This week’s Mainstream Media Scream features MSNBC’s Chris Matthews in a four-star rant about Sen. Ted Cruz, who he repeatedly compared to former Sen. Joe McCarthy, who crusaded against the “Red scare” of the Cold War.
Several times on Thursday’s show, Matthews linked the two, once claiming that the Texas senator is “so much like Joe McCarthy.”
The rants:
“Ted Cruz and his band on the right are at it again. They want to shut the government down. Big surprise there. Joe McCarthy is at it again …
“This plan by the new Joe McCarthy, which is always to blame the government as lawless, it’s always they’re always traitors to the cause. Where’s he going with this? Because, you know, demagoguery is not a good career choice. It usually lasts for a while, Huey Long, Joe McCarthy, Father Coughlin. They had their spurts, like Roman candles, and then they putter out …
“He’s so much like Joe McCarthy in the way he makes his indictments, the way he sweats and makes these arguments. Everybody is a traitor but him.”
Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains our pick: “Matthews really has become a parody of himself – issuing charges of McCarthyism to impugn a U.S. senator, seemingly unaware of how that makes him guilty of that very same supposed demagoguery.”
Rating: Five out of five screams.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected].
