Chris Matthews: "I Want To Do Everything I Can To Make This New Presidency Work"

Chris Matthews appeared on "Morning Joe" Thursday morning, and in the context of discussing the Obama transition — and Rahm Emanuel's motives for waffling on the chief of staff position — told Joe Scarborough it is not his job to question Emanuel's motives.

"You know what?" Matthews said. "I want to do everything I can to make this thing work, this new Presidency work."

Scarborough and co-host Mika Brzezinski pressed Matthews on his claim, asking if it his his job as a journalist to make the Presidency work.

"Yeah, that's my job. My job is to help this country...to make this work succsesfully, because this country needs a successful Presidency, more than anything right now," Matthews said.

"As Americans, Chris Matthews, we are all rooting for the success of Barack Obama," Scarborough said. "America is at a perilous time. But you just talked about being a journalist, and your job as a journalist is not to question motives. Then, two seconds later, you said your job was to make this Presidency a success. That's curious."

Later, Scarborough said, "We all wish [Obama] well, we just don't think it's our job to make this work anymore than it was a journalist's job to make the Iraq War have a successful launch."

Watch, and enjoy Time Managing Editor Rick Stengel knocking Newsweek's Barack Obama cover, which features a photo that Stengel called "about two years old," below:

Comments

[paixa3]

As if the morning joke is a journalist­..........­.....geeez­uzz

[RainDance33]

Chris was exactly right by suggesting that respectable journalists should not be distracted by such trivia. Leave that to the rag mags. Substantive journalism is what is required and that is obviously what he was saying. The media need to grow up and stop being distracted by irrelevancies often trying to create a story where often there isn't one, and in the process often completely missing the important issues that do really matter to people. We talk about 'dumbing down' and the media have played a big role in this. We really have been subjected to some very poor journalism in recent times. Good on Chris Matthews.

[lwfky]

But Joe and Mika have sure shown that it will be their job to do everything they can to tear down an Obama administration.

[old lady]

Tearing themselves down in the process. Suppose they gave a show and nobody watched

[schicklett3]

I'm with Chris Matthews...we need to get behind our new president and help all we can.
Joe Scarborough O'Reilly can pound sand (he has the worst show on tv and should be on fox news instead of MSNBC). I boycotted him months ago.

[pthesmith]

It is the job of the press to facilitate the flow of information between the government and its citizens. For what purpose? TO MAKE GOVERNMENT WORK BETTER!!! Joe's an idiot.

[Amalek]

Neither of these guys are journalists. They are pundits.

Matthews is just saying he will do what O'Reilly and Hannity did for the last eight years. Don't like that? then tune into a real news show instead of the cable partisan stuff.

[43dogs50]

agreed

[rock bottom]

hehe, Chris still has that shiver going up his leg... as do I =)

[invisible]

Exactly... I cannot STAND Joe Scarborough. Matthews made him look dumb when he mentions questioning motives. Scarborough tries to "come back" by questioning Matthews wanting the presidency to work. I liked Scarborough when this show began. Over the course of the last year, he has become a complete egomaniac and a flat out JERK. He now constantly parses words when his ego has been bruised. And Mika is going to have to begin standing up for what she really believes in and not simply force feed false objectivity, succumbing to Scarborough's fake outrage over meaningless incidents. It's a new day. Step up!

[treetracker]

Joe and his sidekick consistently abuse Mika. It's a good thing it's not me sitting there or Joe's eye would be blackened. With all the comments accusing sexism, Joe gets left out of that charge. He is a sexist and has no respect for Mika at all. Word of advise Mika - take him in the back room, lower your voice to an almost inaudible whisper and through gritted teeth tell Joe to never talk to you like that again. Trust me...he'll get the message. A cast iron skillet near your feet will enforce your resolve.

