Don't know much about history

Last night, we learned you don't have to know much about politics to write for Politico -- or to be a guest on Hardball.  Tonight, we're reminded that Hardball's host also doesn't know as much as you might think, as Matthews discussed Richard Nixon's press conference after his 1962 campaign for governor ended in defeat:

CHRIS MATTHEWS: As we all know, that was not Richard Nixon's last press conference.  In fact, ten years later, actually it wasn't ten years later, it was six years later, he was elected president in a landslide.

In fact, Nixon won the 1968 popular vote by a mere 500,000 votes; he won the presidency with only 31 electoral votes more than he needed.  Matthews' guest, Pat Buchanan, did point out that the victory was no landslide, which may be the first time Buchanan has ever actually added value to an MSNBC broadcast.

Obviously, it doesn't really matter all that much if Chris Matthews tells viewers that Richard Nixon won the '68 election by a landslide when in fact he won a relatively narrow victory.  But it is another reminder of a point I've made several times in the past: the problem with media coverage isn't just the focus on politics rather than policy; it's that they're lousy at the politics part.  No matter how much they pretend, they aren't experts, and they rarely have genuine insight -- they're just people who convince themselves and each other that they're experts because they all repeat the same conventional wisdom.

(Here's another recent reminder from Chris Matthews.)