Sticking with the theme of shouting whatever crazy crap pops into his giant head, today Chris Matthews enlightened us all by explaining journalists can't be bloggers, and bloggers contribute nothing to journalism.
The declaration came after NY Daily News reporter Liz Benjamin cited blogs regarding the possible "affair question" with regard to Caroline Kennedy's withdrawal from consideration for the New York Senate seat.
Matthews cut her off: "Let's stick to journalism. I don't do that here. If it's just blogging let's drop it."
Riiiight. Apparently the law and journalism degrees are so darn heavy that graduates can't possibly juggle their qualifications and their keyboards, rendering them physically incapable of being learned AND bloggers. Someone should really tell the thousands of qualified doctors, lawyers, civil rights workers, and authors that they are literally defying the will of nature by posting their thoughtful analyses online.
After all, Chris Matthews knows real journalism. The man has always been a professional whether he's screaming at his producers that "We're all reacting here and we're putting on shit, we have nothing going," or he's thoughtfully analyzing the Middle East situation: "We are not going to fight it out with Iran for the next thirty years to see who the big shit..." Or who could forget his nuanced critique of geo-political post-World War II demographics? "I'm so sick of Southern guys with ranches running this country...I want a guy to run for president who doesn't have a fucking ranch..."
I can taste the Pulitzer. To be fair, bloggers do have a habit of posting speculative gossip, which is surely why Chris Matthews dismissed them as a serious source of news. Matthews has set such a high standard of journalistic integrity that it's no wonder he so zealously dismisses non-Washington insiders as a source of meaningful journalism. Bloggers can be gossipy and shallow.
I gave Val Kilmer a ride home last night. I met--let's go through the names of who I met, John Cusack. I love--I always wanted to meet him. He said he always wanted to meet me. That's kind of cool. And Ed Harris. And Robert De Niro, I met him last night.-- Chris Matthews, post-inaugural party-hopping
Bloggers can make unfair assumptions and be especially crude, sexist, and indecent:
"[T]he reason (Hillary Clinton's) a U.S. senator, the reason she's a candidate for president, the reason she may be a front-runner is her husband messed around. That's how she got to be senator from New York. We keep forgetting it. She didn't win there on her merit. She won because everybody felt, 'My God, this woman stood up under humiliation,' right? That's what happened."
-- Chris Matthews, on Hillary Clinton
Bloggers can be partisan and regurgitate propaganda thoughtlessly:
"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."-- Chris Matthews, post-Obamania
Bloggers can be blowhards, and social ladder climbers, quick to anger, and incapable of calm, thoughtful analysis:
Chris: What did Chamberlain do, just tell me what he did, Kevin? What did Chamberlain do that you didn't like?
Kevin: What, what Chamberlain did?
What, what, the President was talking about, you just said the President was talking about Barack. Look... Chris: You're making a reference to the days before our involvement in WWII. When the war in Europe began. I want you to tell me as an expert, what did Chamberlain do wrong.
Kevin: You're not going to box me in here, Chris. President Bush was making that. I'm glad, I'm glad.
Chris: You don't know, do you? You don't know what Neville Chamberlain did
Kevin: Yeah, he was an appeaser, Chris....
Chris: You are BS'ing me... You don't know what you're talking about.-- Chris Matthews, screaming at right wing blogger, Kevin James
I guess we'll just have to take back that Polk Award from Joshua Micah Marshall, editor and publisher of the widely read political blog, Talking Points Memo. I'm sure Josh will understand, even though the Polk award is a major journalism award, and Talking Points Memo has been hailed for "(leading) the news media in coverage of the politically motivated dismissals of United States attorneys across the country." You know, that little story about the attorney firings that the mainstream media only started covering because those crazy bloggers kept harping on it.
Millions of international bloggers will also have to close up shop, even though they are oftentimes the only windows into their societies, especially if the press is controlled by the government. Sorry, crew, Chris Matthews says you're not real journalists and shouldn't be taken seriously. That means you, Yoani Sanchez, winner of Spain's coveted Ortega and Gasset prizes for digital journalism, and Nasim Fekrat, winner of ISF's award for freedom of expression.
Fold the laptops, people! Chris Matthews fears change!
And now, to leave you with the man himself...
Civilized Discourse. Aaaand...GO!
Crossposted from allisonkilkenny.com.