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Chris Matthews: ‘We Rely on’ Media Matters

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» 47 comments

Right near the end of a segment examining the continued relevance of Newt Gingrich, Hardball host Chris Matthews made a comment that probably seemed offhand to most viewers, but not all. In a modern media warscape that has each side out to convince itself of the sinister, conspiratorial bias of the other, Matthews’ comment to Media Matters senior fellow Eric Boehlert regarding the media watchdog, to keep posting the information because “we rely on it,” probably set off blaring sirens at the Media Research Center.

In the eyes of the right-wing media, you would be hard-pressed to find three more suitable bogeymen than Matthews (forever tarnished for enjoying an Obama speech), Eric Boehlert (the Anti-Breitbart), and “lefty” cable news network MSNBC, and this clip deliciously combines them.

Of course, Matthews was referring to Media Matters’ ahead-of-its-time status as instant archivist, rather than to any real collusion. The evolution of the news cycle has finally caught up to Media Matters, who has been curating news video and cranking out microscopically-timed content for years now. Once (wishfully) considered a mere nuisance by the right, the liberal watchdog has become more media savvy, and has expanded its mission to include more original reporting, and an ever more rapid, thorough response to news memes.

Progressive radio host Bill Press, who also credits Media Matters heavily, lamented the absence of a liberal counterbalance to the right-wing radio echo chamber in his book Toxic Talk. In this media environment, Media Matters is poised to become just that counterweight. They provide exactly the kind of content that works right now, they do it cheaply, and thoroughly. With 24 hours to fill, it is awfully tempting to let Media Matters act as your de facto political bureau, a clearinghouse for the dueling sound-bites of the day.

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  • notsofast

    LOL

    And that’s why you are so wrong all the time and get slaughtered by FOX!

  • Big Eddie

    That figures .

  • JimBob

    Honestly now! Has anyone seen three bigger fools all together
    at once since the last time you watched a Three Stooges re-run!
    MSNBC gets the same tired male guests spewing the same tiresome
    crap and the same ugly skank women guests spewing the same crap on each of their shows.
    The hosts are proven, second rate so here we are…
    Second rate lefty hosts + tired male pundits+ ugly dumb female pundits =
    very small number of viewers.

  • Rogue-Comic

    I’ll see your media matters and raise you with Politifact along with news networks hiring their own personnel to archive media. Unbiased watchdogs and job creation, yay.

    Re: “Counterweight” – Is Media Matters launching a talk radio show/network akin to Air America?

  • axel360

    “Of course, Matthews was referring to Media Matters’ ahead-of-its-time status as instant archivist, rather than to any real collusion”

    No Tommy. Don’t defend what he said. Then again who on the left doesnt rely on Media Matters

  • http://gordonbloyershow.com gordonbloyershow

    As long as Matthews relies on Media Matters he will have a very small audience.

  • felixw

    I knew MSNBC was not a real news organization, but to admit that they rely on Media Matters is a smoking gun — similar to the Alger Hiss pumpkin papers, or that O.J. Simpson knife the police could never find. Chris & Co. might as well say that they make up news stories. Media Matters is the most unreliable source of information (I use that latter word loosely) I have ever encountered in a lifetime of following the news.

  • 1stamendmentlost

    Progressive radio host Bill Press, who also credits Media Matters heavily, lamented the absence of a liberal counterbalance to the right-wing radio echo chamber in his book Toxic Talk.

    Man, the left never tires of whining that the public has no interest in listening to angry libs. You’ve been given ample opportunities in the radio genre and failed miserably. It’s called the free-market system, something your side loathes!

  • sarainitaly

    “Chris Matthews: ‘We Rely on’ Media Matters”

    And boy, oh, boy, does it show!

  • sarainitaly

    Nice to have you back Tommy. Hope you are feeling better.

  • writer

    Chris also relies on his Depends.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Matt-Herrick/100000969560328 Matt Herrick

    They rely on mediamatters for their facts and SEIU and Acorn for personell and hiring. Then they wonder why their ratings are in the tank.

  • Kitsune

    OK, these adverbots are just getting bizarre now.

  • 1stamendmentlost

    Chris did get one thing right, when he explained taxes to Obama:

    “Stop saying that giving people tax cuts is giving people money. It`s their money!”

  • SteveMG

    NBC/MSNBC is a billion dollar media enterprise and they have to rely on a ideologically-driven media group for information?

    What are all of those researchers and editors doing each day?

