MSNBC’s Chris Matthews is running wild with this NY Times story, titled “Many Contracts for Storm Work Raise Questions.” He pushed the article in every guest’s face in the first 30 minutes of “Hardball.” Rep. Peter King (R-NY) said, “The fact that it’s the New York Times means nothing to me.”

The last time this issue came up, Michelle Malkin reported that CNN, the NY Times and others neglected to mention any of the Democratic-Party affiliations of the firms that were getting no-bid contracts. Only Republican-Party affiliations got mentioned:

The Baton Rouge-based Shaw Group, CNN tells us, is a major corporate client of Joe Allbaugh, President Bush’s former campaign manager and a former head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Among its Katrina-related contracts are this one valued up to $100 million from FEMA; and this one also valued up to $100 million from the Army Corps of Engineers.
But in their zeal to embarrass the Bush administration, CNN overlooks one very fat and inconvenient fact–and embarrasses only itself.
The Shaw Group, a multi-billion-dollar conglomerate, is headed by Jim Bernhard, the current chairman of the Louisiana Democratic Party. Bernhard worked tirelessly for Democrat Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco’s runoff campaign and served as co-chair of her transition team. Another Shaw executive was Blanco’s campaign manager. Bernhard is back-scratching chums with Blanco, whom he has lent/offered the Shaw Group’s corporate jets to on numerous occasions.

Today, the NY Times reports:

Already, questions have been raised about the political connections of two major contractors – the Shaw Group and Kellogg, Brown & Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton – that have been represented by the lobbyist Joe M. Allbaugh, President Bush’s former campaign manager and a former leader of FEMA.

But again, Bernhard is not mentioned. And the result is that, in the segment with Peter King, Matthews focused on the Bush administration and Mississippi Republican Gov. Haley Barbour, and didn’t once mention the Shaw Group’s Democratic-Party ties.

Printing one-sided information in the NY Times is a bad idea, because it’s the only newspaper most liberal TV loudmouths read. Barney Calame’s been on kind of a roll lately. He needs to get on the Times about this problem too.

Video here.

PLUS: King goes off on Matthews and the media here.

KING: As far as President Bush, it’s wrong for you to say he wasn’t caring, he certainly was caring. What he was not equipped for was to explain for the incompetency of the local officials or to explain the hysteria… to anticipate the hysteria of people like you in the media who go off the deep end. Let’s treat this with a little bit of rationality and a little bit of decency.
MATTHEWS: The fact is that most people trust the media on this story because the pictures of what was happening down there in New Orleans apparently got to them before they heard of any federal action.
KING: Chris you are totally distorting reality, and that’s the problem with you. You’re distorting reality. You’re on this story, you and MSNBC got carried away with this. You should all be ashamed of yourself. You’ve disgraced yourself and the media.

Hardball indeed.

UPDATE: King came back for a second segment live. Radioblogger has transcripts and audio.

UPDATE II: Political Teen has the second segment video.