According to Amber Athey, an investigative reporter for the Daily Caller, Matthews would rate the looks of his female guests on a numerical scale and enjoyed objectifying women and making inappropriate comments to and about them.
"I talked to two former MSNBC producers as well as three former guests on the Chris Matthews show and they tell me this is a pattern of behavior for Chris and it wasn't just a one-off inappropriate joke," Athey told Radio Sputnik's Fault Lines hosts Garland Nixon and Lee Stranahan. A former employee has recently alleged that Matthews made inappropriate comments and jokes about her in front of others in 1999 while she was employed on his show, "Hardball with Chris Matthews."
"He runs a news environment that is brazenly sexist, according to my sources. He would rate guests on a scale of one to 10, he would talk about which guests were hottest and he reduced all his female staffers as sexual objects," Athey said.
"In addition to that, he also allegedly runs an abusive work environment and constantly berates producers to the point of tears. He tells them that they are worthless and don't deserve to have a job in media. People who work for him feel that they are victims of battered wife syndrome," Athey added.
Both of the former producers who spoke against Matthews requested anonymity for fear of jeopardizing their careers.
"Sadly, I know other women who won't even be an anonymous source regarding Chris [Matthews] because they're that concerned about the door closing on career opportunities in media," one of the producers told Athey.
Matthews allegedly used names like "cutie" and "sweetie pie" to refer to female guests and made "boorish" comments about women.
"He would eye down a woman who walked on set or comment on their features or what they were wearing," one former producer said. "He would objectify them and interrupt them in a way that he would never do to his male guests. He has a very outdated view of women."
A host on the NBC show was allegedly the victim of many of Matthews' comments and tried her best to avoid being around him in the office.
"She didn't want to be in the same room as him," the former NBC producer claimed. "She wouldn't want to get her makeup done if he was in there, too."
The sources who spoke to the Daily Caller described Matthews as verbally abusive on "Hardball." Matthew allegedly had out-of-control outbursts that caused staffers to feel like they had to "walk on eggshells" around their "abusive" boss.
The producers also said that Matthews frequently yelled at staffers and threw objects.
"I would describe it as verbal abuse," one former producer said. "The screaming is beyond the screaming you've ever heard. You just feel so under attack."
"He did it so openly," the producer added. "It's not just sexual harassment… what are you supposed to do when somebody is verbally abusing you and attacking you this way?"
Last month, an MSNBC spokesman confirmed that the American news cable and satellite television network paid off one of Matthews' former assistant producers after she filed a sexual harassment claim against him. MSNBC claims the sum was just part of a normal severance package, but other sources insist it was a $40,000 sexual misconduct settlement.
