Everyone knows that NewsBusters has the repeated habit of ignoring context in most of their “liberal media bias” complaints, but it’s particularly blatant and obvious when it comes to one of their favorite targets at MSNBC.
In a long December 3 article, Scott Whitlock documents “Chris Matthews’s Multiple Obamagasms“, which he childishly refers to as “The Top 10 Most ‘Tingling’ Quotes“, obviously in reference to the infamous words Matthews uttered after watching a speech by then-candidate Barack Obama.
This piece is essentially a preemptive attack by the right-wing watchdog following news that Matthews is slated to interview President Obama during the “Hardball College Tour“, which is an ongoing town hall style format the host has held during every campaign season, where he interviews politicians in front of a crowd of college students, who also ask questions themselves.
The specific admiration Matthews had shown for Obama during the primaries will always go down in right-wing memory as a coming out moment of bias for the host, and he probably never expected the kind of attention it has consistently received since that time. However, he has never apologized for it, either, regardless of how much it’s been brought up. Probably more than anyone, NewsBusters/MRC has made a concerted effort to use Matthews’ many moments of praise for Obama as a way to mock him endlessly, and rub in his face what an admirer he is of the President.
However, what the band of merry misfits at NewsBusters choose to ignore are the wonders years, which consisted of the same Chris Matthews being just as much, if not more, of an admirer of President George W. Bush and showing his overwhelming enthusiasm for someone who will be known as one of the most unpopular and disastrous Presidents in United States history.
First, we’ll take a quick look at the list NewsBusters compiled of Matthews’ “Obamagasms“:
10. Just So “Cool” and “Great-Looking”
[…]
“He’s come from a white family and a black family, and he’s married to a black woman, and they’re cool people. They are really cool. They are Jack and Jackie Kennedy when you see them together. They are cool. And they’re great-looking, and they’re cool and they’re young, and they’re — everything seems to be great….He may not win this thing because everybody in America is not going to be in a room with him somewhere….[But] if you’re in [a room] with Obama, you feel the spirit. Moving.”
— MSNBC’s Chris Matthews talking about Barack Obama and his wife on NBC’s Tonight Show, January 16, 2008. […]9. Gazing at Obama, The Thinker
[…]
“The President showed his analytical mind….He was at his best intellectually. I thought it was a great example of how his mind works….What a mind he has, and I love his ability to do it on television. I love to think with him.”
— MSNBC’s Chris Matthews during live coverage following Obama’s February 9, 2009 press conference. […]8. “We Girls Agree,” Obama Is Still “Thrilling”
[…]
“When they were both walking to the helicopter the other day, Marine One… you could tell, like, they were experiencing the — I’m getting old here — the grooviness, the excitement of being this first American couple heading towards Marine One, which is cool in itself, heading from there to Air Force One, to a quick flight across the Atlantic, on your own plane, and to meet with the world leaders as, like, the centerpiece of the world….I’m saying it again, I’m getting a thrill….We agree, we girls agree. I don’t mind saying that. I’m excited. I’m thrilled.”
— MSNBC’s Chris Matthews talking to Michelle Bernard of the Independent Women’s Forum and Washington Post writer Lois Romano about the Obamas’ trip to Europe, April 1, 2009 Hardball. […]7. Barack Obama: The “Last Brother” to JFK
[…]
“[Ted Kennedy] just wanted to bring back what Bobby and Jack had given us. He wanted to be his brother’s brother. And then he turned that torch over last year to Barack Obama…. Amazing history. Barack is now the last brother. It’s history.”
— MSNBC’s Chris Matthews on NBC’s Today, August 26, 2009. […]6. Barack “Lincoln” Spellbinds With His Speeches
[…]
“A speech worthy of Abraham Lincoln….What I personally view as the best speech ever given on race in this country….I think this is the kind of speech I think first graders should see, people in the last year of college should see before they go out in the world. This should be, to me, an American tract. Something that you just check in with, now and then, like reading Great Gatsby and Huckleberry Finn….One of the great speeches in American history.”
— MSNBC’s Chris Matthews talking about Obama’s speech on race relations, March 18, 2008 Hardball. […]5. The “Thrill” Is Still Surging Up Chris’s Leg
[…]
Clip of Barack Obama from 2008: “My family gave me love. They gave me an education. And most of all, they gave me hope. Hope, hope that in America, no dream is beyond our grasp if we reach for it, and fight for it, and work for it.”
MSNBC’s Chris Matthews: “I get the same thrill up my leg, all over me, every time I hear those words. I’m sorry, ladies and gentlemen, that’s me. He’s talking about my country and nobody does it better. Can President Obama stir us again and help his party keep power this November?”
— Setting up a segment on MSNBC’s Hardball, September 7, 2010. […]4. Chris Matthews, Obama Press Secretary?
[…]
MSNBC’s Chris Matthews: “You know what? I want to do everything I can to make this thing work, this new presidency work, and I think that-”
Host Joe Scarborough: “Is that your job? You just talked about being a journalist.”
Matthews: “Yeah, it is my job. My job is to help this country….This country needs a successful presidency more than anything right now.”
— MSNBC’s Morning Joe, November 6, 2008. […]3. He’s “Perfect”…
[…]
“This guy’s done everything right. He’s raised his family right. He’s fought his way all the way to the top of the Harvard Law Review, in a blind test becomes head of the Review, the top editor there. Everything he’s done is clean as a whistle. He’s never not only broken any law, he’s never done anything wrong. He’s the perfect father, the perfect husband, the perfect American. And all they do is trash the guy.”
