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Softball Journalism

The following exchange demonstrates starkly the bias in the media against conservatives, as well as Matthews' own softball approach to liberal candidates.  Matthews was interviewing Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards at the John F. Kennedy School of Government (hardly a hostile audience for a liberal candidate).

Matthews: "... back in the last presidential election a Boston TV reporter Andy Hiller asked the President--presidential candidate George W. Bush if he could name the four world leaders of four hotspots around the world then; they were Chechnya, Taiwan, Pakistan, and India.  Do you think that was a fair set of questions to put to a guy running for president, to name those--?"

Edwards: "No!"

Matthews: "Do you think it would be a fair question to put to you right now?"

Edwards: "No; absolutely not."

Matthews: "So, you don't want [unintelligible] I have the answers here if you wanted to try, but since you don't want to try we'll move on.  If you, uh -- are you sure?  You don't want to answer these questions?  I know you know at least one of them; you know at least one of them..."

Edwards: "Oh, no, no, let's don't [sic] go there."

    Obviously Edwards did not know the answers.  But readers will recall that during the 2000 campaign Bush's failure to answer the questions that were posed with the sole intention of tripping him up was used as fodder for a Democratic smear campaign impugning Bush's ability to govern.  If the media is not hypocritical, it will plaster the airwaves with sound bites of Edwards dodging the question, and indicate that his qualifications are therefore questionable.  If Matthews were not hypocritical, he would have pinned Edwards down and forced him to admit openly that he does not know the answers to those questions.

    But I predict the media will not pick up on that exchange (although if Fox News picks it up some other outlets may follow suit out of guilt), and Matthews is obviously a partisan liberal shilling for the Democratic party.

Modified: 10/20/2003

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