Chris Matthews Defends Andrew Breitbart On Hardball…But Then Not So Much
by Paul F. Villarreal
Big Government has the full story.
The synopsis: Chris Matthews justly defended internet entrepreneur Andrew Breitbart during the first taping of Matthews’ Hardball which aired at 5pm ET on Thursday, July 30, 2010.
Matthews told guests Howard Dean and Salon.com’s Joan Walsh that Breitbart had kept exculpatory parts of Sherrod’s speech in the original two video clips which Breitbart posted on his blog. Breitbart has said he received those two video segments pre-edited and has not altered them since:
Apparently, though, for the MSNBC brass and possibly the station’s viewers, Matthews’ defense of Breitbart did not go over so well.
Thus, for perhaps the first instance in Hardball‘s history, Matthews actually re-taped the Sherrod spot and his entire show instead of MSNBC simply re-airing the 5pm ET tape again at 7pm ET.
This time , Matthews wasn’t as kind towards Breitbart:
You’ll note that Walsh incorrectly identifies Roger Spooner twice as a black farmer at the beginning of this re-done segment (the first misidentification coming at approximately the 1:22 mark of the video).
Spooner, of course, is white.
So, as BigGovernment.com asks, who got to Chris Matthews? Why did he feel the need to re-tape his Shirley Sherrod segment and why did his tone towards Breitbart change in the later version of Hardball?
