Tweety’s Angst

/39 Comments/in /by

This is something I’ve been meaning to raise, what with all the discussion of the Tweety effect.

One of the reasons Tweety is being such a blowhard this campaign season (aside from the fact that it prominently features someone named Clinton), one of the reasons he’s saying such godforsakenly stupid things is that he’s crying for attention. Watch Tweety’s body language during the next primary night coverage: particularly as Olbermann plays ringmaster to MSNBC’s circus. From time to time you’ll see Tweety wince, and that’s usually right before he opens his mouth and a bunch of crap starts bubbling out, just as Olbermann is trying to cut away to someone who has actual news to report.

This election appears to be the moment when Olbermann takes on the position of lead within the NBC news staff: ahead of Brokaw, ahead of Russert (whose credibility has taken some hits of late), and ahead of Tweety. He’s the anchorman of the campaign news coverage. And that appears to be driving Tweety nuts.

Which is why this tidbit makes so much sense to me (h/t TP):

[Olbermann] seems to be doing well for himself in the office now. Tullis cites a senior executive at MSNBC, who says, "Keith runs MSNBC. It’s been an amazing turnaround, because two years ago they were going to cancel him. Because of his success, he’s in charge. Chris Matthews is infuriated by it."

I can’t decide who threatens Tweety’s sense of his own self-worth more: Keith Olbermann or Hillary Clinton. But the combination of the two of them together in election coverage is driving the man absolutely nuts.

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39 replies
  2. TheraP says:

    Irritability is a symptom of depression (particularly in males). Narcissists have a really hard time with losing the limelight. Meltdown coming.

      • TheraP says:

        Well, his reaction to shame, and that is the central buried feature of narcissism, is the risk here. Wherever he feels most shamed is where he’s likely to direct anger. Now, we can only hope that the shame experience occurs within the workplace, where he’s not getting the time or attention he craves. And that the rage reaction is confined to there. Or it could be he gets angry at bloggers. How to draw his fire… that’s the thing. Set up a website or two – “tweety watch” – stuff like that.

        Your concern is well founded.

        • TheraP says:

          Ok, here are some ideas for their blog.

          1. They need a button, which says “tweety watch” and takes you a page on Amazon where such watches are sold.

          2. One of their contributors should start a “tweety diary.” And record the ravings/musings of “tweety’ – something similar to that wonderful blog that was a fake Harriet Miers diary.

          3. Invite people to do a you-tube parody of tweety and/or compile video of moments and string together in a funny way or have a fake focus group discuss his behavior.

          4. There are already some excellent ideas upthread as well. Episodes from his childhood abuse etc. Just make it up as you go along.

          5. Think how well Josh Marshall has posted things on “my man mitt” and how Kos has endorsed mitt for the MI primary. Things like that… but for tweety.

          6. Or maybe when the guy hears of these ideas, as he may, he can live in fear that all this will come to pass. And more!

          7. Ideally you want to make it so when you google his name, stuff like this comes up.

  3. TheraP says:

    Consider this. Maybe the guy put money in internet stocks before 2000 and lost it. Then he says to himself, ok, I’ll invest in Real Estate and some of those hedge funds that have a lot of money in bonds. And lost that! So it may be a “loss of net worth” and not just a loss of “self-worth.” We can only hope.

  4. Gnome de Plume says:

    This post warms the cockles of my heart. Thanks EW. There is hope in today’s world. If nothing else I want to see KO bring a little more class to MSNBC and thus the whole news world.

  5. Neil says:

    Why does Tweety asks pretty women to lean into the camera? And tell them they look good.

    Similarly, Tweety compliments Bush’s codpiece and testosterone-filled persona. Talks about men smelling good.

    Is it all about gender dominance?

    • TheraP says:

      You’re describing a person who is focused on appearances, has a very shallow comprehension of people. Can’t really see a personality in depth, but instead sees external “parts” – not internal dynamics. This is a sign of a very immature personality.

