As entertaining as it was to watch Chris Matthews light up Right Wing Radio host Kevin James (who was apparently drafted into the Republican Noise Machine straight out of the WWE), it wasn't really about the content of what James was saying. Matthews challenged James to explain his comparison of Barack Obama to Neville Chamberlain, and James had no idea what Chamberlain did. But Matthews didn't challenge James in the name of accuracy or clarity, he was simply pissed that James was on his show yelling his head off like a natural fool.
This wasn't a great journalistic moment, it was a David Broder moment; James came onto Hardball and trashed the place, and that wasn't his place. So Matthews got angry. It isn't the kind of thing that indicates a departure from embracing the kind of Right Wing themes that have made Matthews so infamous among some liberals, and if James had been polite, he would have gotten away with spewing as much bile as he wanted. It's too bad reporters can't seem to get as angry about their shows being used as an echo chamber by Pentagon propagandists posing as objective "military analysts".
--A.Serwer
