Matthews Slams Reporter For Citing Blogs: "Let's Stick To Journalism. I Don't Do That Here" (VIDEO)

On "Hardball" Thursday, Chris Matthews issued a stern rebuke to NY Daily News reporter Liz Benjamin when she cited blogs on the possible "affair question" with regard to Caroline Kennedy's withdrawal from consideration for the New York Senate seat.

Earlier in the segment Matthews speculated that the 'personal problem' that was given as Kennedy's reason for withdrawing was her marriage to Edwin Schlossberg. But when Benjamin said that the "affair question" was surfacing on blogs, Matthews abruptly cut her off: "Let's stick to journalism. I don't do that here. If it's just blogging let's drop it."

Read more about Kennedy's withdrawal and the various reasons that have been given as explanations for the sudden reversal.

Comments

[Slave3ombie]

The issues concerning bloggers' rights was fairly upheld considering I have yet to read any comments concerning the frigidity of the first amendment towards the common person's' right to freedom of the press. If the issue over first amendment rights isn't the rumor being cited by Liz Benjamin, then nothing in MSM will ever pursue a full-fledged investigation. Although I haven't finished reading comments from this huffpo entry yet, I felt Chris supporters might be interested in comparing statistics of contributors to mainstream journalism and blog contributers. The full cast and crew of Hardball with Chris Matthews (according to imdb) including guests comes out to 173, and the number of contributing bloggers submitting to this string is 428. That's a difference of 255.

[johnnyjust]

Matthews is right.

Nowadays any fool with a biased and uninformed opinion can have a blog.

And most fools do.

[solarian]

chris when have you ever stuck to journalism

[dlvme2]

Blogs can be a good thing as they make us question, but when they are used as fact before it is proven it can be detrimental. I do not care for Palin, but many important issues on her were skipped because of gossip from the blogs about her children/babies etc that took the attention away from some of the more important issues about her. With Carolyn - everyone has something in their past and if it is just gossip until it is fact it should not be repeated or discussed over and over and made a major issue. Now that Carolyn has backed out even if the affair issue or whatever the gossip is, is true it is irrelevant. Gossip is not a good thing. Blogs can make us think and give us an open forum to discuss topics of the day, but we need to know when to treat blog information as fact or gossip and not treat "everything" on blogs as fact. Gossip can over-shadow important facts because generally is is juicier.

[jazabelz]

Chris did the right thing. I couldn't believe this person would get on the air and start throwing out slanderous suggestions based on blogs!!! I watched this conversation live and immediately sent off an e-mail to Hard Ball that I would immediately change channels if they invited Liz Benjamin back on the show. If I want to read a bunchof trash and gossip I'll read the blogs for myself! She's not much better than Ann Coulter.

[toocoldout]

All these print journalists do is quote blogs and comments on message boards. It's so great to watch a brilliant man like Chris beat the living crap out of them.

[SouthPrairie]

Though there are many hacks on the blogisphere, there are also many educated and informed citizens. The reason that blogging is so popular is that it affords the citizenry an opportunity to smack down the msms' buIIsh!t, when they dole out cr@p and try to "catapult the propaganda!" The media needs checks and balances too and fortunately the educated and informed citizenry have a way to call them out when they feed us b.s. Just take ABC's debate coverage as an example.

[springsm]

Actually she was sounding like a little tweeb of a gossip. AND we have read some of the blogging comments about Caroline's marital stuff and unless they come out and tell it...it is GOSSIP. That is what Chris Matthews was trying to stay away from and truly...it is petty and gossip until it is a fact said by CK or the Kennedy clan. No matter what you think of CK or CM...this young woman was without facts and she said "according to bloggers....". Good grief.

[thats2much]

I like MSNBC, but Chris Matthews is the reason why they are last in overall ratings next to Fox News (which I only watch for entertainment), and CNN, which I never watch. I think he is a bully and very sexist. He has improved somewhat, but his true colors always come out.

[SouthPrairie]

I agree. I felt his comment was a little disingenuous, because these talking heads mirror the blogs all the time. I can't tell you how many times I've blogged on topics the night before the topic was all over these shows. I think Matthews likes to smack down those new to the scene. She simply made the mistake of making explicit what we all know is true implicitly. They are all pretending to be hard core journalists, but are simply following the winds of the blogisphere.

[toocoldout]

Oh please, Chris is the best in the business. And how is he sexist? He yells at women just like he yells at men.

[thats2much]

I'm not sure I agree with Chris Matthews when he says bloggers are not journalist. Bloggers helped elect our current President. Someone whom Mr. Matthews supports. Remember the chill up the leg comment during the campaign? Times have changed, information is processed much differently than it was even 2 years ago. Just because Mr. Matthews is on television does not make him an expert on what should be considered journalism and what should not be. So the real question is, does he have the right to bully his guest and rudely cut them off if he disagrees with what they say. Only in America....

[instarx]

Matthews can be an irritating and opinionated SOB some of the time, but he called this one right.

[Vr6]

One of the reasons why 'the Blogs' exist, is xris mathews - the changeling! He's just defending his job, he recognises their threat to his livelihood - he should be concerned, he's outnumbered too. He should just go fishing, go become a plumber, or something.

[MikeyG]

Although Matthews absolutely is left leaning in his coverage of all things political, he was correct to stop this line of reporting.

The reporter was not citing a particular blog, but "blogs" as a category. Even though there are trustworthy and reliable blogs, I think it is safe to say that taken as a whole you could report virtually anything as "showing up in the blogs". Without further substantiation what she was reporting was nothing more than a rumor.

[tfred]

Oh yeah, and we all know just what a sterling "journalist" Chris Matthews is!

[springsm]

Oh come on...she said "bloggerss" and she was not going to say which one and we all know that comments are made on these bloggings that are "way out there". Chris Matthews did the right thing here.

[bilmardre]

What is with Matthews continuous harping on the Obama administration investigating and prosecuting Cheney and others for war crimes? Did Chris just come to the realization on Jan 20th at noon that torture had possibly been occurring? Why was he not just as enthusiastically calling for impeachment hearings all these months before the inauguration? Did he not have the b*lls to challenge the Bush administration when they were in office?

Right now, Obama should concentrate on the economy and keeping us safe. Hearings can come later if needed. If Matthews and other journalist had been doing there job the problem may have already been solved.