Matthews: Tea Party is scary because, er, gunsgunsgunsgunsguns!
posted at 12:15 pm on June 10, 2010 by Ed Morrissey
MSNBC offers a sneak peek at Chris Matthews’ new documentary on the conservative movement yesterday, and what does Matthews choose to highlight? See if you can guess what the takeaway was supposed to be from the imagery. Just in case MSNBC’s audience didn’t get the subtle message, Matthews makes sure that he hammers it home. The Right is scary, people! They have guns! Run for the hills! “They believe Washington is London,” Matthews warns Andrea Mitchell, “and they’ve got guns. Serious business.” Unlike, say, MSNBC (via Radio Vice Online):
Jim Vicevich scoffs at Matthews’ fright:
I love the sound bites with the militia. I love the conflation. I love the way everyone in the Tea Party is framed as a group that wants to wrestle the government from the “enemy”, like the British? You have to watch to believe.
The Gadsden flag has a long and illustrious history in our nation, and it’s precisely because the Right does believe in self-government that they use it in their protests. Instead of actually engaging the Tea Party on the issues, Matthews and MSNBC want to make the Gadsden flag into a militia mating call and show lots of images of guns to frighten people. Classy! It’s well deserving of a Leni Riefenstahl Award for Documentary Objectivity.
NBC is shaking up its management in the wake of its purchase by Comcast. How long before the new management looks into the sinkhole, in terms of both ratings and credibility, of its cable-news venture?
Blowback
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Guy who carried a gun needs to back the hell up.
MadisonConservative on June 10, 2010 at 12:18 PM
“Leni Riefenstahl Award”
Godwin, baby!!!
No less appropriate, however.
Flyover Country on June 10, 2010 at 12:20 PM
Meh. I’ll check out the special. On a Wednesday he says? Great time for a hump day drinking contest. Drink every time something flies out of his mouth.
Aquateen Hungerforce on June 10, 2010 at 12:21 PM
Enough is enough from this jackass! Am I allowed to say jackass?
sandee on June 10, 2010 at 12:21 PM
So what is the big deal Chris ? They are only “astroturf” afterall.
J_Crater on June 10, 2010 at 12:21 PM
Yep, we have guns….
AND they know why!
Don’t Tread On Me means just what it says…
Too bad Chrissie…
golfmann on June 10, 2010 at 12:21 PM
the cartoon network will have better ratings then this special…
anyone who believes in the tripe he will spout is an idiot!
cmsinaz on June 10, 2010 at 12:21 PM
Comcast sucks, too, so they’ll probably just double down with the hate and propaganda.
jaime on June 10, 2010 at 12:22 PM
please do us a favor and fire his butt along with olbys
cmsinaz on June 10, 2010 at 12:22 PM
Yes, I have guns. What’re you gonna do about it, Sissy-Chrissy?
ladyingray on June 10, 2010 at 12:23 PM
Meanwhile, Black Panthers wielding truncheons at the voting booth get ignored.
Nothing wrong with being prepared and considering how close we really are to suffering a real collapse, being as ready as possible is a smart thing.
Bishop on June 10, 2010 at 12:23 PM
Sounds an awful lot like what the foundering fathers intended to me.
DFCtomm on June 10, 2010 at 12:23 PM
I’m actually tempted to DVR this ‘documentary’ just to see how the other side really sees us scary right wingers (though I have a pretty good idea already). MSNBC is becoming more of a caricature every day.
CityFish on June 10, 2010 at 12:23 PM
I guess Chrissy might just double the MSNBC viewship with this… to 12.
Wolftech on June 10, 2010 at 12:24 PM
Alex Jones will be featured in this documentary.
jp on June 10, 2010 at 12:25 PM
Great tag line, Ed :)
beatcanvas on June 10, 2010 at 12:25 PM
When Leftists can’t debate the issues they resort to ad-hominem attacks.
This is why all the Left ever does is call people “racist,” gun nut,” “extreme,” etc.
The Left loses on every issue: economy, freedom, opportunities for the poor, environment, race relations, security, etc. So they just attack, attack, attack. Never debate.
Pathetic.
visions on June 10, 2010 at 12:25 PM
The Tea Party movement is a political Rohrschach test: what you see in it tells us more about your own views than it does about the cause itself.
And because it’s a mix of groups united around concerns about the debt and deficit, if you want to zero in on the nutcase element, an element that exists in any mass movement, you can do so.
But what you’re really doing is telling us about yourself and your own views more than anything else.
The Baltimore Sun TV critic said it best: MSNBC is the most journalistically challenged news channel today. They don’t do journalism, they do causes.
SteveMG on June 10, 2010 at 12:26 PM
You’re damn right we have guns….lots of them…and you will NEVER get them!
Flyboy on June 10, 2010 at 12:28 PM
Considering the skyrocketing of folks buying firearms since 0bama took office, and ammo to the point of bare shelves at the store – whom is he really trying to scare at this point?
Rebar on June 10, 2010 at 12:29 PM
Look Chris, it’s like this–try as you might to characterize and frame the Tea Parties, the Gadsden Flag, and the right however you will, but facts are facts. Your side is losing and losing badly. You’ve lost that leg tinglin’ feeling and the president has sealed his fate with his ass kick’n comment. You might as well write his political epitaph and etch your name right alongside it, because his fall is your fall, you own him, he’s yours buddy. So, no matter your little spin doctorism, nobody watches you, nobody listens to you, you’re irrelevant to all except andrea there….so get used to it, bud, take your leg tingle and go hump the corner fencepost at the White House, because that’s as good as it’s going to get for you guys for quite a long time. You’ll die an old man gumming your applesauce as President Palin starts her second term when you’re filling your diaper and think that you’re hearing a Barack Obama speech from days gone by….think of the nostalgia….
ted c on June 10, 2010 at 12:29 PM
Why should Leaky Legged Chris be bothered? Big Sis is all over it. According to her the real domestic threats come from right-wingers, veterans and those terrifying, middle-aged Tea Party people. She’s got it all under control as evidenced by arresting those goofy kids a few weeks ago.
Cody1991 on June 10, 2010 at 12:29 PM
…on whose show Alan Grayson has appeared.
When will Chrissy be making that connection?
MadisonConservative on June 10, 2010 at 12:31 PM
Matthews is suffering from “gun envy”. I’ll bet he only has a two inch snub nose.
repvoter on June 10, 2010 at 12:32 PM
Here’s another cool flag.
Akzed on June 10, 2010 at 12:32 PM
Matthews and his ilk should be scared. They’re rapidly becoming extinct, but not because they’re being shot by crazed, gun-totin’ tea partiers.
It’s because they’re stupid and can’t adapt.
Evolution in action, baby.
mojo on June 10, 2010 at 12:34 PM
At this point, I’ve basically run out of things to say about the racist Chris Matthews.
rbj on June 10, 2010 at 12:34 PM
Geez, Crissy, Mr. Militia, right in the interview, disassociate the Tea Party from his “militia”. But you’ve got to push your agenda; try to scare the public.
Well, if we conservatives must be linked to militia whack-jobs, I suppose it’s still a ‘heckuva’ lot better than the Libs forever being linked with this guy.
And this guy.
And, of course, these guys.
Doorgunner on June 10, 2010 at 12:35 PM
I am offended by his “Rise of the Right” tag. It is a subtle reminder to his viewers (all 150 of them) of the “Rise of the Reich”, which of course was the National Socialist movement in the 1920′s to 1940′s. Interesting how he would want to associate the right with a left-sided movement.
Just another reason I don’t watch TV.
jbh45 on June 10, 2010 at 12:35 PM
I guess Matthews only wants the government and criminals to have guns while law abiding citizens are left defenseless.
Sorry, Tingles, I really don’t think so.
