Chris Matthews says liberal TV ad lies when in fact it's 100% accurate

Matthews claimed on his show this evening that a Democratic ad about the Jack Abramoff scandal was factually incorrect. In fact, the ad was not just absolutely true, but Matthews' claims about what the ad actually said were the lie (or incredibly sloppy journalism on Matthews' part).

Here is the Hardball transcript I just wrote down while watching my recording of tonight's broadcast:

CHRIS MATTHEWS: Have you noticed in the Democrat ad though they do a close-up on Tom Delay and they said "bribery"? Well that's not a charge against Tom Delay. His charge is this thing about hard money/soft money, it's a political little bit of a fandango but nobody's accused him yet of bribery, but that ad sure does.

DANA MILBANK, WASHINGTON POST: Right, but nobody holds these ads to any sort of standard at all...

CHRIS MATTHEWS: You say [unintelligible]. You're not the target for one of these things.

DANA MILBANK: There's no standard for accuracy or truth in these things, it's all about what innuendo you can put out there...

ANNE KORNBLUTT, NEW YORK TIMES: I mean, can anybody say "Swift Boat."

Swift Boat, indeed.

If you actually watch the ad, and Matthews conveniently shows the ad as an introduction to the discussion above, you clearly hear the announcer say the word "bribery" on the close-up of Jack Abramoff - who was in fact convicted of bribery. The ad does not, as Matthews claims, say "bribery" for the close-up of Tom Delay. Rather, the ad clearly says "indicted for money laundering" during the close-up of Tom Delay, which is also correct. So the ad was 100% correct, but Matthews savaged it for something it never even said, then permitted his guests to accuse the ad's liberal creators of pulling a "Swift Boat."

Whether an intentional lie, or sloppy journalism, Matthews yet again skewers the left by skewing to the right.