Okay "Newbies" ....do you understand about Tweety Matthews, now?

[KoKo]

If you are watching his show tonight ....you might understand why we called him "Tweety Twist in the Wind" and many of us wanted him removed....

One night a week he seems like a "real hardball buster" where his hard hitting pontification goes after Repugs and he seems like a SAINT...but the next night and nights after he slimes the Dems with the same pontificating and one never knows where he comes from........

I hope the person who started that "Praise Matthews" post and all those who posted in favor on it...finally GET IT! Newbies...we've been fighting in the trenches since 2001 and some of us "Oldies" know what the deal is with that guy.

Matthews/Tweety: "Media Whore Supreme" and lets add Howard Fineman to that list.... Our Nickname for HIM was "Howie Slimeman" (I always, personally thought, it should be "Howie Slitherman)."

BEWARE THOSE WHO BRING YOU GIFTS ...OCCASIONALLY!

[Wickerman]

1. I wish I had a dime for every time I've posted

"I wish I had a nickel for every time the folks have gone gaga over Matthews, only to have to eat crow the next day when he is back to his old tricks of reading RW talking points." I believe it's his perverted idea of "balance". 5 days for the RW, one day where he is relatively honest, and rest on the 7th day.

[KoKo]

5. Believe me...I know.... He would almost force one to take meds the way

he spins and twists in the wind... Sad. I don't know if it's his diabetes or what. He can seem like such a nice appealing guy...and yeah..(shame on me) if MSNBC canned him...I'd be kinda sad because he does have a quirkyness that can be very appealing...BUT SHIT! How many more YEARS do we have to suffer with his "Ups and Downs" when we have enough of them on our own!

[Serial Mom]

2. He thought his job might be at risk after the "anchor demotion"

So he bends over the other direction!

[sasha031]

3. I never understood wht Al franken loves Howard Fineman

in his book he calls him uncle Fineman

[Growler]

4. K&R

[Matariki]

6. All I want out of journalists is that they investigate and tell the truth, focus on important issues

and not carry water for any corporation or political party.

[annarbor]

13. Amen! Nicely put!

[davidwparker]

7. I don't watch him. I only watch KO and Rachel and most times, the rebroad-

cast of KO.

[jannyk]

8. k&r - matthews is a piece of shit!

[jovi]

10. As a "newbie" on here but as a 43 yr old dem. I always

knew what he was about. I only watch KO and now RM on MSNBC.

[jannyk]

15. Hi Jovi - Welcome to DU

:toast:

[Captiosus]

18. Ditto here.

I liked Matthews for about one week when Hardball first came on the air. It only took me one week to realize he wasn't as "critical" as he pretended to be. Haven't watched him since.

[live love laugh]

9. You mean "No Bounce" Fineman wasn't on the list already?

I seethed as he tag teamed with Campbell brown in 04 to diminish Kerry after that DNC.

He was written off my list a long time ago.

[Auggie]

11. I'm waiting for an explanation on the following:

Over lunch with Mathews in 2003, Paul Wolfowitz told him that the real reason for invading Iraq was to create freedom through "coercive democracy" rather than a preemptive strike against WMD. Matthews admitted this on his show Hardball a few months ago, right after Scott McClellan's book on the Bush administration came out.

If television host Matthews knew about this, why didn't he report it to the world? He had first-hand knowledge from a high-level source that the government deliberately lied us into war. He had the media exposure and, perhaps, the clout to significantly alter public opinion.

I haven't watched Matthews or his show since then. He can fuck himself.

[dmr]

12. I wondered what the hoopla was all about yesterday, but

knowing Tweety, I didn't even bother opening the threads - I knew I could never sign on an appreciation thread for him, lest he retire. I'd appreciate that.

[KoKo]

14. I know... n/t

[curious one]

16. Tweety is a media whore and MSNBC gave him credit to lump him with KO.

[KoKo]

20. You mean, Tweety fights for his life and he's forced to keep "twisting" so his Corporate Masters

don't even get where he's coming from? Unlike David (Dancing with Rove, "MC Rove...hut..woosh..uph..ugh)Gregory...Tweety is sort of "stuck as a tweeny" trying to be For Dems one Night a Week...but Against Dems the other Four?

Is that what you are trying to say? :shrug:

[fla nocount]

31. He aspires to Queen whore with Russert out of the way. n/t

[Lord Helmet]

17. he's hormonal

[nc4bo]

19. He a real shapeshifting sleaze - like most all of them. nt

[AkFemDem]

21. Well I'm no Chris Matthews cheerleader but it needs to be said

that "newbie" to the forum hardly equals "newbie" to politics or the cable anchors. Puh-lease, some of us have been reading, watching, speaking out, protesting and voting for many years prior to the inception of DU even.

Don't make this a "dumb newbie" issue. You're railing against people who think Matthews is a real journalist, not against people who happen to be new to the forum.

[KoKo]

22. "Newbie" to DU who doesn't know the disastrous history of Tweety...sorry I wasn't

as clear on that.. But, was really posting to those who had been here since that DAMNED SELECTION of ELECTION in 2000.

Peace!...fellow DU'er. :hug:

[goodgd_yall]

23. He's a contrarian

He likes to piss people off, but he changes his mind on who he wants to piss off.

[Piewhacket]

24. Stop yelling at Tweety for just a second and remember...

Chris is no bigoted blowhard. He plays hardball. The real deal.

