Read this graph and try not to think of David Cross on Arrested Development (18:47 on the video clip). “People are a little impressed with themselves,” Griffin went on to say, continuing his commentary about the scene. “It’s a bit of an echo chamber.” Matthews is central to that echo chamber — at the Ritz, as in the 2008 presidential campaign. He is, in a sense, the carnival barker at the center of it, spewing tiny pellets of chewed nuts across the table while comparing Obama to Mozart and Clinton to Salieri. At one point, Matthews 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.” Then finish the profile of Chris Matthews the culture of the insular cable news media. Finally, read Digby's reactions, which are spot on. I don't know if it's an accurate portrayal of Matthews or not but if it is he is even more of a cartoon character in real life than he is on his show. He fulfills every single Village media cliche: obsessive social climbing, deep personal insecurity, primitively sexist and racist and just plain dumb. It's so bad that I almost felt sorry for him by the end of it. In fact, it's so relentlessly damning it feels like piling on -- and nobody hates this guy more than I do. I don't put much faith in the power of cable news -- frankly, not many people watch it -- but it's good to know how these media institutions operate so we can create better alternatives.
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Adam Doster, a contributing editor at In These Times, is a Chicago-based freelance writer and former reporter-blogger for Progress Illinois.
