Pardon the Interruption

Can you imagine John Edwards lecturing someone on marital fidelity? Neither can The Scrapbook. So we were surprised to learn that MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, who is best known for his inability to let his guests finish a sentence, criticized Fox News anchor Bret Baier for interrupting President Obama during Baier’s White House interview on Wednesday.

Matthews introduced a heavily edited clip and complained that Obama was not given adequate time to talk. “It was hard going—hard for him to get in a sentence, at least a full one.” Matthews said that Obama should demand to know “who brought that character into the Oval Office.”

That would be an odd question since the interview took place in the Blue Room, not to mention the fact that it took place at the White House’s initiative (as Fred Barnes reports on page 10 of this issue). Ah, details.

Is it true, as Matthews and his guests suggested, that Obama did not have time to make his case? A review of the tape—down to the second—shows that Baier’s total talk time was 5 minutes, Obama’s was 18 minutes—much of it spent filibustering to avoid answering Baier’s questions. By comparison, in the Hardball segment in which Matthews criticized Baier, Matthews spoke for 2:51 and his two guests for a total of 2:55.

For a dissenting view of the interview, we suggest the Wall Street Journal’s Peggy Noonan, who called it “the most revealing and important broadcast interview of Barack Obama ever.” She writes: