Zedders!

I’m on a roll!

Hi, Christy! When I read the title of your post, all I could think of was the episode of Happy Days where the Fonz had to apologize.

Sorry!

Ya can catch it now on MSNBC…

OK, I gotta give him credit for apologizing at least a little bit.

But I don’t think this is going to get any better…he has major impulse control issues. That would disqualify ME from getting a job on TV but apparently they don’t screen for this in pundit interviews.

Matthews apology seems to be all about him.

He’s apologizing for one remark about Hillary. What about his record, excruciatingly documented on Media Matters, about sexist comments about women over a long time.

And a commenter on a thread here a couple of days ago told me I was “naive” about Tweety.

We have “journalists” making stuff up all the time, like the aftermath of the Nevada Dem’s debate. We have “journalists” making Edwards invisible. I don’t think we can expect “journalists” to put voters first anytime soon.

Wow, he took 5 minutes to say something that could have been done in 30 seconds. In other words, vintage Tweety.

Hi Christy!

Thanks,
as far as I’m concerned his apology doesn’t go far enough, but it’s important that he actually apologized so I urge the pups to digg it

So can we get Matthews off the debate questioning circuit.

I certainly considered it a non-apology apology, Redd! Very tepid, even, Boob Johnson’s apology seemed more sincere…

There is nothing that Tweety could ever say that would make me think he was sincere or even sane. I think it is disgusting the way he drools over some women (and men). He has done a lot of harm, both to our political process and to his own profession. They can all rot as far as I’m concerned.

He is sincerely mean-spirited.

I dunno – consider the source – I think that was pretty much the most that could be expected from one Chris Matthews…

I don’t believe his apology.
He looked pissed off. Especially when he said, “So I GET it.”
Like, all right, already, I get it, I’ll apologize, sheesh.
He said some words. That doesn’t do much for me.

Yes, well I’m trying to take a “carrot and stick” approach…

If he’s apologizing only for being sexist, that’s sort of like Genghis Khan apologizing only for conquering the Khwarezmid Empire.

(Yes, I Googled it up. Sue me.)

Not at all contrite, very specific and not likely to change his tone any. At least he’s on notice (a la Colbert).

Hi Christy!

Thanks,
as far as I’m concerned his apology doesn’t go far enough, but it’s important that he actually apologized so I urge the pups to digg it

digg this post
and just pretend comment #9 never happened

I still say he needs to apologize to both John and Elizabeth Edwards for asking her, “Do you do that? Do you bite his balls like that?” It was crude, rude, and not at all appropriate to ask a potential first lady. Then he might consider stopping dropping the F bomb and some of his other profanity, just for kicks. I’m no prude and normally wouldn’t care that much, but this guy needs to learn to curb his mouth and think before he speaks, so he might as well get a hold on the profanity on the public airwaves as well. Funny thing is, he does these things even to people he likes. Case in point: he liked George “Macaca” Allen, I think, but that didn’t stop him from making fun of the comment that brought his whole career to a screeching halt. He likes John and Elizabeth Edwards, too. He’s said as much. And one redeeming social value: I don’t remember ever seeing Lieberman on his show, but he did have Ned on several times. I don’t think he likes Lieberman much; maybe he just doesn’t like him because Lieberman is a hawk and he doesn’t like that.

Nice of Tweety, yes. But It’s Too Late Baby.

He said some words.

That was my take on it…! ;-)

Not at all contrite, very specific and not likely to change his tone any. At least he’s on notice (a la Colbert).

Musicsleuth, I don’t “get” the reference to Colbert…

I am of the opinion that Tweety and the rest of the MSM gave Hilary New Hampshire because they kept playing that clip of Hilary crying. A majority of voters decided that the MSM crossed a line.
This is a real good example of group dynamics REJECTING the MSM telling them what to think. Maybe their is hope for the “Dammed Human Race ” to quote Twain
Then I watch Hardball and Tweety and doubt all over again. Doubt evolution that is I reject the idea My Family evolved from CROMAGTweeties.
I evolved from Apes Tweeties are from a subparallel species.
Tweety has a vote fraud creep on now as an expert now, just how low can he go?

Phony and forced apology. Desperado.