Daddy-O on June 10, 2010 at 12:35 PM
Hey Chrisssssssy, I’m a 40 something, mom of teenagers who attend a private Christian school (horrors) and we give each other guns for Christmas gifts!!! BOO!
BTW, I may watch just to be encouraged to find more like-minded Americans!
texgal on June 10, 2010 at 12:35 PM
Ah, the TX version of “Molon Labe!”
“From my cold, dead hands…!”
I just adore it!
May God continue to bless TX.
Jenfidel on June 10, 2010 at 12:35 PM
Here is Jones site’s take on this
http://www.prisonplanet.com/rise-of-the-new-right-msnbc-documentary-cites-alex-jones-rand-paul-as-extremists.html
I for one am not comfortable being associated with Alex “The bilderbergers are going to kill 2/3′s of Worlds population” Jones………which is of course why they are doing it.
Make the Tea Party to be a bunch of Paulnuts, controlling the GOP.
jp on June 10, 2010 at 12:38 PM
It’s the Peace Corp people like Crissy that scare me.
flyfisher on June 10, 2010 at 12:39 PM
You know what Jim Morrison would say:
We’ve got the guns, and we’ve got the numbers.
JohnGalt23 on June 10, 2010 at 12:39 PM
Wait, the title isn’t “Extremism, Racism, and Conservatism”?
Is Chrissy starting to like us?
LASue on June 10, 2010 at 12:39 PM
Chrissy would wet his sheets to know I’m and NFA license holder!
MadDogF on June 10, 2010 at 12:39 PM
All liberal cops think that only they are competent enough to carry weapons.
Lanceman on June 10, 2010 at 12:40 PM
I’d be happy to see Chris Mathews stay on the air at MSNBC. It’s their channel, they can do what they want. If they want the same kind of business plan that Newsweek used that’s fine with me.
I can’t see how Comcast will think a business plan that doesn’t include keeping viewers and advertisers but does include everyone’s huge salary is such a great idea, but, hey, whatever.
They are all part of the educated class at MSNBC, and I’m just a little guy. What do I know.
SlaveDog on June 10, 2010 at 12:41 PM
What’s so funny is that the sales of guns have increased so much that even more people own them – who is this supposed to scare?
Queen0fCups on June 10, 2010 at 12:41 PM
William Cooper>>>A. Jones
/tinfoil
Inanemergencydial on June 10, 2010 at 12:43 PM
The left’s infatuation with assassination of those they disagree with politically probably doesn’t make the right want to carry guns any less, neither do the other attacks already perpetrated.
Heralder on June 10, 2010 at 12:45 PM
I’m peeved because we’ve been hearing about the “rise of the right” since 1979! But I’m not too worried about this slant, because there are just as many MSM pieces about the demise and death of the right (generally expressed in hopeful terms).
MassVictim on June 10, 2010 at 12:45 PM
Who cares about him anyway…his 23 viewers?
PatriotRider on June 10, 2010 at 12:47 PM
He is a bigot. His hatred for conservatives is blatant, and what he’s doing is irresponsible and dangerous. This is the sort of thing that will feed their faithful followers and incite incidents against others. When it occurs, and it will, they will blame those who were attacked.
The Left always does this. They think the end justifies the means and will disavow any responsibility for the havoc they create.
One more thing…. since Matthews has claimed that it is his responsibility to ensure a successful presidency for teh Won, it seems reasonable to assume that this sort of propaganda is endorsed and encouraged by the WH.
Cody1991 on June 10, 2010 at 12:48 PM
Notice the graphics used for the “Rise of the
ReichRight”Its the same 1930′s era German graphics that Obama copied when he went to germany during campaign to speek, I think Stalin and company used the same graphic style.
jp on June 10, 2010 at 12:48 PM
Tbaggerz R Militias meme, again?
They’re serial?
