Echoing recent comments made by MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski claiming it’s the media’s “job” to “control exactly what people think,” Hardball host Chris Matthews recently doubled down on the all-encompassing power of the media by claiming that “Print is God right now.”
Practically slobbering over a New York Times report that the CIA supposedly knew Russia was working to get President Donald Trump elected last year, Matthews gushed Monday:
“We’re going to learn more about this as it gets to the heart of the investigation under way right now by the FBI with that special unit looking at it. Eric, great reporting. Print is god right now. New York Times, Washington Post.”
You can’t make this stuff up. In fact, here’s Matthews’ ridiculous comment, straight from the donkey’s mouth:
(Sidenote: The NYT admitted in their article, well below their accusatory headline, that the FBI disputed any findings that Russia was working to affect the election, and added that “no proof of collusion has emerged publicly” that Trump was in cahoots with the Russians. But, I digress.)
To Matthews’ point, a strong argument could be made that print is not, in fact, “god.” The net worth of the New York Times, for example, plummeted 60 percent last year, despite an upward trend in its online subscription base. (This could be because the once-reputable paper is now publishing things like, say, hit pieces on Trump for screwing up the Easter Egg Roll.)
In fact, here’s a nice running tab of their egregious misuse of Freedom of the Press, for your amusement.
Matthews is free to search for that second thrill up his leg from liberal rags like the Times and Post, just as he’s free to look ridiculous while doing it.
Then again, MSNBC is also the same network that runs hour-long monologues about Trump’s 12-year-old tax returns and spews whopping conspiracy theories about potential Russian involvement in the Syrian chemical attack without a single shred of proof to back up their allegations. So really, who’s surprised?