March 4, 2020: End of Days, Obfuscate and Smear, Overboard.

“If the Democratic Party nominates Bernie Sanders, it will be the end of days”, cried James Carville, on MSNBC. Carville, the old reliable Clinton attack dog, had emerged from under their front porch in the wake of Sander's route of the Democratic field in Nevada to sound the alarm.

The panic became palpable when Hillary had voiced scorn for Sanders, telling her audience that “nobody likes Bernie”, and that “he's never accomplished anything”. Rich criticism from a Clinton who, however intelligent, always misses the irony.

But after successive victories in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada, and with Sanders staring down the snake pit of the upcoming South Carolina primary, the mossbacks went into full panic mode.

Aided by the bullhorn of the corporate 'left', Chris Matthews of MSNBC's “Hardball” openly voiced concern by telling his audience that the Sander's route in Nevada reminded him of the collapse of the French Army in 1940, drawing parallels between the Sanders' campaign and the Nazi Blitzkrieg. This after expressing terror a few nights earlier that a Sanders victory would mean his being rounded up and shot in Central Park. These tart observations, being as they were on the heels of MSNBC's Chuck Todd equating the “Bernie Bros” on social media with the “brown shirts” revealed the level of panic as the media hosts reached deep into the muck in order to find something pungent enough to smear Sanders. Nothing, it appears, is beyond the pale. Not when corporate dominance is challenged.

Matthews knows better. He is a graduate of Holy Cross College, and has studied History at the University of North Carolina. When he is on his game has been a formidable interrogator, as witness back in 2008 when the McCain campaign put a hapless soul on his program spouting the nonsense about then-candidate Obama and appeasement. Matthews jumped on it quickly demonstrating that his guest had no idea what the term meant and that, in any case, Munich had not historical relevance pertaining to the question at hand. Exactly, no historical relevance. A dozen years later, Matthews has now become his hapless guest spouting false analogies that are only meant to obfuscate and smear.

It is bad enough that the morning programming on one of the few media outlets that even pretends to be socially conscious is continually about the business of “Bernie Bashing”. “Morning Joe”, hosted by former Republican congressman Joe Scarborough features a round table stacked with conservatives, all of whom regularly bash Bernie. Continually telling their audiences that Bernie cannot be elected and that his nomination would surely mean the return of tRUMP in the next election—despite polls continually demonstrating the opposite—their screed has become a full-throated howl as Bernie rose in the polls and threatened to take the nomination.

Matthews is, thankfully, now gone. Summarily dismissed this week from his twenty year long presence on MSNBC, the principle bullhorn of the mossbacks is now retired. The reasons presented were that he had made some untoward remarks to women “back in the day”, and must now walk the plank. The real reason, one suspects, is that Matthews—always a Republican-in-drag—had blown the network's cover; had been too transparent in his bias—a transparency that threatened to alienate the network's audience—an audience that has been led to believe that here the truth matters; that this NBC outlet was no mere corporate shill.

Matthews' sin is that he laid it out for all to see, and he has paid the price for his indiscretions. It won't make much difference, it will simply be less obvious. The network, as in 2016 when they were all-in for Hillary, is promoting the 'moderate'. Throughout the campaign MSNBC has been beating the drum for the 'moderate' Biden or, should he fall short, Bloomberg waiting in the wings in a thinly veiled effort to keep the corporate profits safe by sounding alarm bells over any candidate that would redistribute wealth in this country.

The truth is that MSNBC is not 'liberal' at all. The truth is that there is no 'liberal' media. All media is corporate owned and no media is going to promote any political figure out to challenge the dictatorship of capital.

Matthews has served his paymasters well over the years. He just went overboard.