I had a chance to discuss with Chris Matthews and...

[StudentDUer]

...I found him to be pompous, self-absorbed, and pretty much thoughtless about the public at large.

After conversing with him after the Carter Conference ay my school of UGA, that's all I have to say. I usually wouldn't even talk to the beltway corporate media tabloid journalists, but a friend I made at the conference really adores him so we all accosted the terribly arrogant Mr. Matthews at the end of the conference.

He has taken I.F. Stone's brilliant "All Governments Lie!" and degraded it down to "All governments lie -- but I'm perfectly fine with that and am unwilling to do anything serious about it! Now, I'm going to debate about whether the country is going to elect a Mormon or Black person, because discussing any relevant social justice issue to select our elected representatives is really much too difficult and would likely ruin my stage-managed composure."

Other than that the conference was great; I ate dinner with the younger Carters (our age), met Michael Beschloss, wondered how Madeline Albright can be so short for such a big war criminal, annoyed Mr. Carter by stopping him for a photo op while he was trying to go to the restroom, avoided doing the same to Walter Mondale (just barely; we heard the words "restroom" and aborted), made CSPAN with my live town hall questioning, and had a pretty good time.

I just have to say that as long as we have "journalists" like Matthews we won't have much democracy in this country. He is all about insider Washington politics, not holding power accountable. And when I addressed issues like Kucinich's Presidential run, he basically stonewalled me, saying "Kucinich is just running for fun." I told him Kucinich is the only candidate who's not a crook (maybe a little exaggeration, but certainly he started us on that slippery slope). Ugh, corporate media.

[John Q. Citizen]

1. What an interesting report. Thanks for posting it.

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[StudentDUer]

3. Commie or GOP?

I voted straight-ticket Democrat this last election...

[corkhead]

28. Welcome to DU, don't let the hostile reactions you got from nycgirl and others get you down

They must be in the mode of newbie hazing. Has anybody told you about "ignore"?

Nice post

:toast:

[NYCGirl]

34. Well, excuse me! But I think that someone who brags about annoying Jimmy Carter

is rude.

Edited to add: Not to mention calling Albright "a war criminal."

[Duppers]

40. I LOVE Mr. Carter but I didn't take his comment that way

I didn't think our newbie was being critical of Mr. Carter, but was only saying that Jimmy must've been in a hurry and was a little annoyed by his insistence that he pose. (Perhaps he should've phrased it differently.)

Mr. Carter is a most gracious man and I don't assume that StudentDUer would really disagree with that, although I don't know him, but I'm cutting him that slack.

And about the Albright "a war criminal" thing, he was quoting the GOP. It was satire.

[bdamomma]

4. welcome to DU studentDUer

interesting post, Chris Matthews is just a reporter for fun or I wouldn't call him a reporter, these guys are just corporatist.:hi:

[NYCGirl]

7. He's not actually a reporter, and I don't think he'd call himself one. He's a pundit

and there is a difference.

[StudentDUer]

9. True, reporters are useful.

He, meanwhile, spent time discussing whether or not a Mormon or black person is best for a Presidential run. Oh, and interrupting the panelists constantly on the discussion he chaired.

[NYCGirl]

10. And so are pundits and moderators. NT

[StudentDUer]

11. Maybe at pundits are good at deterring democracy...

...by dumbing down everything in our society to political cliches and public relations gossip.

Moderators are useful in the sense that Brian Williams was at the conference. That man knew how to do it. Matthews did not.

[NYCGirl]

13. "Hardball" is about political cliches and public relations.

You went to the conference, you should have known what to expect.

[StudentDUer]

16. Gee, I'm sorry I'm discussing a social ill and my views on it

I wasn't aware I had to line up behind the corporate media and decide that it's kosher when it has huge responsibility for this war we're in, for one (I remember him telling Phil Donahue he "hates America" when Donahue objected to the war).

[NYCGirl]

21. If you think a lightweight like Matthews has responsibility for Iraq, your

blame is misplaced, to say the least. Not enough people watch him to create a blip on the radar — if you want to get angry, there are certainly bigger targets.

[StudentDUer]

22. How about his entire network

They nixed the only strongly antiwar mainstream journalist (Donahue).

[NYCGirl]

23. MSNBC is also a blip — not very many viewers. But their parent, NBC, deserves

some of the blame.

[Selatius]

24. And he had the best ratings until Keith Olbermann came along. n/t

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[ourbluenation]

15. That was my thought too... n/t

[Webster Green]

6. Tweety is such an idiot!

Thanks for your report on the event.