      By the way, you can buy a “tweety watch” for as little as $24.95 on the web.

  6. radiofreewill says:

    Tweety may be raging over getting ‘upstaged’ by Olberman, but his time is nearly over, anyway.

    Bush leaving Office will end the Era of Access Jounalism, and Tweety will go the way of Judy, Jeff Gannon, and Robert Novak.

    Bush demanded Roundmouthers to be his Beltway Mouth Organs, and Tweety raced right up front to trade elbows with Isikoff.

    Now, eight years later, they’re completely toothless, and as popular as old whores…

    Hear! Hear! For Olberman, and EW and Jane and Christy, Digby and Glenn, and the return of the Speak Truth to Power Era of Journalism!

  7. BillE says:

    Can Jack Welch corrupt KO by paying millions? ( and thereby manufacturing a rich rethug ) Tweety sees his gravy train coming to an end. Its hard to pay the mortgage on million dollar martha’s vineyard places without the millions.

    • dakine01 says:

      FWIW, Welch has been retired from GE for a number of years now. Not even sure if he’s still on the BoD.

      Tweety thinks that he is superior to KO because he worked on Capital Hill prior to becoming a talking head while KO “just covered sports.”

      • BillE says:

        Jack retired as CEO of GE. He still keeps the NBC portfolio though. He is on record as saying some of his proudest accomplishments are Russert and Tweety.

      • earlofhuntingdon says:

        Yes, Jack Welch, former magician at GE, has been retired for some time. His spectacularly public divorce disclosed millions in retirement benefits (more than the annual comp of many working CEO’s) that his former board claimed to be unaware of. Use of apartments, art works, transport, maid service, tickets to high-end events, ad nauseum. I think his toilet paper was even hand-printed with the words, “Shareholder Value”. [Only the bit about his TP was snark.]

  8. Unrepentantliberal says:

    Tweety needs to be teamed up with Tucker Carlson to co-host a program on local cable. Mr, “Only the left wing wackjobs dislike Bush personally,” is so self-centered, so egotistical, so immature that he is making a total disgrace of himself on national tv. Someone who cares about him needs to take him aside and have a long heart to heart sit down with him and really let him know what a fool he looks like.

    Or maybe they shouldn’t and we can all enjoy watching the train wreck that is Tweety Matthews. Pass the popcorn.

  9. merkwurdiglieber says:

    Tweety acts like one of those kids “abused” by a priest decades previous.
    Many years later they present in a manner much like his behavior, which
    is not new… just something about this seting that elicits a progressive
    degeneration… very visible, he’s fried for good.

  11. Leen says:

    Matthews blowhard style has been really getting under my skin also. And I have been one of the people in the lefty blogosphere who periodically sticks up for him due to the fact that this guy started asking really tough questions of Kristol, Woolsey, Bolton, Frum after he realized he was duped before the invasion with all of the fucking deadly and bloody false WMD information. Matthews started hitting them hard, and was one of the first mainstreamers to focus on returning soldiers to Walter Reed. Yes one of the first even before the lefty blogosphere.

    But this past year his persistent willingness to ignore Edwards his constant attacks on Hillary and his dancing on the OBamarama advertising train drove me nuts.
    http://mirroronamerica.blogspo…..-john.html
    Matthews was clearly unwilling to deal the cards fairly for these candidates on his program.

    While all of this drives me nuts about Matthews. I was able to ask Matthews a direct question about MSNBC’s coverage. I asked him “why no coverage of the Israeli Palestinian conflict, and I mean none ooo nada thing, why little coverage on the after math of Katrina Matthews had said that “katrina had ripped off the scab of racism and poverty”, I asked “why no coverage on the Aipac Rosen espionage trial? (matthews had whispered one time on his program that the trial had been delayed once again) had his hands slapped. Matthews response was “I do not control the programming”. Olberman never touches the Israeli Palestinian conflict eithe or the Aipac espionage investigation and upcoming trial

    Who does control MSNBC’s programming? is it Dan Abrams?

    http://www.newsbusters.org/blo…..l-crippler

    • merkwurdiglieber says:

      A question is sometimes better than the answer it seeks… you already
      know the players, it seems, the great unspoken documented by Mearsheimer
      and Walt. Way too hot an issue for “polite” discussion in the USA.

