Christopher Matthews, beloved again!

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2013

Learning where love comes from: The analysts are all back on their feet after Monday night’s shock to the system.

Several had to be hospitalized after viewing Rachel Maddow introduce Chris Matthews this way:

MADDOW (10/14/13): My beloved colleague and pal, Chris Matthews, has just published the best-timed book ever about the real legacy of Ronald Reagan’s approach to governance, specifically his contentious but civil working relationship with the legendary Democratic Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill.

Joining us for an interview with the host of MSNBC’s Hardball, author of the new book Tip and the Gipper: When Politics Worked, Mr. Chris Matthews. It is great to have you here tonight. Congratulations on the success of this book.

“Where did that come from?” we incomparably asked. Today, we may have received our answer.

Last night, the suits honored Chris at a DC fete. Politico reports some remarks by the number one suit:

GAVIN (10/16/13): If you take MSNBC President Phil Griffin at his word, “Hardball” host Chris Matthews is the cable network’s top employee.

“Everything he does, especially as he gets older and succeeds, is really impressive,” Griffin told a crowd at Washington, D.C.’s P.J. Clarke’s restaurant Tuesday night gathered to celebrate Matthews new book, “Tip and the Gipper: When politics worked.”

“Chris is now either the No. 1 or 2 guy every night since we moved him to 7 p.m.,” said Griffin, referring to Matthews new time slot at the network. “He also beats everybody in the competition—meaning Fox, our big challenger—one out of three nights. And we hope to do that regularly. It’s impressive what he’s done. We call him a national treasure at MSNBC. If you’ve ever seen Chris at an airport, you know what that means. Everyone comes up to him.”

Griffin didn’t stop there with the praise.

“We asked everybody who’s on air at MSNBC to tell us what was the most impressive thing about your first day at MSNBC. By far the leading person to be talked about—by over a third of the persons—was joining a network with Chris Matthews. He’s beloved at MSNBC and around politics.”

We understand why Griffin is stressing Chris’ work since he got a bit older. Back when he was still in his 50s and serving the interests of owner Jack Welch, his work was scandalously bad, utterly inexcusable.

Except to David and Joan! Moving right along:

For the record, Fox isn’t exactly MSNBC’s “big challenger.” Fox swamps MSNBC in the ratings, although the shutdown seems to have helped MSNBC.

Beyond that, Matthews doesn’t beat Fox one out of three nights. Here’s his head-to-head with Greta over the last six nights, total viewers in millions:

Monday, October 14: Greta 1.915, Chris 1.264
Friday, October 11: Greta 1.662, Chris 0.985
Thursday, October 10: Greta 1.783, Chris 1.172
Wednesday, October 9: Greta 1.944, Chris 1.271
Tuesday, October 8: Greta 1.814, Chris 1.035
Monday, October 7: Greta 1.929, Chris 1.197

Those numbers for Chris are surprisingly good. But as many people can see, Greta’s numbers are—what’s the word we’re after?—bigger. (On a few occasions in recent weeks, Chris has prevailed “in the demo.”)

You can hardly expect a cable news boss to restrict himself to the facts. With that, we reach our key point. There you see that word again:

Chris Matthews is “beloved!” Someone seems to be copying off somebody else’s paper.

For the record, Chris is a perfectly decent guy, if you can overlook his past work. But have we told you that these people are trying to sell you a product?

Final point: That “over a third of the persons said it” falls a bit short of a rave.