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Ok so early this year a tape of Chris Matthews ‘joking’ about giving Hillary Clinton Bill Cosby’s date rape drug before his interview with her in January of 2016 emerged. 

“On January 5, 2016, MSNBC Hardball host Chris Matthews interviewed Hillary Clinton in an Iowa fire station during the Democratic primary season. Network footage obtained by the Cut shows Matthews, during the interview setup, making a couple of “jokes” about Clinton. He asks, “Can I have some of the queen’s waters? Precious waters?” And then, as he waits for the water, he adds, “Where’s that Bill Cosby pill I brought with me?” Matthews then laughs, delighted with the line, for an extended moment, as the staffers around him react with disbelief, clearly uncomfortable. (Cosby has been accused of sexual impropriety by dozens of women, some of whom allege that they were drugged and raped by the comedian.)

“This was a terrible comment I made in poor taste during the height of the Bill Cosby headlines,” Matthews said to the Cut. “I realize that’s no excuse. I deeply regret it and I’m sorry.”

Ok, so he did apologize. Still it was pretty despicable and it was a total breach of trust.

So yes he apologized, but here’s the problem. It’s a recurring theme of his coverage of Clinton. Indeed, what’s making me revisit this now is that last night in the coverage of Bush Sr’s funeral he was at it again-lying about her, slandering her, claiming she doesn’t like Jimmy Carter. Uh……..

Notice something else too: Chris Matthews who worked for Jimmy Carter clearly likes him. So in a way, his claiming that Clinton doesn’t like someone he clearly likes is a backhanded way of hinting that: Matthews doesn’t like her. Saying Clinton doesn’t like Carter is Matthews’ way of saying I don’t like Clinton. 

And he has a long history of showing just this. Matthew Getz of Media Matters put together a very helpful Twitter historical thread of Matthews’ sexist comments both about many women in general, and against Clinton in particular.

Of course, who can forget how viciously he went after the Clintons during the Monica Lewinsky witch hunt-ok the more apt term is fishing expedition-and PACE Brett Kavanaugh perjury trap. 

And after she was elected Senator in her own right, Matthews had this to say:

Matthews made many awful comments about Clinton during 2008, to be sure, but this one is helpful in that it sums up the attitude of much of the MSM towards Clinton.

In that sense, I’m glad that this emerged as this proves something that many Hillary supporters-yes we exist and we are legion as much as the Beltway media has tried to erase us-and we are #StillWithHer and will always be #WithHer. Matthews is neither the only MSM journalist who feels like this about Clinton, and he’s far from even the worst offender.

I mean remember Matt Lauer in September 2016, or what Dana Millbank said about her in 2008? Indeed, 2008 was interesting regarding a thesis of Shirley Chisholm going back years. When she became America’s first Black Congresswoman in the early 1970s she stated that she was discriminated against more as a woman than as a Black person.

UPDATE: This may be false: confirm and erase.

This might well explain why she was one of the few leading African American leaders in 2008 to stay with Hillary vs. Obama.

https://newrepublic.com/article/124391/yes-she-can

That election proved out the idea that sexism is more potent than racism in terms of Presidential politics. By the way, Obama himself said the same thing in 2016. 

I mean I had conversations with a number of Black men in 2008 who were happy to argue against Hillary on blatantly sexist lines; more than one told me that ‘women lack some of the necessary skills to be President.’ It goes without saying if you took out ‘women’ and put in ‘Blacks’ they would-understandably-be ready to fight.

When you talk about Clinton Derangement Syndrome there is something to say for the argument that it’s primarily about her that Bill became such a lightning rod because of her, he’s associated with that woman. In his first four years, her popularity was particularly low-which is totally out of normal patterns where First Ladies have much higher popularity than their husbands.

So the truth is out about both Matthews and the larger MSM. Again, he’s far from the only and worst offender. What do you think Matt Laurer-who himself has now been forced out due to allegations of sexual misconduct-was saying about her before his Inquisition against her over the emails?

But the attitudes of Matthews and Lauer were systemic in 2016. 

“Matt Lauer, like Charlie Rose and Mark Halperin before him, is a journalist out of a job after his employer fired him for sexually harassing female colleagues. It’s good news that real penalties are now leveled on men who harass — after centuries of the costs mostly befalling the women who endure harassment. But the deep cultural rot that has corroded nearly all of our institutions and every corner of our culture is not just about a few badly behaved men. Sexual harassment, and the sexism it’s predicated on, involves more than the harassers and the harassed; when the harassers are men with loud microphones, their private misogyny has wide-reaching public consequences. One of the most significant: the 2016 election.”

“Many of the male journalists who stand accused of sexual harassment were on the forefront of covering the presidential race between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Matt Lauer interviewed Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Trump in an official “commander-in-chief forum” for NBC. He notoriously peppered and interrupted Mrs. Clinton with cold, aggressive, condescending questions hyper-focused on her emails, only to pitch softballs at Mr. Trump and treat him with gentle collegiality a half-hour later. Mark Halperin and Charlie Rose set much of the televised political discourse on the race, interviewing other pundits, opining themselves and obsessing over the electoral play-by-play. Mr. Rose, after the election, took a tone similar to Mr. Lauer’s with Mrs. Clinton — talking down to her, interrupting her, portraying her as untrustworthy. Mr. Halperin was a harsh critic of Mrs. Clinton, painting her as ruthless and corrupt, while going surprisingly easy on Mr. Trump. The reporter Glenn Thrush, currently on leave from The New York Times because of sexual harassment allegations, covered Mrs. Clinton’s 2008 campaign when he was at Newsday and continued to write about her over the next eight years for Politico.

Indeed. By the way, regarding who Jill Filipovic calls the men who cost Clinton the election, note that many of them have now moved on to the new Emailgate: feigning moral outrage about Monica Lewinsky. Let’s not kid a kidder-it’s feigned as shown by the comments of Matthews and many male journalists through the years about Clinton and other women, not to mention their own conduct.

Again, as I said regarding Ruth Marcus, the outrage about Bill is really just about another way of dancing on Hillary’s grave-they aren’t outraged by sexual harassment they just hate the Clintons-otherwise why demand  Bill leave office as he’s already gone almost 20 years instead of demanding Trump, Kavanaugh, and Clarence Thomas who currently hold power leave? The question answers itself.

A grave they dug and buried her in. The same people who as she said would never let me be President still can’t leave her alone today. Still slandering her, still making up pseudo scandals. While lionizing Bush Sr who has some real scandals the media doesn’t make a peep about-Willie Horton, pardoning Weinberger to take the heat off himself on IranGate during the 1992 election.

But no chapter on Hillary Derangement Syndrome is complete without a word about: Maureen Dowd

That too says it all about the media’s attitude towards her to this very day.

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October 28, 2016: a Day That Will Live in Infamy Copyright © by . All Rights Reserved.

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