Heavy on the ‘Stick’…! *g*

He even gets a chance to make another insult in what was clear a carefully scripted and screened response

Was it fair to say that Hillary Clinton, like any great politician, took advantage of a crisis to prove herself? Was her conduct in 1998 a key to starting her independent electoral career the following year? Yes.

She “took advantage of a crisis to prove herself”?? Once again, Tweety suggests that her behavior was manipulated to political purposes. No chance that it was to save her marriage, or the Presidency, or just because she does love the guy? Nope, it was all a Machiavellian effort so she could run for the Senate.

Gosh, it almost seems to suggest that Bill’s infidelity could have all been a way to allow Hillary to show her “stuff” in a crisis.

What a maroon!

wow- dirty tricksters now up on Hardballs. Repub guy says he was hired by RNC to screw up the Democratic phone lines on election day.

And the punishment for the RNC was… ??

Colbert has his ‘notice’ board where he puts things that bug him.

sorry i hav’ent been around as of late . Im trying to get the taste for possum .. 11 trillion here, draft soon. lieing shit for brains MSM ,,,, see you all soon
Bob

I can’t stand to look at the wormy bastid (Mathews). I’ll take your word for it. I’ve read too much about Mathews’ antics to take him seriously. That is, Mathews is an opportunistic polemicist whom always tacks hard right when it matters the most. He simply crossed the line. His apologizing was forced on him by a predicament that was growing legs. Media Matters is hammering him like he’s never seen. Good for them and FDL.

ok – Tweety having dirty tricksters on to talk about dirty tricks I can understand – but now he’s asking the convicted, criminal Repub guy for political analysis…

wtf?

Colbert has his ‘notice’ board where he puts things that bug him.

AH, thanks. I should TiVo Colbert, because I am almost *never* up that late.

If he slashed his wrists people would say it wasn’t enough.

That was an apology? My dad would have been saying try again admitting your wrong not excusing it is the first step in an apology. The second is offering to try and make it right.
I think Tweety talked to his lawyers about the wording.

Aww come on now. It was a lousy apology (not heartfelt at all) which came way to many years to late.

Great catch.

His carotid artery wouldn’t be enough… ;-)

I apparently missed that! I involuntarily gasped when I read your post! When did he say something like that and how did he escape with a full mouth of teeth?

I would love to see somebody ask Mathews on air what he thinks of the blogosphere referring to him as “Tweety.” Come on Kieth or David!

OT: Have you ever been annoyed by that telemarketer/pollster calling just as you are about to sit down to a romantic dinner? Ever felt like, maybe, tweaking that twerp a tad?

Well here’s a suggested script

This comment may be monitored for quality assurance.

I just watched his apology. And an apology it was. And sincere, I believe. And I take him at his word that his heart is in the right place, even when his mouth isn’t. I’m not about to cast the first stone in this situation. That’s because I know that we are all products of our cultural context, and the prevailing ideology, even when we think we’re not. Only the purest among us is able to say, unequivocally, that they’ve never unwittingly reproduced the dominant cultural narrative, and contributed to the persistence of stereotypes, be they gender, ethnic, religious, or racist. I also know how disappointed I was in myself when I discovered that, although pure in my heart, in my discourse I was unaware of the impact of the words. I’m not at all certain that Matthews isn’t an unreconstructed sexist, but his use of the phrase, “I get it,” used here, surely, consciously to invoke the long-lived feminist complaint, suggests to me that there is hope for him to achieve his aspiration of doing “some good.” It was Morrow, wasn’t it who said of the television something like “this machine can teach”? Notwithstanding the awesome power of the blogs like FDL, television is still the most powerful message getter-outer in our lives. And if Chris Matthews has turned a corner (let’s just give him the benefit of the doubt), perhaps there is still hope for the moribund media to redeem themselves, pull up their socks and do their JOB.

I missed his gruesome crack at Elizabeth Edwards and if you or anyone has a linky please share so I can fire off a flaming rant to the powers that be at MSNBC. What a smarmy fuckwad smuck.

Pretty jarring that Tweety follows his apology for making sleazy comments by bringing on two admitted “dirty tricksters”.

Cue the Guinness guys – “Brilliant”!!