Christien on June 10, 2010 at 12:49 PM
Don’t underestimate their ability to do the following to the Tea Party brand between now and November:
in short: Make it a movement of Alex Jones, Conspiracy theories, Stormfront racist and Militias, and demonstrate their support and love of Rand Paul. Pointing out that they now control the entire GOP given his victory.
jp on June 10, 2010 at 12:50 PM
You can bet the farm his “special” will have more right-leaning viewers than left, and it’s going to be on everyones blog the next day.
Marcus on June 10, 2010 at 12:50 PM
Hey Crissy I don’t think that tingle is what you think it is. I’m really sorry that we right wing nuts with our guns have frightened you so badly you wet your pants. Try adult depends next time and you won’t get that tingly feeling anymore. As to my guns I’ll keep them and you can keep the change.
chemman on June 10, 2010 at 12:51 PM
open thread on HA?
cmsinaz on June 10, 2010 at 12:52 PM
Actually, Chrissy, we Gun Nuts are pretty happy with what came out of DC v. Heller and what we think is coming out of McDonald v. Chicago.
eeyore on June 10, 2010 at 12:52 PM
It started months ago, and Pelosi was right there out front. Remember her teary-eyed sniffling when she whined and referenced an incident in SF years ago when someone got shot? There was absolutely no need for that stupid performance. That’s not leadership. It’s hackery of the worst sort. She’s absolutely the worst Speaker in history.
Cody1991 on June 10, 2010 at 12:54 PM
But does that competence extend to actually USING them?
Fighton03 on June 10, 2010 at 12:54 PM
You would think this will be “porn” for the left, but it will fall flat since it is “faux-porn”.
The hard left will rah, rah, rah while watching it, but they know it is contrived.
Think about the difference between a lefty watching this and a conservative watching Christie “taking it to the unions”.
One is real “truth to power” and the other is propaganda that offers nothing but empty calories.
The “Tea Partiers are gun-crazy racists” meme is a moldy old meme and Matthews would get more listeners if he went after say, the oil companies or another favorite “demon” of the left.
Opposite Day on June 10, 2010 at 12:54 PM
Isn’t that the point, dodo brain?
Chip on June 10, 2010 at 12:55 PM
Oh, and another thing, Chrissy. The Constitution was written for the average person to understand. It’s when the Court rubberstamps any old law the other two branches pass as constitutional that corrupts the system. Not the people.
cartooner on June 10, 2010 at 12:55 PM
Google Carl Rowan.
Lanceman on June 10, 2010 at 12:55 PM
Guns in the hands of patriots should scare the hell out of the Marxist anti-American lowlife community.
Buddahpundit on June 10, 2010 at 12:55 PM
Are we to believe that it’s only the Right that’s arming themselves?
Chip on June 10, 2010 at 12:59 PM
I am with you.
We are talking about THE Comcast company, HQ in Philly, complete master of Arlen(e) Specter, right? They are the one
chokingstrong-arming all other providers (i.e., competitors) in that market. Fits right in with our thugs-in-chief style.Sir Napsalot on June 10, 2010 at 12:59 PM
Why do you think people like Matthews approve of gun control? It’s a lot more problematic to run someone else’s life and spend someone else’s money when they’re armed.
Socratease on June 10, 2010 at 1:00 PM
Tea Party is scary, because….
We don’t understand them.
and
We thought we have subdued / neutered them.
Sir Napsalot on June 10, 2010 at 1:01 PM
There seems to be a misconception about the tea parties that the MSM loves to recite over and over. It is annoying and misleading just like Chrissy. I wrote this over on another thread, but it bears repeating over here.
First the tea party is not a political party. Learn it, live it, love it. We cannot elect or nominate anyone. However, what we do is to gather information about candidates and if we like what we see we can support them individually if we want. We do not “run” anyone.
The tea party’s focus is the Constitution! That’s it. We are looking for good people who actually will support and defend it, not pretenders. If we make a mistake, we vote them out. Hold their feet to the fire. If they pass we all win. It’s nothing more complicated than that and we will be around for a long time because polititians sometimes “forget” that they swore and oath to the Constitution.
