Howard Kurtz on Sunday spent a whopping 45 seconds scolding Chris Matthews for saying former House Speaker Newt Gingrich looks like a car bomber.
This was after the "Reliable Sources" host did an entire ten minute segment lambasting Glenn Beck (video follows with transcript and commentary):
HOWARD KURTZ: Here is something I really didn't like. Now, Chris Matthews is a colorful guy and sometimes we laugh when his tongue gets him into trouble, but look what he said this week about the former House Speaker who is exploring a run for president, Newt Gingrich.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRIS MATTHEWS, “HARDBALL”: He looks like a car bomber. He looks like a car bomber. Clarence, he looks like a car bomber. He's got that crazy Mephistophelian grin of his. He looks like he loves torturing. Look at the guy! I mean this, this is not the face of a president.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Of course, we at NewsBusters quite agree with Kurtz's view here as Geoffrey Dickens reported Wednesday.
However, it does seem a bit hypocritical to mention Matthews' absurd assessment as practically an after-thought at the very end of an hour-long program when earlier Kurtz had spent almost a full ten minutes with the Washington Post's Jennifer Rubin and former Bush speechwriter David Frum bashing Glenn Beck.
This is especially ironic as "Hardball" initially airs in the same 5:00 PM time slot as Beck's Fox News program. Despite Beck's ratings decline, he still gets almost three times as many total viewers as Matthews.
Worthy of additonal time was Gingrich telling C-SPAN's Steve Scully last November that if he did run for president, he wouldn't participate in a debate moderated by Matthews because of how biased the "Hardball" host is.
If Kurtz still needed more material, we at NewsBusters have ample analysis sufficient for Kurtz to bash Matthews for ten minutes if he desired to give balance to his focus on 5:00 PM cable talkers.
All he has to do is ask.