[RODERICK098]

CHRIS MATHEWS SHOULD BE FIRED. It is poor reporting he states to quess the motives of a politician. He TOLD US THE MOTIVES OF HILLARY CLINTON- all of them negative and with no basis in fact and he was always wrong about' her. He is a gas bag who combines real facts with the lies put out there by the right wing think tanks. Almost every he says is gibberish and he gives the impression that he is telling you truth but I have read a lot and believe me what he is saying is almost always wrong and garbled. He is also extremely sexist and for tha fact alone the female audience should be pushing for his dismissal. Its time the man with the Gomer Pyle grin left the airways. Can you believe he gets six million a year to give out the garbage that he does nightly. Americans really have to start demanding better news coverage on television.

[auteur]

Apparently Lady Lynn De Rothschild is posting on Huffington now, someones suffering from a little Hillary disenfranchisement huh. Let the Obama Derangement Syndrome begin I guess. ............... And yes, Chris is worth every cent.

[oommoore]

Ignore her. maybe she'll go away.

[RODERICK098]

I see that Chris Mathews fans are cut from the same chintz as he is. Let's name call and not really deal with the facts and the truth in a discussion.

[old lady]

Just pulling a Michelle Bachman Back Tracking to save face.

[MiddleofAmerica]

I actually watched the show this am and saw this exchange. Joe was being sarcastic and outright nasty all morning even before Chris came on.

He wanted somebody to agree with him that President Obama had made his first blunder.

He even showed this little attitude toward Andrea Mitchell when she tried to tell him, Emanuel did not want to leak the story. Joe wanted so bad for somebody to agree with him.

Joe was not willing to accept from either Chris or Andrea that President Obama wanted to make the announcement himself and that Rahn Emanuel did not want to say on television that he had accepted the job.
Chris was trying to move on past that but Joe wouldn't let it go and then Mika got in on the conversation.

[Mapleave]

I saw this too and I agree-- Joe was ridiculous. So gratuitously nasty and sarcastic ...even after Andrea Mitchell told Joe he was flat wrong on this. After that exchange and Joe's overwrought rant, Chris was really saying to Joe : you are an ass...you are devising a silly canard here- a rant for the sake of ranting. Joe was pathological today.

[ParanoidPollyanna]

Scarborough is just an old middle-aged gas-baggy version of the "junior" version of him, the canned bow-tie little jerk, "Tucker" Carlson. If MSNBC wants to have an early Morning Show, it should be HOSTED by someone who is neither a conservative Rethug or a Democratic partisan, either. Can't they find somebody who would just be old-fashioned NEUTRAL, & ditch the silly "Crossfire" type theatrics. I can't even watch the damn show, it's even more tedious and BORING than the old "IMUS" in the Morning show. Boring and Tedious!.

[Nikola Tesla]

Andrea punked him.

It was funny.

[treetracker]

Joe is always a sarcastic a$$. I wish they'd cancel his show. I've quit watching him. Everyone should turn him off - if his ratings go down and they'll cancel the show. Then he can move over to Fox where he belongs.

BTW - is Fox going to be hiring researchers when they no longer get their talking points from the adminstration?

Chris can be a pain at times - it's been softball more than hardball - lately he's been playing it a little harder, which is a good thing. He is a pundit, not a journalist, so he's allowed to take sides. I'm guessing if Obama messes up though, he'll be calling him on it.

[SuperFobby]

agh! i can't believe i agree with joe scarborough about something.

no, the media's job is not to help the presidency succeed.

but at the same time - where was all this journalistic probity in the runup to the iraq war? joey just rediscovers this now?

[Ugonna]

actually, it is the people's job to help the government run the country well. It is the government for the people and by the people. We have to know what Obama is doing and keep him on his toes and let him know how we feel. Obama said all along that his presidency will be a JOINT effort with all of America, not just him being the superhero. He is only one man, the problems are HUGE and need everyone's input. The mantra is "Yes WE Can", not yes BATMAN can!!!

[auteur]

I feel the need to support Chris because of the people that have got their feathers ruffled up over their misinterpretation of what he said. He's right. You don't report on motives. You investigate theories on motives and then report FACTUAL results. Anything else is hyperbolic journalism. Perfect examples of this is the Iraq war. Two motives that were thrown out into the wind: 1. Bush went to revenge the attempt on his dad's life by Saddam, and 2. Bush went in to steal the oil.

