On Monday, MSNBC host Chris Matthews is slated to return to Hardball from a holiday break for the first time since The Daily Caller’s Amber Athey published a New Year’s Eve piece detailing how Matthews had reportedly created an inhospitable work environment.
Fill-in host Steve Kornacki repeatedly assured viewers last week that Matthews would return, stating on Friday that “he’ll be back on Monday night” in a possible allusion to Athey’s story.
Athey’s dogged reporting began with a December 16 bombshell that NBC had paid off a woman who accused the liberal pundit of sexual harassment. For a follow-up, she cited “three of his show’s guests and two former producers” to bolster her revelation that “Matthews runs an at times openly derisive and brazenly sexist news operation that has led at least some staffers to describe themselves as victims of ‘battered wives syndrome.’”
Here’s more from her story:
Two former NBC producers independently alleged Matthews would rate the looks of his female guests on a scale and said Matthews was so abusive that staff joked about being battered women. The interviews in total paint Matthews as a tyrant liable to fly off the handle at the slightest mistake, who was eager to objectify women and made inappropriate sexual comments appear to be a matter of course for someone in his position.
Both former NBC producers requested anonymity out of concern for their future careers. One is actively seeking a job in media and the other still works closely with MSNBC. One expressed fears about being labeled a “troublemaker” and cited the string of former Fox News women who have all but disappeared from television.
While her December 16 item dealt with a case that occurred in 1999 (which was the year that Hardball transitioned from CNBC to MSNBC), the newer claims were even more noteworthy considering the fact that, between the two producers, their time with Matthews “nearly spans the existence” of his show.
As for specific details, Athey’s sources told her that “Matthews would allegedly use pet names like ‘cutie’ and ‘sweetie pie’ to refer to female guests and was constantly making uncouth and ‘boorish’ remarks about women” and he would often “decid[e] which guest was the ‘hottest of the week.’”
Whether it was ogling over Barbara Boxer, Erin Burnett, or Melania Trump, Matthews has quite the history of behaving like this when the cameras are on, so it only solidifies the credible of these reports about his actions when the cameras were off.