    These complaints from the left about not having a response to the right wing “noise machine” is puzzling. There are many liberal reporters and news organizations, almost all of academia is on the left, Hollywood and TV are dominated by liberal producers and writers and directors, and there are large publishing firms that tilt left.

    Yet they still can’t overcome the “echo chamber” of talkradio?

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Andy-Lamb/1085325013 Andy Lamb

    Media Matters – LOL. I best like the guests I seem to see each time I can stomach 10 seconds of Olbermann – (1) name your doofus from Media Matters or Salon (2) Jonathan Alter from Newsweek (3) Ariana Huffington. Amazingly, Huffington may be the most legit of all, and that says a lot. Ariana Huffington, plagarist author whose political career spans one race, the 2003 California recall election, where she ran with the likes of Gary Coleman, Mary Carey, and Larry Flynt. Huffington ran a great campaign, and in the end garnered a whopping 0.55% of the vote. And she is Olby’s “star” guest.

  • SteveMG

    Well, Britt Hume stated that he/Fox uses Bozell’s Media Research Center for material so this applies to both sides.

    That these very powerful and rich news organizations rely on these ideologically-drive media monitors is depressing. They should have no business with them at all. At least in terms of reporting and news.

  • Pablo

    1stamendmentlost said:
    Chris did get one thing right, when he explained taxes to Obama:

    “Stop saying that giving people tax cuts is giving people money. It`s their money!”

    Chris has been gripped by an unprecedented amount of common sense lately. At the rate he’s going, he’ll be a Glenn Beck fanboy before you know it.

  • 1stamendmentlost

    Actually Pablo, I’m listening to Beck right now and they are wondering what’s up with Chris too. They just played a clip of him interviewing Beck telling him how smart he is for his age. Funny stuff!

  • Azarkhan

    Rap video tribute to Obama’s gangster government:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmBjG7ALvjc&feature=player_embedded#!

  • http://twitter.com/SailRabbits Magister

    Because they were better financed and originally developed as an organization rather than a sole proprietorship, which in the early days received a boost from the goodwill generated by Mr. Brock’s high-profile conversion and his political connections, they’ve far surpassed things like the Johnny$ site which I would consider MediaMatters original “counterweight”.

    Right now there are other organizations on the right that were similarly constructed, so they could be in the best position to try to equal MMFA’s current stature, but from that side of the aisle, the “media watchdogs” seem to operate more as a consortium between say… Tucker Carlson and Andrew Brietbart’s sites.

    All of which combines into just another set of the “channels”, RazorsEdge and I discussed over the course of several comments in response to yesterday’s David Carr piece.

  • zumpano

    Do you guys hate Media Matters because all they do is PLAY BACK the INSANE SHIT R-Wingers say?

    You might as well go after YOUTUBE or TV while you’re at it.

    Why don’t you tell your DVR that it is stupid because it replays that stupid shit.

    All Media Matters does is point out WHERE in the broadcast the STUPID SHIT was said.

    But Beck and O”Reailly hate it; so it must be EEEEEEEEVVVVVVVIIIIIIIIILLLLLLLLLLLLLL

    sucks when facts have a liberal bias

  • writer

    Just like when Beck played tapes of Van Jones and Rev. Wright speaking their own words. That’s just stupid shit!!

  • Pablo

    zumpano said:
    All Media Matters does is point out WHERE in the broadcast the STUPID SHIT was said.

    Ah, so you don’t read Media Matters, then? I love being lectured by the ignorant.

  • dcmediasux

    Eric Boehlert is great – but matthews really needs to read his friend the daily howler….of course afterwards tweetie would have to quit his job or commit suicide….but hey -

    it’d be for the good of the country…

  • notsofast

    zumpano said:
    sucks when facts have a liberal bias

    LOL-

    A lib wouldn’t recognize a fact if one bite him in the ass.

  • http://www.nukethefridge.com MartiniShark

    Tommy, this will not raise any “blaring sirens”, as much as you may want that to be the case, it will produce shrugs and possibly at utterance of, “No kidding.”

    You may clearly want to characterize the right-wing media as salivating at this “revelation”, but I don’t know anyone who would be bowled over. You however sound a little too charged up over this clip; “Deliciously combines them“? Who has a tingle riding up their leg now?

  • roxsteady

    Only the ignorant believe that MSNBC is a Liberal Network. Digby smashes Matthews’ argument with what Liberals would call facts!

    http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2010/09/moving-goalpost-alert.html

    He really is an idiot. He’d be right at home on this site with the rest of the uninformed.

  • roxsteady

    Oh, and Matthews voted for Bush. I’ll bet you didn’t know that! It figures though.

