MNF (ESPN) and Hank part ways

[bsmooth]

To be honest, he wasn't comparing the President to Hitler. He was comparing the situation of Obama golfing with Boehner to Hitler golfing with Netanyahu. That is not the same as saying Obama is like Hitler and I think anyone who isn't trying to sensationalize the entire thing can see that.

Yes he was. He could have just easily have said the difference between those two is wider than the Grand Canyon and people would have gotten it.
He could have said it is like watching Hitler and Churchill or Stalin or FDR and that would have been more historically relevant.
But no he chose a polarizing figure( Hitler) and compared him to a modern Jewish leader whom the right are in love with because of his hard line stance against the Palestinians. Also Obama has been repeatedly been attack by the right for not supporting Israel enough.
So to say it was just a flippant analogy, when he then quickly followed it up by calling the president the "enemy" speaks volumes. There are many people on the right who believe Obama is just like Hitler.
I am not outraged by his stupid comparison/analogy, I am more shocked by all the people on the right who want to blow it off as just a little misunderstanding.
Everyday I go to right wing news sites and blogs and you should read the ignorance and paranoia that permeates the postings. It is frightening.

[CF DolFan]

Yes you are right bsmooth it is only right wing news sites and blogs that ignorance and paranoia permeates the postings. Are you serious? 

The whole lynch mob mentality over peoples opinion is rediculous. It an opinion, a comparison opinion. It doesn't take very long to find stupid opinions from pretty much everyone, myself included. He didn't make a racist comment. He didn't slander him. People called Bush a terrorist numerous times and very few people cared to hold them accountable.  Everyone has stupid opinions and talk radio, talk shows, and message boards are filled with them.

Political correctness is directly contributing to the pussifiction of our country and I think it effects every corner of society. 

[Phishfan]

I am more shocked by all the people on the right who want to blow it off as just a little misunderstanding.
Everyday I go to right wing news sites and blogs and you should read the ignorance and paranoia that permeates the postings. It is frightening.

If you think I am on the right, you must not read my posts in the political threads. If I am on the right, I'm not sure the center or the left is even visable to most.

[Spider-Dan]

People called Bush a terrorist numerous times and very few people cared to hold them accountable.

Name one celebrity who called Bush a terrorist on national TV and kept a similar job.  Random hippies in Code Pink rallies are not equivalent.

If Kanye West had been singing the intro to MNF, you damn well better believe he would have been fired after "George Bush doesn't care about black people."

[Dave Gray]

Hank Williams is an asshole, anyway.  Even after the fact, he blamed Fox and ESPN.  I get that he'd (stupidly) blame ESPN, but Fox?  All they did was let him talk.

[shamrock]

Political correctness is directly contributing to the pussifiction of our country and I think it effects every corner of society. 

Damn right!I couldn't agree more.
About the song....I liked the old music intro better myself(but not as much as Dave,lol)One thing I cannot stand is to tune in for a big game and be forced to listen to some b.s. mini concert.The all time worst was when the Bucs won the super bowl and couldn't even enjoy it because they rolled Bon jovi out onto the field to perform.....totally classless.I hate the Faith Hill intro,and the college football thing they had with Big and Rich was HORRIBLE!
Also,although I've never been a nascar fan,they might manage to run the Daytona 500 without a rainout if they would skip the stupid hour and a half country music bullshit.

[bsmooth]

Yes you are right bsmooth it is only right wing news sites and blogs that ignorance and paranoia permeates the postings. Are you serious? 

The whole lynch mob mentality over peoples opinion is rediculous. It an opinion, a comparison opinion. It doesn't take very long to find stupid opinions from pretty much everyone, myself included. He didn't make a racist comment. He didn't slander him. People called Bush a terrorist numerous times and very few people cared to hold them accountable.  Everyone has stupid opinions and talk radio, talk shows, and message boards are filled with them.

Political correctness is directly contributing to the pussifiction of our country and I think it effects every corner of society. 

Look I know you do not want to believe it, but have you seen some of the polls concerning the right? Almost 30% think Obama is a muslim. There is a fair % who think he is not an American citizen. Many actually believe he is trying to destroy the Constitution and make us the new USSR.
You are right, many people called Bush Hitler for the wars and other stuff. It was just as wrong as this was. No one is Hitler, and I am personally tired of the constant comparison to Hitler and the Nazis.
That being said, these same frightened and misinformed people who I see daily on various right political sites and news pages are having their fears and anger played upon by the powers that be in the GOP to get people elected in THIS election cycle. That is what is frightening. These people are going to turn out in droves to vote their fears and not intelligently, which is what you should do every single time.
Also in case you were not aware, Fox News in #1 and they push a lot of this fear and ignorance and that the president is the enemy.
What all you apologists seem to miss is the fact he had a whole plethora of examples to use to discuss the vastness in political differences between Obama and Boehner. Yet he picked Hitler and a Jew. If you do not think he was trying to make a "statement", you are fools. This is not about political correctness, it is about the rancid nature of political discourse in this country.

[CF DolFan]

^^^^ I don't disagree with much of what you said. What I'm saying is the liberals and networks like MSNBC do the exact same thing and everyone knows it.  Why try and pretend they don't? For every Sean Hannity there is a Chris Matthews and so on.  Neither is productive for society.

[Spider-Dan]

If you define the craziest random liberals as equal to a cable news network, sure.

When was the last time Rachel Maddow, Chris Matthews, or another lead MSNBC personality said, "I really think George Bush is a racist," as Glenn Beck said of Obama?  When was the last time one of them accused GWB of setting up death camps, or FEMA concentration camps?

