Chris Matthews Apologizes for Calling West Point "The Enemy Camp"
By Heather Thursday Dec 03, 2009 12:00pm
Chris Matthews must have gotten a whole lot of hate mail for this one because he made sure he apologized for his "he went to maybe the enemy camp tonight" statement first thing on his following show. He still seemed to want to rationalize why he said it, but I'm glad he realized it was an extremely stupid comment to make and apologized. Now if we could just get him to do the same for all the other ridiculous crap that he spouts on a daily basis.
Mr. Amato and I have talked about Matthews' problem with doing this sort of thing a while back, and I agree with John. Matthews just has no filter between what goes through his brain and what comes out of his mouth. He's got a terribly bad habit of saying the first thing that pops into that head of his and thinking out loud on the air. I think his comment about West Point was just another recent example.
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Chris Matthews - another example of how being a Beltway hack can lead to a successful career despite shortfalls in talent and ability.
from this self-serving, back-pedaling explanation is the crocodile tears.
Matthews is Triple A to Beck's MLB. Not there yet.
I love the way he spends ten minutes asking a question, then won't shut the hell up long enough for someone to answer it.
he does seem enamored of the sound of his own voice, doesn't he?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cV6CkPuRkc0&fe...
Mr. Matthews was able to say all those words without significant mount of drool coming out of his lips. That is somewhat of an achievement for him, so congratulations!
his set must have a level riser ...
(sorry, variation of the old drummer joke ..
apologies to old drummers :-)
Makes it sound like they're into:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5dHkF3IZ0g
Matthews has long sickened me. He's just a likely to lick the shoes of repub powerboys as he is to criticize them. Anything might fall out of his mouth. It's disgusting to watch him.
Just like the tweety bird he has a great big head with very little inside.
When you look at the times Matthews has shot his mouth without an apology, I think we should look at the positive side of this.
I do think however that this is a pretty standard 'cover your ass' kind of apology. If Matthews does decide to run for office, these are the kinds of statements that are going to get him into deep trouble and he knows it - so i expect we'll see more apologies from him as he moves closer to leaving hi job to run for office.
You can just about picture the attack ad:
'Chris Matthews thinks our brave troops are the enemy!'
P.S.:
I'd just like to point out one of the observations I've made here at C&L that make it hard for me to take anyone here seriously:
Whenever someone like Matthews or Hitchens say something that sticks to 'conventional liberal wisdom' they get a glowing reception here at C&L, as if they were some kind of intellectual hero of the left. The next week, when they say something folks here disagree with, its the other extreme: airhead, idiot, dickhead. Pick your epithet.
I think we can do better.
The guy apologized. Give him a break. If he hadn't apologized you'd be all over him for not apologizing, when he does you still attack him. What is that?
I agree at least he apologized. The problem is there are two Chris Matthews, one that is a Democrat and one who is Republican. Who he is on any given day is usually whatever direction the political winds are blowing. He frustrates people. You make some valid points though.
He's a typical Washington hack attempting to drive on both sides of the road.
His supporters say he's trying to maintain integrity and show lack of bias. His detractors say he is confused.
The fact is it's just his old Washington hack habits of trying to blow everyone in order to stay in everyone's good graces.
There are valid points made but gonf has gotten to the heart of the matter. Matthews isn't consistent. On one day he's championing Democrats and the next he's joined at the hip with Republicans and is contradicting everything he stood for the previous day.
Matthews IMO is sycophantic. He admires politicans the way teens love rock stars. He's often juvenile the way he speaks without thinking. He needs to cultivate a more mature rhetoric. Anyone who shyly smiles, bows his head like a little boy then compliments the likes of Tom Delay when that criminal has been a guest on the show is problematic. At least he is to me.
This wasn't the worse of media clownfish's statements last nite.
Watching him try to vocalize the tortured logic in his brain as he attempted to "analyze" the speech was truly painful to watch.
...which is more than the right wing hacks can do. They can slap you upside the face, call you a list of filthy names...and have no remorse, because apologizing just isn't "classy".
Tweety drives me nuts sometimes. He is a bit too aggressive on both sides of the issues, and I almost feel like he's a "bor light", but that being said, AT LEAST he has the back bone and ethical standard to fess up when he over steps the bounds as he did in this incident.
(I'm not saying "always has...", but he did this time, and for that I accept his apology.
Speaking from the perspective of a person of color, I acknowledge but do not accept Matthews' apology. He was playing to the neo-cons when he made the "enemy camp" statement. He decided he'd show which side of the fence he was standing on regarding the entire issue. It was his way of showing the president as "the outsider," and a way to deligitimize the president's role of CIC. The best remedy for this type of behavior from anyone in the media is for them to do what they are supposed to do, report the news and only the news.