  12. BlueStateRedHead says:

    Sure KO needs protection from any possible anti-KO Tweety scheming. A couple of NFL players to the right and left of him would make an impression. Come to think of it, are there any lefty progressive NFL’ers. Phred? EW? BMAZ? Neil?

    Moderator, KO is as you surely know is a NFL commentator. This is not an OT sports reference to any particular team who may or may not be perfect. It is not a hint that there should be trash talk soon. It is a crossover political fantasy leading to a real inquiry.

    Please do not erase.

  13. Hans says:

    I like Matthews because he has such a solid personal and historical grasp of the political process, his comments are either very interesting for this reason or very enjoyable because he’s off challenging someone quite directly.

    Oberman doesn’t have the depth of experience by contrast, though he can be a blowhard. I have noticed some friction between Oberman and Matthews, on the day of the NH primary for instance, and I’m suspicious of that MSNBC exec comment because of this… just like a leak from a government agency. Is Oberman’s show actually doing better than Matthews (I’d be surprised)?

  14. MsAnnaNOLA says:

    I for one am glad that Olbermann is taking over, it is richly deserved for his truth telling. If we had more like him we would never have gotten into this mess in the first place.

    Did any of you see this. Tweety attacking the ladies on the View for pointing out his crazy comments about Hillary.

    http://rawstory.com/news/2007/….._0111.html

  16. earlofhuntingdon says:

    The Tweety “watch site” should be called the Bird Cage.

    I agree that Tweety is distraught at being thrown off his perch and having to make do with what’s on the bottom of the cage. Tweety was never much of a journalist; the idea of having to leave punditry and start reporting again must make him feel like a soon-to-be divorced mother with no alimony or support coming in. Angst is relative; he’s still making a million plus a year, so Tweety’ll have to make do with my schadenfreude.

    KO’s at the peak of his star power and popularity for speaking with intelligence, wit and heart: something long absent from network and PBS news coverage. KO is doing what the Dem contenders should start doing. Telling.It.Straight.

  17. readerOfTeaLeaves says:

    I cut Tweety some slack b/c he’s the person who called Joe Wilson to tip him off that “Karl Rove just told me your wife is ‘fair game’.” IIRC, when Tweety started asking questions about the Plame leak in summer 2003 and got under Cheney’s skin — and Scooter Libby’s.

    Tweety definitely needs to clean up his act ASAP. I wish he’d knock off the gossipy bullshit, stop interrupting guests, and create a narrative to help more viewers understand the neocon network. He’s better at explaining legislation and insider networks, and there aren’t enough media types who can tell that story.

    The big gaping hole in teevee coverage on MSM is that they don’t tell a coherent narrative to help viewers see that Perle, et al are making money off munitions, nor do average teevee viewers understand how incestuous the neocon network is.

  19. KathyPfromMichigan says:

    I’m glad to see a psychotherapist weighing in. His comments and behaviors have appeared increasingly disturbingly pathological to me. I formerly found him annoying (interrupting guests) but worthwhile because of some of the questions he raised (as long as he didn’t answer them himself constantly), but lately I have not been able to watch his program because it is like watching an bloody automobile accident in progress.

  20. Hans says:

    Those comments read more like biased pop-psych, doesn’t strike me as very professional (sort of like a bad Wiki entry) and easy to misuse/misapply.

  22. Wordsmith says:

    I either got an email or read it at the website from Newser that mentioned that Chris Matthews is melting down over Olbermann’s success. Olbermann has the “run of the shop” and Matthews hates that.

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