Matthews Brings on "Independent" Woman Michelle Bernard to Discuss Robert McDonnell's Thesis
By Heather Wednesday Sep 02, 2009 5:00am
Chris Matthews brings on "independent" woman Michelle Bernard, from the very inappropriately named Independent Women's Forum, to discuss the recently discovered thesis by the wingnut Robert McDonnell who is running for Governor of Virginia.
What's the matter Chris? Phyllis Schlafly wasn't available? Here's some background on Ms. Bernard's "Independent" Women's Forum.
The Independent Women's Forum (IWF) is an organization that, according to its website, "was established to combat the women-as-victim, pro-Big Government idealogy of radical feminism.
The IWF is funded by Richard Melon Scaife, Koch Industries and other conservative groups.
In October 2003, the IWF announced an affiliation with Citizens for a Sound Economy, now the Americans for Prosperity Foundation, with whom it shares its premisis and staff.
Founded by Rosalie (Ricky) Gaull Silberman, and Barbara Olson in 1992, the IWF grew out of the ad hoc group, Women for Judge Thomas. Its main goal is opposing what it sees as radical feminism.
IWF is a secular counterpart to Religious Right women's groups such as Eagle Forum and Concerned Women for America, but these groups often work together. People for the American Way describe IWF as a group that "opposes affirmative action, gender equity programs like Title IX, and the Violence Against Women Act."
IWF members include academic women who attempt to rebut arguments in favor of measures promoting what they may perceive as privileges for women in educational affairs. One of these papers, by Judith Kleinfeld, a professor of psychology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, heavily criticised a MIT study on discrimination against women in MIT's science department, calling their findings "junk science."
IWF's constantly-updated web site shows an ever-expanding sphere of concerns, which are viewed from a conservative perspective.
Their National Advisory Board according to the article, Lynne Cheney, Abigail Thernstrom and Wendy Lee Gramm. Note to Chris Matthews, just because someone calls themselves "independent" doesn't mean their views are not "far right". Michelle Bernard and her organization are not anything that could be remotely described as centrist.
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Matthews is NOT in the news business. He is in the infotainment industry. His job is to gin up controversy. He does it with this blowhard.
sometimes she sounds reasonable and she certainly did like Obama the candidate and was happy when he won.
In fact once in awhile I wonder why she still has a job there.
Matthews will never be taken seriously when he has nuts like her on his show.
all these right-wing puppet organizations have names that sound like the exact opposite of what they actually represent? Oh wait...nevermind.
In blackface.
republicanism is a mental illness!
Unfortunately the illness transcends skin color. Having known a few black conservatives I'm sure.
it can't be said enough out-loud, what the tactic is that's being used here. if you want to undermine and publicly distort the case for women's rights, you have a woman do it, not some craggy old white man. if you want to undermine AA and minority rights, you have a 'minority' person do it. that's what Michelle Bernard is. she is the stealth woman that people like Scaife USE to erode women's rights, and the tactic works very well on people of Matthews' generation, who just don't have either enough savvy or cynicism to see it for what it is.
probably helps seal the deal, more often than not.
Matthews has both the savvy and the cynicism...he just chooses to facilitate such tactics to further his own aims. Which makes him no better than the likes of Scaife. Bitter enders from PA.
Is this the same group that is doing the fearmongering breast cancer campaign to scare women into opposing healthcare reform?
There are two groups, Independent Women's Forum, Independent Women's Voice. Is Bernard both? These rightwing front groups morph and divide so fast they are the political equivalent of cancer in the system.
May they instead of we reap what they sow.
That's exactly who they are. Tweety should have jumped her about that.
Edited to add... Rachel should invite her on to discuss the IWF's breast cancer attack on health care reform. Thom Hartmann interviewed one of Bernard's sidekicks about this issue yesterday and I nearly threw up. There's no way Michelle Bernard should be allowed to shine her way past that shitpile.
Is there any position lower than "cable news show analyst?" If they're not a blatant tool from some "think tank," complete with talking points on index cards, they're disgraced figures whose opinion should never not be met with a laugh track. Tom Tancredo couldn't win a hot legs competition if he ran against amputees, and there are no questions befitting of Ken Blackwell and Tom Delay other than "will you please put your hands over your head and face the wall?" Or, you could see Pat Buchanan put that last layer of bullshit on Richard Nixon's perpetual image repair.
