Hardball double standard Part II: Norah, Mehlman, Dean..Media Matters

Summary: A day after interviewing Howard Dean, MSNBC's Norah O'Donnell sat down with his Republican counterpart, Ken Mehlman, affording Media Matters for America the opportunity to make a direct comparison of the two interviews.
On the June 20 edition of MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews, guest host and MSNBC chief Washington correspondent Norah O'Donnell interviewed Republican National Committee (RNC) chairman Ken Mehlman. As Media Matters for America noted, O'Donnell had aired an interview with Mehlman's Democratic counterpart, Democratic National Committee (DNC) chairman Howard Dean, on the previous evening's edition of Hardball, posing significantly more challenging questions to Dean than to Sen. George Allen (R-VA), whom she also interviewed on the program. O'Donnell's June 20 interview of Mehlman offers the opportunity to make a direct comparison of O'Donnell's interviews with the two parties' chairmen.

In contrast with Dean's interview, during which O'Donnell adopted misleading Republican talking points and attacks on Democrats -- even going so far as to criticize Dean for not conceding one of those talking points -- O'Donnell did not adopt the other party's talking points or attacks in her interview of Mehlman. Moreover, she followed Mehlman's dubious connection between the Iraq war and the "3,000 people we lost" on September 11, 2001, with: "I hear what you're saying." Further, O'Donnell afforded Mehlman ample opportunities to attack Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) and suggested that President Bush pardon former vice presidential chief of staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, who was indicted in connection with the ongoing CIA leak investigation. A Media Matters review of the interviews also found that O'Donnell asked Dean a higher percentage of challenging questions.

MEHLMAN: We do. And no one more than their commander in chief honors their sacrifice, prays for their families and feels the pain involved, but what we have to remember is the 3,000 people we lost on 9/11.

And the lesson there is you‘ve got to stay on the offense against these terrorists.

O‘DONNELL: I hear what you‘re saying.

"The fact is, what the Democrats are proposing, whether you call it cut and run or cut and walk or cut and jog, the enemy will see it as surrender. It will make Iraq less safe, not more. And the lesson of 9/11 is you don‘t want a failed state, particularly in this case.

As bad as Afghanistan was, imagine a failed state sitting in between Syria and Iran, with all the oil it has, with all the water it has. It would be the worst thing we could have in this war on terror and it would encourage the jihadists.

That‘s the lesson of 9/11.