DEBATE?:

Query about Freedom of Press Highlights Angry Chris Matthews-Zell Miller Debate (Editor & Publisher, September 01, 2004)

Probably the most incendiary moment in all of the television coverage of the Republican National Convention so far occurred shortly after 11 p.m. Wednesday night, during a Chris Matthews interview with Senator Zell Miller on MSNBC, which started hot and then grew angry after a question about reporters and freedom the press.

"You're hopeless," Miller told Matthews, dead serious, speaking over a hook-up from Madison Square Garden, where he had earlier delivered the keynote address. "I wish I was with you there because I want to get in your face." Then Miller said he wished they were back in the age when you could challenge someone to a duel. "I don't know why I came on this program," he added, amidst four minutes of heated exchanges.

And Matthews wonders why it was an applause line?

Posted by Orrin Judd at September 2, 2004 8:20 AM