I think he’s a fucking moron and I thought his apology was sincere/

Obvious that someone sat him down and told him off, in no uncertain terms.
Serious woodshedding from someone at MSNBC.
Keith??

Cue the Guinness guys – “Brilliant”!!

I know it’s totally stupid, but for some reason I always laugh out loud when I see those guys.

Way OfT – just watched Jon Stewart and The Pantload from last night. Not pretty. Evidently it was an eighteen minute interview cut waaay down for teevee – so it didn’t make much sense without the continuity.

What *was* evident was that, by the end of the interview, JStew had pretty much called Jonah a raving lunatic and there was antagonism to spare…

Wish I could see the whole thing – anybody have a link to the entire interview?

if Chris Matthews has turned a corner (let’s just give him the benefit of the doubt)

he’s been getting the benefit of the doubt for a long time now. This is a chronic personality problem. NBC/MSNBC have to deal with it.

enough!

You not only a much better way with words than I do but you handle shock quite well, too. Thanks for expressing the outrage properly. If I ever need a spokesperson, rest assured you have just advanced to the top of my list!

There is nothing that Tweety could ever say that would make me think he was sincere or even sane.

Sane, I’m not so sure, but here’s my take on sincere: Matthews has to be argued into seeing points. Someone finally got through to him about this one particular comment, but there is no way he can believe that he is basically sexist, small-minded, way too opinionated, and frequently wrong. He probably knows that among his faults is the fact that he tends to talk over others, and to speak louder when challenged as if that will make him more right. (I know that flaw very well; my whole family tends to be that way!) I suspect this has to do with his family and his upbringing. One thing he has in common with most of us is that he is a political junkie, maybe more than all of us. I do think he is basically well-meaning, even though he thinks it’s fun and his job to be the provocateur. I really don’t think he means to do the harm that he does in most cases.

He is what he is, and our media is what it is; both are deeply flawed. I don’t know which is worse, someone with a mouth that he can’t control, or someone who has control of his mouth, but believes his job is to listen to everything, but report only what he is given specific approval to print. Someone who has the nerve to tell us that he considers all his conversations off the record unless the person says he can attach the name to the news. Someone who is also a political junkie, but loves to play gotcha on national TV, like these gotcha moments are what he lives for. Let’s have more Rachel Maddow and KO and David Shuster, please.

Bubba’s been on the warpath lately…maybe he called MSNBC and yelled at them too.

Ya know, this “is his apology sincere?” “Are Hil’s tears real?” questions are just soooo symptomatic of what many of us having been yelling about (very sincerely now):

Enough with the BS.

I agree with the first part and not the second. He either dislikes or fears women. That’s okay but he needs to keep his mouth shut. I cannot believe that we fought so hard in the 50s and 60s and 70s just to be treated equally – not better than, just equal to – and here we are in the 21st century still fighting this kind of idiocy. I don’t trust him and I think he should be taken off the air. Let him go home and talk to his wife like this and see what happens.

Hey Canuck
You forgot the SNARK tag…
FunnyDiva

Barf. Retch.

Actions speak louder than words….we’ll see!!!

Enough with the BS.

Oops. I meant the pundits/politicians. Not you, raven.

doh!

Tweety’s ratings suck. He is in Tucker Carlson land.

That didn’t sound like an apology to me. It sounded like excuses.

It also made me wonder if his job security is starting to get shaky? You gotta figure there was some huge shouting evens with his bosses.

I’ve listened three times now: Tweety never sez “I’m sorry” or “I apologize”

Just that “I can see now” and “I get it“

This is not an apology. Christy, you should not characterize it as an apology. It is an explanation of what he did, a litany of excuses, and an appeal to his viewers to see what’s in his heart.

Not
An
Apology

ding!

Having been away from politics, weaning myself off of Stupid and More Stupider and Most Stupidest things Tweety says, imagine how sweet it was to sit down and work on Chapter 99 of my new book The Audacity of Hillary (who only got close to hope when she married a guy from there) to find that in the Federal District of Nevada a little while ago Judge Mahan ruled against the Clintons in a lawsuit initiated with them to try to take the obvious win away from Obama in Nevada.

