Great idea, love your letter, recommend! I will

be sending some e-mails as well! :patriot:

[dogday]

3. My email was short and sweet to Matthews....

I always knew you shrilled for the right, but your interview with Tom DeLay had to of taken a good bit of practice... My question is whose butt did you practice on, before you starting kissing DeLay's? I think I will invest in chapstick as it seems you will need lots of it.....

[adigal]

31. HeeHee! Love your letter!! n/t

[panader0]

4. Wrote mine yesterday- "Send him to Fox" I said

[Late Slip]

24. Perfect.

[Atman]

5. He should be fired TWICE just for good measure.

"I owe you two."

[Breeze54]

16. lmao!! n/t

[corkhead]

27. Yeah! he needs to be fired from CNBC too!

:silly:

[seabeyond]

6. i have been sending emails two days. a corrupt, lyin politician

at that. to glamorize delay adn coddle delay when he broke laws...... abused his power..... disgusting.

[SoFlaJet]

7. Watching KO last night

you KNEW that this was a story that would have been PERFECT for Countdown.Instead he had to do one on Katie Couric when there it was, staring him in the face and he couldn't do what comes naturally.I mean ya gotta have a little class and not slam the guy who introduces you...must have been hard though...

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

23. "Watching KO last night"...

The WORST part of watching was seeing that Harry Shearer would be the guest...the guy who posted the clip on Huffington Post...and knowing the ONLY thing he and KO would be discussing would be the Simpsons movie.

Obviously MSNBC would NEVER allow KO to to that story, but to have Shearer SITTING RIGHT THERE...

:grr:

[salin]

8. Dear Sirs:

If the spectacle of Matthews participating as a host in the now-known sham charity of Abramoff wasn't enough to tip the hat that Matthews had 'taken sides', if the oft slanted coverage with more pro conservatives to liberals wasn't enough to tip the hat, this exchange gives away the bank. Matthews now seems to simply be yet another mouthpiece for the GOP WH and Congressional strategists. Aren't there enough of those already on the airwaves? Seems that perhaps Chris's final tipping of the hat indicates his acknowledgement that he is more and more irrelevant as a source of interesting cross political lines discussions. In short, put a fork in him as a 'non partisan host of a non partisan show' - he's done.

salin.

[exlrrp]

11. Matthews and Savage

Youre forgetting all the pimping Mtthews did for Michael Savage during the days whenSavage was hired bu MSNBC. Tweety put the frosting on Savages turds, saying "he has a lot of good ideas."

[salin]

14. eeeeeewwwwwwwwwww

sliming himself by praising Savage's sewage... ALMOST makes me feel a little bad for him.... NAH.

[adigal]

32. Good job!!! I like "Aren't there enough of those already on the airwaves?

Seems like a liberal would get good ratings, because there are so many of us dying for some real truth.

[Atman]

9. A couple of suggestions: LTTE's, press releases, and the LAUGHING

Sending letters to the NBC execs will go nowhere, because they can bury them. This needs to go public big time. And not just the single "I owe you" comment. Lately he has taken to outright bursts of laughter when democrats appear on his show and try to answer his questions. The Howard Dean segment last night was a prime example, and only one of several lately. When Matthews asked Dean "Are the Democrats afraid of losing Tom Delay as their poster-boy for corruption?" Dean responded, "No, we have plenty of poster-boys for corruption, starting with Karl Rove..." and Matthews literally broke out laughing, hanging his head and covering his mouth. The epitome of professionalism, huh? It was shameful coming from a so-called news source.

NBC needs to be made aware that this show will be touted far and wide as an adjunct to the Republican Culture of Corruption, and one of its chief enablers!

[KoKo]

17. Good point....keep the e-mails going but the Blogosphere is the best

place to censure him. He does appear drunk on many of his shows. Notice the slurred speech and the drooping right eyelid when he's drunk. The laughing with many of his guests as if they have a "private joke" is really OTT. Particularly when he laughs conspiratorially with one of the "so-called" Dem Spokespersons like Bob Shrum or his new love former Mayor Marion Barry...where they really start to yuck it up.

