Dear MSNBC President - time to put Chris Matthews to pasture

[question everything]

He has interesting ideas and interesting guests... when he lets them talk.

I like Howard Fineman. I like David Corn. I like Jo-Ann Reid. I like Joan Walsh.

But Matthews asks a question, and immediately interrupts his guests, often screaming. And these are his friends.

Last week, before the elections, he had someone whose answer he did not like. I have no idea why not. He barely gave him time to utter two words. "That's not what I am asking, you are of no use to me..." Oh, so people are measured by their usefulness to him.

This evening he started by calling out Cheney (or, as he says Cheeneei, adding that this is the correct pronunciation) for calling the president a liar. OK. But then he "reminded" everyone about that member of Congress who said "you lie" in the middle of the president's addressing Congress. "Let's roll it now," he said. Why? Why does he have to run it?

This is when we turned to PBS - always a better alternative.

I don't know why he has to have so many guests and barely get each to say more than one sentence.

I don't know why Keith Olbermann was kicked out, but he always sat patiently and let his guest talk. Until he was done. After all, you have a whole hour!

Replace him with Michael Smerconish, with Ron Reagan, with Chris Cilliza, with Karen Finney - anyone.

OK, venting.

[elleng]

1. Agreed,

never watch him (when I can avoid it, which is most of the time.)

[TheDebbieDee]

2. And they should make Joe Scarborough take a dirt nap.......

[JimboBillyBubbaBob]

5. Yeah,

I couldn't agree more. He's like all those guys I grew up with, except we left high school years ago, he hasn't.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. Replace him with *anyone* - anyone at all.

Kermit the Frog.

Just about anybody would be an improvement.

[Tx4obama]

4. They probably will not get rid of him, his ratings have been going up lately. See article below...

Thursday Cable News Ratings: MSNBC’s Matthews Beats Maddow in Demo

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/thursday-cable-news-ratings-msnbcs-matthews-beats-maddow-in-demo/

[redstateblues]

6. Chris is annoying and flawed

He is also a passionate supporter of Obama. I'm glad he's a Democrat.

[Thinkingabout]

7. There is a simple fix if some one does not like Chris Mathews, turn the channel. It is like the man

Who went to the doctor and complained every time he hit his head with the hammer it hurt, STOP and the pain will go away for you.

[question everything]

8. Except that he and his guests do raise important issues

when he, on occasions, lets them talk and complete their ideas.

The program is important, one learns about news there. When he is willing to spend more than a few minutes on them.

We usually listen at the beginning to hear what he will cover and then decide.

[BootinUp]

9. Ron Reagan...why does he not have a show?

So intelligent.

[JaneQPublic]

10. Tweety confuses rudeness with being a "hardball" interviewer.

He's not holding the guests feet to the fire, as the name "Hardball" would suggest; rather, by constantly cutting off his guests after two words, he's simply acting on his egotistical belief that he can answer his own questions better than anyone else.

Matthews is one of the worst interviewers on TV.