And the good news is, you don’t even have to leave your ass.

This is a wonderful summary of the blogswarm taking poor ol’ Chris Matthews of “Hardball” fame by such surprise, so caught up in his own narrative that he couldn’t even see it coming, that if forced him to make a lame apology at the top of his show last week.  Many of us Hardball junkies had known Chris’ hatred of Hillary was obvious and consistent, but when he finally went so far as to piss off millions of people who did not, in fact, support Hillary, these regular people, like you and me, became so enraged by the ad hominem attacks she has suffered through for 15 years that action was taken.

And it was especially notable because the blogosphere is not generally fond of Hillary.  That’s how bad Matthews’ constant personal attacks had become.  For the blogosphere, it isn’t personal.  For the entrenched Washington Media Man, it can’t be anything BUT personal.

I told some friends of how this was a big moment in citizen history; most of them just looked at me like I was nuts.  There is a long way to go.  But progress is being made.  Neither the left nor the right will let any blatantly false crap get through Media Man’s filter anymore without challenge, and this is a great thing for all of us.

We, the citizens who love this country have become the new watchdogs, because the Corporate Media is owned by 5 conglomerates, and anytime that circumstance arises, watchdogs are sorely needed.

George Bush the Lesser has screwed up everything he’s ever touched, even before he went into politics.  For me, hope is hanging by a very fragile thread.  This episode wove that thread with a little nylon to toughen it up.

Sincere thanks to all who participated.  Even though Chris forgot to apologize for his dozens of other attacks, it was a step in a truly beautiful direction.

P.S.  My only complaint with Eric’s post is that he gave no love to Somerby at the Howler, who has been raving about this stuff for years, and has a great post of recent vintage about the “liberals” Matthews has on all the time that never called him on his overt Hillary-hatred.  Money quote:

Read that compilation by Foser. Then, understand the following fact: To this day, in the face of that record, you’ve never seen a serious profile of Matthews by The Washington Monthly, by The American Prospect, by The New Republic, by Salon or The Nation. (Eric Alterman has done a few limited pieces. This isn’t Alterman’s fault.) Right up to this very day, with liberal anger and consciousness rising, these utterly worthless “liberal” journals have kept refusing to speak about this man’s gruesome conduct. Meanwhile, how much have you heard from the house-broken rising stars who “blog” at these great liberal journals? We’re fairly sure you know the answers: Nothing, next-to-nothing, not much.

These “liberal journals” have still refused to speak. (Although Salon has been doing better.) Though the most likely reason seems fairly clear, you ought to be asking them why.

When on earth will these journals start telling their readers about loathsome Matthews?

Finally, let’s name someone else—someone else who has endlessly failed to speak about Brother Matthews. Have you heard a single fucking word about any of this from E. J. Dionne? A single word from this high-placed man, in the course of ten fucking years? Go ahead: Just read that compilation by Foser, then ask yourself how that can be! And of course, it isn’t just E.J. Have you ever heard a single word from Gene Robinson; from Mark Shields; from Richard Cohen; from Al Hunt? Have you heard a word from Kinsley? From Meacham? From Alter? What has in-group lackey Doris Kearns Goodwin ever found the stonage to offer? Have you ever heard a single fucking word from the world’s greatest liberal, Frank Rich? A single word from Bob Herbert? As all this trashing and lying transpired, did you hear even one person speak?

Go ahead—reread Foser’s piece. Then ask this: When did people like Dionne plan to speak up about Matthews? How many decades would have gone by before these great liberal stars would have acted? Of course, E.J.’s an occasional guest on Hardball—and Robinson appears on the show fairly often. But then, so does the silent Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor of the silent Nation. We hope the bump in circulation is worth the blood on this old journal’s hands.”

Update:  It is clear that Chris is going to try to get his revenge.  He did his first segment tonight on the wildly overblown Obama-Clinton debate dustup, which had absolutely NOTHING to do with the problems facing this country.  I think he’s a spiteful man.  And boy would I like to interview the Mrs.

Update 2:  Walter Cronkite is DEAD, literally and figuratively.  Question authority, and get over Wally’s death by moving in to the new paradigm.  He would be proud of you.

Update 3!  As a commenter pointed out, Walter Cronkite is most certainly NOT literally dead.  Sheesh.  You’d think his coming out as a proponent of Drug War reform, a pet issue, would remind me.  Sincere apologies to Walter, and to anyone who reads this, for the brain-cramp.