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Tag: Chris Matthews

Dylan Ratigan is a douchebag

December 18, 2009 /

I stopped watching MSNBC in the mornings because Dylan Ratigan is incredibly annoying. He has some good points at times, but he’s only interested in repeating his own opinion . . . over and over again.

Here’s a clip of Ratigan at his worst with Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz. Even Chris Matthews rarely gets this annoying.

If he wanted a real discussion, he could have gotten an answer. Insurance stock went up after the public option was dropped for very obvious reasons – yes, the public option would have resulted in real competition. Fine. End of story. That does not mean, however, that the bill is a “giveway” to the insurance companies as he implied, because as the Congresswoman tried to explain, the bill does include robust regulation of the insurance companies.

Is this perfect? Of course not. Would a public option be better? Of course. But Ratigan just wanted to yell and scream about his simple point that the insurance companies are now better off than if the public option had stayed in the bill.

Of course, a child could probably figure that out as well, but Ratigan thought he was making a big point, so he acted like an ass.

Health Care, Media

Cable news follies

July 14, 2009 /

I’m watching the Sotomayor hearings on MSNBC, and of course they need to break from the actual hearing so Chris Matthews and the other talking heads can pontificate about the hearings. It’s annoying as hell, since we’re missing the continuation of the hearings, but Matthews doesn’t have a lawyer as part of his panel. As a result, Matthews can say idiotic things about her testimony without having a lawyer correct him on the air. What a joke.

Media

MSNBC shuffles lineup for election coverage

September 7, 2008 /

MSNBC needed to make this move. Having Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews anchor coverage of the debates was a mistake. David Gregory will now take over as anchor of election coverage during the debates.

I’m a fan of Olbermann’s show, but he clearly has a point of view, and that point of view always comes across in his election coverage. He should be on the panel with the columnists.

Matthews is all over the place. He also always has an opinion, and he’s usually out of control. He should also be on a panel.

David Gregory is a solid reporter, and he’s not as interesting when he’s asked to give his opinion on news developments, but he can handle the anchor position without coming across as an advocate of either side.

Media

Putting things in perspective

August 19, 2008 /

The angst on the web over the tightening of the race is starting to match the hype from the old media. Many sober bloggers like Josh Marshall are getting nervous, and others are chiming in. Meanwhile, you have Chris Matthews announcing that the race is “tied” based on a poll that has the Obama leading by 5 points.

Of course the race has tightened, and that makes all of us a little uneasy. But there are several things to keep in mind. McCain has been hammering Obama, and Obama has just come off a one-week vacation. Obama has generally had three bad weeks, as McCain found a good issue in drilling and Russia invaded Georgia, placing national security back in the spotlight.

Now, what is happening out there? Yes, the race is tightening. Barack’s numbers are coming down a little, and that is a concern. Yet McCain’s number are NOT GOING UP. There’s a price to pay for his tactics, and Obama and the press are running with that argument. It will take a toll on McCain over time. His “angry old man” image will not play well as the camapign goes on. McCain has basically repeated the Clinton “kitchen sink” strategy, and the result has basically been the same. Obama gets hurt a little, but he still stays ahead. The McCain people have to be worried that they haven’t been able to pull ahead, let alone take the lead.

There’s no doubt the Obama camapign needs to ratchet up the attacks. They’ve started to take shots at McCain, and they’ve run some decent negative ads. They need to get tougher, but everyone needs to understand that we’re still in the middle of summer. Their best attacks need should be rolled out during the convention and in early September when everyone is playing attention.

I will get more specific in a future post, but we heard next to nothing about health care (like pre-existing conditions) or social security. McCain is very vulnerable on both points. Expect a big push on both issues, with Hillary Clinton being one of the lead attackers on these points.

Obama needed to survive the inevitable summer onslaught. With the convention starting next week, he appears to have done so.

President 2008

Hardball . . . finally

November 17, 2005 /

While it’s coming several years too late, Chris Matthews deserves credit for taking on the Bush administration and pointing out how the pre-war statements of Bush, Cheney and other senior officials were not consistent with the caveats being expressed by the CIA and our own government officials.

Tonight, after Dick Cheney’s ridiculous rant against war critics, Hardball replayed Dick Cheney’s statements over the past several years that were clearly untrue, AND which ignored caveats expressed AT THE TIME by our own intelligence officials. How can anyone argue that on issues like nuclear weapons and the alleged link to al Qaeda that these guys didn’t mislead the country?

I just wish that Matthews and other members of the press would have been this diligent and bold in 2002 and 2003.

Iraq War, Media

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