John Amato:
Heather sums up this segment quite well, but I want to focus on Jennifer Rubin's performance here. She is totally out of control as she freaks out on Matthews and Aravosis. Talk about being "unhinged". Rubin becomes the embodiment of unhinged-ness. My God, she's as unhinged as it gets. But let's not forget that Republicans create their own reality, so I guess in her brave new world she's just being normal. As Digby states:
Perhaps this still explains the Republican strategy better than anything else:
"When we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors…and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do."
That's not all that different from this:
Romney pollster Neil Newhouse: "We’re not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact checkers."
On a more prosaic level, some of this is a function of the massive amounts of information out there and the nature of the two party system. All it takes is for one side to tell a lie and the other side to call them out, for many people to retreat to their partisan corners. They don't feel capable of sorting out the truth so they rely on their tribal identificati.
Howard Kurtz apparently thinks there wasn't anyone more qualified than Mitt Romney fan-girl and neocon, right-wing blogger Jennifer Rubin to weigh in on Chris Matthews' dust up on Morning Joe last week with RNC chairman, Reince Priebus, because that's one of the guests he brought on Reliable Sources to discuss it this Sunday.
Rubin took the opportunity to call Matthews "unhinged" and attack MSNBC for their liberal convention coverage lineup and to make some snide remarks about liberalism not being in the "mainstream." As Kurtz's other guest, John Aravosis rightfully pointed out, that aggressive interview style we saw from Matthews with Priebus is "what Matthews does," and like some of his counterparts on Fox, such as Hannity and O'Reilly, he very often gets aggressive with guests, interrupts them and talks over them, although I'd never put Matthews in the same category as either of those two. Matthews can be a bully at times, but he's no Hannity or O'Reilly.
If Rubin didn't realize that before last week, I guess she never watches his show, because John is right, Matthews can be and is often very aggressive with his guests. I for one was glad he was with Priebus, but that's because I'm fully aware of how Priebus normally handles interviews, which is he filibusters and makes sure he gets all of his talking points in and then runs out the clock. He's also an unabashed liar and gets away with lying without being called for it on a regular basis.
The only reason she cares one iota about how Matthews acted this time around is it's an excuse to attack all of them for their convention coverage for supposedly being too "liberal." Note to Rubin and Kurtz on that matter: Andrea Mitchell, Chuck Todd, Tom Brokaw, Brian Williams, and Chris Matthews for that matter, are not liberals. And if Rubin thinks Matthews is "unhinged" it makes me wonder if the woman reads her own column or has watched herself on the television. She didn't mind getting into it with and interrupting Aravosis during this very interview.
Kurtz followed that by allowing Rubin to pretend that Paul Ryan wasn't really lying during his convention speech. Aravosis called her out for it and Kurtz wrapped things up with the typical Villager, we just have two different points of view and I can't dare let the audience know who's lying game. Pitiful.
