MSNBC swings wildly rightward

Eric Boehlert in Salon this morning:

While the rest of the TV commentariat declared the Edwards-Cheney duel a draw, Chris Matthews and his MSNBC crew threw their arms around the gruff old veep.

Oct. 6, 2004 | So what debate was the crew at MSNBC watching Tuesday night?

It sure wasn't the one I saw. From my admittedly partisan viewpoint Edwards held his own on stage with the dark overlord, and got in some good shots. I particularly liked his plain-spoken,

"Mr. Vice President, you are still not being straight with the American people. I mean, the reality you and George Bush continue to tell people, first, that things are going well in Iraq -- the American people don't need us to explain this to them, they see it on their television every single day."

Boehlert:

"I don't think this well-rehearsed and well-briefed senator from North Carolina was ready for the assault," said Matthews, who insisted, "Dick Cheney was loaded for bear tonight. He went looking for squirrel and he found squirrel" in the form of Edwards. He later suggested Edwards often looked stunned, as if he'd been "slapped" by Cheney's devastating debating technique. Matthews also demanded to know if the "liberal press" would admit "Cheney won."

Yet nowhere else on the television landscape -- not even on Fox News -- was Cheney crowned the winner. Most pundits saw the debate as an obvious draw.

Perhaps the best explanation for MSNBC's disingenuous debate response lies here:

MSNBC host and former Republican congressman Joe Scarborough, who didn't flinch in naming Sen. John Kerry the debate winner last week, declared, "There's no doubt about it, Edwards got obliterated by Dick Cheney." (Perhaps he was trying to appease his right-wing fans who, he later remarked, flayed him alive for giving the debate to Kerry last week.)

So nice to know we can rely on the talking heads to give it to us straight.