Chris Matthews Slams 'Ditto-head Thinking' of Limbaugh Fans After Lauding Fox News and the WSJ

Chris Matthews, host of the show Hardball on MSNBC, was recently asked at the National Press Club whether he believed shows like his are "partially responsible for the lack of civility in our political discourse."

Shaking his head and saying, "no, no" before Theresa Werner even finished asking the question, Matthews responded: "not at all, I think it gets it off your chest!" before giving himself a sharp laugh.

(Related: DNC Chair Connects Tea Party With 'Lack of Civility' and 'Tuscon Tragedy')

As though to prove how un-biased he is, Matthews then told the audience: “I say, take a look at Fox once in a while.  If you don’t like it, take a look at it.  Make sure you don’t like it.  In fact, maybe you won’t.”

"The days of Walter Cronkite are over," he declared.  Americans can no longer exclusively get their news from a seemingly unbiased reporter known as the most trusted man in America...but almost immediately thereafter he admits: "[Cronkite] had a point of view, and we all knew his point of view.  He was a liberal, the whole time he was on television..."

And what were his thoughts on Rush Limbaugh, who calls himself America's real anchorman?

Matthews proved how open-minded and reasonable he was by encouraging people to formulate their own opinions, before deriding: "I do think there is some 'Ditto-head' thinking because in this country, people listen to Limbaugh, it's all they listen to..."

Watch the entire clip, via Mediaite, below:

And what did Matthews have to say of his own show?

“Every fact must come from a quality newspaper like the Post or the Times or," he added, "the Journal...It may come from AP but I don’t want to hear it came from anywhere else, really.”

Which begs the question-- is Matthews purposefully isolating Limbaugh in conceding the merits of Fox News and the Wall Street Journal, or is he just jealous that Limbaugh has tens of millions of viewers to his hundreds of thousands?

(H/T: Mediaite)