Weekly Shredder 9:
Chris Matthews vs. Zell Miller
by Bob Cook

Pity the poor TV roundtable host who has operatives from the two major political parties booked as guests. No matter what the host may ask, the Democratic and Republican representative alike will launch into a mindless recitation of the party's official talking points. What did you have for lunch? Democrat: "George W. Bush has lost more than a million jobs four million more Americans are without healthcare we can do better blah blah blah." Republican: "John Kerry is a flip-flopper he voted against the weapons systems we need to fight terrorists did I mention he was a flip-flopper blah blah blah."

It makes any viewer want to tear their hair out watching pundits talking-point up the TV, so imagine how, say, Chris Matthews must feel doing this every single excruciating night. Sometimes Matthews actually plays, as his MSNBC show is called, "Hardball" — just ask anyone associated or sympathetic with Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

For archives, audio, and background about the column, click here.

But often, no matter how tough his questions, he just lets his guests talking-point away. Even if Matthews cut guests off (which he does) to make them document their facts (which he doesn't always do), it would more likely make for bad TV. It's like when NBA referees actually do call every foul and traveling violation — yes, the players are being kept to the rules of the game, but all that stopping and starting is incredibly jarring and boring. And for Matthews, a steady supply of nightly guests depends on their feeling like they'll get their piece in.

So talking points are the Borg — resistance is futile.

Perhaps Matthews expected such a nonconfrontation with Georgia Sen. Zell Miller. He's the Democrat who came to the Republican National Convention and famously give an angry, anti-Kerry keynote speech that was the best imitation ever of your grandpappy downing a bottle of gin and smashing the empty container upside your head. Even more famously, he did the same act on Matthews after the speech.

Matthews saw the speech, so he knew Miller was an angry cuss about things like Kerry's "manic obsession with bringing down our commander-in-chief." (Uh, isn't that what an election opponent is supposed to do, Senator Miller?)

What Matthews may not have known was that CNN had triple-teamed Miller with Wolf Blitzer, Judy Woodruff and Jeff Greenfield over the veracity of facts Miller had mixed in with his Zellfire and brimstone. With CNN violating the unwritten TV chatfest rule against forcing guests to back up their assertions, Grandpappy Miller had consumed the equivalent of his second bottle of gin by the time he got to Matthews a few minutes later.

It's a rule of journalism that your first question is a softie, part of the hustle, excuse me, technique to get your source to feel comfortable. And that's what Matthews does:

MATTHEWS: I want to ask you about the most powerful line in your speech. And it had so many. 'No pair has been more wrong, more loudly, more often than the two Senators from Massachusetts, Ted Kennedy and John Kerry.' Do you believe that John Kerry and Ted Kennedy really only believe in defending America with spitballs?

Notice how Matthews butters up Miller by calling his speech "powerful." And when Matthews brought up Miller's line about "spitballs," he did so with a smile on his face. Matthews, or anyone, wouldn't believe Miller really felt that way. However, Matthews was in a studio at Bryant Park, while Miller was in Madison Square Garden and couldn't see Matthews, so Miller didn't pick up on Matthews' wink. Miller's response in MSNBC's transcript, in which he says the two Senators don't want to "defend America by putting the kind of armor and the kind of equipment that we have got to have out there for our troops," doesn't come close to capturing his icy demeanor.

At this point, Matthews, as the CNN team did, challenges Miller on his line that Kerry "voted against" various weapons systems, saying Miller left out that Kerry voted against them as part of much larger bills. With at least Blitzer face-to-face with him at CNN, Miller's rage was contained, but without Matthews in front of him, it was much easier for him to release the beast within.

And perhaps for Matthews, to not let go of a point.

MATTHEWS: I'm just asking you, senator, do you mean to say — I know there's rhetoric in campaigns. I just want to know, do you mean to say that you really believe that John Kerry and Ted Kennedy do not believe in defending the country?

MILLER: Well, look at their votes.

MATTHEWS: I'm just asking you to bottom-line it for me.

MILLER: Wait a minute. I said I didn't question their patriotism.

MATTHEWS: No. Do you believe that they don't believe in defending the country?

MILLER: I question their judgment. What?

MATTHEWS: Do you believe they want to defend the country?

It does not appear that Matthews intended from the start to pound on one question like John McEnroe screaming at a line judge to "answer the question, jerk!" about whether the ball was in or out. Maybe Matthews, who once worked for Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill, has a soft spot for Democrats from Massachusetts. Maybe Matthews was emboldened by Miller not being on the same set. Maybe Matthews was drunk on the bottle of gin that is live punditry during a political convention. Or maybe Matthews fed off of Miller's rage. By golly, if Miller wasn't going to answer the question, Matthews was going to nail him to the wall! Is your statement truth or rhetoric, Senator Miller. Answer the question, jerk!

MATTHEWS: Well, let me ask you, when Democrats come out, as they often do, liberal Democrats, and attack conservatives, and say they want to starve little kids, they want to get rid of education, they want to kill the old people...