Welcome to DU!:hi:

[bigwillq]

8. Hi!

Welcome to DU! :hi:

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

12. Thanks for the report

and welcome to DU! :hi:

[stillcool]

14. He's a gossip hag...

without the writing capability.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

17. Welcome to DU!

You're perspective will be an interesting addition to the conversations here. :hi:

[spanone]

18. He's a television entertainer. More concerned with his hair than politics.

We should only hold these 'journalists' to this standard. They are NOT journalists, they are narcissistic television personalities.

[Janice325]

19. Welcome to DU, StudentDUer!

:hi:
I agree with you about Matthews, or as many of us here call him, "Tweety."
"...I found him to be pompous, self-absorbed, and pretty much thoughtless about the public at large."
That description fits him to a "t." Priceless!!:rofl:
I can't stand watching Matthews at all. He grates on my nerves.
If you want someone with integrity and honesty,IMO, watch Keith Olbermann on Countdown on MSNBC. He's my generation's Edward R. Murrow.
Keith's a breath of fresh air.
Again, welcome.

[StudentDUer]

20. I actually started watching Keith after DU began praising him

I normally ignored TV journalism (outside the circles of Amy Goodman, Greg Palast) until DU started posting a lot about Olbermann. I tuned in and found that he has done some really great things as far as being a mature journalist with serious passion for the subject (so rare these days!)

[Janice325]

26. I'm glad you're familiar with Keith.

Keith and DU have been my mental salvation the last couple of years,especially since the Air America affiliate where I live was sold and they dumped AAR.
There will be more Keith tonight due to the "State of the Union Address" :sarcasm:, unfortunately Matthews will be "co hosting" with him. :puke: I watched them during the November elections. Chris was rude, continually interrupting, and totally obnoxious. I was embarrassed for Keith, who was barely able to get a word edgewise.
Anyway, I digress.
I appreciate your thoughts and opinions and look forward to more posts.

[undergroundpanther]

39. In this order mY TV watching goes like this most nights..

Daily show, Colbert Report and Kieth Olbermann.

The rest of the night I'm on DU, Doing art, writing or watching Sci Fi,Cartoon Network,PBS, Discovery channel, Animal Planet or the History channel..

Most of TV sucks Because on many nights those other channels don't have much on.

But The big three shows I listed first are my dose of some mental sanity in this crazy country. These guys are the balm of choice to reason out the pain any intelligent sensitive soul of character feels when observing what crazy shit is going on in the whitehouse and thew world.

I Love Jon, Steve and Kieth.I am SO glad they are on air. I wish they'd kick off Scarborough, Anderson Cooper, Wolf(dooshes) and Matthews, and get some REAL reporters to fill up the empty space (and those shoes ARE empty on or off TV) doing REAL stories, maybe even bring back Donahue despite his funky appearance.

[democrank]

25. Interesting report. Thanks and

welcome to DU!

[Time for change]

27. It sounds like quite a day you had

I'm not surprised about what you had to say about Chris Matthews.

This is what I had to say about him a few months ago:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=899473

Welcome to DU :toast:

[StudentDUer]

30. Great essay/rant

nt

[crispini]

29. Thanks for the report.

Ye cats. Tweety. :eyes:

[Zodiak]

31. Excellent report, Student...welcome to DU

Ignore the naysayers....I have NO IDEA why they would defend a piece of journalistic trash like Matthews. I suppose everyone has forgotten how Matthews handled Bush's carrier landing "Mission Accomplished" stunt. Talked about Bush's "manhood" and how women swoon over him....now THAT is journalism!

:sarcasm:

[Graybeard]

32. We have the "pompous and self absorbed" right here on DU...

...but you dealt with that jerk very well. Thanks for an excellent report on the behind the scenes aspect of the conference. I watched on C-span and agree that Brian Williams was a good moderator while Tweety just wanted to hear himself talk.

[undergroundpanther]

33. I spoke to Matthews in A Q&A session.

At John Hopkins a good while ago when the Iraq war had just started up .

I asked Matthews what he thought about the loss off freedom of press with media consolidation,and corporate influences truying to slant what is reported, I said funny how the press ignored the war protests before the Iraq war began, you say you are against the Iraq war yet you didn't give much voice to those protesting either, WHY?
And I said corporations are acting in criminal ways draining the national budget for private use, outsourcing and using illegal immigrant labor so they can cut jobs here, and than they headquarter over in the cayman islands to avoid taxes so mr. matthews why have you not reported this? You know this will have dire consequences for America don't you?

I was in a line at one of the mics which were places pretty far from the stage,like halfway down the auditorium's isles.


Matthews brushed me off. Than of all things, he asked what my favorite TV show was, and I said, Thunder-cats Cartoons... and I paused and said And I liked Donahue he reported on real issues that matter. Like the questions I asked.. So..Why did MS NBC take him off the Air? There was silence and suddenly..
Some guys in the audience yelled out in sequences thunder,thunder, thunder cats HO!!!and a few arms raised up in the dark..I looked their way and laughed and said Ho!! and sat back down.