  • notsofast

    rox”unsteady”: ‘I Rely on’ Media Matters”

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Dave-Noland/1343446359 Dave Noland

    notsofast said:
    rox”unsteady”: ‘I Rely on’ Media Matters”

    Blah blah blah blah liberal media blah blah blah marxist blah blah blah cut taxes…

    Media Matters as a whole posts video of crazy shit that right wing nut jobs say. Yes they do have an editorial side but to demonize them is just ignorant. They are just as biased as fox news but they are actually factual. Waiting for you to come out of the closet notsosmart

  • Mr.Papshmer

    Dave Noland said:
    They are just as biased as fox news but they are actually factual.

    You’re not a very bright person.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Andy-Lamb/1085325013 Andy Lamb

    roxsteady said:
    Only the ignorant believe that MSNBC is a Liberal Network.

    Holy shit is THIS funny. Even Saturday Night Live, Jay Leno, and Jon Stewart have made fun of them for being so far left. Not agreed with them, as we’re talking about other liberals here, but actually made fun of them for being SO ridiculously far left.

  • writer

    Even roxy had to be joking on that one.

  • 1stamendmentlost

    Roxsteady, I’m embarrassed for you.

  • 1stamendmentlost

    Dave Noland said:

    They are just as biased as fox news but they are actually factual.

    Yawn, post evidence or shut up.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/ronke-a/509394975 ronke a

    LOL Tommy. You really are back. Way to spin Media Matters’ bias into something good. Thanks for giving me a good morning chuckle.

  • Rogue-Comic

    roxsteady said:
    Only the ignorant believe that MSNBC is a Liberal Network. Digby smashes Matthews’ argument with what Liberals would call facts!

    http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2010/09/moving-goalpost-alert.html

    He really is an idiot. He’d be right at home on this site with the rest of the uninformed.

    So MSNBC is not a liberal network because another liberal pundit apparently not affiliated cites a stat against Matthews opinion?

  • http://sharethisurlaboutglennbeck.com/ GlennBeckReview

    Liberals have been all over Matthews since his coverage of the primaries between Obama and Clinton. I like his style but can’t stand his voice.

    Anyway, I rely on Media Matters of America too, but I check their work as well. If their claims don’t hold up, I let them know and/or post about their errors.

    http://www.sharethisurlaboutglennbeck.com/2010/08/this-time-beck-is-right-and-media.html Turns out in this case that Media Matters didn’t transcribe the tape right and UNLIKE MR. BECK, corrected their error.

    http://www.sharethisurlaboutglennbeck.com/2010/08/interview-with-media-matters-chris.html

  • mlong

    If Chrisy was really going to be honest he should of just said MSNBC takes it’s marching orders from George Soro’s and left it at that.

  • notsofast

    Dave Noland said:
    Blah blah blah blah liberal media blah blah blah marxist blah blah blah cut taxes…

    You are a repulsive idiot.

  • notsofast

    Dave Noland said:
    Waiting for you to come out of the closet notsosmart

    I’m waiting for you to go back in, homo!

  • J Baustian

    Media Matters has been criticized mainly for its selective editing — never providing any context. So when Chris Matthews etal get their tasty quotes from Media Matters, they never know the context. No wonder that when they are eventually confronted with the truth, they act so clueless.

    This, in turn, reflects poorly on the mainstream media, lowering their already abysmal reputations for bias and dishonesty.

  • TonyClifton

    Chris Matthews, fact-checker to the stars.

  • http://www.libertarianism.com/ Burnnotice

    Chris Matthews: ‘We Rely on’ Media Matters

    Oh No Chris Say it isn’t so. You drank the Kool-AID???

  • http://sharethisurlaboutglennbeck.com/ GlennBeckReview

    mlong says: “If Chrisy was really going to be honest he should of just said MSNBC takes it’s marching orders from George Soro’s ”

    First, it’s Soros, not Soro’s. Second, Soros doesn’t own NBC. Now say that about Murdoch and Fox “News.”

  • http://sharethisurlaboutglennbeck.com/ GlennBeckReview

    I need to add that Soros spent money to oppose Communism in Easter Europe before the fall of the Iron Curtain.
    http://www.sharethisurlaboutglennbeck.com/2010/06/what-has-this-guy-done-that-has-glenn.html
    Meanwhile, Rupert Murdoch is a SUPPORTER of Communists.
    http://www.sharethisurlaboutglennbeck.com/2010/06/glenn-becks-boss-faction-unto-himself.html

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