Hardball with Chris Matthews

Hardball with Chris Matthews
Format	Talk–Debate program
Presented by	Chris Matthews
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	Unknown
Production
Running time	60 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	MSNBC
Picture format	480i (SDTV) 1080i (HDTV)
Original run	1994–1996 (America's Talking) 1997–1999 (CNBC) 1999 – present (MSNBC)
External links
Official website

Hardball with Chris Matthews is a talk show on MSNBC, broadcast weekdays at 5 and 7 PM hosted by Chris Matthews. It originally aired on now-defunct America's Talking (as Politics with Chris Matthews) and later CNBC. The current title was derived from a book Matthews wrote in 1988, Hardball: How Politics is Played Told By One Who Knows the Game. Hardball is a talking-head style cable news show where the moderator advances opinions on a wide range of topics, focusing primarily on current political issues. These issues are discussed with a panel of guests that usually consists of political analysts and sometimes include politicians.

It also runs in a "Best of" format Early Saturday mornings at 5am.

Hardball formerly followed Countdown with Keith Olbermann as the second most-watched show on MSNBC, with an average of 557,000 viewers in the first quarter of 2008.^[1]

Guest hosts

Hardball has had a variety of guest hosts when Chris Matthews is unavailable. The four most regular guest hosts as of late are Mike Barnicle, Chuck Todd, David Shuster, and Lawrence O'Donnell. Other guest hosts used have been Andrea Mitchell, David Gregory, Campbell Brown, Norah O'Donnell and Pete Williams.

Regular guests

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The show features many regular guests, including:

• paleoconservative MSNBC pundit and oft-former presidential candidate Patrick J. Buchanan
• affable Congressional Quarterly columnist Craig Crawford
• liberal Newsweek columnist Howard Fineman
• neoconservative (and former Trotskyite) Anglo-American essayist Christopher Hitchens
• hospitality executive and former WJLA news anchor Kathleen Matthews (coincidentally, Chris Matthews' wife)
• NBC political director and Chief White House Correspondent Chuck Todd
• left-wing heiress (granddaughter of Music Corporation of America founder Jules Stein), authoress, and co-owner, publisher and editor of The Nation, Katrina vanden Heuvel

International broadcasts

MSNBC and NBC News programming is shown for several hours a day on the 24 hour news network Orbit News in Europe and the Middle East. This includes Hardball with Chris Matthews.^{[citation needed]}

Notable moments

Matthews also caused controversy with remarks made off the air at a celebration of Hardball's 10-year anniversary in October 2007. He claimed that the Bush administration - specifically Vice President Cheney's office - has tried to "silence" him by pressuring MSNBC executives to put a stop to Matthews' criticism of the Iraq War.^[2] The White House declined to comment.

Michele Bachmann

On October 17, 2008, Michelle Bachmann gave an interview on MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews in support of the presidential campaign of Senator John McCain. She spoke of Senator Barack Obama's association with Jeremiah Wright and Bill Ayers. Bachmann stated "…usually we associate with people who have similar ideas to us, and it seems that it calls into questions what Barack Obama's true beliefs, and values, and thoughts are. His attitudes, values and beliefs with Jeremiah Wright on his view of United States, which is negative. Bill Ayers his negative view of United States. We've seen one friend after another. It calls into question his judgment but also what is it that Barack Obama really believes and we know that he is the most liberal Senator in the United States Senate and that's just after one year of being there. …[With Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid ] you have a Troika of the most leftist administration in the history of our country."^[3] When asked if liberal views are anti-American Bachmann said "The liberals that are Jeremiah Wright and that are Bill Ayers they are over the top anti-American, and that's the question Americans have. Remember it was Michelle Obama who said she was only recently proud of her country. And so these are very anti-American views. That's not the way that most Americans feel about our country. Most Americans, Chris, are wild about America and they're very concerned to have a president that does not share those values. …I am very concerned that he [Barack Obama] may have anti-American views."^[3]

