Hardball for the left, softball for the right: Media Matters study finds conservative guests dominate on MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews

March 9, 2006 (Washington, DC) -- Media Matters for America yesterday released the findings of its new analysis of the party affiliation and ideology of each guest who appeared on MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews during the first two months of 2006. The conclusions virtually mirrored those of the in-depth quantitative analysis Media Matters released last month, which found significant conservative dominance on the Sunday-morning talk shows on ABC, CBS, and NBC.

"Progressives and Democrats have been systematically under-represented on Hardball, appearing far less often than their conservative counterparts," said David Brock, President and CEO of Media Matters. "That imbalance is all the more troubling given Matthews's own frequent gushing over Republicans like President Bush and Senator John McCain [R-AZ]."

In February, Media Matters released "If It's Sunday, It's Conservative," a study of guest appearances on NBC's Meet the Press, CBS' Face the Nation, and ABC's This Week. The methodology used for the study was based on each guest's general partisan or ideological orientation. Each guest on the three Sunday shows was coded as either Democrat, Republican, conservative, progressive, or neutral (non-partisan, centrist, or having no political orientation). Media Matters employed the same methodology for its analysis of Hardball with Chris Matthews.

Among the key findings:

• In January, Republican/conservative guests on Hardball led Democrats/progressives 55-38 -- a difference of 59 percent to 41 percent. By February, that advantage had increased: Republican/conservatives outnumbered Democrats/progressives 55-34, or 62 percent to 38 percent.

• During January and February, there were more Republican Party elected officials and Bush administration officials than those from the Democratic Party. In this category, Republicans outnumbered Democrats 22-18.

• Conservative journalists and pundits outnumbered progressive journalists and pundits by a considerable margin. While most journalists/pundits were neutral reporters or consistently presented a centrist point of view, the data show that those who spoke from an ideological perspective were conservative far more often than progressive. Conservatives in this category outnumbered progressives 42-13 -- a ratio of more than 3-to-1.

• During January and February, Hardball featured 24 solo interviews with Democrats/progressives, while Republicans/conservatives had nearly twice as many: 44 solo interviews. In addition, eight of the 12 guests who were given the honor of multiple solo interviews during this time period were Republican officials. Only one Democrat, Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-DE), appeared in multiple solo interviews.

Notwithstanding Matthews's Democratic roots (former speechwriter to President Jimmy Carter, aide to several Democratic members of Congress), during a 2003 episode of Hardball, Matthews told Republican pollster Frank Luntz, "I'm more conservative than people think I am. ... By the way, I voted for [President George W.] Bush. ... I like to surprise people." Matthews's praise for Bush has at times been effusive; in 2005, he said that Bush "glimmers" with a "kind of sunny nobility"; that "[e]verybody sort of likes the president, except for the real whack-jobs"; and that, if "his gamble that he can create a democracy in the middle of the Arab world" is successful, Bush "belongs on Mount Rushmore."

"Much like the network Sunday talk shows, Hardball is essentially an open invitation for conservatives and Republicans to dominate the debate and shape public opinion," said Brock.

In December 2005, after documenting dozens of examples of Matthews proffering conservative misinformation on Hardball, Media Matters crowned him "Misinformer of the Year" -- succeeding Fox News host Bill O'Reilly.

The complete Media Matters analysis of Hardball with Chris Matthews can be found here.