Another skewed Chris Matthews Show panel

On November 28, NBC's Chris Matthews Show convened another panel that skewed right, continuing a pattern documented by Media Matters for America. Of the 44 Chris Matthews Show panels convened in 2004, 20 skewed to the right, twelve were balanced, seven skewed to the left, and five featured a conservative who supported Senator John Kerry on an otherwise balanced panel.

The November 28 panel featured:

  • Tucker Carlson, conservative co-host of CNN's Crossfire and host of PBS's Tucker Carlson: Unfiltered;
  • Howard Fineman, Newsweek chief political correspondent and NBC News political analyst;
  • Norah O'Donnell, NBC White House correspondent; and
  • Cokie Roberts, ABC political analyst and National Public Radio senior news analyst.

In addition to documenting Carlson's extensive history of spreading conservative misinformation, MMFA has noted several instances in which Fineman repeated Republican talking points or otherwise propagated misinformation. These include echoing FOX News Channel's partisan host Sean Hannity in his post-debate advice to the Bush-Cheney '04 campaign; repeating GOP talking points on Senator John Edwards's foreign policy experience; and reviving the myth that the late Pennsylvania governor Bob Casey was forbidden to speak at the 1992 Democratic National Convention because he opposed abortion rights. MMFA has also documented Roberts promoting the view that Kerry was a less likeable presidential candidate than President George W. Bush: She falsely claimed that after the second presidential debate, while people crowded around Bush, Kerry was “kind of by himself.”