Open Letter to Chris Matthews

I signed on to the Open Letter to Chris Matthews in the pretty early stages, and now 50,000 people have left comments demanding that Tweety Boy apologize for his comparison of a terrorist murderer to an American filmmaker. This is what progressives simply have to do to work the refs, th way the Republican Noise Machine has done it for 40 years. Another example of this is the Deborah Howell saga (read the litany of posts about it for yourself), the Washington Post ombudsman who printed the lie that Jack Abramoff gave money to Republicans and Democrats, then got mad when readers (for whom she's supposed to advocate, as an ombudsman) got mad about it, to the extent of censoring comments at the Post blog.

You can be polite or shut up and take it or you can work the refs, and hope for some semblance of balance as the end result. Of course, the media is going to stamp their little feet about it because they're not used to the OTHER side taking a stand. But the press is too important to let it off the hook when the other side wouldn't dare let anything go unquestioned.

In the meantime, the Open Letter takes us back in time with some of the greatest Tweety Bird hits. My favorites (and this is coming from a supposedly nonpartisan journalist):

MATTHEWS says Bush sometimes "glimmers" with "sunny nobility" (Hardball, 10/24/05)
MATTHEWS suggests Bush may "belong on Mount Rushmore" (Hardball, 12/16/05)
MATTHEWS insists "everybody sort of likes the president, except for the real whack-jobs" (Hardball, 11/28/05) (64% of the people are apparently whack jobs -ed.)
MATTHEWS praises Bush for a "brilliant" speech, before it was delivered, while attacking Democratic critics as "carpers and complainers" (MSNBC, 11/30/05)

And then this classic, winner in the "Best Erotic Fiction by a Political Chat Show" category (thank you Digby:)

MATTHEWS: Let's go to this sub--what happened to this week, which was to me was astounding as a student of politics, like all of us. Lights, camera, action. This week the president landed the best photo of in a very long time. Other great visuals: Ronald Reagan at the D-Day cemetery in Normandy, Bill Clinton on horseback in Wyoming. Nothing compared to this, I've got to say.

Katty, for visual, the president of the United States arriving in an F-18, looking like he flew it in himself. The GIs, the women on--onboard that ship loved this guy.

Ms. KAY: He looked great. Look, I'm not a Bush man. I mean, he doesn't do it for me personally, especially not when he's in a suit, but he arrived there...

MATTHEWS: No one would call you a Bush man, by the way.

Ms. KAY: ...he arrived there in his flight suit, in a jumpsuit. He should wear that all the time. Why doesn't he do all his campaign speeches in that jumpsuit? He just looks so great.

MATTHEWS: I want him to wa--I want to see him debate somebody like John Kerry or Lieberman or somebody wearing that jumpsuit.

Mr. DOBBS: Well, it was just--I can't think of any, any stunt by the White House--and I'll call it a stunt--that has come close. I mean, this is not only a home run; the ball is still flying out beyond the park.

MATTHEWS: Well, you know what, it was like throwing that strike in Yankee Stadium a while back after 9/11. It's not a stunt if it works and it's real. And I felt the faces of those guys--I thought most of our guys were looking up like they were looking at Bob Hope and John Wayne combined on that ship.

Mr. GIGOT: The reason it works is because of--the reason it works is because Bush looks authentic and he felt that he--you could feel the connection with the troops. He looked like he was sincere. People trust him. That's what he has going for him.

MATTHEWS: Fareed, you're watching that from--say you were over in the Middle East watching the president of the United States on this humongous aircraft carrier. It looks like it could take down Syria just one boat, right, and the president of the United States is pointing a finger and saying, `You people with the weapons of mass destruction, you people backing terrorism, look out. We're coming.' Do you think that picture mattered over there?

Mr. ZAKARIA: Oh yeah. Look, this is a part of the war where we have not--we've allowed a lot of states to do some very nasty stuff, traffic with nasty people and nasty material, and I think it's time to tell them, you know what, `You're going to be help accountable for this.'

MATTHEWS: Well, it was a powerful statement and picture as well.

Somebody hose him down.