There's something so smarmy about some of his antics one wonders if he is either going off the edge with the drink or he's so comfortable with his complicity with the Bushies that he's just flaunting it in his audiences faces.

[adigal]

33. We need to keep posting his segments online

and I will write a LTE of my local paper telling what happened in this exchange.

Good ideas - we don't have to stay with complaining to NBC.

[still_one]

10. surprised it took you 7 years to ask what has happened to matthews

as long as people watch him, he will stay on. It is all about ratings. I am quite sure MSNBC loves the email they are getting from pissed off Democrats on this. I am also sure they believe that these pissed off people will continue to watch him to see what outrageous comments he will make.

Remember these are no longer public air waves, the reagen administration made sure of that, these are the corporate airwaves. The best way to fight this crap is don't watch them

This show like hardball have never been about news anyway.

In fact the MSM is essentially entertainment today. Personally I don't consider that entertainment, and a waste of time. There is absolutely nothing that comes out of the MSM today that enlightens me.

[adigal]

34. I haven't watched religiously for 7 years

I watch if I am home and have finished dinner, and I watch to see how low he can go.

We need to keep tabs on what is being said so we know when they are coming for us. (only a small tin foil hat on when I say that!)

[KharmaTrain]

12. Fired? Nope...Let's Keep Publicizing It

Firing Tweety gives him the out to not have to explain those remarks. It also doesn't take him off the airwaves. You don't think Faux wouldn't swoop in and pick him up and give him a podium there to continue his Rovian astroturfing.

Last night I went to the "Open Letter To Chris Matthews" site...http://openlettertochrismatthews.blogspot.com/ This was the site set up by various blogs to get Tweety's attention in the past. One would have thought this story would have been put up there, but it hasn't. Looks like the site has suffered the fate of many other "flavor of the moment" sites. There's also a Russert site that I didn't even bother to check.

The power of the blogosphere works best when we have a steady, visible target. Tweety is a more than willing target. If anything, that "blooper tape" shows inside how this goon and other beltway stenographers do their deeds. They're so enamored with the power and the access and getting "the get" that they lose any concept of being objective, yet alone using their valuable forum to make these crooks accountable.

Instead of demanding him being fired, let's get an explanation. Tweety hasn't responded yet to the tape and I'm sure he's hoping it will go away. I submit that we keep his feet to the fire...keep up the posting and the light until he explains why he is pandering so much to DeLay and what the "I owe you" statement was all about.

If anything, that tape made me think about another "scoop" Tweety had...it was a phone call from Scooter Libby. He also hasn't come clean about that one.

It's time to put the screws and get Tweety to sing.

[KoKo]

15. Tweety took the wind out of that web-sites's sails when his producers

did two weeks of "Dem" favoring shows. It almost looked like he had taken the website and the complaints to heart and was changing course.

But, in typical Tweety fashion he once again started to yuck it up with his old buddies Ben Ginsberg and Bob Shrum and then the Delay resignation gave him the opportunity to once again show where his true loyalties are.

His producers are very clever at manipulating him so that he can do a 360 degree in one day.

There's just so little out there in political discussion that he gets away with what he does. And, it's sad that we can't get enough momentum to mount the kind of campaign the Right Wing does, consistently :-(

But, as you say...it's all corporate owned and these folks aren't in the business of catering to anything but their own Bush interests. Given what Bush has done for them...they aren't going to care much what we on the Left or Middle think anymore.

[KharmaTrain]

18. The Problem Was Bloggers Thought They Had Won

I really don't think he did much to address the questions on that site. There's now the question about his involvement with Abramoff charities, not to mention him using the show to promote his brother's candidacy. Also, remember, it wasn't long after that suck up job he tried to do that Tweety did a two-part series kissing DeLay's ass in Sugarland and then those embarassing shows from the wingnut convention in Tennessee.

