Misogyny Pays & the Women of America Owe the Media, Especially Chris Matthews

When this is all over, I'm holding a grudge against certain individuals in the boy media club. Especially I'm holding a grudge against the male caste of MSNBC, and most especially, Chris Matthews. Why does he still have a job? Matthews continues to make noises about running for the senate in 2010. Nothing would give me more pleasure than to help him lose.

Over at Alternet, Eric Boehlert of Media Matters has a nice summary of the misogyny that has been so willfully directed at the first woman to ever have a real shot at the presidency. Boehlert argues that misogyny has been exceedingly profitable for Matthews.

I'm making a list of the boys who have made it their business to make Hillary Rodham Clinton's historic bid for the presidency especially difficult by tilting the race dramatically in favor of the boy candidate. Boehlert names some of the boys who deserve to be on the list of haters:

[T]he Hardball host has not been alone. This election season, we've seen a cavalcade of white, middle-age men express their deep, personal contempt for the first serious female contender for the White House. Contempt, of course, that has nothing to do with Sen. Hillary Clinton's policies or her beliefs. Instead, it's been an oddly personal disdain dressed up as political analysis.

The way Mike Barnicle on MSNBC said Clinton "look[ed] like everyone's first wife standing outside a probate court." The way Bill Kristol on Fox News said that among the only people supporting Hillary Clinton were white women, and "[w]hite women are a problem, that's, you know -- we all live with that." The way CNN's Jack Cafferty likened Clinton to "a scolding mother, talking down to a child." The way Fox News' Neil Cavuto suggested Clinton was "trying to run away from this tough, kind of bitchy image." The way MSNBC's Tucker Carlson announced that "when [Clinton] comes on television, I involuntarily cross my legs." The way Christopher Hitchens on CNBC described Clinton as being "sort of alternately soppy and bitchy.'"

..[T]he openly sexist comments have produced very few condemnations from within the industry and even less soul-searching from the (mostly male) press corps. In fact, in Matthews' case, the sexist outbursts have helped propel his career. That's how he landed on the cover of the Times magazine.

Why? Because misogyny pays.

Question: If Chris Matthews had been forced to apologize to Sen. Barack Obama for divisive, personal comments the host had made about the candidate, and if the comments had prompted civil rights groups to protest outside the MSNBC studios, do you think Chris Matthews, three months after the fact, would be photographed on the cover of The New York Times Magazine with an uproarious grin on his face?

. . [I]f he says wildly offensive and sexist things on the air, why isn't Matthews shunned instead of toasted? Why would the so-called liberal New York Times lavish so much attention on him?

Simple: The press plays dumb about the misogyny, and the Times magazine article was a perfect example. (The political press hates the word misogyny and considers the idea to be cuckoo. Click here to watch Keith Olbermann jump down Elton John's throat for even daring to utter the word in the context of the Clinton campaign.) . .

And according to the Times, Matthews has three Mercedes in his driveway to prove it.

Read the whole thing

In case anyone missed it, here it is again -- the best summary yet of what the boys in the media think of women:

Hillary Clinton: Mad As Hell/Bitch

Hillary will appear on Countdown tonight, according to Joe Scarborough. As I recall, the last time she was on Keith's show was the night of the Florida win. I remember the interview very well. Keith was cold as ice.

Hillary Clinton Media Bias Protest Politics Barack Obama Democratic Primary News Gender Sexism Misogyny NBC MSNBC Chris Matthews Pennsylvania Indiana North Carolina