I stopped watching Matthews a long time ago because of sh!t like this, and whenever he pops up on my teevee screen, I change the channel, and I'm consistent in my attitude and behavior toward him.
You don't accept???....Wow. I'll alert the media.
(And BTW...what the hell does you being "a person of color" have to do with this?)
Look. Tweety stood up and did the right thing. He's an pompous ass but good for him for this one...this time.
Only that Obama is
But in tweety's case is seems to be party not race in this case.
I heard nothing in what Matthews said/implied/hinted that was even remotely about race.
Boneheaded? Yep. Racist? Uh, nope.
In fact, if it shouldn't be about race...then let's not make it about race.
This makes what he said even worse because yesterday Glenn Beck used the exact same phrase about the President going into the enemy camp. When you are speaking the same language as Beck, saying I'm sorry just isn't enough. I appreciate that Matthews is calling himself on the carpet, but what he said was low.
He has a platform that reaches millions.
He has a responsibility to actually engage his brain before he puts his mouth in gear.
You apologize for an indiscretion. The fact is that Tweety pulls this shit alll the time. This time he got called on it.
I used to have platforms
http://www.rockiescast.com/blog/wp-content/up...
does this mean Matthews won't be giving next years commencement address?
Matthews talks too much, you are bound to say something stupid from time to time, and this time, he said something really stupid.
Why he said it is puzzling however, because it doesnt make any sense, I bet alot of these young cadets were behind Obama, at least those who graduated near the top of their class
The people at West Point go there to learn to make war. They have a permanent war now, so they should be happy. We have no valid reason for war. Our country has violated it's own law on every war since the conclusion of WW2. Our nation's military has admitted to thousands of war crimes, and there has been a prosecution of William Calley. Our soldiers are taught that committing war crimes is acceptable. They are taught that this is cause for a promotion as well. They can see this. All of their leaders that opposed breaking the covenants of the Geneva Convention were either fired or quit in protest to a criminal regime commanding them to violate their oath.
Since we haven't had a war that wasn't created for the sale of war tools to a congress that makes a commission on that sale since WW2, what exactly would you call the military academies?
Chrissy is a dipshit that hasn't enough brain power to have a real job. You can tell by the way he speaks that he is not what someone would call "bright". But when he says something that has meaning, even when it isn't what someone likes, we can't fault him for it.
They go there to learn- amongst other things such as engineering (and it's always been a top notch engineering school) and leadership skills- how to fight wars.
Politicians make wars.
All good points, Andy K
They also learn to analyze war, and learn battle line patterns, and the history of wars, so they have combined a better sense of what's a winnable war and what is not, unlike politicians.
in football.
When the became the "enemy camp" that's probably when their football team took a financial hit.
The military academies never lowered their academic standards for athletes. The vast majority of "civilian" colleges did lower those standards, Notre Dame included. But Notre Dame raised their standards about 20 years ago. So, like the military academies, Notre Dame is seeing only relatively spotty success on the gridiron or the basketball court now.
in wars.
My dad went to West Point, saws a bit of action in Korea and then entered the aerospace industry. Engineering was his field of study. He literally was a "rocket scientist."
It's the politicians and corporations who use the military for their nefarious purposes. That's why I resolved NEVER to enter the military. As a George Bernard Shaw-type socialist and pacifist, I could never be a part of that mind-set and paradigm.
BID
Cool bio about your dad. I bet you loved it in school when someone asked you what your dad did for a living. I would have beamed if I could have said my dad was a "rocket scientist".
That is why I know so much about the appropriate containers for rocks and hammers.
He also went to a military college. For a while. He had bad feet, though. Missed all the wars.
This is indicative of the contempt the MSM has for Obama. Like the time he said he got a "chill up his leg" after that speech. I didn't regard that as a compliment. I took it as a smear on Obama. And that is precisely what it was.
There would be no time left for the spewing of said crap.
Matthews tries so hard to be relevant. I don't know if it's age or ego or maybe both. He wants his guests and viewers to believe he is up to date on all the big news and behind the scenes information. In some ways he and Scarborough have a lot in common. For sure their egos are way too large for their brains.
I think Matthews is hen pecked by his wife or you might have another name for that regarding a cat like word. Anyway his wife was on his show one time as his guest and he didn't interrupt her or talk over her one time. He sat there like a school boy and behaved perfectly. I don't know if he envies her or resents her, but there was something unusual about him at that moment.
Bottom line, he tries so hard to be relevant that he speaks without thinking, fearing someone else will make the point before he does.
We have people in here that cut slack to Matthews because they've set the low water mark at Glen Beck.
ewww ...is that where you see all of the sewage, dead shore-birds and nasty garbage clinging to the rocks ...?
It's below that level.
