Oddball with Chris Matthews; Chilean miner discussion as lead in for Tea Party bashing

Seriously, Chris Matthews should consider rebranding his program. Hardball hardly describes a show that features segments such as the babble fest that took place between Chris Matthews and Richard Trumka on a Wednesday evening (October 13, 2010). Oddball with Chris Matthews is my choice.

Since MSNBC has just upgraded their brand with a really catchy “Lean Forward” thing, now would be a good time for Chris Matthews to swing for the fences on a rebranding effort. Never mind that the MSNBC thing is not so much an upgrade as it is a “What the heck is that?” (see Jon Stewart’s analysis of this brilliant maneuver[1]) or that Chris Matthews brings a wiffle ball bat to the fight when Fox News shows up with a Louisville Slugger.

The partial transcript below is a prime example of why Oddball with Chris Matthews is definitely more appropriate branding. Who but oddballs could transition from a discussion of Chilean miners to Tea Party bashing to Republican Party radicalism about minimum wage without stopping to wipe the spittle off of their notes?

CHRIS MATTHEWS: Okay let’s talk about what the…message to a lot of the people was. The message coming out of the Tea Party people, and lot of them are good people, is every man for himself, basically. “No more taxes, no more government, no more everything. No more safety net. No more health care for everybody. Everybody just get out there, make your buck, save it, screw the government, move on.” Right?

RICHARD TRUMKA: Yeah.

MATTHEWS: You know these people, if they were every man for himself down in that mine they wouldn’t have gotten out.

TRUMKA: That’s exactly right.

MATTHEWS: They would have been killing each other after about two days. This is a story of how people can work together, the people who were down there for two months. The people who were above ground from all over the world, using state of the art equipment not to get rid of the need for manpower but to save manpower in this case.

TRUMKA: You know this is just another example of how radical the Republican Party is becoming, do away with the minimum wage. You just talked about that. Bad policy, it will wreck the economy. If you didn’t have government regulation, you wouldn’t have clean water, you wouldn’t have cars that were safe, you wouldn’t have electricity that you could afford, I mean, just a number of things where you need a good, efficient government and they just throw all that aside.

NewsBusters[2]

Thank goodness for NewsBusters. Through their good efforts you can follow the bouncing oddballs without actually having to listen to the audio.

Program notes for Chris:

It’s no more taxes “than necessary”, no more government “than necessary”, no more “government” safety net “than necessary”, no “government run” healthcare for everybody. Take a deep breath, speak slowly and clearly, and stop spitting on yourself.

Note about cable news ratings during the week of October 11, 2010 for the 25-54 demographic

The table below was compiled from TVNEWSER data at mediabistro.com for Monday through Wednesday. Aside from the usual Fox News kicks butt, note what happens in the 10 PM slot on Tuesday. Big ratings jump for Greta and Cooper. That was when the Chilean mine rescue coverage of the rescue capsule being sent down to the miners began. Next look at CNN ratings compared to Fox News ratings beginning at 8 PM Wednesday evening when the last of the trapped miners were being brought up from the mine. For anyone that happened to watch coverage of the Chilean mine rescue by both networks the reason Fox News wipes CNN slick would be obvious. The CNN on site people were a bunch of “where did they find that Bozo” types. The CNN in studio anchors, or whatever they call them, asked the dumbest questions and made such inane comments that viewers had to be either reaching for the remote or a barf bag (those that that stayed with them).

Source: TVNEWSER at mediabistro.com

Finally, check out Thursday’s ratings below. That Lean Forward thing is really working for MSNBC.

Source: TVNEWSER at mediabistro.com

Maybe MSNBC should try something like “What the heck, watch Fox News. They’re awaaay better” or something like that. Then again, maybe not; they’re likely to get sued by a hamburger chain for that one and with the money they’re losing they can hardly afford an attorney.

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