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?