FOX News Headquarters? .... ick.
Yeah - insecurity. He's overcompensating for something and I don't wanna know what.
I could try to guess what he is overcompensating for. Shall I?
His self-proscribed aroma therapy was enough to give me the willies.
Hey Mr. Republican Butt Plug, if you're truly sincere(lol) go to Iraq and Afghanistan and apologize to the millions of dead, injured, traumatized and displaced civilians thanks in part to your cheerleading.
Oh and BTW Chris,
FUCK YOU.
He should just go curl up in a corner and linger lovingly over a photo of Commander Codpiece strutting across that aircraft carrier deck.
Great minds think alike and now you and I have proven that other kinds of minds can think alike too. :)
To me one of if not the most embarrassing moments for Matthews was on the day of "mission accomplished" the way he talked about how hot bush looked in the flight suit. I couldn't help but laugh because it was just so bizarre.
They get angry at what they find bizarre. I am glad you laugh
instead.
The thing was bush didn't look hot to men or women. But somehow Matthews thought he was talking in accordance with one or the other.
You have to remember that the Matthews flightsuit comments were made with Liddy as the guest. Both men seemed to think Bush was hot that day.
Liddy probably had lit his fingers afire like candles and was holding them under Chris's chair.
And that would signify what? See, sometimes I just don't get stuff.
Would that be how Liddy would make Matthews butt hot?
I had forgotten who else was on the show. Of course who better to have on your show than a convicted felon. I guess Delay was busy that day.
.
While Matthews was talking about how "great" Bush looked in his flight suit, the other gushing, ridiculous statement he made was that "America loves it's heroes."
you are overly kind in thinking that it is just a problem with filters that causes Tweety to spout such insanity.
it's the same argument that you could make about someone spouting racist bullshit (Mel Gibson comes to mind):
"If only he hadn't been drinking, his filters would have been working and he wouldn't have said all that anti-Semetic crap!"
Or, in other words, "Too bad the thoughts that rattle around in Gibson's head constantly were let loose upon the air, none of us wanted to know where he really comes from, now give me another Mad Max movie!"
The thoughts are there, Tweety's problem isn't his "filter" it's his brain.
speaking first, thinking second. Can I get his salary for it?
At least he apologized. Which is more than can be said about Limbaugh, Coulter, Malkin, Beck and the other reich wing haters comments about Obama and other Democrats.
I doubt he would have done it if he worked for Fox as most of those you named do.
your are sorry. Or recognize it.
I don't think there will ever be a cure for tweety's verbal diarrhea
The only cure for Tweety is RETIREMENT.
Who is suprised this is even an "issue"??
I mean I'm no genius but even I "got" what he was saying, about West Point being a potentially hostile audience.
Kinds of reminds me of the "niggardly" non-issue years back..
I understood what he meant but it probably was a poor choice of words. Sometimes I wonder if he thinks before he speaks. Like some of the other posters have said, his talking over guests drives me crazy,too. His deference to Peggy Noonan awhile back almost made me lose my breakfast. She was coiled up in her chair like the creature in the first Alien movie. Holy shit, what a visual! Arms and legs crossed. They were discussing the President. Her body language said it all.
.
I think from now on, when some "news" or "political" figure makes a truly asinine statement, instead of demanding an apology, they just get effing FIRED. Maybe THAT would be a deterrent from saying stupid shit anymore. One strike and you're out.
are giving Tweety even more credit than he's due. I think he's been phoning it in for a long time, and won't go elsewhere because where else is he going to be so highly paid? Does anyone know how many producers are accountable for his information and what prep he actually does? I never consider him prepared for any of his guests, right or left. It's why he interrupts, so they can't make salient points he would have to address.
Remember when he went on The Daily Show when he was promoting his book and Jon Stewart ripped him a new one? He was a deer-in-the-headlights he was so unprepared for Jon when he should have known better. It's like he walks through all this media thinking he doesn't have to do anything.
at least tweety has the stones to apologize when he's wrong...unlike some other weak kneed cowards we know.
malmedy.
Heather He's got a terribly bad habit of ....thinking out loud on the air.
Chris doesn't think while he's on the air, in fact there's some evidence that he doesn't think. That's not what he gets paid for,
Other than being right about Iraq (he opposed it from the beginning), the Tweety spent the 90s trashing the Clintons, moved on to trashing Gore, went back to trashing the Clintons and now he just wanders the intellectual ocean like the Flying Dutchman.
Great name for him. Too bad he's not Dutch.
But then again, he is a toe head.
Get a life people. Chris Matthews? He is kinda liberal and he should score a few points for trashing neocons like he does most days and criticizing Dick Cheney. Let the man have a little bias and opinion like everyone else, nobody watches his show anyways...except me, i love Hardball.
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