MSNBC's Chris Matthews is not going along with his network's narrative that criticism of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl is tantamount to "Swiftboating" the recently released prisoner.

As an article by the Media Research Center points out, MSNBC hosts Chuck Todd and Al Sharpton are among the network personalities who are characterizing any criticism of Bergdahl as a potential deserter or Taliban sympathizer as being on par with the attacks then presidential candidate John Kerry endured regarding his service in Vietnam. Matthews, however, isn't buying the narrative.

During an episode of Matthews' show Hardball Wednesday, Chuck Todd said, in reference to Bergdahl, " I’ve had a few aides, and I said this earlier, refer to this, they didn’t expect the quote unquote, 'swiftboating' of Bergdahl, trying to bring back memories of... John Kerry back in 2004."

That's when Matthews showed his displeasure with the comparison:

Swiftboating is totally misused here. Swiftboating is when you make up stories...and you misconstrue the evidence from -- you don’t like the way that John Kerry opposed the Vietnam war after he got back and turned it into an attack on his service over there -- totally dishonest. These are questions raised about a guy who left post, wrote letters, sent signals...that he was leaving post as a matter of principle, he didn’t believe in the war effort. And we don’t know what’s worse here, but the idea that there’s -- where’s the dishonesty in the portrayal of Bergdahl so far? I haven’t seen it. What’s been misconstrued about him so far?

Despite Matthews' objections, as MRC noted, the use of the term would continue throughout the evening on MSNBC, with Al Sharpton and fill-in host Ari Melber both using it during their respective time slots.