I doubt it.
The guests are selected by the show's producers (under orders from on high).
Tweetie just tweets them with kid gloves...
Formerly an afternoon staple in my household, Chris Matthews and "Hardball" are no longer welcome in my living room. And my blood pressure is far better for it, too. Another poster was absolutely correct... all Matthews does is gin up controversy.
Thanks, Mark B. I could not agree more. Matthews is a spittle-flecked tool and I can no longer bear the sound of his voice or the constant parade of wretched bobbleheads that comprise his guest list. Matthews gets off on providing color commentary on what to him is the entertaining "game" of politics, aka life-and-death issues to those less privileged. Used to be that once in a great while he partially redeemed himself by digging in his heels on a matter of principle, but those moments were always too few and far between.
Stopped watching Matthews too. He's full of shit too.
I'm down to two hours. KO and Rachel. Just can't get into the Ed Show.
I think he's great.
Last night Rachel Maddow had a report that the Independent Women's Forum was sponsoring TV ads against Health Care reform. The ads were basically saying that if Health Care reform was enacted, more women would die of breast cancer. Another fear tactic from Right Wingers in the guise that they are concerned for women's health.
Independent Women's Forum wouldn't exist without Corporate
Conservativefunding. Nothing but astroturf here. And their concern for women is bogus.We need more like her!
Her interview with Ridge was a classic example of what an interview should be.
One of the few real people on the "news" or "talk show" circuit... The women drawn to the IWF are republican(t)s for certain... any woman who thinks for herself and is truly independent would never subject herself to this branding or stooooopidity! As for the names they pick, it's so Orwellian I want to vomit... these unreal women make me sick and embarrassed to be associated with them by gender (only).
Emily's List, started and funded by - independent women
Planned Parenthood, started and funded by - independent women
Code Pink, started and funded by - independent women
IWF, started and funded by - patriarchal men.
Hey, Michelle, do you really think you're being independent when Schiafe is paying your way? Or, are you hoping he'll buy you a makeover and keep your career alive long after you should fade into obscurity, like his other "girls": Paula Jones and Ann Coulter. Nice footsteps you're following in. How much is Schaife paying you to be a turncoat against your own? Hope it's worth it.
Proof of evolution: Schaife's choice in paid shills has evolved from trailer trash Jones to abrasive and obnoxious Coulter to an intelligent-sounding black woman.
But it's still all about rich men trying to keep women in their place. Nice work, Michelle. Maybe Schaife'll let you come out of the fields and be a house slave someday - if you continue to do what you're told.
Repuglican women in general.
I've never heard anything but right wing propaganda leaving this woman's mouth. How can anyone call her a moderate with a straight face. She calls herself a moderate independent to give herself credibility, but she's practically Michelle Malkin.
...whenever she was Matthews' guest, during the presidential campaign, but since I gave up watching "Hardball" when he started his false equivalency line of discussions during the stimulus debate, I guess I missed her metamorphosis. I'm really sorry to hear that she's changed.
BTW, didn't Joan Walsh have Michelle's position with IWF once upon a time? Joan, IMHO, is the most fair-minded person on cable news so perhaps IWF has undergone a metamorphosis too. Not for the better.
is as pervasive as it is only because his show is torturously interspersed between Schultz, Olbermann and Maddow, up to four times a day.
It is not fair to equate Matthews and Glen Beck politically. However in terms of stability, rude behavior and general sanity, they are just different stamps from the same post office.
Boycott Hardball sponsors, let MSNBC feel some push-back from their alleged target audience. Or replay the clip of Matthews, Wasserman-Shultz, and some right wing hack, all talking at the same time, without any of them backing down.
Matthews is so afraid of women. There is no way he could have an actual feminist on his show. He would seriously wet his pants.
I've seen her presented there as a 'liberal'.
The most useless show on PBS. Worth writing your PBS affiliate and asking why the worthless TV show is on PBS.
Jonnan
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