Tea Partyers play hardball with Chris Matthews

Members of the Tea Party movement have called on sponsors of 'Hardball with Chris Matthews' to boycott the show after MSNBC aired Matthews' documentary 'The Rise of the New Right'.

The documentary by Matthews, host of "Hardball with Chris Matthews" on MSNBC, aired on the evening of June 16. In a June 15 interview with Huffington Post, Matthews predicted that the documentary "will stir people up, no matter where they fall on the political spectrum," saying:

I think that the left will say this scares the heck out of me, people in the middle will say this is amazing, and people on the right will be cheering for all I know.

The "New Right" are not cheering. In fact, some have risen up and called for sponsors of Matthews' show to withdraw their sponsorship. The calls for a "boycott" were reported in the Huffington Post, Washington Post, CBS News and elsewhere. Huffington Post posted a statement released by the National Tea Party Federation, which reads: The National Tea Party Federation calls for all tea party supporters to contact the sponsors of Hardball and ask them to pull their commercials from this show. (Advertiser listing and contacts at NTPF website.) These commercial sponsors cannot continue their support of a program that seeks to demonize millions of Americans who identify with the Tea Party movement. Specifically, according to the Washington Post, "FreedomWorks is circulating a letter calling for a boycott of Dawn and Proctor and Gamble, asking tea partyers to 'call, fax, or email' the company until it drops advertising during Hardball." Other Tea Party affiliates, including Kitchen Table Patriots and the American Grassroots Coalition, are also focused upon boycotting Dawn dish soap. Anna Puig, a leader of Kitchen Table Patriots who was appeared in the documentary, told the Washington Post:

These attacks are wrong, misleading and disingenuous. The propaganda piece only serves a left-wing agenda, and I will do everything I can to convince Dawn to stop funding MSNBC’s lies. I'm asking Tea Party groups around the country to help us in this effort. Individual Tea Party members will be boycotting Dawn products until the company takes appropriate action regarding the decision to advertise during the Hardball hit piece, and ceases funding MSNBC.

Dick Armey, former Republican House Majority Leader and current chairman of FreedomWorks, also appeared in the documentary and he directed his comments toward Chris Matthews personally. Armey told the Washington Post, "He's a better person than that. What's he doing? He's given himself over to something. I like him, personally, but it was sort of like -- I had the feeling like my favorite nephew was doing something out of character. Chris, you're better than this." The Washington Post reports that the Tea Party coalition "promises not to back down, but to keep the pressure on until Dawn cancels its funding for Hardball."