Chris Matthews is apparently no fan of blogs or websites, even when they are run by his comrades at MSNBC.
On the August 8 edition of The Reid Report, guest host Jonathan Capehart welcomed the Hardball host to the program to discuss Iraq. He got a whole lot more than he bargained for. Capehart read an excerpt from a piece appearing on Ezra Klein’s Vox.com, which purports to be in the business of ‘explanatory journalism,’ but acts more as an Obama administration mouthpiece. Klein frequently shows up on MSNBC programs, either as a contributor or a guest host. In responding to the excerpt, Matthews angrily ripped Vox: [MP3 audio here; video below]
I don't respond to that kind of stuff, okay. That's not of interest to me. Why would I respond to something like that?...Let me deal with the grown ups – let me deal with the political people and not getting involved in the blogs and the websites, okay. I don’t need to respond to those professionally, okay. That undignifies the whole operation. And I don’t wanna do that.
To Chris Matthews, Vox is clearly just another Internet romper room. One has to wonder if the Hardball host has ever read Vox in the first place, but if he has, it’s a low bar to limbo under even by his standards.
The relevant portion of the transcript is below.
MSNBC
The Reid Report
August 8, 2014
2:37 p.m. Eastern
JONATHAN CAPEHART, guest host of The Reid Report: Chris, let me read you yet another thing. This time from Max Fisher at Vox who framed Obama's message to ISIS this way: If you are a member of ISIS, here is how you might hear Obama's message: Stay away from Iraqi Kurdistan, and the rest of northern Iraq is yours to keep... Invading Iraq’s Kurdish region, it turned out, was Obama’s red line for ISIS.
CHRIS MATTHEWS, host of Hardball: I don't respond to that kind of stuff, okay. That's not of interest to me. Why would I respond to something like that?
CAPEHART: Good point.
MATTHEWS: Let me deal with the grown ups – let me deal with the political people and not getting involved in the blogs and the websites. I don’t need to respond to those professionally, okay. That undignifies the whole operation. And I don’t wanna do that.
