So tonight, MSNBC covered the primaries in Texas, Ohio, Vermont, and Rhode Island, just as all the major news networks did. I do have to say, it was likely the least professional effort I’ve seen out of MSNBC yet, mainly because of the behavior of Chris Matthews.

Over time I have come to ignore Chris Matthews because his “banter” has become less and less insightful. But the main reason I list him in this critical post of MSNBC’s professionalism has nothing to do with the actual words he spoke. It has everything to do with his demonstrated inadequacies as a broadcast professional.

At least a dozen times tonight, Chris Matthews coughed loudly while his microphone was live. I’m not talking in the middle of a sentence, which would be excusable. I’m talking about his disgusting, slovenly hacking while his co-presenter, Keith Olbermann, was talking.

What, is MSNBC such a low budget operation that they cannot afford a cough button? Is their budget so small that some lowly engineer couldn’t rig up a momentary switch, a resistor, a capacitor, and a couple of XLR jacks in a cheap enclosure to allow Chris Matthews to mute his own mic while coughing?

Or is Chris Matthews so unprofessional or so stubborn that he refuses to observe common courtesy by not coughing while on air?

I mean, come on. My online radio show has a budget of under $200 a year. Yes– a year. Do we subject our audience to non-stop coughing and hacking? No. Of course not. That would be rude, inconsiderate, and disgusting. We have come up with ways to keep bodily noises off the air. Anything less is simply unprofessional.

But for MSNBC– constantly at the bottom of the ratings as far as I am aware– it is OK for Chris Matthews to act like a Neanderthal?

What’s next? Will Chris Matthews let out a big Barney-from-The-Simpsons style belch on air?

Will someone from MSNBC please– for the sanity of their audience– teach Chris Matthews some manners and tell him to stop coughing into his microphone?!

Or at the very least, get him a glass of water.