MILLER: I am not saying that. Wait a minute.

MATTHEWS: That kind of rhetoric is not educational, is it?

Matthews did everything but yell out, McEnroe-style, "Zell Miller, you cannot be serious!"

Now it's Miller's turn. How dare Matthews charge at him when he's let at least another 100 politicians bloviate without a peep! Where are his manners? The beauty is, these arguments happen all the time over the phone, in press conferences or in face-to-face interviews, but not much on live TV, giving a rare public glimpse at how the wily politician fights back against his predator.

MILLER: Wait a minute. Now this is your program. And I am a guest on your program.

MATTHEWS: Yes, sir.

MILLER: And so I want to try to be as nice as I possibly can to you. I wish I was over there, where I could get a little up closer into your face. But I don't have to stand here and listen to that kind of stuff. I didn't say anything about not feeding poor kids. What are you doing?

Not sitting you down for some pecan pie and a little chit-chat, that's for sure. But Matthews would not be dismayed. The predator strikes! And his potential prey strikes back!

MATTHEWS: "OK, do you believe now — do you believe, senator, truthfully, that John Kerry wants to defend the country with spitballs? Do you believe that?"

MILLER: "That was a metaphor, wasn't it? Do you know what a metaphor is?"

A metaphor (or meta-furrrrr, as Miller pronounced it), is a rhetorical figure of speech in which a comparison is made between two seemingly unrelated objects without using "like" or "as." Miller's statement about defending the nation with spitballs may more aptly be considered hyperbole. Or a synecdoche, if Miller truly believed all weapons would be formed by spitball-based material. But I'm no grammarian.

The interview devolved from there. "I think we ought to cancel this interview," Miller growled about midway through the few-minute chat. Matthews, obviously taking things personally at this point, challenged Miller on his statement that soldiers, not the press, defend First Amendment rights. In turn, Miller challenged Matthews to... well, if you don't know already, why kill the suspense?

MATTHEWS: Well, you could argue it was not nurses who defended the freedom of nursing. Why did you single out freedom of the press to say it was the soldiers that defended it and not the reporters? We all know that. Why did you say it?

MILLER: Well, because I thought it needed to be said at the this particular time, because I wanted to come on...

MATTHEWS: Because you could get an applause line against the media at a conservative convention.

MILLER: No, I said because it was — you're hopeless. I wish I was over there. (CROSSTALK) In fact, I wish that we lived in — I wish we lived in the day —

And crosstalk cut him off, but we know what's coming, right? Well, we know now because Miller said it a few seconds later, but first, let's ask, what is Miller so angry about? That the Democrats no longer speak to rural Southerners like his 72-year-old self? That not switching to the Republican party kept him from getting the good committee assignments? That rap is still "crap"?

And now for the climax:

MATTHEWS: Jim Jeffords switched parties after getting elected.

MILLER: If you're going to ask a question...

MATTHEWS: Well, it's a tough question. It takes a few words.

MILLER: Get out of my face. (should be read as mahhhh face) If you are going to ask me a question, step back and let me answer.

[LAUGHTER]

MATTHEWS: Senator, please.

MILLER: You know, I wish we... I wish we lived in the day where you could challenge a person to a duel. Now that would be pretty good.

Alas, even though, at the conclusion of the interview, Matthews invited Miller to come to the Bryant Park set, Miller did not come, not even with pistol in hand.

On the Friday night after the interview, Matthews appeared on "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," and Stewart noted how on any political gabfest, the guests go crazy when you make them go off the talking points.

MATTHEWS: And they spend about an hour of national TV time destroying a guy, saying he not only shouldn't win the presidency. He shouldn't be, you know?

[LAUGHTER]

STEWART: Right.

MATTHEWS: And, at the end of that, I dare to question his assassination of this guy.

STEWART: Right.

MATTHEWS: And I'm the bad guy. I'm playing hardball. These guys are playing hardball.

Yes, Matthews again has learned the lesson Dan Rather learned in 1988 when he tried to make George "41" Bush admit, on live TV, some role in the Iran-contra scandal, or what Jim Gray learned in 1999 when he tried to make Pete Rose admit, during a World Series ceremony on live TV, that he bet on baseball. That is, on live TV, the hard interviewer tends to look worse, in viewers' eyes, than the subject of the interview. Hey, 86 percent of respondents in one very nonscientific CNBC poll said Miller would beat Matthews in a duel, anyway.

No wonder that the next Monday, Labor Day, Matthews made only a cursory attempt to control two political party operatives talking about the presidential race. Democrat: "George W. Bush has lost more than a million jobs four million more Americans are without healthcare we can do better blah blah blah." Republican: "John Kerry is a flip-flopper he voted against the weapons systems we need to fight terrorists did I mention he was a flip-flopper blah blah blah."

Resistance is futile.

E-mail Bob Cook at bobc@flakmag.com.

— graphic by Derek Evernden (derek@ocellus.net)