This continual drive-towards-equivalency is maddening; Fox News and MSNBC are not even close when it comes to the degree of what each does.  Do you see MSNBC-sponsored Occupy [x] protests, like the officially-organized-and-promoted Fox News Channel Tax Day Tea Parties?  Why do you think that is?

[Dave Gray]

I like Chris Matthews and there's no question that he's a liberal.  But I don't think he's unfair in his positions.  I also think he's very politically saavy.  At his very worst, he's a terrible interviewer, because he focuses on stupid minutia that doesn't matter, in order to get his conservative guests to say something that can be held against them.  At his best, he is a good bridge between non ideological people that he disagrees with.  There are good discussions on his show, from time to time.

On the other hand, he has Ron Paul on there (who's a great guest whenever I've seen him on other shows) and he focuses on stupid points, like how Ron Paul would've acted during the civil rights movement....in my opinion, a waste of an interview.

Matthews' show is more about politics, not issues.  More often than not, the discussion is on how certain views and statements will help/hurt a candidate politically.  Very rarely does he discuss whether or not certain policies will actually be helpful to the citizens.  It's not about weighing different opinions, it's about how those things will help/hurt a candidate's electability/polling.  Beck/Hannity are the opposite.  It's just a different kind of show.

[CF DolFan]

I like Chris Matthews and there's no question that he's a liberal.  But I don't think he's unfair in his positions.  I also think he's very politically saavy.  At his very worst, he's a terrible interviewer, because he focuses on stupid minutia that doesn't matter, in order to get his conservative guests to say something that can be held against them.  At his best, he is a good bridge between non ideological people that he disagrees with.  There are good discussions on his show, from time to time.

On the other hand, he has Ron Paul on there (who's a great guest whenever I've seen him on other shows) and he focuses on stupid points, like how Ron Paul would've acted during the civil rights movement....in my opinion, a waste of an interview.

Matthews' show is more about politics, not issues.  More often than not, the discussion is on how certain views and statements will help/hurt a candidate politically.  Very rarely does he discuss whether or not certain policies will actually be helpful to the citizens.  It's not about weighing different opinions, it's about how those things will help/hurt a candidate's electability/polling.  Beck/Hannity are the opposite.  It's just a different kind of show.

You don't think he is unfair in his positions because you agree with him. He constantly sensationalizes things and turns a blind eye to his people doing the same.

for instance ... In a classic example of liberal media bias, Chris Matthews on Friday bashed former President George W. Bush for holding Prince Abdullah of Saudia Arabia’s hand when he visited the Crawford ranch back in 2005.

After mentioning how “the bowing and scraping” involved in the “paramount task” of presidents honoring Arab leaders has sometimes “been nearly comical,” the host of the syndicated program bearing his name completely ignored President Barack Obama’s deep bow to the very same man less than two years ago

I found this qucikly but it happens all the time. From both sides.  Mathews says the Tea party movement is the same as Muslim extremists. you might agree but I find that offensive that a conservative movement woudl be compared to something so evil. 

That's all I'm saying. Quit freaking following the people just looking to get everyone excited for a paycheck and our country would be in a much better place. 

[Dave Gray]

I am not saying that Matthews doesn't have a liberal bias.  He does.  He's a liberal, no question, and his show is from that perspective.

I just don't think that they're (for the most part), unreasonable or out of touch with the mainstream liberals.  I don't always agree with him.  That's just my opinion on him.

He also has conservative guests on his show (some that host when he's out) that I really like, namely Michael Smerconish.

I have a love/hate relationship with Matthews.  He's a brilliant strategist, but he's a terrible interviewer who talks over his guests.

[Spider-Dan]

for instance ... In a classic example of liberal media bias, Chris Matthews on Friday bashed former President George W. Bush for holding Prince Abdullah of Saudia Arabia’s hand when he visited the Crawford ranch back in 2005.

After mentioning how “the bowing and scraping” involved in the “paramount task” of presidents honoring Arab leaders has sometimes “been nearly comical,” the host of the syndicated program bearing his name completely ignored President Barack Obama’s deep bow to the very same man less than two years ago

First of all, 2 years ago, Chris Matthews criticized Obama for bowing to the Japanese emperor, so your premise is fundamentally invalid; he has criticized Obama for bowing to foreign dignitaries.

Second, to illustrate my previous point: where was the outrage from Fox News when Bush was holding hands and playing kissy-face with the Saudi royals?  That's right, it was non-existent.  Fox only had a problem with deference to foreign dignitaries when it was a socialist Kenyan Muslim Democrat doing it.

I found this qucikly but it happens all the time. From both sides.  Mathews says the Tea party movement is the same as Muslim extremists. you might agree but I find that offensive that a conservative movement woudl be compared to something so evil.

That's only because you consider Muslim fundamentalists more "evil" than Christian (or other religious) fundamentalists.

From a liberal perspective, neither are "evil"; both are wrong.

[CF DolFan]

I swear most political threads have so many agendas no one deals with the point.

Both sides have extremism. I'm probably more conservative these days but I cannot stand many of the Fox blowhards. I just don't get it. I equally do not get the facination with Rachel Maddox or Keith Olberman. Do they bring up some valid issues? Sure but maybe it's just me becasue I can't help but see hypocrisy in almost every attack from any of them.

[Dave Gray]

I'm sorry, I just don't agree with you.  Maddow is not extreme.

The hosts on MSNBC (on the shows that I've seen) are not extremists on the left like those on FOX are.  They just aren't.

Michael Moore, yes.  But not Maddow, Chris Matthews, or any of the rest.