Matthews chuckled than looked perturbed.Miffed he wasn't the center of attention and that I picked a cartoon and canceled show over him I guess.

Then the guy who went with me was next in line. He tried to bring up to Matthews how he had observed the media hysteria before ANYONE had said anything about hysteria in the media,He said the Media has become so biased it was destructive, full of bullies spouting opinions,which skews the perception of what is news, and the fear-mongering is not helping things either.
He wrote and re wrote his question on my notepad he was so anxious for Matthews had shredded a few people before us. Because he wasn't an aggressive type and his idea complex and cannot be distilled into a snappy one liner matthews shirked him off and gave him no consideration really (too close to the truth maybe)and kinda humiliated him. I felt like walking onstage and slapping Mattews for being such a putz to my friend.

Matthews is an arrogant republican in a democrat dress ass-hat.The Thunder Cats on CNN doing"hardball" would be far more honest , entertaining,deep,they'd be better reporters , better looking Rrrowr..,(if Panthro could be a real panther guy in real life You bet your fur I'd ask go out with him real quick..and knowing the nobility of character strived for in the Thunder cats, unlike Matthews The Thunder-Cats wouldn't be a bunch of ass hats craving attention because they have scruples and guts and they have enough of a internal sense of self they don't got to pose and strut like Matthews.. Snarf however keep him AWAY from a microphone and TV He's better off writing op eds. (smirk)
And I'd send matthews over to the black pyramid with bush and cheney they can bark their shit opinions chained at Mumm Ras's feet along with Ma Mutt and pretend they will live forever. LOL.

[Duppers]

42. great goin', UGP

and good post.

[UTUSN]

35. Well, alRIGHTy!!1 So long as you saw Tweety's phoniness, regardless of the prism used.

The key to Tweety is that he is a political FLUNKY. He operated in the CLOSED ENVIRONMENT of D.C.---a hothouse of games of power and intrigue. The FLUNKY gains power and status, or BORROWS it actually, through and from his boss. If the boss is a PLAYER, the flunky is, too. Both bosses and flunkies understand TOTALLY that WINNING is EVERYTHING. You win or you lose and EVERYBODY KNOWS your current status.

There are TWO factors working in Tweety's evolution from Dem activist to what he is today. He was actually a hero as a presumed Dem operative up through the date of his book, Hardball, circa 1988. There are still DUers here who remember the earlier Tweety and who haven't followed his change as he settled into the MEDIA "hardball".

The first thing that started turning him was the SUCCESS of RAYGUN, quite apart from the ideology. RAYGUN made his bosses, O'NEILL and CARTER, look like wimps and losers. KUCINICH reminds him of that.

The other thing is pure and simple: Need for ratings, and ACCESS to A-list guests. Cable ratings tend to come from OLDER, RICHER people who have MORE WINGNUTS among them. Wingnut guests are TOUGHER than Dems. Wingnuts just will NOT appear if the questions are TOO HARDBALL. Hence, Tweety goes easier on wingnuts while LAMBASTING Dems, plus making snide side-comments about Dems even when they're not present.

[undergroundpanther]

37. Sociopaths

Want to win and not be challenged on their behavior and character too you know. Matthews is so narcissistic and shallow it's nauseating. Give him a REAL hardball question and he can't handle it. Bullies shoot off their mouths and play roles to cover up how incompetent they are..Matthews is incompetent.
He can entertain but he has no real substance because he has no character, so he makes a 2 dimensional cartoon of himself. To win public attention.Insecure Insincere Incompetent.. Lets play..fluff ball with puff pieces.

You know what cats do to fluff balls,and puff pieces.. We shred them with our claws,bat them around,pick it apart to see the inside story, devour them and hack it back up on the carpet pre digested later, Denuded of it's pretty appearance,a fluff becomes a sticky mess unable to spin.

So the ugly truth is there for all to see and be disgusted at the people making all these fluffs to obscure the truths ethical people cough up being around such sick meglomaniacs.

The truth is there in the middle of the room,waiting for the blind fools among us stomping around like they own the world to step in it and if they dare step in it they will leave tracks so when it's time to investigate their criminal acts the tracks of the ugly truth can be followed right to who the arrogant asshole who trafficked it all over , and when caught he may cover it up with fresh sparkly infotainment and opinion fluff but what this says is the fucker didn't care there was slime at the core of this mess because incompetent bully people are that fucking crass and evil when they taste power.

[lies and propaganda]

36. lucky for you! I'd love to have a little sit down with Tweety pants

welcome to du!

[Shakespeare]

38. The OP has been tombstoned.

Just so y'all notice...

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

41. His flame burned briefly, but ever so brightly.

[Duppers]

43. welcome

Great post. thanks.

[H2O Man]

44. clown n/t