Supplemental: Matthews and guests extend the confusion!

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2015

On Hardball, as the worms turn:
It’s getting more and more painful to watch our “press corps” as it crashes and burns.

As it endlessly spirals downward. As worms devour the last of its brains. As Enlightenment values and procedures increasingly cease to exist.

As a nation breaks apart into a collection of incoherent tribes.

We earned this gloom the old-fashioned way. Last night, we watched the first, short segment of Hardball.

In the old days, we watched the program’s horrific host as he savaged both Clintons and Gore over a span of roughly ten years. Last night, we watched the reinvented corporate employee as he bungled the anti-Planned Parenthood video story.

As he bungled the facts even further! Let's start with a quick bit of background:

As you may have heard, Candidate Fiorina has been lying her aspic off about what she saw on a certain videotape.

Initially, she misstated the contents of the tape at the recent GOP debate. After those initial misstatements were revealed, she initiated a round of overt lying—political lying of a type we’ve never quite seen before.

What did Fiorina actually see on the videotape in question? Did the tape have anything to do with the people at Planned Parenthood?

Yesterday, Matthews seemed to think that he had discovered the initial source of the footage Fiorina misdescribed at that debate. As his program began, he seemed to say that Fiorina had been watching videotape of Lexi Fretz’s stillborn child:
MATTHEWS (9/29/15): Finally, the truth!

Planned Parenthood had nothing to do with it. Let’s play Hardball!

Good evening. I’m Chris Matthews in Washington.

Carly Fiorina has been telling the world about watching pictures of a fully formed baby kicking and breathing after a Planned Parenthood abortion. Everyone has heard her—and not a word of what she said was true.

And why? Because what she saw was not true. Facts matter.

At 2:30 today on MSNBC, the mother of a child stillborn at 19 weeks came forward. She described holding him, along with her other children, after the delivery. It was not at a Planned Parenthood facility, nor did it have anything to do with Planned Parenthood. None of it did.

LEXI OLIVER FRETZ (videotape): They were able to see him, to hold him, to realize that he was real. And while, yes, he was technically stillborn, his heart was beating. I held him in my hands until his little heart stopped. I could see it clearly under his ribcage.

MATTHEWS: MSNBC anchor Thomas Roberts asked the mother, Lexi Oliver Fretz, how she felt about seeing her son on the anti-abortion group’s video.
To watch the full segment, click here.

Matthews seemed to think that Fretz’s stillborn baby was the fetus in the videotape Fiorina misdescribed. After showing tape of Fretz speaking with Roberts, he seemed to make that point even more clearly:
MATTHEWS: Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina has insisted that the video showed an abortion being performed by Planned Parenthood. Will the truth matter? This attack video on Planned Parenthood being used to shut down the U.S. government is a fraud. Its only value has been to dupe a presidential candidate into mouthing its propaganda in a national debate before 24 million people.

But will the truth—that the baby was stillborn, that its birth and death had nothing to do with Planned Parenthood—count in this wild and angry conflict of values?
Matthews seemed to think that Fretz’s stillborn child was the figure seen in the videotape Fiorina misdescribed at the debate. In the rest of the segment, two guests—a journalist and a congresswoman—conveyed the same impression.

As best we can tell, that isn’t the case. But because of the way our “press corps” functions, we still aren’t precisely sure.

How did this latest confusion come into being? Yesterday afternoon, Thomas Roberts interviewed Fretz. But he never nailed down the basic facts of what had occurred.

To watch that segment, click this.

At 7 o’clock, Matthews came on fuming and railing, just as he used to do when lying about Candidate Gore or about the woman he routinely derided as “Eva Peron.” As usual, he didn’t seem to have any idea what he was talking about.

From the unprecedented Fiorina on down, the worms seem to have eaten all their brains. It’s getting harder and harder to misdescribe that fact.

16 comments:

  1. I'm not sure why Somerby thinks there is controversy about whether the film released this week used recycled video or not. Do we really need Fretz's testimony about her particular stillbirth when other portions of the video can also be sourced back to a variety of places that are NOT Planned Parenthood?