He appears basically politically moderate himself, and
he loves his country, but what seems most obvious is that
his true love is the GAME.

He plays Political Harball. He plays it on one side, then switches sides.
The "side" is not important, what is important is he is playing the GAME he loves.
This game is not the crap spin game that politicians sometimes play, but addresses serious
political issues, issues that matter in politics, holding them up, knocking them down,
examining their strengths and weakness by attack or defense.

He is a skillful player, his play illuminates the field, illuminates the issues,
illuminates the merit, or lack, in each side. He chooses to be a player, not an
"objective" journalistic spectator. Sometime he takes the "loser" side because that
side needs a skillful player to engage the crowd's attention and illuminate the debate.

His approach and format, however annoying it might seem at any given time to the
advocates on either side, is a (moderately) high form of political debate which provokes thought.

So Tweety, you are not always on my "side", and sometimes you seriously suck, sometimes because
you play too poorly when on my "side", and sometimes because you play too well on their "side",
but I respect your love of the game, and the contributions you make which, on a glorious day,
can elevate and illuminate a grand debate. Thank you, Chris.

DUer may now continue yelling at Tweety. Tweety, you SUCK!!!
Seriously, Chris, clean up your act, you KNOW the republicans are chock full of &%$#! :)

[SpookyCat]

25. Really...was he playing the cool devil's advocate when

he nearly went off his onion about shrubs flight suit? I must be missing the subtle dance because he does just seem like a tool to me.

My favorite Tweety moment of enlightenment? When he said, regarding a room full of people clapping for someone's speech...(don't remember who) "They're clapping so much..it's like they're Chinese or something..." Yes. Witty and insightful.

[Piewhacket]

28. OK, glad to be preaching to the choir...

:)

A person says he believes in XYZ. Do you ridicule that
belief, or do you ask if it is based on reason or on faith? If the person
says it is based on reason, then proceeds to offer as "evidence"
the vision he had in a dream, what do you make of it?
Is the offered dream "evidence" based on "reason".

Name calling and ridicule is sometimes effective, but do
you know how to challenge the above (lunacy) without resorting to
simple name-calling and ridicule? Tweety does.

I'm educated, a senior, and my politics are pretty far left.
I'm not one to pull a punch when I resolve to land one.

Yesterday I listed to the podcast of Hardball on Palin.
Chris doesn't much tolerate "stupid", or "hypocrisy" on either side.
When he gets it from a guest, he (modestly) go for the jugular.
Its Hardball, but not Apocalypse. The discussion and challenge is civilized.

His technique is not Socratic, it is more confrontational. Harball.
When John Binkley (R - Alaska) became obviously and ludicrously sycophantic in
support of Palin, Chris destroyed him (rather completely, imo) with questions
demonstrating (insanity and) bias. Hardball, but not apocalypse.

Sometimes we just want Tweety to toast the bastards and be done with 'em.
Sometimes he does. Yet we can become so caught up in our view that we end up
in an "with us 100% or again us" mode of thinking. Chris isn't "with us" 100%,
so he's a "tool". Is that the way we should be viewing it?

[SpookyCat]

26. Known about Tweety a long time. Predates my participation here.

You are correct...he's a tool at best and none too bright either. I seem to have missed the Praise Matthews thread...it wasn't a joke? Sometimes people have a sense of humor that is so dry it gets missed..please tell me it was a joke...

[Fluffdaddy]

27. Matthews is a good guy for our side 80% of the time.

Few are 100%

[Cell Whitman]

29. glad you mentioned Feinman

I believe he was the 1st MWO Media Whore of the Year.

I think Tweety has mental troubles and I do not say that lightly. It is either that or he is a very dishonest person. He used to write a column for the San Fran Chronicle which was VERY liberal and then go on his show at night and give them hell. Very strange to watch.

Someone on another board confronted him with this at an event and he admitted he did that. The trusted poster said Tweet's wife gave him a look that could have burned a hole in him when she heard him admit it.

I think the higher ups and his right wing emailers get to him and to take the heat off he jumps to other side.

He actually replied to me in an email years ago. I told him Tip would be roiling his grave if he saw him then. He replied that he didn't feel the need to "trumpet" Tip's politics only his values.

All that said, anyone who is new to this would not know how he operates, and that is understandable. He is deceptive and actually does not have any constant standards that I can see.

Oh, when he was Tip's aid he wouldn't have anything to Moon's WT when Moon opened it. Then, years later, he took Moon's money and shilled for the old devil.

Anyone who would like to know about Moon's media here is a must see video. James Whelan tells the story about Tweets being bought by Moon:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=9008719207533458404&hl=en

[retread]

30. I loved the look on his face when Rachel quoted McLiar on his show the day after 9/11.

He was stunned. While he was trying to recover he mumbled "Wow you do good research." His lame-ass recovery was something to the effect that McLiar is not a chicken-hawk??

On 9/12 McLiar was beating the war drums to attack Iraq. She had the exact quote from Tweety's show.

[LWolf]

32. No.

But then, I don't really WANT to understand about him.

I've seen him maybe twice; something to do with a campaign debate. He participated in some way, or played talking head after.

I don't remember what he said. It wasn't memorable.

Do you mean "newbie" as in "new to Tweety," or "new to DU?"

I'm not really new to either; I've been aware of his existence for a long time, even if I never cared to pay attention to him.

I guess I'm an extremist, lol. I reject television news and television talk shows on principle. Most radio, as well.