Chris Matthews: Media Should Strive for ‘Predictable Reliability’

By Merrill Knox 

MSNBC’s Chris Matthews goes into detail about his media diet in The Atlantic this week. The “Hardball” host starts off with The Washington Examiner and a hard copy of Politico, followed by a slew of op-ed pieces by both liberal and conservative writers.

His newspaper reading continues throughout the day and is supplemented by phone calls from producers and online research, and it all comes together around 4:30 p.m. for him to write the cold open for “Hardball”:

I enjoy the competition of ideas … I think that instantaneous communication has a great advantage. It’s our responsibility to have everything I say be factual. Is this true? Can we prove this? You have to have it right. Occasionally, you make a mistake and you correct it. But you have to be predictably factual. That should be the rule with all media, new or old. Not a good batting average but predictable reliability.

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