The December 5 panel for NBC's Chris Matthews Show skewed right, continuing a pattern documented by Media Matters for America. Of the 45 Chris Matthews Show panels convened in 2004, 21 skewed to the right, twelve were balanced, seven skewed to the left, and five featured a conservative who supported Senator John Kerry on an otherwise balanced panel.

The December 5 panel featured:

• Deroy Murdock, National Review contributing editor and Scripps Howard News Service columnist;
• Andrea Mitchell, NBC News chief foreign affairs correspondent;
• Joe Klein, TIME magazine senior writer; and
• Campbell Brown, co-anchor of NBC's Weekend Today.

Murdock noted that some conservatives are eager to see Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) run for president in 2008, as many Republicans believe she would be an easy candidate to beat. Murdock declared: "[C]ome to daddy, I think, is what a lot of people on the right are thinking." He also quipped: "[T]his may cost me my invitation to the ACLU's [American Civil Liberties Union] Christmas party ... [but] one of the reasons that we are safer [in the United States today] is the Patriot Act."

During the same panel discussion, TIME's Klein stated that Kerry is “suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder” because Kerry believes he can win the presidency in 2008. Klein also referred to Governors Ed Rendell (D-PA) and Bill Richardson (D-NM) as “big, sloppy governors.”

Media Matters has noted several instances in which Mitchell has repeated Republican talking points or otherwise propagated conservative misinformation.