Speaking about Sarah Palin's comment about "pro-America areas of this great nation", Bachmann was asked which areas are anti-American "I don’t think it's geography. I think it is people who don’t like America, who detest America and on college campuses a Ward Churchill another college campus a Bill Ayers, you find people who hate America and unfortunately some of these people have positions teaching in institutions of higher learning but you’ll find them in all walks of life all throughout America."^[3] When asked about the Democratic Speaker of the House and Senate Majority Leader, Bachmann said "I am not going to say if they are anti-American or pro-American."^[3] When asked by Matthews "How many people in the Congress of the United States do you suspect as being anti-American?" she replied "What I would say is that the news media should do a penetrating expose and take a look. I wish they would. I wish the American media would take a great look at the views of the people in Congress and find out, are they pro-America or anti-America? I think people would love to see an expose like that."^[3]

Bachmann's comments also had an immediate impact on her re-election campaign. In the 24 hours after her appearance on Hardball, her opponent, Elwyn Tinklenberg, received $488,127.30 in new donations^[4] and a campaign urging Congress to officially censure Bachmann was launched with over 35,000 signatures in the first 24 hours.^[5] In less than 72 hours, Tinklenberg received $740,000 in donations^[6] and between Friday night and Monday afternoon he had received more than $810,000.^[7] Tinklenberg said that he hears "in that kind of a call echoes of the House Un-American Activities Committee."^[8] Minnesota Democratic Party Chairman Brian Melendez said "The last politician who used that term that carelessly was Joe McCarthy, and Michele Bachmann seems anxious to step into his shoes."^[9][10] He also stated "She said what she said and her meaning could not be more clear."^[11] Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokesman Doug Thornell said "We’re going up on TV this week and next week and we’re spending over a million dollars [to support Tinklenberg]."^[12] In response to her comments, Aubrey Immelman, a Republican who lost to Bachmann in the primary, said he would wage a write-in campaign against Bachmann.^[13][14] On October 22, 2008, it was reported that the National Republican Congressional Committee canceled several hundred thousand dollars worth of television advertising time slated for Bachmann's campaign.^[15] Bachmann went on to defeat Tinklenberg 46.4% to 43.4% in the November 4, 2008 election.

Confrontations

Chris Matthews (right) interviews John Harwood (left) and Howard Fineman (center) on Hardball

Michelle Malkin

The format of the show, and Matthews' interview style, can lead to confrontations. Perhaps the most famous examples came during the 2004 presidential campaign. On August 19, conservative commentator Michelle Malkin appeared on the show and raised the question of whether Democratic candidate John Kerry's Vietnam War wounds could have been "self-inflicted", saying that such questions were "legitimate". Matthews repeatedly asked Malkin if she thought that Kerry "shot himself on purpose" in order to avoid combat or to gain accolades, noting that such an act would constitute a criminal offense. Matthews challenged Malkin to "say to me right now that you believe he shot himself to get credit for a Purple Heart-- on purpose." Malkin refused to answer, instead referring to allegations made by some of Kerry's former fellow soldiers. Matthews told Malkin that Hardball "is not a show for this kind of talk." Malkin asked if Matthews didn't wonder whether Kerry's wounds may have been self-inflicted, to which the host responded, "No! I don't, it's never occurred to me."^[16]

Zell Miller

Days later, then-U.S. Senator Zell Miller, (D-Georgia), a Democrat who supported then-Republican President George W. Bush, appeared on Hardball. Miller had just given the keynote address at the Republican convention. Matthews took Miller to task for his statement that soldiers, not reporters, are responsible for freedom of the press, accusing the Senator of making the comment only "to get an applause line against the media at a conservative convention." Miller had also criticized Kerry's record on national defense issues during his speech, prompting Matthews to ask if the Senator believed that Kerry did not want to "defend the country." During a heated exchange in which each man interrupted the other several times, Miller shouted at Matthews to "get out of my face" and angrily stated that he wished "we lived in the day where you could challenge a person to a duel." He also made reference to the Malkin interview, telling Matthews not to "pull that stuff on me like you did that young lady, when you had her there browbeating her to death. I'm not her."^[17]

