Chris Matthews Admits: The National Media 'Leans a Little to the Left

The national media "leans a little to the left," MSNBC host Chris Matthews said Friday, a potential watershed admission from one of the network's liberal hosts.

The "Hardball" host -- who famously declared in 2008 he "felt this thrill going up my leg" when hearing then-Sen. Barack Obama speak -- tucked the brief statement into a discussion about GOP contender Mitt Romney's strategy in Iowa with John Heilemann of New York Magazine.

When Heilemann said Romney campaigning in Iowa would invite the media narrative of "Is Mitt Romney making the same mistake as he made in 2008 when he tried to do the same strategy – win Iowa, win New Hampshire, put the race away?," Matthews agreed.

"And that’s what we call a dynamic. He goes in there and says, 'I'm running, I can win,' and because we know he doesn’t take chances, the national media -- which leans a little to the left, I could argue -- could smash him," he said.

Watch the clip, via Newsbusters:

Matthews has recently been critical of Obama, including deriding his advisers as the "little kids with propellers on their heads" in an interview last week.

(h/t Newsbusters)