Fineman did his usual safe rehash of the MSM’s conventional wisdom. He could have done an interesting report on Chris Mattew’s pretense at being a legitimate journalist, a non-biased moderator, but no way would Fineman risk angering Matthews into exiling him, again, from his HARDBALL gig.
Here’s vintage Fineman blogging from the 2004 Boston Demo Convention...doing what he does best....sucking up to Chris Matthews: “Sometimes when you are tired — when you’ve been yakking all week and racing from a convention hall to a political reception to an interview — you screw up, big time, as Dick. Cheney would say. Well, I did that this morning by failing to defend the best political mind on tv, my loyal colleague and host Chris Matthews. Don Imus was complaining in his usual towel-snapping way that there was too much crosstalk on “Hardball,” that we were all trying to talk over each other. True enough, perhaps — we were all a little cranky by last night — but not Chris’ fault. He loves the game so, and knows so much about it and we all feed off of his energy and enthusiasm. ... Matthews is the best thing on political tv. That’s what I should have told Don Imus. ... So now I’m headed back to washington for more work — gotta write my newsweek piece — and, I hope, some sleep. “
Thompson pretty well smacked that belief down for good.