For Chris Matthews, this guy pretty much uses his guests as sounding boards for his own views. He doesn’t ask them questions, he makes question-statements. It’s not unusual for him not to let a guest get more than a few words in edgewise. But my BIGGEST gripe about him is how he very often asks guests why someone else (not the guest) did something or what someone else (again, not the guest) thinks. For example, he’ll ask a guest, “what was so and so thinking when he/she said or did XYZ”. Just once, I’d love to see the guest reply “how the fuck should I know?!”
For MSNBC, I NEVER learn anything watching that network (except Maddow). For every show it’s a couple of minutes describing a story, then the rest discussing it with pretty much the SAME people that they pass around from show to show (again, except Maddow. She doesn’t just talk to the same people over and over). Even Fox has that “Happening Now” daytime show where they only do news.
It used to be when I was home all day, I’d have MSNBC on. I’ve switched to Al Jazeera America and only watch Maddow, sometimes Alex Wagner and Chris Hayes.
What MSNBC does is commentary, not news. And it’s TV commentary at that. I simply can’t consider anyone who gets the bulk of their news and commentary from TV to be well-informed. Which is a shame, since print seems to be going the way of the dinosaurs.
With that said, although I’m pretty sure it’s been said before, I get more insight from your average five-minute Daily Show segment than a week of fill in your least favorite TV pundit.
I had some heart for the MSNBC back in the day. I really enjoyed Countdown, I thought that was the perfect format for Olbermann’s smug condescension and wry approach. Enjoyment level high. Then along came Rachel Maddow’s show and she sure did deliver. Enjoyment level even higher. Then no more Olbermann, and that was it for me. As much as I liked Rachel and her show, without Olbermann as the lead-in (I DVR’d the re-broadcast of both shows post primetime, can’t say for certain they ever aired back-to-back), I couldn’t be bothered.
Nothing else on the network interested me, Matthews in particular. I dislike shrill, and man is he shrill. Plus, as you’ve alluded to, his style is purely ego-driven and all about his point of view, anyone else in the room, or on the screen, is completely incidental.
MSNBC tried too hard to emulate Fox Don’t-Call-That-News, and suffered for it. I suppose the market dictates, but I’m just not in the market for that dreck.
Actually, Countdown was the first show where I noticed that Olbermann would announce a topic, give a short, slanted, description of it, then have the SAME small group of guests (frequently Richard Wolfe) on to discuss it. Almost EVERY night.
Chris Matthews has become too much like Bill O’Reilly in his presentation and guest interactions. Give me Maddow, Hayes, and Todd. And Luke Russert seems to be trying hard to be as good a newsman and analyst as his father was; here’s hoping he succeeds.
Chris Matthews is just dumb. I tuned him out when he did the promos that praised “American Exceptionalism,” without understanding what that phrase meant.
Chris is the weak link in the MSNBC chain. Too often he lets guests get their talking points in without challenging them, or he goes the other extreme and won’t let them finish a sentence.
Rachel is top notch, as is Chris Hayes. Lawrence O’Donnell is also very good, he was the first and only TV guy that understood that the real scandal in the IRS story is that these groups were getting tax exempt status without working exclusively in the public interest.
