The sudden death this summer of NBC News Washington bureau chief Tim Russert, who made frequent appearances on MSNBC, removed a political and temperamental rudder for the network. Mr. Griffin has tried to fill the power vacuum since, struggling to shepherd the network's big personalities through a period of transition.

"Struggling" is putting it mildly. The Democratic convention should be a crowning moment for the resurgent cable news network, which has otherwise been an also-ran since its founding 12 years ago. A little sparring would be one thing; conflict can goose ratings, even when it's wantonly self-indulgent.

But this is just a mess. Host Chris Matthews has oscillated wildly between cranky scolding of his coworkers and obsequious near-groveling to the Hillary Clinton supporters who detest him. Both of Joe Scarborough's high-profile rants were too long and tiresome to add spice. And half of what Olbermann says seems to end up on microphone accidentally. Now even shiny new anchor Rahel Maddow is being drawn into the muck (Jossip reports some staff demand she be more of an Olbermann partisan).

MSNBC needs more yelling (at misbehaving anchors) off the air and less yelling on it. Unless this fighting sends ratings through the roof. In that case, by all means, continue.

(Disclaimer: The man in the lower right corner of the graphic is NOT and should NOT be confused with an MSNBC anchor. He is instead House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, and thus at a total loss to understand the horrific partisan bickering and vicious palace intrigue going on around him. Any suggestion that Rep. Hoyer is an MSNBC anchor or otherwise emotionally unstable or sociopathically antisocial is unintentional and accidental. In fact, Gawker apologizes, in advance, for not blurring his photo or something.)

"The kind of language he uses and the kind of behavior he exhibits in the public domain toward women objectifies them and leads to bad things for our society and to domestic violence," the new group wrote in a comment (emphasis added) that has been mysteriously scrubbed from the original press release.

This, of course, is code for "Christ Matthews helped to destroy delicate Hillary Clinton's fragile shot at the presidency."

Here's a roundup of all the ways Matthews undermined the women of America:

• Called Clinton a "she-devil." [Times]
• Said Clinton only got where she as because her husband "messed around." [Ibid.]
• Once said "Hillary Clinton bugs a lot of guys, I mean, really bugs people — like maybe me on occasion." [Gawker]
• Accused staffers of treating him like "some rape victim" over teleprompter mishaps. [Ibid.]
• "She's looking down on me. What do you think? Howie, she's looking down on me, that woman. She thinks she's better than me." [Media Matters]

Those are the big ones, if there's another remotely awful quote we should be aware of, do let us know.

Whatever one thinks of Matthews, a sometimes blustery but generally quite keen political observer, silencing him will only add to the easily-curated historical evidence that Clinton arrogantly disdains the press and, really, any criticism or scrutiny whatsoever. Wouldn't, say, passing some actual legislation do more for Clinton and other women?

Ah, but then there would be no quick and easy free press.

[Soup Cans via Mediabistro]

Buried under all the honest mistakes. Obama-Osama mix-ups have become so commonplace that viewers are willing to cut TV personalities some slack. Even Chris Matthews, who gets physically aroused by Obama, is calling him Osama, so it seems plausible that these really are just bloopers rather than calculated swipes, as some critics once hypothesized.

Also, Obama, once the presumed underdog against Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, won the nomination and is leading his Republican rival in the polls. He is in a position of strength, so it will take more to get people outraged on his behalf.

That still doesn't excuse tongue-tied TV news anchors. If they haven't been able to get Obama's name right by now, one can only conclude there will be at least one serious gaffe during the Democratic convention. And, if Obama wins election, still more during White House press conferences. In which case, the abject humiliation alone will be enough to stop these slip-ups cold. Awkward!

[Crooks and Liars, TVNewser]

The insider said, "They're cable. They're far too partisan. They have no gravitas. If gravitas is eight letters, they're about seven letters short."

Even more than the opinionated Matthews, Olbermann, with his long "special comments," has forced open a wedge at NBC News between the cable and broadcast side. (The division was explored, among other places, in this week's New Yorker profile of Olbermann.) It appears as though Meet The Press is the latest battlefield in this civil war, which in turn implies that, though Olbermann lashed out at longtime enemies Murdoch and Page Six over the Russert memorial gossip, the stories may very well have originated not with anyone from News Corp. but from a fellow denizen of 30 Rock, the NBC headquarters.