    See http://thinkprogress.org/health/2015/08/20/3693340/planned-parenthood-video-photos/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Reading comprehension does not seem to be a skill that you have. Perhaps if you re-read Bob's little essay you will discover that he is referring to the media, and in particular, Chris Matthews.
      Then again, perhaps you should just stick with your Dick and Jane readers until you get more skillful.

      Delete
    2. The resident reading scold strikes again with Dick-and-Jane vengeance.

      Delete
    3. Here is what Somerby says:

      "Matthews seemed to think that Fretz’s stillborn child was the figure seen in the videotape Fiorina misdescribed at the debate. In the rest of the segment, two guests—a journalist and a congresswoman—conveyed the same impression.

      As best we can tell, that isn’t the case. But because of the way our “press corps” functions, we still aren’t precisely sure."

      Are you saying that the video that was released this week is not the same as the video Fiorina was describing? The video released this week is where Fretz's stillbirth was shown. Is that not what Fiorina saw?

      Please clarify instead of insulting me for being confused about this.

      Delete
    4. "Matthews seemed to think that Fretz’s stillborn child was the figure seen in the videotape"

      "As best we can tell, that isn’t the case."

      That's pretty clear what Somerby thinks "as best he can tell" right there.

      How in the world you leaped from that to Somerby supposedly questioning "whether the film released this week used recycled video or not" is a little odd though.

      The bottom line, Somerby is clear: he doesn't think, as of this moment, that the Fretz stillbirth was the scene depicted in the tape Fiorina originally (mis-)described.

      But let us return to this question: "Do we really need Fretz's testimony about her particular stillbirth when other portions of the video can also be sourced back to a variety of places that are NOT Planned Parenthood?"

      Do we need that for what? In order to see Fiorina is a liar?

      No, we do not need that. Fiorina was a liar, clearly, before any additional information came out. There is no possibility of information coming out that will make her anything but a liar.

      The tape Fiorina described, contrary to her story, DOES NOT allow one to watch a kicking fetus while a Planned Parenthood doc says "we've got to keep it alive to harvest its brain." The (doctored) video she described just isn't showing that.

      Delete
  2. I'm voting for Herman Cain, pizza entrepreneur.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm voting for Herman Munster, oversized mortician.

      Delete
    2. @Butch Patrick

      Don't you recognize John Kerry as Herman reincarnated?

      Delete
  3. Bob Somerby, in four posts on this topic, has called Carly Fiorina a liar and several members on the press corps negligent. He says he has seen the video in question and implies that Fiorina is correct in implying that media persons covering it have not.

    Today he writes about an often labelled spittle-flecked media personality who almost got somebody killed. Somerby chides Chris Matthews and his guests for extending the confusion.

    He also describes watching worms devour the brains of the press corps as it covers Fiorina's challenge to the President and Hillary Clinton to
    "Watch a fully formed fetus on the table, its heart beating, its legs kicking, while someone says we have to keep it alive to harvest its brain."

    As best Somerby can tell, a 19 week old stillborn fetus, which would have been the child of Lexi Fretz, it not the fetus Fiorina "misdescribed
    in the debate." As best I can tell the 19 week old stillborn Fetus of Fretz is shown in the videotape Fiorina has said contains the scene she describes. There are two 10 second segments of fetuses shown in the video three minutes apart. Somerby adds to the confusion about being fuzzy about which fetus segment he refers to in this post.

    Confusion reigns.

    Somerby adds nothing to indicate whether harvested brains were or could be used to feed the worms now eating the brains of our press corps. This a possible source of nutrients that might help us save Englightenment values and procedures from ceasing to exist. Somerby does not state if he thinks saving these values is about "the character of our nation." Fiorina clearly thinks cutting out funds to Planned Parenthood is.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This guy's worried about *other* people's confusion?

      You can't make them up!!

      Delete
    2. WHICH guy?! (You people are killing me...)

      Delete
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