Via Fox News
MSNBC’s “Hardball” host Chris Matthews’ abrupt resignation on Monday night is the latest sexual-misconduct related debacle for the once-proud NBC News as the company continues to make headlines for refusing to enlist an independent investigation into its culture.
A source familiar with the situation told Fox News that the 74-year-old Matthews’ human relations file is chockfull of complaints. NBC management couldn’t ignore it anymore, fearing that more women would come forward on the heels of journalist Laura Bassett’s GQ column that was published on Friday.
“He’s been a dog to women for years,” the source said. “It was only going to get worse.”
Bassett listed a series of comments allegedly made by the longtime “Hardball” host that didn’t “rise to the level of illegal sexual harassment” but “undermined” her ability to properly do her job. She wrote that she decided to spill the beans after watching Matthews conduct a cringe-worthy interview with Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., about why she believed a woman who accused former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg of pressuring her to have an abortion.
Matthews met with MSNBC management following Bassett’s claims, which came after a brutal few days for the liberal host that included a series of on-air gaffes and embarrassing moments. He came under fire for comparing Sen. Bernie Sanders’ victory in the Nevada caucuses to the Nazi conquest of France in 1940, for which he apologized and mistook South Carolina Democratic Senate candidate Jaime Harrison for a different African-American politician, Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C.
But in addition to the on-air rhetoric making frequent headlines, it was Matthews’ treatment of women that ultimately “accelerated” his retirement plans during a meeting with executives.
He was subsequently benched for the network’s coverage of the South Carolina primary on Saturday and then announced his sudden and immediate retirement on Monday. He was initially planning to exit the network sometime after Election Day, according to a person familiar with the situation.
More:
The final straw may have been a piece in GQ magazine Saturday by Laura Bassett, who described being a guest on his show in 2017 and was naming him for the first time.
Bassett said the host looked at her in the makeup chair and said, “Why haven’t I fallen in love with you yet?”
Matthews looked over at me in the makeup chair next to him and said, “Why haven’t I fallen in love with you yet?” She says he then told the stylist, “Keep putting makeup on her, I’ll fall in love with her.”
Another time, Bassett wrote, Matthews told the makeup artist: “Make sure you wipe this off her face after the show. We don’t make her up so some guy at a bar can look at her like this.”
In 1999, Matthews paid $40,000 to settle with an assistant producer on his show, after she accused him of harassment.
Aside from the boorish misogynist comments, Matthews has been spewing unhinged bullshit for years.
Matthews is a raving lunatic with a propensity to do some pretty questionable things both on and off the air.
He was “glad” Hurricane Sandy hit, suggesting it helped Obama to a second term.
Challenging Obama’s corruption was “unconstitutional”.
Anyone who didn’t think Obama was the “perfect American” , was racist.
He compared Tea Party patriots to the Muslim Brotherhood and accused them of being “baby kidnappers” and “terrorizing the country”.
He’s ‘color blind’ except when it comes to white people.
He described West Point cadets as “rabble”.
He hates “evenhanded, objective journalism”.
He compared President Trump to Ethiopian dictator Mengistu and suggested that he channel Benito Mussolini having son-in-law Jared Kushner murdered.
He’s been acting like a frothing maniac for years, and now he’s become too much?
Good riddance.
Related article:
https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/geoffrey-dickens/2020/03/03/bye-bye-chris-worst-matthews
Since MSNBC seems to be taking a hard socialist-supporting turn, do you think he was given the option of retiring of taking a bullet for the team?