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| Please finish, but do so with a degree of consistency and sincerity. |
MSNBC’s Chris Matthews broadcast a “Let Me Finish” that via reflection back to 2014 made previous comments about President seem childish ratings hunting and nothing else.
2014 Back Ground
Two years ago almost to the month, Chris Matthews, hardball, hosted a panel of talking heads from Bloomberg News, USA Today and the National Journal specifics below). The essence of the segment, a mere week before the 2014 mid-term elections, appeared as a contrived effort at condemnation of President Obama from of all people Chris Matthews. Months prior to the segment, Matthews often appeared over-the-top angst filled about President Obama’s lack of interest in moving the nation to direct confrontation with ISIS. I recall Hardball segments in which Matthews reminded of the most hawkish of GOP politicians (McCain, Graham).
Yes, Matthews’s seeming wanton desire for troops on the ground war with ISIS was stunning and so out of character I wondered if he wasn’t simply playing for ratings. During 2013-through present ratings periods MSNBC was the overwhelming loser of viewers. The loses have been comparable to the sucking of air from a blazing forest fire. Yet, one MSNBC show in early October 2014, rose above the ‘ratings flushing. By the nature of this developing piece you already know which show.
On Monday and Friday of last week, only one MSNBC show all day, “Hardball” with Chris Matthews, even topped 100,000 viewers in that 25-54 group. And the daytime numbers are much worse. Mr. Farrow’s show averaged just 45,000 viewers in the preferred group, down 51 percent from other programming in the same slot last year.
Only one show topped 100,000 viewers for the first week of October 2014, with eye sight of the 2014 mid-term elections! What should a network host do to grab that straw to ward-off drifting down like all other shows on the network?
The segment below ran on October 24, 2014. Matthews sat with the following guest for a segment obvious developed to mailing the Obama Administration and to exact specific criticism of President Obama.
EMILY SCHULTHEIS, NATIONAL JOURNAL
PAUL SINGER, USA TODAYJONATHAN
MARTIN, BLOOMBERG PAUL SINGER, USA TODAY
Below the video, we posted a few comments from Matthews who was obviously much more damning of Obama than any of his guest. At one point Matthews seemed to chastise a guest, Paul Singer, USA TODAY, who chose words that indicated a desire to moderate his personal level of criticism against the nation’s 44th President.
Watch.
Matthews segment comments. Not one of his guest matched the following level of vitriolic and criticism of Obama.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Do you think Obama is ready to change in his last two years and become a real chief executive, not just a really good speech giver, or an inspirational leader, but actually accept the job of running the U.S. government? Is he ready to take that job on every day, 24/7, I’m the guy running this place? Is he ready to do that?
MATTHEWS: They run the government of the United States and everybody reports to them. That’s how we like them. By the way, there’s only one person we get to vote on, him. So if we don’t like the way the government’s run, we don’t like him. But he’s got to run the place.
Look, here’s the question. Who’s running the healthcare system for the president right now? Anybody know the name of this person? Because when he had the rollout problem, we kept saying, “Oh, oh, it’s the COO, the CMM of the HHS,” and I actually don’t see that person too often. You’d think — normally there would be somebody he would have appointed the day he got the bill passed. I want this person talking to me everyday how it’s going so when the rollout time comes, we know it’s going to work…
MATTHEWS: Do you think the American people believe this country, when the government talks about Ebola, for example? Do you think they buy the fact that it’s hard to catch?
MATTHEWS: Yeah, this isn’t about right-wing and left-wing and the usual ideological fights we have around here. It’s about getting something done right.
So much for 2104, Matthews has gone ratings hunting while waffling.
If you cannot join me in thought of Matthews of ratings hunting, I would be amazed. It is also important to note, Matthews never once took on criticism of Rand Paul as Paul traipsed through long periods of plagiarism of speech text and print text. Matthew strategically avoided criticism of Paul as others took him head-on about issues related to his opposition to certain civil rights legislation. Now, what MSNBC show did Paul visit after swearing off the network following Rachel Maddow’s pants around his ankles exposure of his opposition to certain parameters of the 1965 Civil Right Act? He appeared on Matthews Hardball and once finding Matthews proclaiming he and Paul showing similar of some issues was uncanny.
News hosts are to the person wealthy people. They are not job seeking job hunters who jump around scrounging for dollars as do millions across the nation. They earn copiously. If you think for one second Matthews would not leverage ratings opportunities to maintain his level of wealth (via viewership), you have wasted a few minutes on this piece.
Watch, the following 1:20 minute segment from Matthews as he effuses about President Obama’s productivity final years while dismantling his own previous (2014) remarks that seemed to denote coming, lack of leadership and Lame-duckism for Obama.
US media has actually devolved into ideology purveyors with more than a central focus on ratings that garner revenue. No longer do we live in the times of Walter Cronkite, Ed Bradley, David Brinkley and Chet Huntley. We live in times when we secure most of our news from television.
Television news and local news through the millionaire talking ;head news readers on the major network offer little more than entertainment between commercials. We have personalities who seriously embellish (lie about) news stories and their involvement in the gathering of the news. In the two most prominent cases (Brian Williams and Bill O’Reilly) their multi-million dollar annual contracts have not been disrupted via revelations of their lies. From the lucrative business of television ews as entertainment to the reality and relevance of Chris Matthews waffling regarding President Obama, we are not being served well via US media.
Chris Matthews’s recent “Let Me Finish” is an accurately portrayal of a departing president. Why other than ratings hunting did the MSNBC personally reach for damning dogma just a bit over two years ago? Obama’s accomplishments did not manifest solely within the past 24 months. As Matthews stated this week, Obama has been in office for seven years and the body of his work will stand the test of time and a developing legacy.
The US public really deserves much better.
An image such as this was planned to the minute such that all parties gathered in the White House Situation Room. The order for the raid came from the president with the full consultation of military officers and Intel staff in the room. Navy Seals who raided the bin Laden compound were skilled and courageous military executioners.
The Pardu's Scroll 
