| Chris Matthews | |
|---|---|
Matthews at the 2011 Time 100 Gala. |
|
| Born | Christopher John Matthews December 17, 1945 Somerton, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Education | College of the Holy Cross |
| Occupation | News anchor and political commentator |
| Spouse(s) | Kathleen Matthews |
| Notable relatives | Montgomery County, PA County Commissioner Jim Matthews (brother) |
| Ethnicity | Irish |
| Religious belief(s) | Roman Catholic |
| Notable credit(s) | Hardball with Chris Matthews The Chris Matthews Show |
Christopher John "Chris" Matthews (born December 17, 1945) is an American news anchor and political commentator, known for his nightly hour-long talk show, Hardball with Chris Matthews, which is televised on the American cable television channel MSNBC. On weekends he hosts the syndicated NBC News–produced panel discussion program, The Chris Matthews Show. Matthews makes frequent appearances on many NBC and MSNBC programs. On March 22, 2009, Matthews renewed the contract for Hardball with Chris Matthews through 2012.[1]
Contents |
Matthews was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Irish American parents and is a Roman Catholic.[2] He attended La Salle College High School. He is a 1967 graduate of the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, and did graduate work in economics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.[3]
Matthews served in the United States Peace Corps in Swaziland from 1968 to 1970[4] as a trade development adviser.
When Matthews first arrived in Washington, D.C., he worked as a police officer with the United States Capitol Police.[5] Subsequently, he served on the staffs of four Democratic members of Congress, including Senators Frank Moss and Edmund Muskie. In 1974, he mounted an unsuccessful campaign for Pennsylvania's 4th congressional district seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, in which he received about 24% of the vote in the primary.[6] Matthews was a presidential speechwriter during the Carter administration, and later worked for six years as a top aide to long-time Speaker of the House of Representatives Tip O'Neill, playing a direct role in many key political battles with the Reagan administration.
Despite having worked for Democrats, Matthews has said, "I'm more conservative than people think I am. ... I voted for George W. in 2000."[7] Salon.com has called him the "most conservative voice" on MSNBC's primetime lineup.[8] Matthews has been accused by media watchdogs[9] of having panels of guests that skew to the right and of supporting Republicans in his own questions and comments.[10][11] Conversely, he is also often criticized by conservatives for his opposition to the Iraq War among other stances he took against the Bush administration.
On the April 14, 2008 edition of The Colbert Report, Matthews alluded to a possible run for the United States Senate from Pennsylvania. When directly questioned by Stephen Colbert about his intentions, he stated that there is a difference between celebrities and those who work for the people, and it's a greater thing to work for the people. He also said that his boyhood dream was to be a senator. Four days later, on April 18, 2008, Matthews told Bill Maher that he has "made a commitment to covering politics in a liberal way, starting in 1987, and [he is] honoring that commitment, not getting involved in it."[12] The seat in question would be the one held by Sen. Arlen Specter, whose term in the Senate ended in January 2011. On November 28, 2008, Fivethirtyeight.com and The Politico reported that Matthews had been in contact with senior staffers of Barack Obama's campaign about a possible run.[13][14] On January 7, 2009, The New York Times reported that Matthews told his staffers that he would not run for the Senate.[15] On May 25, 2009 Chris Matthews appeared on Charlie Rose where he stated that he was intending to run for Specter's Senate seat in 2010, stating "I could see myself winning the Democratic primary and I could see myself going on to face Arlen in the general [election]," but that he felt he had to decide between being a journalist and being a politician once Specter became a national figure by supporting the stimulus.
While discussing proposed healthcare reform on the December 17, 2009 edition of Hardball, Matthews stated, "The Republicans will know they have lost... Let them keep score and it's easy. It's complicated when liberals get to keep score. We're always arguing. Well, I'm a liberal, too."[16][17]
Matthews worked as a print journalist for 15 years, spending 13 years as Washington, D.C. bureau chief for the San Francisco Examiner (1987–2000), and two years as a nationally syndicated columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle. Matthews covered the fall of the Berlin Wall, the first all-races election in South Africa and the Good Friday Peace Talks in Northern Ireland. In 1997 and 1998, his research in the National Archives produced a series of exclusives on the Nixon presidential tapes. Matthews has covered American presidential election campaigns since 1988.
In 1997, Matthews began his own talk show, Hardball with Chris Matthews, which originally aired on CNBC but is currently on MSNBC. Hardball features pundits and elected officials as guests.
