Chris Matthews Is An idiot Part XXVII
by digby
This is simply unbelievable. On Hardball today, Matthews asked Howard Dean and Joan Walsh about Shirley Sherrod's lawsuit:
Dean: I'm not a lawyer Chris, but there are two things about this first of all he cut off the tape he didn't show the whole story....
Matthew: He didn't? What did he cut out?
Dean: No, he cut off the stuff about the redemption part
Matthews: I thought that was in there
Dean: No it was not on the tape that was aired on Fox News
Mattews: yes it was
Dean: It was not on what Fox news reported on their blog
Joan Walsh: It was not on the Brietbart ...
Matthews: Of course it was on Breitbart. He didn't edit it. Not that I know about.
Joan Walsh: Chris, Chris. He did. He says he didn't edit it ...
Matthews: Well he didn't edit it. What did he edit?
Walsh: it's a 43 minute tape I'm sorry Governor Dean, you can do this ...
Dean: No go ahead Joan
Walsh: It's a 43 minute tape Chris. It walks through her whole racial history. He clipped about three minutes where she seems to be saying I didn't do my best for this white farmer because he was white. And that's where it ends. And then later Chris she goes on to tell this amazing ...
Matthews: oh I thought that in the tape that he did put out that it did include that part in it. What he did that mischaracterized it was to suggest that it was in current time in her role as a federal official, not back when she was in the cooperative.
Dean: No, he did that too
Walsh: He did that too. There were two lies but he absolutely clipped, or someone clipped the tape before she could say that powerful message of redemption that Democrats believe in.
Matthews: I am right and you're wrong. Do we have the tape that we can show this because I'm believe is this guys narration is the problem where he said that this is something that goes on in this administration and it suggested heavily that this was her point of view as an appointee of this administration...
Dean: he did that but he also clipped the tape...
Matthews: No it includes in the tape that she changed
Walsh: No it doesn't Chris you have to trust me and the Governor on this.... it's not in the tape that Breitbart put out.
Matthews: Yes it is! Yes it is!
Then he criticized the blogosphere and said that he has made no mistakes on this story.
When they tagged up the tape for him, which had the one sentence about it not being about white and black just before she said she "took him to one of his own" he triumphantly proclaimed: "That redemptive revelation was in the tape Joan" and completely dismissed the criticism of Breitbart. In other words, the clip that posted was only incorrect because Breitbart implied that she'd done all that stuff recently. he should make a great witness for Breitbart in the trial.
This man makes five million dollars a year.
Update: In fairness, Howard Dean sputtered foolishly and said that wasn't the clip he'd seen. Ayeyayay. This really is the stupid season.
Update: Matthews called Walsh back to the studio to re-do this story on his second broadcast with Mark Vogel of Politico instead of Dean. He slightly back tracked and seemed to understand the real narrative a little bit better. Walsh and Vogel were both able to explain it more fully, with Vogel filling in the fact that the little snippet of "white and black" in the Breitbart tape was probably left in there out of amateurishness. The person apparently didn't have the skills to send the clip via email.)( I'm still not sure Matthews really understands this but it's obvious that somebody talked to him.
The good news is that Joan argued with Vogel about Breitbart being called a journalist rather than a propagandist and brought up the ACORN videos. Vogel admitted that that story needed to be corrected as well. Huzzah!
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