[Post, Previously]

Update: So the Post has posted the Page Six item Keith Olbermann was so worked up about yesterday, and it does indeed say Hardball host Chris Matthews "seemed" to be talking about a strategy for landing Tim Russert's job at a memorial event for the NBC personality, and that Olbermann is threatening to quit if he doesn't get Russert's Meet The Press job. (On Countdown, Olbermann denied issuing an ultimatum for Meet The Press and said Matthews shut down talk of him replacing Russert when an acquaintance brought it up.) But the gossip item also quotes a source, ostensibly from the traditional broadcast side of NBC News, who claims that Russert himself wanted NBC News political director Chuck Todd as his own replacement, and that the network will never install someone from MSNBC on the show. The insider said, "They're cable. They're far too partisan. They have no gravitas. If gravitas is eight letters, they're about seven letters short."

Even more than the opinionated Matthews, Olbermann, with his long "special comments," has forced open a wedge at NBC News between the cable and broadcast side. (The division was explored, among other places, in this week's New Yorker profile of Olbermann.) It appears as though Meet The Press is the latest battlefield in this civil war, which in turn implies that, though Olbermann lashed out at longtime enemies Murdoch and Page Six over the Russert memorial gossip, the stories may very well have originated not with anyone from News Corp. but from a fellow denizen of 30 Rock, the NBC headquarters.

Update: Paula Froelich of Page Six responds: "I am honored and chuffed that someone with such a severe case of malignant self-obsession as Keith Olbermann would say I am the Worst Person in the World for June 19, 2008. Apparently I, by writing a true story about his ambitions, trumped the atrocities committed by Robert Mugabe, Than Swe, Boris Boyarskov (he wasn't in the news yesterday but I generally think he's a pretty bad guy and assume he did something bad), Ratko Mladic, Hugo Chavez, and his own beloved Dick Cheney. (Notice I didn't say what these people do — Olbermann will have to expand his scope beyond his own being to figure it out. Heres a hint, darling: one is the vice-president of the United States of America). Perhaps Keith, who is as infantile as he is narcissistic, should preach to his viewers about things that actually matter to them, rather than himself. But then again, there are only 300,000 of them. The FLDS has more members."

Note also that Bernard says the Democratic presidential candidate's wife is "very different from Cindy McCain, very different from Laura Bush, very different, in her presence, from Hillary Clinton..." Gee, how is she different? I'm trying to think of some common difference from all these women and coming up blank! (Or, more accurately, blanco.)

Related: the Huffington Post reports that Hardball pulled the original promo for its Michelle Obama makeover show when it decided it was "inappropriate" to imply she's going to start wearing a high-cut miniskirt and stiletto heels. (Image at right.)

The standard cultural arbiter of what Real Americans do and what they are like is someone like Chris Matthews. He's a loud, brash Irish Catholic guy, getting up there in age, with an admittedly solid blue-collar history (former DC cop!) who's been in a bubble of wealth and privilege just long enough to make him utterly deluded about the people in this country who live outside the wealthiest enclaves of the Eastern Seaboard. Over the last decade or so, he's come to decide that Real Americans are, basically, Nixon's "silent majority"—aging white men of modest means. Sadly he barely even understands what these modern-day Angry White Men are like, so he's extrapolating from his own time in their circle, decades ago. This is why he is pretty sure he knows that Real Americans drink like this, and hey, no one plays pool anymore!

But let's look at Obama's famous "body man," Reggie Love. The kid introduced the candidate to Jay-Z, popularizer of the shoulder-brushing phenomenon. He's a black kid, from North Carolina. The standard analysis would be that a kid like this will TERRIFY THE VOTERS. But the guy's a former athlete who went to Duke on scholarship. At Duke, he partied with white frat kids—all of whom almost certainly listen, maybe exclusively, to hip hop and R&B.

These are kids (meaning "18-35-year-olds across the entire nation), white and black, for whom respect knuckles are second nature. And Obama's bump and shoulder-brush, probably simply because he's such a natural actor, don't reek of pandering. Pandering is when, say, Representative Jack Kingston inexplicably and incorrectly appropriated "It's Hard Out Here For a Pimp."

Obama's acting cool, but relatably cool. Like a Cool Uncle! He's younger and hipper than dad, but still serious and Grown Up. And this is probably his best defense against crazy old Grampa McCain.

(And lest anyone accuse us hero-worship, we did think it was totally cool when Hillary downed that boilermaker. If the old rumor of her drinking contest with McCain is true, that is ALSO cool. But absolutely nothing else about her is cool, in any way.)

The tale comes from a blogger who witnessed the shoot, and he's posted what look like authentic photos, so, you know. This is why Chris is so mad:

"I want you to know that she hired a Private Investigator to spy on one of my colleagues; someone in the media." Tucker walks in at that point and I'm literally writing down what he just said on a paper towel so I'd remember that quote. Oh yeah, so Tucker walks in and says, "Yup, he's right, she did hire someone and nobody really talks about it, but I really like her so it doesn't bother me."

