So this is how you play Hardball with Matthews: with 2 strikes against you and blindfolded

[DFW]

I have never seen a full episode of that show, only snippets of it sent to me by email links.

But Matthews' confrontational "style" is obvious, and his repression of comments of guests for
the sake of his own "glory" is pretty obvious, too. If the guest is full of crap, he comes down
on them, and rightly so. But if the guest has something legitimate to say, he does the same thing,
and he does it to some pretty forceful people. I always wondered, how does he get away with doing
that to people looking him right in the eye?

Answer: he doesn't. He doesn't have the guts to. I talked to someone who has been on "Hardball" a
couple of times, and what he does is this: he puts the guests in a separate black room with a TV
screen and a camera on them, even when Matthews is right there in the studio!!!! Now I don't often
do that kind of thing, but when it has happened, it was sitting right next to the guy doing the interview,
and this was both in the USA and overseas. I would never have done it if I had been put in a black box of
a room.

That is not an interview, it's psychological warfare.

[JonLP24]

1. I do hate the way he interrupts his guests

Not a fan but he can be great at times.

[txlibdem]

10. At least he is more balanced than the other sunday "news" shows

They all interrupt the guests. The difference with Matthews is that his right wing bias only slightly shows.

The other programs Meet the Press, Face the Nation, McLaughlin Group are all alike. The right wing gets all the time they need and the Dem gets cut off. If I had to put a number on it it varies from 60/40 to 70/30 right wing blather to Democratic truth.

The limp noodle Dem pundits allow the Thugs to interrupt them over and over and then just let the Thugs ramble on with all their outright lies and hate. I can't fathom whether that's just limp noodle by choice or have they been read the ground rules prior to the show: both are told DO NOT INTERRUPT and the Thugs just ignore it because they know the lie told forcefully over and over will sway the sheeple over to their views. Has anyone seen an Adolph Hitler speech and compared it to how the Thugs are today! It's the same damn thing. Hitler's Big Lie is alive and well in the Republicon Party.

[Doctor_J]

12. Any Dem who stands up to them is taken off of the guest list

that's why you never see Grayson or Sanders on those shows.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. He's a coward, and a bully.

And you are neither.

Recommended.

[DFW]

3. My dear Peggy

Just for the record--the few times I was in that situation, I was the one being interviewed, not doing the interview.

And, no, I did not bully the poor individuals burdened with the thankless and boring job of interviewing me! LOL!!

[CaliforniaPeggy]

11. Ah, I realized that!

He is still a coward and a bully, IMHO of course!

I very much doubt that you were boring, or that interviewing you would be thankless!

:P

[ThomWV]

4. I can't watch that blowhard for more than about 2 minutes

Egotistical pissant, that's about the best I can say for him.

[blogslut]

5. I always said the show is named incorrectly

It's not "Hardball". It's "Fastball". The questions Matthews asks are neither "hard" nor are they insightful. He just asks them at a rapid-fire pace, thus throwing his targets off their timing. It's a cheap gimmick.

[MajorChode]

6. The show is called Hardball, not Pattycake

Matthews generally asks reasonable and fair questions. Many of his guests try to avoid his question and answer the one they wished he had asked (which is a common ploy on such shows). Matthews doesn't let them get away with that. He gets a bit heavy handed at times, but I'm pretty sure his guests know what to expect when they go on his show. If they want to be thrown softballs all night, they can go on Larry King or Faux like Bush always did. I wish more political commentators that do interviews were more like him rather than the other way around. Too many of them simply provide a soapbox for propagandists to spread lies and half truths without ever coming close to answering relevant questions.

[Jane Austin]

7. Tweety annoys the Hell out of me, but

when the camera pulls back, you can see his guests sitting right there at the table with him.

Why do you say they are in a black room?

[DFW]

9. Because I talked to someone who was on his show several times

And that's exactly how they described the format of his show and interview. They were not
next to Matthews at all. They were in a darkened room next to him, and only saw him on a
TV screen.

If it has been changed, or is not used for everyone, I have no knowledge of that.

[Jane Austin]

14. Do you ever watch the show?

You can see the people sitting right there.

[DFW]

16. We don't get MSNBC in northern Germany

All I see are clips sent to me link.

From what you say, he obviously doesn't do it with all guests. But I doubt Helen Thomas was making this up, and she hated it.

[Jane Austin]

19. That explains it then.

If you can't get it where you live you wouldn't know. :)

[DFW]

20. Exactly

I only know what I see on occasional segments and first hand reports from people who have been on the show.

[blaze]

8. he puts the guests in a separate black room

whoa

Not a big fan of Matthews to begin with....

but this just seems so... ummm.... unjournalistic..... unprofessional.... un....

I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but I am.

[txlibdem]

13. The Chris Matthews Show on Sunday

I watch The Chris Matthews show every Sunday and Hardball on occasion. The Sunday show is by far the better.

[depakid]

15. Matthews show is nothing but a hollerfest like Gerry Springer with different content

Never understood how anyone could watch it. At least with Springer there was the gawking factor.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

17. As someone who watches the show.....

....this does not seem to jive. When someone is in the studio, they are sitting there right next to him. You see a wide shot of it. But they do a lot of split screening so you can see Tweety's reaction, or the other guests.

I understand he can be frustrating and ego maniacal at times, but when he gets a Rethug on, he grills them beautifully. The people who complain about the small portion of the show where he gets a burr up his ass about a Democrat are being whiners.

[MajorChode]

18. My observation is he grills people who refuse to answer questions

Sometimes he gets a birther or other assorted nutbag on the show that won't answer direct questions directly and instead want to use his show as a soapbox to promote their warped ideas. In those situations he will repeatedly ask the same question and talk over them when they go off in fantasy land. That's not the same as BillO who talks over people and refuses to let them answer questions he has asked.