What Sam Boyd said -- if MSNBC is considering this idea at all, they should hurry up and do it. She's been the best thing about the best election coverage team in cable news all primary season long.
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Give Rachel Maddow a TV Show!
14 May 2008 11:11 am
Comments (45)
She's a fantastic analyst, but she bombed as Keith's Countdown replacement a few weeks back. Much better to keep her in her strong suit: shouting down O'Donnell and Buchanan. Bad things can hapen when non-pros get the host chair: we don't want to see her pull a Shuster.
Given that she thinks Chris Matthews is the best political analyst on TV (AP story), I can't imagine why she wouldn't get a show on GE/MSNBC.
Yeah, and give that putz, David Gregory, the boot. The dude is a complete dorkosaurus.
A show sounds good, but I'd also like to see her make out with some blond hottie.
I agree completely. She's excellent. But forget her making out with a blond "hottie." I want to see her getting it on with Gene Robinson while Buchanan is forced to watch while shrink-wrapped in the corner. And then David Gregory is shrink-wrapped just ouside the room and forced to watch Buchanan watching Rachel and Gene. At least, that's how it happened in my dream.
If she was better looking, she would likely already have a TV show. That may sound sexist or even troglodytic, but it's probably true.
I think here analysis is strong--and done with a sense of humor.
And she is attractive!
she bombed as Keith's Countdown replacement a few weeks back
I wouldn't say she bombed, per se. I think she did a good job but is better in her own format. Love her radio show. Its encouraging that somebody, you know, smart can get on the air at all in the States. I think its a tragedy that public intellectualism is a taboo here.
umm no thanks. She is a total Hillary Honk plus she is a lesbian
Agreed.
umm no thanks. She is a total Hillary Honk plus she is a lesbian
Have to dispute Mike's contention that Maddow "bombed." I watched it and she did fine. Better than the other subs Olbermann has--even the "pros."
Unless you want to go to the same pool of vapid talking heads, any new anchor would need some seasoning. But she's a quick learner, and if they had sense they'd let her shape the format of the show to suit her talents.
Give Maddow a show!
I think its a tragedy that public intellectualism is a taboo here
Tell that to the good people of West Virginia!!
umm no thanks. She is a total Hillary Honk plus she is a lesbian
Yo, Josh...shut the fuck up. Yeah, you.
I think she offers a different point of view that is the not the loudest but much more insightful!
She also does not play favorites and offers fair criticisms and that is lacking on all MSM.
"Hillary Honk"? Uh, what?
Great résumé and credentials. Still, I think if you want to be taken seriously your web site shouldn't feature a picture of you that evokes the image of a militant lesbian skate punk. Geez. You want to be a major player in the media political commenter world incorporate a little class in your wardrobe.
Maddow is great on MSNBC and she is attractive in a different way. She told a story recently about how she was a backer of Hillary's until she voted for the Iraq War. After that, Maddow was done with Hillary.
I think Maddow grudgingly respects the wise Buchanan. Unlike alot of the psuedo-intellectual lefties here, Buchanan was against the war from the start. While Hillary, Joe Biden, MY, and Thomas Friedman were banging war drums, Buchanan wrote the following BEFORE the war:
"With our MacArthur Regency in Baghdad, Pax Americana will reach apogee. But then the tide recedes, for the one endeavour at which Islamic people excel is expelling imperial powers by terror or guerrilla war.
"They drove the Brits out of Palestine and Aden, the French out of Algeria, the Russians out of Afghanistan, the Americans out of Somalia and Beirut, the Israelis out of Lebanon. We have started up the road to empire and over the next hill we will meet those who went before. The only lesson we learn from history is that we do not learn from history."
Suck on that Buchanan haters!
Suck on that Buchanan haters!
Ewww...tastes kind of sour like an old lemon.
Doing a show is harder than it looks and requires talents that are different than those required by political analysis. RM may be able to pull it off, or maybe she's better in her current role.
Chris Matthews is an imperfect human being, and I'm sure even he would tell you that, but if you woke him from a deep sleep at 3 in the morning, he could give you an hour of talking heads television. If RM can't do that, it's not necessarily to her discredit.
I am reminded that a number of years ago, swimsuit model Cindy Crawford tried her hand at the entertainment interview show format -- she subbed on "Later" or some such program for a week -- and it was painfully obvious that she could not do it. Oddly, the problem was that while she was clearly too smart to read a series of vapid questions off a teleprompter, she lacked another skill needed to go with it -- the Mike-Wallace-Bob-Costas-Barbara-Walters nerves of steel required to immediately choose and ask a question from the several questions she was thinking about.
Thanks for that link, Steve Duncan, for those 300 million of us Americans who don't watch MSNBC. Rachel Maddow is too butch to get a cameo on The L-Word, but if the lowest-rated cable news channel wants to give her a show, bully for them.
Pat Buchanan is undeniably intelligent, and an excellent writer, even if he does have a bug up his ass about the Heebs. Regarding this quote of his though,
"They drove the Brits out of Palestine and Aden..."
It was the Jews who drove the Brits out of Palestine, not the Arabs.
I'd loved to see Rachel Maddow get her own show. She's bright, strong and very untypical of MSM and cable news types. She did well as Olbermann's replacement but would do better with her own format. MSNBC could do much worse (and they are with Morning Joe & Race to the Whitehouse) with Rachel hosting her own show. Bring her on before the general election!