Well. Who on Earth would Arianna be spying on? Russert? That would make Chris very, very mad, because he hearts Little Big Tim v v much. But jeez, what is there to even spy on with Russert? Who cares?

Anyway, Chris continued to be more or less a pain, though he came back and apologized for the outburst. And Tucker was apparently a real charmer! Friendly and joking! We've long known him to be an idiotic pain-in-the-ass, but sociopathic narcissists are often totally fun dudes when they've no reason to feel threatened or challenged. Unlike constantly self-doubting Chris, Tucker loves himself.

So the best thing Tucker said to me, after he said, "I eat at least one steak a day...I don't eat bread." He followed that quote with this, "There are three things I love. Cookies, alcohol, and Marlboro Reds."

Not sure if we're buying this anymore! But:

Another kinda funny thing that Tuck did (I'm gonna call him Tuck from now on) was he got a phone call from his publicist or someone, and he answers, "Hello!?!? Oh hey. No - what photo shoot? Oh fuck! I'm still in what's her name's hotel room, I'm tremendously hungover and I'm looking for my boxer shorts - I'll be there soon..."

Then started laughing and said, "I'm just kidding Jack...I'm actually hungover but I'm here with the photo crew..."

Sounds plausible. So who knows!

Update: The rumored private eye was supposedly hired to stalk Tim Russert, after Russert's wife Maureen Orth wrote mean things about Arianna and her gay Republican husband in Vanity Fair. This was back in 1994. Arianna has denied it for years, but apparently Chris Matthews still holds a grudge. Weird.

UPDATE 2 OMG:

So! Tucker denies saying any of the things he is quoted as saying! He emailed Nick (and not your humble day editor, sigh) to set the record "straight":

Nick,

I just read your Gawker item that describes a photo shoot Chris Matthews and I did yesterday morning at NBC in Washington. I have no idea who wrote it, but it's filled with completely false quotes attributed to me. Here's one: I'm described as saying I love cookies, alcohol and cigarettes. Except that I don't smoke and haven't had a drink in six years.

This is my good e-mail address. Please send warning next time you plan to libel me.

Thanks,

Tucker Carlson

One of the things that is kind of funny about Tucker is that he obsessively reads everything written about him on the internet and responds, personally. He once emailed Wonkette to clarify that he doesn't eat at McDonalds, ever. We take him at his word that he said none of these things, but we are actually pretty sure we saw him have a drink at a White House Correspondents Dinner reception once? We could be wrong!

BUT! The guy who published the report from the kid who witnessed the shoot (who has taken the post down) stands by every word of the story, and says the original author doesn't misquote people.

No one said the session was off-record. And [redacted] never signed anything saying it was confidential. Seeing that it was a Conde Nast shoot, Matthews and Carlson were likely just playing their off-screen acts for a magazine. Now everyone is demanding apologies and making threat upon threat. Should [redacted] have written a word for word account? Probably not, but it seems an honest mistake.

FURTHERMORE! Arianna sez Tucker sez he never said anything about the private eye that SHE sez she never hired! It's an ancient rumor that she claims is wholly made up.

And now you know the rest of the story! It's all confused and insane! Nobody knows ANYTHING, as William Goldman used to say about Hollywood.

We don't know about the circumstances of Oppenheim's departure from the NBC morning show, where he was a lone and provocative conservative. But the abrasive young producer was pushed out of Chris Matthews' Hardball on MSNBC after claiming in an article for The Weekly Standard that supposedly fearless reporters rarely left the well-protected Green Zone in Baghdad. (NBC's then anchor, Tom Brokaw, was particularly put out.)

And at Harvard, Oppenheim clashed with campus feminists, particularly when they wouldn't sleep with him. In a final column for the Harvard Crimson, Oppenheim wrote: "Apparently, it is easy to blame the patriarchy for all of your woes, and to silence your opponents with accusations of misogyny, but it is more difficult to actually deny oneself the pleasures of cavorting with said patriarchy's handsome sons."

Those articles remain on the web notwithstanding their abuse of bad-mouthed snobbish college girls and cowardly anti-war journalists. But a 2005 article by TV Newser's Brian Stelter (now a ferociously hard-working media reporter at the New York Times) about Oppenheim—Noah Oppenheim, Part Of America's First Family (What Do Capus & Brokaw Think?)— has mysteriously disappeared from the website.

