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Show Confrontations with guests put PARDON MY PLANET Chris Matthews in spotlight David Bauder THE ASSOCIATED PRESS certainly can't be a bad thing for a man with apolitical talk show called "Hard- ball" to be nearly challenged to a duel by a U.S. senator. MSNBC has quickly moved to take advantage of Sea Zell Miller's combative GOP convention interview with Chris Matthews, featuring it in advertisements. It was Matthews' second exchange with a guest in a month. Matthews is hot right now, and not just under the collar. "Hardball" and parts of Matthews' Republican convention coverage gave his network some surprising ratings victories over CNN. The former print reporter whose volume and energy switches never seem off may just be the man to lead MSNBC out of the wilderness. "Politics is certainly on the top of the minds of people and Chris is the best person on cable doing it," said his boss, NBC News President Neal Shapiro. ind Matthews' terview with Miller came less than two hours after the Democratic senator spoke to the convention in favor of President Bush, torching Bush's Democratic opponent, John Kerry. Displeased with the line of questioning, Miller told Matthews to "get out of my face." "I wish we lived in the day where you could challenge a person to a duel," Miller said. Said Matthews, in retrospect: "I was as fascinated by the experience as the viewer was." Bush supporters' suspicion of Matthews was raised a few weeks earlier following his exchange with conservative columnist Michelle Malkia During a discussion of the Swift boat controversy, MaHtin said there were "legitimate questions" about whether one of Kerry's war wounds in Vietnam were "What do you mean by Matthews shot back. "Are you saying he shot him? self on purpose? Is that what you're saying?" Malkin dodged the question. So Matthews asked it again. And again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again. .Eleven times. Matthews grew increasingly angry, and Malkin exasperated. It was gripping television. He eventually cut her off. "We are going to keep things It eye-poppi- much-replaye- d. ?" ITS imtra THE NEW cologne. jost a dab behind each VIM. ITS WORKING 7 clean on this show," Matthews said. "No irresponsible comments are going to be made on this show." Malkin, who did not respond to a request for an interview, called Matthews a "foaming ' jerk" in her column the next r v i day.' "What happened last night was pure slkneball and the unfair, unbalanced and unhinged purveyors of journalism, or whatever it is they call what they do at MSNBC, should be ashamed," Malkin wrote. . Faced with a subject who avoids answering a question, many reporters let it slide, letspeak for ting the itself. Sometimes they rephrase the question. But 11 times? ' "You cant just come out like on some blog site or some . speaker's corner, throw it against the wan and see if it sticks," Matthews said, "I've got to be their editor, and challenge them, at least ... We don't have a corrections page." Political professionals aren't naive in how they plant seeds of doubt with little factual basis, he said. If they're not challenged, many viewers wfll simply believe what they heard, he said. "My guess is Chris might have wanted to pull back a bit," Shapiro said. "But in terms of not getting an answer, I think it's appropriate to probe." Miller even had Malkin's interview on his mind during the senator's later exchange with Matthews. "Don't puD that kind of stuff on me, like you did that young lady when you had her there, browbeating her to death," he said. Matthews, in an interview with The Associated Press, said "When somebody comes on my show and makes an that somebody committed a felony, I'm going to browbeat them. I want them to say the truth. And if they can't come out with the truth, they shouldn't be talking." But you don't have to ten Matthews that he sometimes talks too much on "Hardball." He's working on it. "I get so excited by what I'm hearing and what I'm getting engaged in, that I want to keep pushing it," he said. "So I wfll punish myself by trying to say to my guests, "but finish your thought.' If I force mysefr to go through the agony of saying that every time, I win eventually, eventually stop doing it." "It's not exactly anger management," he said. "It's more like manners." UM i i - . V i iix e THE TRUTH ABOUT s?oa'$ k j CARS. Is THE BORN LOSER GRINDSTONE MJL WW,! " V;'- non-answ- THE WIZARD OF IP MUTTS (s in ( Voo SPEW. ) MOTHER GOOSE BttWKSsfl aUe-gati- TttOfJ&HT. POT ROAST FDR "IH6 FIRST TIME, , I CAM WATT. CHRISTMAS. OS ICAMWWT, :n n SALLY FORTH J1 5 MARCIE, EVEN IF THEY FIRE RALPH, A THAT DOESNT fEAN YOU'RE GONE, TOO. AFTER ALL, THE NEXT PERSON NEED AN ASSISTANT. ttwWIU. BUT YOU KNOW HOW IT IS. NEW BOSSES ALWAYS BRING IN THEIR OWN PEOPLE. MY DAYS WILL BE NUMBERED FOR SURE. 1 SIGH-WH- Y COULDN'T I HAPPENING AFTER iTCfc I niuxyc'i THIS BE WON ?j 1 yeah, Y |