MSNBC’s Chris Matthews is having something of a #MeToo moment with feminists now calling for his firing, but I’m confused as to why any of his personal issues with women should make Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren off limits for scrutiny.
Fox News reported Saturday that Matthews was apparently excluded from MSNBC’s coverage of the South Carolina Democratic primary following criticism from a women’s group and liberals on social media. His absence also comes two days after a former journalist at the cable channel, Laura Bassett, claimed in a GQ article that Matthews had in the past remarked on her looks and made other offensive remarks when the two worked together.
But Bassett, and some others, have for some inexplicable reason cited Matthews’s interview last week with Warren as another example of his supposed sexism.
“MSNBC host Chris Matthews, whose long history of sexist comments and behavior have somehow not yet gotten him fired, tested the boundaries of his own misogyny again on Wednesday night,” wrote Bassett.
The “boundaries of his own misogyny” were “tested,” Bassett said, when Matthews dared ask Warren if she truly believed that Michael Bloomberg, one of her rivals in the primary, once told a pregnant employee at his company that she should have an abortion.
Warren had cited the claim in an aggressive attack on Bloomberg during a debate that night in South Carolina. Bloomberg denied it had ever happened.
“The allegation that Matthews, a veteran journalist, was trying so hard to undermine was actually corroborated by a third party to the Washington Post earlier this month,” wrote Bassett. “There was no reason for him to harp on its veracity, except, perhaps, that he himself has made so many sexist comments over the years that he has a vested interest in Bloomberg being let off the hook.”
Wait, what?
Maybe Bloomberg said it. Maybe he didn’t. The woman who made the claim sued him, and the two settled out of court. But if Warren is going to throw it in his face, and it’s fair game to do so, why shouldn’t she be asked any questions about it?
In his interview with Warren, Matthews simply asked if she was confident that the incident had taken place, despite Bloomberg’s denial, and if that, in effect, meant that Warren was calling him a liar.
Where is the misogyny here? When has it ever been out of bounds for a journalist to ask a candidate to defend the things they say during a campaign?
Maybe Matthews is sexist, and maybe he deserves to be fired for inappropriate conduct at work. That doesn’t earn Warren immunity from critical questions.