Chris Ariens, Stelter's successor, knows Oppenheim vaguely from their time together at MSNBC. On the phone, he said he removed the item neither out of friendship or in response to a legal notice. But NBC flack Megan Kopf had told him the blog post showed up high in a search for Oppenheim's name, and linked to an article that was "potentially slanderous." (Anyone have a copy?)

TV Newser's Ariens is a wimp for accomodating NBC's pressure, but forget about him. Oppenheim ought to have a higher tolerance for "potential slander", having himself doled out so much of it.

And now I'm off.

I was an intern for Charlie Rose back in '03, and at that time David Gregory was a frequent guest, usually on remote from Washington. I would watch the less-than-congenial, highly abusive, and generally abrasive Rose do the usual pre-show banter with Gregory; whereby they'd both bask in their own sense of self-satisfaction for a while, then make jokes about President Bush (not that everyone doesn't, but it did destroy the illusion of journalistic objectivity for me).

My best guess is Gregory is definitely taking 'star' lessons from the diva/mentor himself, Charlie.

The dude is a total jerk.

Once, I was hanging with some friends in DC and we decided to go to the Capitol. We agreed to meet at a certain point at the front steps when we were done. There were maybe 8 of us. Well it turns out that David Gregory was reporting from the lawn of the Capitol around the spot where we were meeting up. The guy did his report, turned around, and proceeded to berate us and curse at us for being fame seeking assholes for ruining his shot and then asked if we wanted his autograph.

Whiner, arrogant, pious, self centered puke - that's him!!

And Fitted Sweats asks the important question: what if you were stranded on a tropical island with him?

David Gregory would insist being stranded was all your fault in the first place. He'd make a weird headband from an old dress shirt. Go jogging. Then start asking about what Presidents you've met. "Come on," he'd say. "Has to be at least one, right?" You'd say no. Meekly. Then he'd say "What was your GPA in college?" And spend the whole time undermining you. And being his typically douchey prematurely gray self. If he dies, after writing some bad poetry on a cave wall with a rock, he's too pasty to cannibalize.

"Did you get a load of Lou Rawls's wife?" Matthews said as he left the spin room. Apparently the Rev. Jesse Jackson was introducing the widow of the R&B singer at the media center. "She was an absolute knockout," Matthews declared. It's a common Matthews designation. The actress Kerry Washington was also a "total knockout," according to Matthews...

Matthews grabbed [Washington's] hand, and Phil Griffin, the head of MSNBC who was seated across the table, vowed to get her on the show.

"I know why he wants you on," Matthews said to Washington while looking at Griffin... "He wants you on because you're beautiful," Matthews said. "And because you're black." He handed Washington a business card and told her to call anytime "if you ever want to hang out with Chris Matthews."

On Russert:

Tim — as in Russert, the inquisitive jackhammer host of "Meet the Press" — is a particular obsession of Matthews's. Matthews craves Russert's approval like that of an older brother. He is often solicitous.
A number of people I spoke with at NBC said that Russert can be disdainful of Matthews, whose act he often sees as clownish. They also told me that Russert believes Matthews is something of a loose cannon who brings him undue headaches in his capacity as NBC's Washing-ton bureau chief.

Matthews is probably cagey because NBC wants to cut his pay significantly below its current $5 million-per-year levels. But it sounds he'd give some ground just to keep his ego fed on the high of having his own show:

At one point, Mat-thews suddenly became hypnotized by a TV over the bar set to a rebroadcast of "Hardball." "Hey, there I am — it's me," he said, staring at himself on the screen. "It's me."

[FishbowlDC]

[TVNewser]

"What she has to do is get rid of the kneecapers that work for her, these press people whose main job seems to be punishing Obama or going after the press, to building a positive case for her," Matthews said. And later: "The kneecapping hasn't worked. Her press relations are lousy," he said. "If all you do is intimidate and punish and claim you'll get even relentlessly, people of all kinds of politicians—and in all fairness, the press—human reaction to intimidation is screw you."

If anyone can point us towards a clip, we'd appreciate it.

Matthews Calls Clinton Press Shop "Lousy", "Kneecappers" [HuffPo]

Chris has consistently gone after Hillary Clinton with vehement misogyny since the late '90s ("Hillary Clinton bugs a lot of guys, I mean, really bugs people — like maybe me on occasion. . . . She drives some of us absolutely nuts."). So it should probably surprise no one that Matthews' "strong" wife Kathleen donated the maximum allowable amount to Hillary's campaign.

