Ha!
This election cycle, when it comes to cable news, I’m an MSNBC man. If parent company General Electric held a contest that raffled off the chance to dine with Tim Russert, Chris Matthews, Pat Buchanan, Chuck Todd, Andrea Mitchell, Eugene Robinson and Rachel Maddow, I’d find a way to cheat. For baby names, we’re considering Joseph Scarborough English.
So when Ellen read this week’s 8,000-word Chris Matthews profile in The New York Times Magazine, she knew I’d eat it up. It’s a tremendously insightful piece that looks at the tensions inside NBC News—namely Russert vs. Matthews and Matthews vs. Olbermann—and doesn’t give much hope for Matthews’ future with the network (his contract is up in June 2009; possible next steps include taking over Face the Nation on CBS or running for Senate).
Many of those 8,000 words are devoted to mocking Matthews’ name-dropping, making him seem like a more successful incarnation of David Brent (or Michael Scott, depending on how much BBC you watch). Here’s one of the many memorable passages:
“As I began researching this article, Jeremy Gaines, an MSNBC spokesman, gave me the names of about a dozen people that Matthews recommended I speak to, all famous — everyone from Nancy Pelosi to Marvin Hamlisch. But gatekeepers for more than one of these people expressed confusion as to why Matthews would refer me to them. “Please keep us out of this,†pleaded a spokesperson for one prominent politician whom Matthews had recommended via Gaines.”
Can’t wait for the Pennsylvania Primary, and seven awkward hours of MSNBC’s exhaustive coverage. I’d better work from home.
Read the entire piece: The Aria of Chris Matthews