Media Heroes
“Bill Clinton has taken the prestige of his time in office, his relationships with other heads of state and forged something never known before, a global force for good. He’s fighting AIDS in Africa, the devastation of floods and earthquakes, and nearly every other challenge facing mankind on the face of the globe…. We’ve never had a world leader like this before! Bill Clinton: President of the World.” – Chris Matthews on the February 9 “Hardball,” touting his upcoming MSNBC documentary on Clinton.
“Say ‘Al Sharpton’ and most people probably think ‘loudmouth activist’ and ‘provocateur.’ Well, that certainly was his image in the ’80s and ’90s. Well, the Reverend Al has gone through something of a metamorphosis. Today, he’s downright tame, so much that he’s made his way into the establishment. It’s been quite a trajectory: from street-protest agitator to candidate for president in 2004, to now, a trusted White House adviser who’s become the president’s go-to black leader….” – Lesley Stahl setting up a profile of Al Sharpton on CBS’s “60 Minutes,” May 22.
Smearing the Anti-Obama Rabble
“Tea Party budget-slashers…. were like cannibals, eating their own party and leaders alive. They were like vampires, draining the country’s reputation, credit rating and compassion. They were like zombies, relentlessly and mindlessly coming back again and again to assault their unnerved victims, [House Speaker John] Boehner and President Obama. They were like the metallic beasts in “Alien” flashing mouths of teeth inside other mouths of teeth, bursting out of Boehner’s stomach every time he came to a bouquet of microphones.” – New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, August 3 column.
Host Piers Morgan: “Where is the similar mob to Mussolini’s and Hitler’s in the modern democratic era? The Tea Party?” Ann Coulter: “No. No, no, no.” Morgan: “The nearest thing to it in America?… Are you wild about them?… The Tea Party?”… Coulter: “Oh, yeah, I love them.” Morgan: “See, I don’t really get that…. I don’t get that because you’re a smart cookie…. You’re intelligent. You live a provocative life.” Coulter: “I believe you’re insulting the Tea Partiers.” Morgan: “Well, they’re not among the brightest of spellers, are they?” – CNN’s “Piers Morgan Tonight,” June 7.
Nasty, Belligerent Chris Matthews
Chicago Tribune’s Clarence Page: “Well this is Newt’s time to run…. He has a good shot at winning the nomination. Winning the general is a whole different matter. But this – ” Host Chris Matthews, interrupting: “But he looks like a car bomber. He looks like a car bomber, Clarence. He looks like a car bomber. He’s got that crazy Mephistophelian grin of his. He looks like he loves torturing. Look at the guy! I mean this, this is not the face of a president.” – MSNBC’s “Hardball,” March 2.
Host Chris Matthews: “One thing I notice about black people at different conventions. You go to a Democratic convention…and black folk are hanging together and having a good time. They’re smiling, they’re enjoying themselves. They feel very much at home. You go to a Republican event, you get a feeling that you are all told, ‘Individually now, don’t bunch up. Don’t, don’t, don’t get together. Don’t get together, don’t crowd, you’ll scare these people.’ Is that true in the Republican Party? Is that still true in your party? Did you fear that if you got together with some other African-Americans, these white guys might get scared of you?” Former RNC chairman Michael Steele: “No! What are you talking about?!” – MSNBC’s “Hardball,” January 17.
“The utter confusion in the Republican presidential nominating process results from two discernible facts. One: they hate. That’s the simplest explanation of the disastrous course of this selection process. They hate so much they are not in the mood to fall in love with a candidate or even fall in behind someone. Their brains, racked as they are by hatred, they lack the ‘like’ mode. They are in no mood looking around for a politician they like. The hating is so much more satisfying.” – Chris Matthews on “Hardball,” November 15.
“ ‘Hardball’ is absolutely non-partisan.” – Chris Matthews in an interview with local Washington, D.C. host Carol Joynt, as quoted by The Politico’s Patrick Gavin in a December 9, 2010 article.
America’s Anti-Muslim ‘Bigotry’
“The bigotry expressed against Muslims in this country has been one of the most disturbing stories to surface this year. Of course, a lot of noise was made about the Islamic Center, mosque, down near the World Trade Center, but I think there wasn’t enough sort of careful analysis and evaluation of where this bigotry toward 1.5 billion Muslims worldwide, and how this seething hatred many people feel for all Muslims, which I think is so misdirected, and so wrong, and so disappointing…. Maybe we need a Muslim version of “The Cosby Show”…. I know that sounds crazy. But “The Cosby Show” did so much to change attitudes about African-Americans in this country, and I think sometimes people are afraid of things they don’t understand.” – “CBS Evening News” anchor Katie Couric on her CBSNews.com @KatieCouric web show, December 22, 2010.