— MSNBC’s Chris Matthews talking about President Obama on Hardball, July 17, 2012. […]2. …Just Like Jesus
[…]
Keith Olbermann: “For 42 minutes, not a sour note and spellbinding throughout in a way usually reserved for the creations of fiction. An extraordinary political statement. Almost a fully realized, tough, crisp, insistent speech in tone and in the sense of cutting through the clutter….I’d love to find something to criticize about it. You got anything?”
Chris Matthews: “No. You know, I’ve been criticized for saying he inspires me, and to hell with my critics!…You know, in the Bible they talk about Jesus serving the good wine last, I think the Democrats did the same.”
— MSNBC live coverage of Obama’s Democratic convention speech, August 28, 2008 Hardball. […]1. If Your Thrill Lasts Longer Than Three Hours…
[…]
“I have to tell you, you know, it’s part of reporting this case, this election, the feeling most people get when they hear Barack Obama’s speech. My, I felt this thrill going up my leg. I mean, I don’t have that too often.”
— MSNBC’s Chris Matthews during live coverage, February 12, 2008. […]
To match that list from Whitlock, we compiled our own list of the years NewsBusters clearly wasn’t paying too much attention to… when Chris Matthews was basically having wet dreams at the near sight of President Bush, and giving him a pass on almost every decision he made during his presidency.
Here is our list of what we like to call “Chris Matthews’ Top 10 Bushgasms: The Love Affair of the 2000s” (special thanks to Media Matters and MSNBC.com for the relevant transcripts):
#10
Democrats can’t criticize Bush on Iraq War
“[…] George Bush made the toughest decision of his life to go into Iraq and it was the smart decision, he deserves to have a place in history. [Democrats] can’t say he did the right thing but he didn’t quite do it right.”
-Chris Matthews on July 31, 2006, edition of “Hardball” on MSNBC
#9
“How can you not trust a man who says ‘I won’t be able to win this war in my presidency; I’m leaving it up to other presidents in the future’? You’re basically taking a real — what do they call it? Not an umbrella defense. A prevent defense. You’re saying basically, ‘OK, I’m not going to win this war.’”
-Chris Matthews on March 23, 2006, edition of “Hardball” on MSNBC
#8
Bush making “Brilliant Political Move” on Iraq; Democrats are “Carpers and Complainers“
“[…] I think he’s going to hold the Democrats’ feet to their fire and say, ‘Are you going to vote for this or vote against it? I dare you to vote against it.’ And I think this is the brilliant political move here by the president, forcing the Democratic carpers and complainers to come forward, and say, ‘All right, you don’t like my strategy for victory in Iraq? Vote against it. Go ahead, make my day.’ This is Clint Eastwood stuff. I think the president today is brilliantly putting a marker out there and saying to the Jack Murthas and the rest, ‘OK, vote against reconstruction. Vote against my plan to turn this war over to the Iraqis, that’s my long-term plan, you vote against it and I’m gonna nail you.’”
-Chris Matthews on November 30, 2005, edition of “Hardball” on MSNBC
#7
Matthews gives Bush a pass on Iraq war; claims he’s “not an ideologue“
“Here’s what I don’t know. I wish somebody would write a book and tell me when President Bush, who’s not an ideologue, why he went along with this war, with the neocons, with Tenet, with all the rest of them. I’ve never heard that really good account, have you?”
-Chris Matthews on April 30, 2007, edition of “Hardball” on MSNBC
#6
Democrats are “Real Whack-Jobs” for Not Liking Him
“I like him. Everybody sort of likes the president, except for the real whack-jobs, maybe on the left — I mean — like him personally.”
-Chris Matthews on November 28, 2005, edition of “Hardball” on MSNBC
#5
He’s “a wise man now … almost Atticus Finch”
“Well, he looks like he’s a wise man now and a man of restraint, almost Atticus Finch. You know, almost the guy against the mob outside this — the police station.”
-Chris Matthews on February 24, 2006, edition of “Hardball” on MSNBC
#4
“[…] Here’s a president who’s really nonverbal. He’s like Eisenhower. He looks great in a military uniform. He looks great in that cowboy costume he wears when he goes West. I remember him standing at that fence with Colin Powell. Was [that] the best picture in the 2000 campaign?”
-Chris Matthews on May 1, 2003, edition of “Hardball” on MSNBC
#3
He speaks like Winston Churchill
“I think he [Bush] spoke a lot like the best of Churchill today in the beginning of that press conference, facts, bad information, complete information. […]”
-Chris Matthews on June 14, 2006, edition of “Hardball” on MSNBC
#2
Fawning Over Bush’s “Sunny Nobility“
“You know, Tony [Blankley], there is in the past, it’s not always there, but sometimes it glimmers with this man, our president, that kind of sunny nobility. How does he bring it back, because it hasn’t been apparent for a while now?”
-Chris Matthews on October 24, 2005, edition of “Hardball” on MSNBC
#1
He “Belongs on Mouth Rushmore“
“Well, it’s probably the greatest gamble since Roosevelt backed Britain before World War II. The president deserves credit, if this gamble comes through — and it’s not clear yet. If his gamble that he can create a democracy in the middle of the Arab world and he does it, he belongs on Mount Rushmore.”
-Chris Matthews on December 16, 2005, edition of “Hardball” on MSNBC
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Maybe the next time Whitlock wants to make one of these lists again, he ought to make a disclosure that Matthews was a strong admirer of President Bush years before Obama even decided to run for President, let alone becoming a public figure.
But, then again, this would be based on the assumption that NewsBusters actually cares about accuracy and putting an effort into giving full context on anything.
That would be some wishful thinking, though.
