If you watched Hardball with Chris Matthews over the last couple of days, you might have heard something about about the "New Haven Firefighters" reverse discrimination case. Unfortunately, if you have depended on the media coverage of the case, you're not getting the full story.

Over the last couple of days, Matthews and Pat Buchanan have engaged in heated, and very ill-informed "discussion" of the firefighters' case. Joan Walsh of Salon.com was the flak target day one. Today, Matthews hosted Frank Ricci and his attorney Karen Torre to present the plaintiffs side. and John Payton of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, which filed an "amicus curiae" (friend of the court") brief on behalf of the City of New Haven.

Perhaps this essay will give you to details you need to understand the case.

Bear in mind the City of New Haven won a summary judgement on all counts. In other words, the firefighters case was thrown out of court. It never made it to trial. Neither the district court judge nor the appellate court found anything compelling enough in the lawsuit that needed to go before a jury.

This case has been described as the "perfect storm" of discrimination law.

While most of the coverage has centered on Firefighter Frank Ricci -- the dyslexic fireman who studied hard, who paid $1000 for a friend to turn his textbooks into audio books, who ranked 6th on his exam -- as compelling a story as his is -- he is not the center of the story.