Son,

Chris Matthews has lost complete touch with reality. Matthews is the host of the MSNBC program Hardball. They call it Hardball because Matthews is supposed to be asking the hard questions. That was probably true – a couple of years ago.

On Morning Joe this morning, MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough, Joe and Matthews were talking about the Republican Debate on CNN from last night. Scarborough was talking about the candidates and their responses to questions, Matthews was talking about Anderson Cooper. At one point Matthews said something like, “If I had been the moderator I would have asked tough questions. I would have taken the scabs off.”

I could hear Matthews huffing and puffing, wanting to blow the house down. He does not understand that the story is about the pigs, not about the wolf. I don’t see his name on the ballot anywhere.

This is a sad development in the world of cable news. Tim Russert is another who has lost contact. Scarborough is being sucked into the trap. MSNBC is hyping their commentators with regular advertising. Scarborough is the ‘inside guy,’ the man who was in congress, he can’t be bought, no one owns him. Matthews is the tough guy, he will take the scabs off. Russert is the Sunday morning guru. MSNBC, CNN, and Fox are all on a toot to demonstrate that they are better than the other guys – maybe they should just focus on being better – they act like the public is too dumb to sort out legitimacy of reporting.

These folks are legitimized by politicians who want and need the free air time. The politicians demean themselves by catering to media types who do not have to suffer the shallow interrogation in return.

This is important. The first amendment to the Constitution, the first in the Bill of Rights, guarantees freedom of the press. This was done quite deliberately by our Founding Fathers because they knew that a Republic could only be effective if the populace was informed of truth.

Truth for Russert and Matthews and Scarborough and O’Reilly and Hemmer is defined by how important the reporter is – not by the substance of the candidate.

Walter – please come back to work.

Dad

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