BetseyRoss on June 10, 2010 at 1:02 PM
“Buffoon” is the word that usually occurs to me.
The left is scared of guns, and we ain’t. This is news?
ss396 on June 10, 2010 at 1:03 PM
Yes, we are citizens, Chris, not subjects.
And we take our Constitutionally-guaranteed liberties seriously.
molonlabe28 on June 10, 2010 at 1:03 PM
Lets see…Comcast is a money-making machine, designed for profit. They purchase a network that regularly scores behind This Old House and Star Trek re-runs. The competition, FOX, kills in every time slot.
Why does FOX do so well? Because the talking heads on FOX say things that people want to hear and associate themselves with. MSNBC doesn’t do that.
According to corporate governance rules, COMCAST will soon start giving the people what they want.
Ta ta, Olberfurhur, Mr. Maddow, and the rest of the cartoon cast.
BobMbx on June 10, 2010 at 1:04 PM
Ah, the TX version of “Molon Labe!”
Jenfidel on June 10, 2010 at 12:35 PM
Jen,
I would be surprised if it was a direct reference.
Excellent.
Akzed on June 10, 2010 at 1:09 PM
And NBC, and GE.
Akzed on June 10, 2010 at 1:13 PM
“They make such loud noises. Can’t they make a gun that isn’t so loud?” -Chris Matthews.
Akzed on June 10, 2010 at 1:16 PM
Chrissy: see you at the National Mall at the end of August for the Glenn Beck-a-palooza…
I’ll bring a cream pie, just for you…
Khun Joe on June 10, 2010 at 1:19 PM
That word has been approved personally by Dear Leader.
antisocial on June 10, 2010 at 1:20 PM
A supposed documentary provided by people who think thaat the West Point Academy is the enemy camp.
Americannodash on June 10, 2010 at 1:24 PM
I find it simply amazing that such a “fringe element” as the Tea Party crowd (of which I am a card carrying member) can become such a “feared, gun toting” gang of mal-contents.
Yes, I carry. I’ve always carried. I have a Right and a permit to do so.
Be afraid, Chrissy…Be VERY afraid. But not of me. I wouldn’t waste the ammo.
GoldenEagle4444 on June 10, 2010 at 1:24 PM
My point is the subtle comparison between the rise of an legitimate conservative movement and the rise of nazi-ism.
That is the exact point I am making. Thanks.
jbh45 on June 10, 2010 at 1:26 PM
If Chris is concerned about guns, he shouldn’t be concerned with the people that obviously have guns. He should be concerned about my wife, and about people like me who look ‘normal’ in his sense but have plenty of guns and the will to use them if need be.
j_galt on June 10, 2010 at 1:29 PM
“A fear of weapons is a sign of retarded sexual and emotional maturity.”
Sigmund Freud, General Introduction to Psychoanalysis (1952)
jukin on June 10, 2010 at 1:30 PM
And who is it that beats up people and calls others NAZIs? You know, the ones apparently Nancy knew in the 60s that she whimpered about …
Why do liberals fear regular people having weapons? Have you ever heard of an armed public being forced to gulags?
tarpon on June 10, 2010 at 1:35 PM
Effete, effeminate, metrosexual bull droppings. Ooh, the guns! Oh my, the guns! Americans should be more nervous of what Matthew’s precious government can inflict than a bunch of good ol’ boys in the Michigan woods.
I’m surprised the Left hasn’t dispensed with genders altogether.
They can reproduce through spores and receptors.
nico on June 10, 2010 at 1:35 PM
Wonderful ‘Lefty Logic’:
“It’s OK for Iran to have nukes because we (the US) have nukes and don’t use them.”
(or is it that ‘Iran can be trusted but the US can’t’ huh?)
But…
“Law-abiding conservatives cannot have guns because criminals use guns.”
(I guess it’s ‘criminals can’t be trusted so law-abiders can’t be either’ what?)
