Eric Boehlert: Matthews' "Oh God" vs. Santelli's rant: Which told us more about the press?

Matthews' "Oh God" vs. Santelli's rant: Which told us more about the press?

by Eric Boehlert


snip//

Still, those accusations came pouring in with predictable swiftness. The "Oh God" moment represented a "naked display of bias," whined Media Research Center senior news analyst Geoffrey Dickens. "More media bias," complained the far-right site Scared Monkeys. "The fact that these people cannot provide just what would be considered common decency is amazing. This is a news network, or at least it is supposed to be."

An "embarrassment," claimed Hot Air.

But here's my point: If Matthews was an embarrassment, then what do you call CNBC's Rick Santelli? He's the B-list reporter -- and avowed John McCain supporter who last September announced the U.S. economy was "healthy" -- who, on February 19, responded to Obama's plan to rescue bad mortgages by broadcasting from the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. He delivered a caustic, disrespectful harangue ("President Obama, are you listening?") about the unfairness of Americans having to bailout "loser" homeowners, in which Santelli suggested Obama's bailout plan would lead the country toward communism. All the while, nearby Chicago traders in the background cheered Santelli on.

Against the backdrop of that performance, the idea that the Matthews live-mic moment should be pounced on as an "aha" moment for the unprofessional press corps is absurd. Not when Rick Santelli, a reporter for CNBC, went on live TV and uncorked an anti-Obama rant and then paraded around on right-wing radio shows for days while concocting stories about being targeted by the White House. Despite crossing all normal bounds of journalism, Santelli was celebrated in the press as a populist. (Y'know, the Drexel Burnham Lambert kind.) And CNBC seemed to do everything it could to market and hype the rant. (Imagine if MSNBC replayed Matthews' "Oh God" clip incessantly, bragging about how Matthews had "touched a nerve" with Americans.)

In terms of revealing deep truths about the corporate media, I'd suggest Santelli's off-kilter tirade, followed by his puffed-up prancing around, and the press corps that cheered him on, told us a helluva lot more abut the press than did Matthews' split-second "Oh God" utterance.

Indeed, why did the press dub Matthews' remark a "blooper," yet Santellli's rant was crowned a "populist" "shot heard around the world?" How was it that Matthews' split-second lapse of judgment supposedly provided us with all kinds of insight into the mindset of the Beltway media (i.e. they're liberal), yet Santelli's right-wing, anti-Obama, anti-working class rant did not? Matthews made a regrettable on-air mistake, but Santelli spoke the unvarnished truth of the masses? Please.

And make no mistake, it was the corporate press that rushed in to crown Santelli the populist king. His hometown newspaper, the Chicago Tribune, reported that the CNBC rant "had given voice to many unhappy with where the bailout seems headed." But as blogger Will Bunch noted, the Tribune article didn't quote anybody, aside from Beltway pundits, to back up that claim.

more...

http://mediamatters.org/columns/200903020024?f=h_top

I thought it was a good article....the Matthews thing may have been a tad unprofessional, but who the hell cares? If seems like something that Howard Kurtz would obsess over, while ignoring the Santelli thing. Plus, Matthews is someone who cares a lot about stagecraft, and his explanation was fine. Hell, Chris Matthews was always complaining that Obama did not seem natural in diners or whatever, and he was fawning over Rush's "delivery" yesterday....this is a man that cares a lot about the political presentation, why is it so bad that he had a reaction to that goofy entrance? Matthews says a lot of offensive things, but he gets a lot of flack from the Howard Kurtz types for stuff that is just a non-starter for me. Did Howard Kurtz have a problem when Matthews went on "we're all neocons now...women want a manly president"?