Yesterday was April Fool's Day, but Chris Matthews' comments about Barack Obama was no joke. He had Senator Claire McCaskill on the show to talk about, of all things, Obama's bowling skills (why that has anything to do with running for President, you got me) and he used it in a way to lean on racial stereotypes that have no place on a news show or television in general.
From Media Matters:
Discussing Sen. Barack Obama on the April 1 edition of MSNBC's Hardball, host Chris Matthews asked Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO): "Let me ask you about how he -- how's he connect with regular people? Does he? Or does he only appeal to people who come from the African-American community and from the people who have college or advanced degrees?" Earlier in the show, referring to Obama's bowling performance at a March 29 campaign stop at Pleasant Valley Lanes in Altoona, Pennsylvania, Matthews teased the segment with McCaskill by asking, "[C]an Obama woo more regular voters -- you know, the ones who actually do know how to bowl?" As Media Matters for America noted, on the March 31 edition of Hardball, Matthews said of Obama: "[T]his gets very ethnic, but the fact that he's good at basketball doesn't surprise anybody, but the fact that he's that terrible at bowling does make you wonder."
Since when are those who are college educated and/or African-Americans not regular people?!? And the basketball comment? Seriously Chris WTF is wrong with you? Those stereotypes are absolutely ridiculous and only serve to lower the character of the debate. Of course none of this surprises me, Matthews continually offends everyone that isn't a white male as long as he's talking out loud. If it isn't an implied racist remark, there's a chauvinistic barb waiting in the wings.
If only MSNBC could do the right things and get rid of him, how much better the world of American politics would be.
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