Hillary and Bill, being a little rusty from their Con Law course at Yale, got reminded of a very important Constitutional Principle this afternoon by Judge Mahan (and while Hilary girl wasn’t an official party to the suit–you can bet her campaign and Of Counsel to Hillary Bill Clinton initiated the suit):

Judge Mahan repeatedly insisted, and then ruled as such, that the parties have a First Amendment right to organize and operate as they wish, including the ability to make some voters’ votes worth more than others.

Pssst Hillary Girl: First Amendment is the one on your first finger when you count.

Judge Allows Vegas Caucus Sites on the Strip

What Caucuses in the Casino Stays in the Casino in Vegas

The Nevada State Education Association and their teacher’s union was a pawn of Hillary and they should have saved their money and paid the teachers with it. I wonder if the HRC treasury will pay the cost of the litigation.

NP, I’ve gotten plenty worse up in here.

Here’s the text of what I think approximates an apology, via Media Matters who has the whole transcript up here:

If my heart has not always controlled my words, on those occasions when I have not taken the time to say things right, or have simply said the inappropriate thing, I’ll try to be clearer, smarter, more obviously in support of the right of women — of all people — the full equality and respect for their ambitions. So, I get it.

On the particular point, if I had said that the only reason [Sen.] John McCain [R-AZ] has come so far is that he got shot down over North Vietnamese — by North Vietnam, and captured by the enemy, I’d be brutally ignoring the courage and guts he showed in bearing up under his captivity. Saying that Senator Clinton got where she’s got simply because her husband did what he did to her is just as callous, and I can see now, it comes across just as nasty, worse yet, just as dismissive.

…

I apparently missed that! I involuntarily gasped when I read your post! When did he say something like that and how did he escape with a full mouth of teeth?

You must mean about the Elizabeth Edwards quote! We talked about that here when he said it. I think some people thought he said “bite his back” or something less harsh, but finally it was established that he said what I quoted, indeed. I saw it on national TV. Poor Elizabeth said “Please! My children are watching!” I don’t think you can shock John Edwards, but I had the feeling he was taken back by the remark. Tweety’s a trip! You’ll never accuse him of being boring, that’s for sure!

Pete, put the bottle down and walk away from the table.

Stop with the facts.

Teddy, succinct summary.

I would add that it’s not an apology, it’s a defense.

When he is unscripted, he really does show what’s in his heart and in his “small brain”. “Small brain”- geddit? Just below the “little soldier” ;)

We can only hope!

Yes, well, there you go. I have a house full of company at the moment, so I’m commenting on the fly…you’ll have to forgive my fact-i-ness. *g*

A tweety bird in a guilty cage.

Tweety, like Imus, has been consistent in his attack on American citizens. He does not have a good heart. He is rotten to the core. A self-important fop, Tweety insults the intelligence of his audience. Tweety’s dialogue served to mention Bill Clinton’s impeachment-worthy peckerdillo, minimalize John Edwards, and spotlight John McCain as a viable presidential candidate (who can improve our situation!).

I missed his gruesome crack at Elizabeth Edwards and if you or anyone has a linky please share so I can fire off a flaming rant to the powers that be at MSNBC. What a smarmy fuckwad smuck.

Found it on YouTube! It’s almost at the end of the exchange.

A tweety bird in a guilty cage rage.

Fixed that for ya, cc. ;)

Thanks Valleygirl.

I received this email from Tim Mahoney 2 weeks ago and just found it now:

I know youre probably out shopping but were still 26,900 short. Can you donate anything before the close of business at http://www.timmahoneyforflorida.com/contribute? Please — important.

I know you’re absolutely right, but sometimes the bottle feels so good, and the decision in district court by Judge Mahan today is one of them. *g*

My brother-in-law decided years ago to largely ignore politics because he felt there was little he could do about it, and then he could use the time for other things.

He may have gotten the first part right as far as time–but I’m not sure he got the second part correct.

Brain Eno and David Byrne, for Tweety: Mea Culpa

Found it on YouTube! It’s almost at the end of the exchange.

Linky no worky (404 error).

here is the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bAlnb187M4

And I don’t think it was an apology, either.

If there is anything Tweety understands, it’s power, he must have had
a conversation with management, you know, share some concerns and do
some goal setting… didn’t see any bruises so it must have been a
friendly conversation. He’ll do it again, and soon.

