Last night, I tuned in to see several GOP convention speeches, most notably those by Ann Romney and Chris Christie. I decided to flip between FNC, MSNBC, CNN and other networks to get a sampling of the coverage.
While I know full well that MSNBC is consciously Leftist, I was truly taken aback at the comments made by Chris Matthews, as well as the unabashed cheerleading for the Democratic Party by Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O'Donnell. Matthews, a day after calling Republicans like Rience Preibus and Newt Gingrich racists,he said the following after Ann Romney's speech:
"And he almost looked like he came out on wheels, like he's not really Mitt Romney. That person who came out there like that, almost a statue of a person. His odd animation — his odd lack of animation. The way he moved in the room at the end was strange. She's a real person, but she really advertised a Mr.-Fix-It."
Matthews went on to call Romney a "conehead who doesn't seem like an Earthling." And, "a rather wooden-like figure."
He reiterated a lot of these points, claiming that Romney looked like "a wax figure; like we ready to be wheeled down to the Orlando hall of Presidents." Having watched the entire speech and the moment where Romney came out at the end, I was taken aback at Matthews' comments. They were entirely personal and wholly inappropriate. The Romney appearance (Mitt) was not even officially scheduled. He simply came out and waved and hugged his wife. But Matthews decided to continue slamming him, saying that "it was almost like the person she was describing didn't exist." In other words, he had a preconceived notion that he was going to stick to, come Hell or high water.
The slamming of the Christie speech was less personal, but no less transparent in its being pre-planned. Rachel Maddow expressed "shock" at the speech and proceeded to talk about how selfish it was. Matthews and O'Donnell agreed (keep in mind, this was after O'Donnell described the reaction to Ann's speech as "obligatory").
Now, we've all seen bias and advocacy journalism. But this goes way beyond both. These personal attacks, open accusations of racism, sexism and selfishness were far, far beyond the pale. As someone that has followed politics for a long time, not much really shocks me anymore. But I was truly taken aback the how despicable and transparently partisan MSNBC's "coverage" was (Matthews in particular). He has appeared angry, cynical, partisan and condescending all week. Fortunately, their ratings indicate that not many people actually watch!
Last...here's the thing: There are reasonable criticisms to be made on both speeches. For example, I thought Christie's off-the-cuff and dynamic style did almost make it seem like HE was the one accepting the nomination. He still praised and mentioned Romney and Ryan many times though, and he was, in fact, the keynote speaker. Also, I think that while Ann Romney gave a good speech that was effective, I don't think she warmed Mitt up as much as I expected (I thought we'd hear more personal anecdotes about his humor, warmth, etc). I also found her to be little too "bubbly," particularly at the outset. These are criticisms that other networks like Fox and CNN put forth. But not MSNBC. No, they'll stick to calling Romney an alien.