In 2002, The Chris Matthews Show began airing in syndication. The show is formatted as a political roundtable consisting of four journalists and Matthews, who serves as the moderator. He is estimated to earn more than $5 million a year. He also wrote a book called Hardball.[18]
Matthews has been married since 1980 to Kathleen Matthews, who anchored News 7 on WJLA-TV, the ABC affiliate in Washington, D.C., before accepting a position as an executive vice president with J.W. Marriott. The couple have three children: Michael, Thomas, and Caroline. His brother Jim Matthews, a Republican, is a county commissioner in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.
In 2002, Matthews was hospitalized with malaria, which he evidently contracted on one of his visits that year to Africa. He has also had other health problems, including diabetes (which he acknowledged having on the Hardball broadcast of December 7, 2009) and pneumonia.[19]
Liberal blogger Glenn Greenwald has called Matthews "the most vivid example of all that is wrong with political coverage," saying "[h]e’s endlessly obsessed with personality-based politics and likes to promote the strong, masculine tough guy who you can have a beer with, versus the nerdy loser. And he has a cast of characters who go on his show, like Newsweek’s Howard Fineman, who gush over the maleness of the Republican candidates and warn Democrats about how that has real appeal to American voters. Most political reporters judge candidates on the basis of the likeability factor–Matthews is just more explicit about it."[20]
Others have criticized Matthews for talking too much on air, not letting his guests talk, and often talking over and interrupting them. One who also worked in the Carter Administration has written: "Generally in those days Chris was a relatively quiet person around the White House, and in meetings or briefings would frequently say very little, or nothing at all. I guess he's making up for lost time -- or 'lost talk' -- now. Nevertheless, I'm a big fan of his show, always fascinating without fail -- at least if you're a political junky."[21]
The progressive media watchdog group Media Matters for America named Matthews its 2005 "Misinformer of the Year", citing statements he made in support of President George W. Bush.[22]
On January 9, 2008, the morning after Hillary Clinton's surprise victory in the New Hampshire Democratic presidential primary, Matthews appeared on MSNBC's Morning Joe program and said of Clinton,
| “ | I'll be brutal, the reason she's a U.S. senator, the reason she's a candidate for president, the reason she may be a front-runner is her husband messed around. That's how she got to be senator from New York. We keep forgetting it. She didn't win there on her merit. | ” |
The comments were criticized by such media figures as Bill O'Reilly, Joy Behar and Gloria Steinem.[23][25][26] They also resulted in protests outside NBC's Washington, D.C. studios, as well as a joint letter of complaint to NBC from the National Organization for Women, Feminist Majority, and the National Women's Political Caucus. Matthews apologized for the comments on the January 17, 2008 edition of Hardball.[26]
After Matthews and Keith Olbermann made controversial on-air comments during the 2008 Republican National Convention, NBC News correspondent David Gregory replaced them, but Matthews and Olbermann continued working as analysts.[27] On November 4–5, he teamed with Rachel Maddow, Eugene Robinson, David Gregory, and Keith Olbermann to cover the presidential election.
During MSNBC's coverage of the Potomac primary, Matthews had this to say about then presidential candidate Barack Obama:
| “ | I have to tell you, you know, it's part of reporting this case, this election, the feeling most people get when they hear Barack Obama's speech. My, I felt this thrill going up my leg. I mean, I don't have that too often.[28] | ” |
This led some on the political right to assert that both he and MSNBC were biased toward Obama.[29]
On November 6, 2008, he was a guest on the MSNBC television program Morning Joe, where he stated, "I want to do everything I can to make this thing work, this new presidency work." Host Joe Scarborough asked if that was his job as a journalist. "Yeah, that’s my job. My job is to help this country," Matthews said.[30]
On December 1, 2009, preceding Obama's speech announcing a troop increase in Afghanistan, Matthews critiqued the president for choosing the United States Military Academy as his venue, referring to it as "the enemy camp."[31] Soon after, Matthews apologized for his remarks saying, "[To] the cadets, their parents, former cadets, and everyone who cares about this country and those who defend it: I used the wrong words and worse than that I said something that is just not right and for that I deeply apologize."[32]
In January 2010, in Matthews's comments after President Obama's first State of the Union Address, he says "You know, I forgot he was black tonight for an hour."[33][34][35][36][37] The next day, on the Rachel Maddow show, Matthews clarified his remarks, saying "I think he’s taken us beyond black and white in our politics, wonderfully so, in just a year."[38]
|
||||||||||||||||||||