MSNBC is a hot mess right now. Increasingly, the liberal network operates at the behest of whatever liberal blue-check journalists on Twitter are saying, not based on any actual, reasonable editorial standards or based on what typical viewers demand. The latest example of this comes with the firing of Chris Matthews.
The longtime Hardball host announced his retirement Monday night in the opening to his show, with a dramatic monologue in which he said, “Let me start with my headline tonight. I’m retiring. This is the last Hardball on MSNBC, and, obviously, this isn’t for a lack of interest in politics.”
“The younger generations out there are ready to take the reins,” Matthews said. “Compliments on a woman’s appearance that some men, including me, might have once incorrectly thought were OK, were never OK. Not then and certainly not today, and, for making such comments in the past, I’m sorry.”
While it’s being billed as a mutual decision, some behind-the-scene reports suggest MSNBC is pushing him out. Either way, they’re clearly happy to see him go, after the host has come under fire for his fiery anti-Sandersista punditry in recent weeks, and renewed attention has come to past allegations that he made sexually demeaning remarks to women.
5. Sources close to Matthews bill this as mutual decision…which it is on paper. But he was told it was time to move on by NBC News management
They didn’t want to deal with his inappropriate/offensive comments, gaffes, & more stories about his past conduct during election year
— Yashar Ali ? (@yashar) March 3, 2020
Chris Matthews announces — on a Monday — he’s retiring and that today’s “Hardball” will be the last.
“After my conversation with NBC, I decided tonight will be my last Hardball. I’ll tell you why. The younger generations are ready to take the reigns.” pic.twitter.com/Y3HV9Qy35l
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) March 3, 2020
Not necessarily to defend Matthews — maybe he should go, and maybe he shouldn’t (Reason’s Robby Soave makes some convincing points for the latter) — but as Tiana Lowe explains, the renewed attention to his sexual remarks is awfully politically convenient for some people. Matthews survived #MeToo right up until he angered the Bernie Bros and Warren fans.
There’s also another important element of hypocrisy to this whole affair. Why is MSNBC pushing out Matthews while continuing to employ and feature prominently serial liar and homophobe Joy Reid? Remember, the AM Joy host wrote a cruel, blatantly bigoted blog for years, calling gay men gross, falsely linking us to pedophilia, and laughing about her own homophobia.
A question: Why does Christ Matthews have to retire, but Joy Reid can get away with lying about her past homophobia and getting hacking? She’s woke, he’s not, is that the difference? https://t.co/VYMoTTjbie
— Robby Soave (@robbysoave) March 3, 2020
There is no greater threat to journalism than weak management — this is true with respect to both right and left wing pressure campaigns
— Jon Levine (@LevineJonathan) March 3, 2020
It would have been one thing if she’d apologized. But instead, she lied through her teeth about it, blaming a mysterious “hacker.” Reid could offer zero evidence, and the Internet Archive investigated and debunked her claims. They were lies. Yet MSNBC continues to present Reid as if she’s a credible person.
If making a few inappropriate comments to women over the years is enough to kill Chris Matthews’s show, then Joy Reid’s mendacity ought to kill her entire career.
This probably won’t happen, though — at least, not until left-wing Twitter journalists demand it. And they won’t, because apparently when you’re woke and have minority victim status like Reid, you get to play by different rules than do white men like Matthews.
