The Churchillian Side of Chris Matthews: wins award for lifetime achievement in journalism [View All]

http://www.slate.com/id/2176191/nav/fix/

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The Reves Award goes to the member of the TV commentariat who flings the best on-air spittle, which poses the question of why Matthews didn't win the prize a decade ago and have it retired in his honor. Just joshin'. Actually, the award honors "excellence in writing or speaking about Churchill's life and times, or for applying his precepts and values to contemporary issues among the English-Speaking Peoples," according to the affair's invitation.

How has Matthews applied Churchill's precepts and values to contemporary issues among English-Speaking Peoples? Churchill Centre President Laurence Geller paints Matthews' accomplishment in these bright colors in a press release. "Mr. Matthew's passion for a free and open press and the public debate that it sparks is legendary. … He is an enthusiastic supporter of democracy and has been a learned member of the news reporting fraternity throughout his distinguished and prolific career."

Legendary. Supporter of democracy. Learned reporter. Distinguished. Prolific. All of these words may capture Matthews' character, but not as well as do flighty, braying, shameless, and opportunistic. It's a shame that nobody gives a Sammy Glick Award. Matthews would be a cinch.

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If the Churchill Centre has yet to corral a presenter for Matthews, allow me to suggest Vanity Fair's James Wolcott, who appreciates the man's talents. In his 2004 book, Attack Poodles and Other Media Mutants, Wolcott writes:

Matthews manages to outrace his contradictory statements by blustering so many excitable things so fast and so often that pinning down the discrepancies is like trying to grab a gust of wind by the tail. He isn't a cynical dissembler. He seems to suffer from some pundit variant of short-term memory loss. Each day on earth erases the days before. He says what he believes and believes what he says, and has the liberating advantage of always working from a blank sheet.

Just like Churchill.

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