My head hurts.
rockbend on June 10, 2010 at 1:39 PM
Why do liberals fear regular people having weapons? Have you ever heard of an armed public being forced to gulags?
[tarpon on June 10, 2010 at 1:35 PM]
Because it is the one rule they can’t break in their systematic effort to impose their will on you.
Dusty on June 10, 2010 at 1:49 PM
Ask 6 million Jews if they wish they had guns. Oh wait, you can’t. They were slaughtered by the leftist anti-gun ilk like Chris Matthews. Only power mad tyrants oppose gun rights. An unarmed society is an oppressed society.
roninacreage on June 10, 2010 at 1:52 PM
Why doesn’t he challenge Zell Miller to a duel .
borntoraisehogs on June 10, 2010 at 2:12 PM
The best part of Chris Matthews ran down his father’s leg.
afotia on June 10, 2010 at 2:15 PM
Yes, what was the first thing the Jews in the Warsaw ghetto uprising did before fighting back?
Think of this as an attack on our First and Second amendment rights – rights that are mutually supporting of each other.
Truth be told, most likely tingles would like to shut us up AND take our guns, only then can they “Progress” towards a Socialist Dystopia.
Chip on June 10, 2010 at 2:16 PM
Poor Miss Chrissy must be afraid that someone from the Chicago Machine might want to put a gun up his butt. Wonder who that might be?
MayorDaley on June 10, 2010 at 2:19 PM
” Chris Matthews looks at extremism and conservatism”
Yes, of course but only in one direction I’ll bet. No long looks at lefty extremism on the docket. Someone needs to make a ‘documentary’ about left extremism. Now that would be worth watching.
jeanie on June 10, 2010 at 2:22 PM
Yeah the right has guns. Ooh, so scawy… not!
Unless you come kicking in their doors, they won’t use them, Because even the most whacko wingnut has this little thing called a ‘self-preservation instinct’. It’s a neat autonomic feature God gave us that goes off when (among other circumstances) you have an angry urge to pick a fight with someone or a group of someones that is more than capable of reducing you into a pile of chunky salsa. Those with prior military/police experience know especially well how much @$$kickery can be unleashed on someone who is armed and known to be hostile to the law.
Jumping Jesus on a pogo stick on a ten-foot trampoline…the lefties are more Chicken Little-ish paranoid than the righties sometimes!
Dark-Star on June 10, 2010 at 2:24 PM
I wonder if they are going to seek out extremists to paint as the Tea Party or if they will simply manufacture these positions over at universal studios?
Freddy on June 10, 2010 at 2:33 PM
I think that should be his mother’s leg.
scullymj on June 10, 2010 at 2:37 PM
The stupid! It burns! IT BURRNNNS!
rollthedice on June 10, 2010 at 2:44 PM
Most Americans watching that clip would feel for the subjects, not Mathews.
THE CHOSEN ONE on June 10, 2010 at 2:48 PM
When Chris has to use babble like this, you know the left is worried, scared, anxious, and those tingles might now be signs of a stroke!
capejasmine on June 10, 2010 at 2:49 PM
D-bags like this are the reason Woody has an empty holster in all the Toy Story movies.
John Deaux on June 10, 2010 at 2:53 PM
Oh please.
Dark-Star on June 10, 2010 at 3:04 PM
Ha! Nice one Ed.
jnelchef on June 10, 2010 at 3:16 PM
The scary part is Chrissy is half right. There are plenty of NRA, 2nd amendment guys that think the US Constitution is the roadmap for America, and the government needs to stay on the road and out of the weeds.
The questions are: how far they will allow themselves and the Constitution to be pushed, and what exactly will they do?
saiga on June 10, 2010 at 3:30 PM
Everybody has guns south of the Mason-Dixon Line!
pgrossjr on June 10, 2010 at 3:38 PM
Did Michael Moore produce that documentary?
John the Libertarian on June 10, 2010 at 3:50 PM
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