Initially it seems like Matt, John, Jane and the others were getting his attention with the site, but then they stopped really working it or the concept behind it. As you state, it seems they were buffaloed into thinking that he had changed his ways or was trying "balance things out".

It's so apparent Tweety's game is access and his own career. His world is strictly the beltway and getting a pat on the head by a Rove or DeLay means more to him than any holding these crooks accountable. He wants to be on the "A List"...invited to all the big drinkie-drinkie parties and being one of the "in" people. His concept of what goes on outside is strictly a video one...based on the snippets he sees or his producers put in front of him. It's a world where Hillary lurks behind every rock and boooosh still is popular.

Personally, I watch to moron simply to see what goofy thing he's gonna come up with next. He never had much credibility in my book and the best value of that show is in how its used by the politicians and the corporates to manipulate the "news".

Cheers...

:hi:

[democrat in Tallahassee]

13. He'll get a medal for doing it. It's what he is paid to do; he isn't

a journalist. He'll a shill.

[msongs]

19. or you could just not watch this kind of.....stuff eh? nt

[adigal]

35. You must keep track of what the enemy is doing

so, as I said above, we know when they are coming for us.

[cboy4]

20. Oh, they'll never fire him. It'll rain 100-dollar Tom Delay bribe dollars

from the sky sooner than NBC will get rid of Tweety.

I mean who would NBC have to call the Democrats idiots and otherwise demean and degrade during Decision 2006 coverage in November? :shrug:

[lonestarnot]

21. I sent mine yesterday! Noticed he was absent last night.

[adigal]

30. I thought he was there last night

talking about how much he hates the Dems!! On second thought, that could have been any night. :)

[rpgamerd00d]

22. Subject Line: "Matthews/DeLay Scandal"

To: [e-mail],[e-mail],[e-mail],[e-mail],[e-mail],[e-mail]

Dear Sirs,

How embarrassing for you that the host of the absurdly named "Hardball" was caught on camera telling a criminally indicted politician, "I owe you one, no, I owe you two." I have been a Hardball viewer for about 7 years, and have been bewildered by what has happened with Matthews. He has lost all journalistic credibility, and is now nothing more than a tool of the Republicans, and he needs to be fired for that comment to Tom DeLay.

You no longer have even the pretense of a fair "reporter" in Matthews - and his presence brings shame and scorn to your company. The idea of any serious journalist telling a criminally indicted politician "I owe you," is anathema to any idea we still have of a free and objective press.




:D
Sent.

[lpbk2713]

25. This makes him no different from Dennis Miller.

This shows Matthews for what he is, a mouthpiece for the RWers.

[tibbiit]

26. when scottie mcmoonface quits

tweety will be the new WH press sec.
my prediction.
tib

[AllieB]

28. My letter

Chris Matthews' DISGUSTING display of Partisanship

Chris Matthews is looking more and more like a GOP lapdog. I have been a Hardball viewer for 5 years, and Matthews is now nothing more than a tool of the Republicans. He absolutely needs to be fired for that comment to that CRIMINAL Tom DeLay. A reporter thanks an interview subject for offering to come on the show because it is “a good thing for me, mostly” and then says “I owe you one”?? He doesn't even try to be fair. At least Olbermann is a REAL journalist, otherwise I would never watch your sorry channel.

The sexist comment "nothing worse than an uppity woman" doesn't impress the viewing audience either. Get rid of Matthews.

Allison B.

[adigal]

36. Great Job, Allison!!

I hope they get 10,000 of these letters.

[w8liftinglady]

29. my letter...too harsh?

You call your show Hardball?While Mr Matthews verbally fellated Mr Delay for all of us to "enjoy",I reflected on how much television has changed.You know,actually covering the facts,instead of trying to spin your story to fit a political agenda is SO much more stimulating.No wonder no one watches Hardball anymore.If it weren't for Olberman,I'd be through with MSNBC altogether.You realize there will be a power shift in the next election.Chris better get himself a new set of kneepads.

[adigal]

37. Heehee!! I love it!! Absolutely honest and to the point.

Good job.