Lean Forward Bend Over: How MSNBC Became the Most Blatantly Dishonest Network on Cable News

Every time I watch the hacks on MSNBC I'm impressed by how shamelessly they lie. They lie about everything, and then they forget their own lies. A few months back I posted on Rachel Maddow's Fast and Furious lies, then debunked them with programming from her own earlier episodes. If you've ever had the misfortune of knowing a pathological liar, then you've already experienced what it's like to watch MSNBC.

In any case, Alessandra Stanley, at the New York Times, perhaps thinks she's clever with the comparison to Fox News at her article on the self-identified socialist network, "How MSNBC Became Fox’s Liberal Evil Twin." The end result, however, is to ridiculously impugn the conservative network with the comparison. MSNBC's ratings have improved, sure. But that's because progressives will swallow anything they're told. Not only that, Stanley gets some of the basics of the story wrong, for example:

Both Fox News and MSNBC have experienced reporters in the field who stay neutral even when their anchors let loose. The NBC network’s anchors keep their opinions to themselves, and so do its star reporters, like Andrea Mitchell and Chuck Todd, who appear on both cable and network shows, and somehow skillfully navigate past the rockier shoals.

Umm, no.

You can't count the number of times that Andrea Mitchell's been hammered for her bias by the conservative blogosphere. For example, when Mitt Romney announced Paul Ryan as his running mate, Mitchell made the disgusting comment that Ryan wouldn't appeal to suburban women. Ericka Johnson, for one, reported on that at Hot Air, "MSNBC’s Mitchell: Ryan “not a pick for women”." And see NewsBusters as well, also calling out Stanley's huge errors in reporting, "NYT Admits MSNBC's Liberal Bent, But Falsely Claims NBC's Chuck Todd, Brian Williams, Andrea Mitchell Stay Neutral."

That said, Stanley does tear into the hopelessly stupid hacks at the network, especially Chris Matthews, who outdid himself with this week's convention coverage:

MSNBC has a growing cast of anchor-bloviators — hosts like Martin Bashir, Tamron Hall and, of course, Al Sharpton, who rant and then invite like-minded guest commentators to assure them that they are right.

Chris Matthews, who hosts a Sunday talk show syndicated by NBC and a daily MSNBC show, seemed determined during this convention to outflank his most outspoken rivals, including Mr. Sharpton.

He started with a bruising harangue against Reince Priebus, the Republican National Committee Chairman, that made even his hosts on “Morning Joe” wince. Mr. Matthews looked almost thuggish on Wednesday night when the Arizona governor, Jan Brewer, 67, speaking from the din of the convention floor, complained she couldn’t hear his question.

“You can’t hear me?” he said. “Well, that’s convenient.”

On Thursday, Mr. Matthews fulminated against Paul Ryan’s — admittedly misleading — assertion that Mr. Obama did nothing to prevent the closing of a GM plant in 2008. Then Fox News attacked media figures who attacked Mr. Ryan. CNN took the harder course of parsing the entire issue: The correspondent Tom Foreman gave a long, industrious analysis that explained where and how Mr. Ryan finessed the facts.

MSNBC talk shows are to network newscasts what blogs are to newspaper columns, shaggier and often less considered. And increasingly, viewers, like readers, have a hard time distinguishing one from the other. But it’s all that attitude on MSNBC that raises eyebrows.

Read it all at the link.

PREVIOUSLY: "The Jacobin: Chris Hayes of MSNBC."

RELATED: At The Other McCain, "When It Comes to ‘Brazen Lies,’Nobody Excels Joan Walsh." That's the brazen liar Walsh appearing at the clip on Matthews' show.