(shorter Tweety apology ,H/T Sadly,No! )

Sorrrr—RRY ! (wink,wink)

Hi Christy. Great work. When I read: “[n]one of it has anything to do with substance. It’s as if a pack of hyenas were crossbred with the characters in Mean Girls and then sent out to play at journalism….America is sick of bullshit this year. From politicans. And especially from pundits,” I laughed so hard, I nearly wet my pants. Scare that fucker ’til he cries for his mommy.

Sorry, for a quick input without reading but:

I think one of the key things about Tweety (and the rest of the MSM Rethug spokespersons) is the reality that trashing women (Hillary in this case) can seriously backfire on them, and may (as in NH) turn the election against them. That message is big.

He needs to go. How long will it take for him to go back to the exact same antics as before? No, I don’t think he learned a thing.

Totally OT: but on Swiftboating – McCain now. Didn’t I read somewhere that Romney’s campaign guru is the master of this sort of trash. If true, by putting it out there that McCain didn’t serve, or experients on unborn babies, it is an attack which both clobbers (unfairly McCain) and, because it is set up to “seem” as if it is done by Huck’s people so it cloppers him too.

Y’all call what Matthews said an apology? I call it lying, self-serving, insulting crap.

Totally OT: but on Swiftboating – McCain now.

The source of current Swiftboating of John McCain–junk that he gave things up after torture, or that he neglected his first wife–will become apparent or whatever “push poll” rumors will become apparent. It’s hard to say right now that the Romney or Huckabee campaigns had an active or even passive hand in them at this point.

I think they are so obviously ridiculous that McCain’s lesson from the Bush camps whether it was actually Melman/Rove related or not–the rumor that his adopted Bangledesh daughter was illegitimately fathered by McCain–hit home and he’ll respond rapidly and be successful in dispelling the stupidity of the push polls.

MSNBC wants to know what you think about Chris Matthews right now on his blog

http://hardblogger.msnbc.msn.com/

Agree with this comment, with one small exception:

And if Chris Matthews has turned a corner (let’s just give him the benefit of the doubt), perhaps there is still hope for the moribund media to redeem themselves, pull up their socks and do their JOB.

I don’t think that Coulter, or Malkin, et al will ever manage to pull up their socks, nor redeem themselves. Limbaugh, O’Reilly, Coulter, Kristol, Goldberg, et al will never ‘eat crow’. None of them have the guts to offer anything close to Matthews’ apology.

In contrast, Tweety ate a lot of crow.
Having eaten some ‘crow’ myself a time or two, it is NOT a pleasant meal.
Who relishes the thought of owning up to one’s faults in such a public fashion?

IMHO, Tweety’s apology opened him to the kind of public second-guessing and derision that I’ve just read in this thread. However, I give him the benefit of the doubt — his apology acknowledged that he’d screwed up, and that he is learning from his mistakes. He’d clearly thought a lot about what happened, its effects, and why he needs to do things differently.

We need the media to do a better job so that voters better understand their choices.
I’ll take one flawed, humbled Chris Matthews over the entire, toxic FauxNewz in-your-face-you-librul class of clowns and prima donnas. Because at least Matthews cares enough to want to improve the quality of information.

Perfect, he ain’t.
But he’s working on it.
That’s worth respecting, IMHO.

No, he doesn’t have a good heart. This is what wife-beaters say when they want to be taken back. Aw honey, I didn’t mean it. I’ll be disappointed if people fall for it.

Does Bill O’Reilly mean it when he makes sexist comments about other female political figures? Yes, he does. Sooner or later there’s got to be an Al Campanis moment for all these pigs.

It’s a non-apology apology! Methinks, brass made him do it.

At the Hardblogger blog they are cherry picking the remarks so it looks like there is more support for Chris than critics. I sent a critical remark last night and one this morning and NADA.

His blog is a sham

There was no apology. He didn’t even seem to know what he did. All he was trying to do was “explain” why he sometimes says things that — maybe — he shouldn’t. And say he will try to speak more “clearly” and be “smarter” in the future.

Oh good.

But it’s not an apology.

I don’t believe him. He was only trying to appease his bosses. Underneath it all? The same old Chris Matthews.