Ann Coulter and Elizabeth Edwards

On June 26, 2007, Ann Coulter was the guest when Elizabeth Edwards, wife of then-Democratic Presidential candidate John Edwards, made a surprise (per Coulter afterwards) call to the program. Coulter had made a speech days earlier in which she said, “I was going to have a few comments on the other Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, but it turns out you have to go into rehab if you use the word ‘faggot’."^[18] Elizabeth Edwards confronted Coulter about the comment, as well as other comments Coulter has made accusing John Edwards of exploiting his son's death for political gain. Edwards asked Coulter to "stop the personal attacks" and accused her of "lowering the political dialogue" in America. Coulter responded that Edwards' complaints were an attempt to raise money for the presidential campaign, and questioned why the candidate himself was not making the call.^[19]

Kevin James

On May 15, 2008, he also had a confrontation with radio broadcaster Kevin James when he appeared on Hardball. At issue was a controversial speech made by President George W. Bush in Israel, where he appeared to claim that statements made by United States Presidential Candidate Barack Obama were tantamount to Neville Chamberlain's actions of "Nazi Appeasement" in 1938. James agreed with the notion that Obama's positions were like Chamberlain's policy of appeasement but was unable to elaborate on what exactly Chamberlain did.^[20]

In popular culture

The show has been spoofed by Saturday Night Live, with Darrell Hammond portraying Chris Matthews. One of the first instances was during the Florida election recount following the unclear results of the 2000 United States presidential election.

The show was featured in the February 22, 2007, 30 Rock episode "Hard Ball", in which series character Jenna Maroney came on the show to explain about how she was misquoted in the magazine "Maxim" about US military troops, but embarrassed herself even further when she confused Barack Obama with Osama bin Laden after she mentions whom she would support for US President in 2008.

Segments

• The Hardball Sideshow: This segment shows the lighter side of politics such as gaffes, appearances on other shows, and other humorous moments.
• The Strategists: A Republican strategist and a Democratic strategist debate certain topics of the day. Democrat Steve McMahon and Republican Todd Harris often are guests in this segments.
• The Politics Fix: A roundtable discussion about the political news of the day.

The Hardball Award

The Hardball Award is an award created in 2009 that recognized individuals "who displays a combination of guts and political moxie to win not just the day but our fondest admiration." ^[21] The award is not given on a regular basis; instead, it is given when someone displays character consistent with the award. Recipients:

• Roland Burris: Given on January 9, 2009, for his efforts to retain his seat, which was appointed controversially by Rod Blagojevich.^[21]
• Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger: Given on January 16, 2009, for his courage in his successful emergency water landing of US Airways Flight 1549 on the Hudson River.^[22]
• Rep. Gary Ackerman: Given on February 6, 2009, for speaking out against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for their failure in regulating and catching Bernard Madoff's ponzi scheme.
• Hillary Clinton: Given on February 18, 2009, for her service to her country and her historic run at the presidency.
• Rush Limbaugh: Given on March 5, 2009, for taking a modest mention by the president and turning it into media gold.
• Debbie Wasserman Schultz: Given on March 24, 2009, for balancing motherhood, a successful House campaign, continuous voting, and presidential support for both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama while undergoing seven surgeries for breast cancer.
• Barack Obama: Given on April 2, 2009 for "firing" General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner when Wagoner proved ineffective at reorganizing the company.

Hardball: How Politics is Played

Hardball: How Politics is Played Told By One Who Knows the Game was Chris Matthews' first book that led to the creation of the show. The book has been called The Prince of modern times and has been cited in four books.^[23]

References

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External links

• Hardball with Chris Matthews at the Internet Movie Database
• Hardball with Chris Matthews at TV.com