These two theories while being probable, cannot be argued or proven unless you can get into the mind of Bush. (Scary thought going in there.) So, we are best served investigating what can be uncovered.... and those are the facts. Bush did give reasons that could be investigated, WMD's & AL QAEDA, so let's investigate those reasons and see if they are factual. Obviously, if these so called journalists like Joe and Mika had spent time uncovering the truth rather then blathering on about conspiracies we may have uncovered that Bush's stated reasons were FALSE before it was to late. That is journalism, that is Woodward & Bernstein.

So Joe, let's stop throwing stones, and start throwing out facts. Maybe then you can claim the title of journalist. Until then you and your cohorts are nothing but tabloid bafoons, or worst yet Sean Hannities.

[RobHughey]

oh snap. :)

[priestessja]

Well said!

Unless Joe is prepared to do some work to research those facts, though, or to pay someone to do it for him, all he'll be able to continue throwing is ... snark....

[auteur]

JOE THE SNARK, I like it.

[priestessja]

Oh, Joe, Joe, Joe!

I’ve gone from wanting to throw something at or shoot the tv every morning when you get on your Republican high horse. You pretend to be so unbiased, it hurts!

Then I sent off emails begging you to do your homework and if that was too much, to at least watch Keith Olbermann’s show to catch the researched points. (Rachel was not yet anchoring her own show, but now you can watch hers since you can’t stand Keith.. )

Now I just don’t watch you. I click over, when I remember, to check for Chucky T or interesting guests who are smart and firm enough to not let you cow them.

Exactly less than ten hours after President-Elect Barack Obama won you were busy snarking. I suppose that was your brand of putting ‘feet to fire’.

Chris Matthews has more heart in his pinky fingernail than you will ever have in 1,000 years. And he's a gentleman, even when he's finished trapping his guests, without cowing them or trying to make them look stupid. He just lets them do that themselves.

cont'd below...

[BushBites]

Things were different in 2004:

The MSNBC cable channel defended an appearance by a host of one its programs at a stump rally for President Bush in Pensacola, Fla., saying the channel has different rules for news anchors and what it called opinion anchors. Joe Scarborough, host of the nightly ''Scarborough Country'' program, could be seen on news reports on Tuesday standing and applauding numerous times during the president's speech. Mr. Bush even cited him in his speech, saying he appreciated Mr. Scarborough's presence in the district he once served as a Republican congressman. ''I'm glad he did it,'' said Rick Kaplan, the president of MSNBC, said of Mr. Scarborough's appearance. ''It was good for the profile of the show to remind people he has an inside view of politics.'' Mr. Kaplan said the channel had separate standards for what it considered its news anchors, who include all four others who lead prime-time programs on the channel: Chris Matthews, Dan Abrams, Deborah Norville and Keith Olbermann. Bill Carter (NYT)

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A05E4DA1F3CF932A2575BC0A9629C8B63&fta=y

[meltingpot101]

I wonder where Dan Abams is....he sure would be better to wake up to. As of yesterday I FIRED Morning Joe....no more Rude Awakenings for me.

[priestessja]

cont'd:

All Chris was saying was that you can put down your bias for a little bit before you start your usual criticism of Barack Obama. Even when you're trying to compliment his campaign you seem like you're gagging. And if Rahm Emanuel can get you so ticked, he must be GOOOOOOD!!!! Another Yeah for Obama!

Look Joe, this 'journalism' thing isn't working. So why don’t you go take 100 years to plan your next campaign. Maybe that will give you enough time to learn from the feet of a master like Barack Obama so that you have a chance at winning.

Bye, study well and make sure you take good notes!!!

Can’t MSNBC find two competent, research-friendly anchors for the morning slot???? There must be better than Joe and pee-pee-cluck-cluck Mika… Try to duplicate the heart of Chris, the passion and laser-like coverage of Keith and the efficient, dynamic probing and unstoppable humor of Rachel.

PLEASE deliver us!!!