A FORMAT PROBLEM

Nicolle Belle at Crooks & Liars does a nice job examining how Chris Matthews lets wingnut lies go unquestioned and I used to think he just didn't care or know any better. I still think that's often the case but thanks to Nicole's work, I now think Matthews gets caught up in his script for the segment and doesn't want to risk having a real conversation which would inevitably go off-script. Glenn Greenwald noted before that cable talk shows aren't that good for dealing with facts and issues:

But the contrast between [Bill] Moyers' format -- which permits, even compels, lengthy, detailed, highly developed answers and all sorts of in-depth follow-ups -- and the universal limitations imposed by the cable news format -- where major, complex topics are reduced to 5-minute segments involving a handful of questions and 3o-second answers that cannot possibly entail anything beyond the most generalized, conventional bullet points -- was even starker to me as a result of taping these two interviews on the same day