Another of the "strong" women Matthews is known for surrounding himself with was Tammy Haddad, the well-liked DC producer and former managing editor of Matthews' Hardball (full disclosure: we are among those people who like her). Haddad left the show last fall, first gaining a new title at MSNBC as a whole, then leaving to network to "consult" (she's been producing video for Newsweek.com). Since Haddad left the show, Matthews, now also acting as managing editor, has become even more of a terror to his staff (and guests). Which, for a man who accuses staffers of treating him like "some rape victim" when the teleprompter screws up, is saying something.

Matthews' issues with women are no secret to anyone who watches his show, but former staffers tell us he's actually reined in his gynophobic tendencies (esp since the wild and crazy Lewinsky years). "He can't control himself when it comes to women, and it's not malicious, it's just wildly inappropriate," one told us.

And hey, here's a montage of Chris Matthews cursing on-air. Best one is the last, from Super Tuesday, where Matthews berates his staff for "putting on shit."

Hardbrawl [WP]

MSNBC's many hours of debate coverage last night began with a pre-game show featuring Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews, during which they jockeyed for the spotlight on an outdoor stage surrounded by the students of South Carolina State University. This unique setting was excellent, because it gave viewers an opportunity to see Keith and Chris without their normal studio lighting. Boy are those guys pink! And they got pinker during their ongoing struggle with each other for airtime.

Now, perhaps this was because the debate itself hadn't happened yet, so there wasn't much of anything substantive for anyone on the show to say. This didn't stop Chris Matthews though—he left Keith and the other guests in the dust, showing that one it comes to loud, pointless, political discussion, he is MSNBC's top dog.

Back when Keith Olbermann was on Sportscenter he relied on a "joke" heavy script. His show, "Countdown," uses much the same formula, but without his pre-written copy Keith seemed confused. When he wasn't doing scripted segues, Olbermann came off as way in over his head. Matthews delighted in Keith's ineptitude and before one commercial break, he started blatantly laughing at Olbermann, who appeared to be on the almost verge on the tears. Seriously! Look!

I like laughing at Keith Olbermann as much as the next person, but the perverse glee Matthews took in Keith's discomfort, and the resulting honking guffaws, were quite creepy. Matthews was downright scary—you know, like big guns are scary, as went his most childishly inane simile ever used national television.

Anyway, while Olbermann was all lost and flustered, the even-screamier-than-usual Matthews let himself get completely carried away in the festive atmosphere. As he talked with disheveled toad and Clinton campaign adviser Mark Penn, it even seemed as though Matthews thought he was an at awards show. In one exchange, Matthews completely blindsided Penn by revealing his passion for fashion and the disturbing fact that he's "fascinated by the visual" of a debating Hilary Clinton:

MATTHEWS: "What's she [Hilary] wearing tonight?"

PENN: "Uhh she... we'll see that. I will... I would..."

MATTHEWS: "She's the only woman out there, so everybody else will be in charcoal or navy, and everybody else will have a red tie, so she gets to be the distinguishing characteristic."

PENN: "I didn't know you were so into fashion."

MATTHEWS: "I'm fascinated by the visual. Yeah, I am."

This surreal moment was predictably followed by awkward silence from Penn and Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson.

Then the rest of the pre-debate discussion basically consisted of the hosts and panelists making statements that were slight variations of: "Holy shit! There's going to be a minority on stage, and a lady too!"

The debates themselves were a commercial-free snoozefest. As the guys over at Wonkette have already noted, the only real highlight was longshot lunatic Mike Gravel, who was Alaska's Senator like ninety years ago and somehow scored himself an invite. Gravel represents a bygone era in politics, when passion and oratory were prized over canned sound bites. In other words, he was loud and gesticulated wildly every time he spoke. Even though many of Gravel's statements were just plain crazy, sometimes he said exactly what those of us watching at home were thinking:

On MSNBC's postgame show, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson said, "Nobody talked about Darfur here. Why is it? Because it's Africa?" This criticism came in spite of the fact that Joe Biden had described the use of force in Darfur as "justified and necessary."

Richardson's slipup wasn't the only notable moment in the debate afterglow. While discussing Hilary Clinton, Chris Matthews made this shocking admission: "I know I raise my voice occasionally."

Courtesy of our slutty sisters at Wonkette, and only because few things make us happier than mildly homoerotic mainstream entertainment, we present a highlight from Chris Matthews' Wednesday appearance on The Colbert Report. Sure, Matthews is in the driver's seat at first, as you'd expect. But then he tenderly offers Colbert a turn on top, and, well, times like that are why they invented TiVo.

Don't Mess With Chris Matthews [Wonkette]