Say what you want about MSNBC, but Buchanan, Robinson, and Maddow are better than most of the idiots they on CNN's two panels. Outside of Bernstein, the fairest commentator they have is the conservative with the sweet mustache. Can't remember his name...
Rachel calls him "Uncle Pat" on radio. And "Uncle Pat" was the only person I ever saw do an interview with Ali G and totally get what was going on. Find it on YouTube, it made me a Pat fan.
Back to Rachel, on NPR's On the Media this weekend, she said she wanted a show of her own so that she would have more control over content and not come in just to talk about the freak show. On his chat, I asked Howie K about Rachel's chances and he didn't think they were great, but that she had been great when she was on his show and a very important asset at MSNBC.
I thought Rachel did well on Countdown, though it's clearly not a show that plays particularly to her strengths-- it's a show made to play well to Keith Olbermann's strengths, after all. She's well-suited to a show with more discussion.
"I think its a tragedy that public intellectualism is a taboo here."
Where's here? Matt's blog? C'mon.
In any case, I'm all for her continuing on at MSNBC and having an increased role. But she was paplably uncomfortable on network/cable TV as host. Her Air America show is easily the third best they have produced, I'll give you that. But you could just see that she is more comfortable at the helm of a smaller vessel (progressive radio), especially in the comfort of knowing that hers is a sympatheic, niche audience. Those lights are bright, and when she had to face them as the anchor, her face took on a sort of shocked-doe expression, like "What the hell am I(!) doing in this chair?"
Which is all to the good, because if she was given a show of her own, she would have to moderate her views and defer to her guests, a the title of the position (moderator) would suggest. Woudn't we prefer to have her continue to deliver our side's viewpoint unhindered by the responsibility of pretending neutrality that comes with the host's chair?
I would love to see her get a show. She is smart, articulate, funny, pleasant but tough. And I think she is rather attractive (not that it matters).
Get rid of that Dan Abrams dudw and put her in that slot.
I seriously think MSNBC should give a shot to becoming the progressive cable channel. I don't see how it could hurt. Unless you're Tweety.
She really doesn't need to anchor on MSNBC: it's going to be too much of a constraint unless she gets some control over the format, and that's just not going to happen. Her radio show is best when she does some news analysis that allows her to think out loud, and it's hard to do any kind of thinking out loud -- as opposed to Matthewesque autonomic burbling -- on cablenews.
A sit-com / reality show involving her living with Pat Buchanan, on the other hand, would be ratings gold: 'One of them's a lesbian, the other hates Jews -- when they get together, hilarity ensues!'
(Alison Stewart moved from MSNBC to The Bryant Park Project on NPR, and it's worked out pretty well: it's smart without being up its own arse, a la Morning Edition.)
Why not a role for Maddow on The View?
Rachel with her own show?
Do you mean Three's Company is coming back?
That Janet is so spunky!
I can't believe the Pat Buchanan love in this thread.
As for Maddow, are we sure she's a lesbian? Sure she's got short hair, and sure she got her radio start in Northampton, and sure she's focused on AIDS and gay rights as an activist, and sure she's got a partner named Susan. But is that really enough to declare someone a lesbian?
Yeah, the whole lesbian thing is probably just a ratings stunt.
Are you kidding? I have nothing against her, but she is a pundit like the rest. Shouldn't an actual reporter get a show, where actual issues are discussed? I second Chuck Todd. At least he brings some sanity to the horse race OCD.
Are you kidding? I have nothing against her, but she is a pundit like the rest. Shouldn't an actual reporter get a show, where actual issues are discussed? I second Chuck Todd. At least he brings some sanity to the horse race OCD.
Are you kidding? I have nothing against her, but she is a pundit like the rest. Shouldn't an actual reporter get a show, where actual issues are discussed? I second Chuck Todd. At least he brings some sanity to the horse race OCD.
I can't believe the Pat Buchanan love in this thread
If I could've raised hell in DC with someone 30 years ago, Buchanan would've been him. Or Ted Kennedy.
Maddow is an out lesbian.
I didn't happen to catch her stint on Countdown, but I agree she would be stronger on a show tailored to her style. Countdown is Olbermann all the way, and guest hosts have never been as strong.
What's interesting about Maddow is her common sense. She's not some political genius, she justs resists getting pulled into the chattering crowd. And, like Olbermann, she's well-spoken and has a sense of humor.
If I were an exec at MSNBC, I'd take into consideration that the liberal-leaning Countdown has been great for their ratings. I'd also look at the probability that the Dems will take the election. I'd also look at all the young people that Obama has excited and gotten involved in politics. An attractive, mid thirties "militant lesbian skate punk" might be a great asset for that network's viewership.
Part of Countdown's appeal is the way it apes the blogosphere in many ways (except for their overuse of the same talking heads) and I think Maddow can tap into the same thing.
Re mark f's comment "If I could've raised hell in DC with someone 30 years ago, Buchanan would've been him "
---------
Hunter S Thompson always spoke well of Pat Buchanan, even when writing about the Nixon Administration.
I think the "Pat hates the Jews" meme is false. He doesn't like some people in the Israel Lobby that he thinks are betraying this country. I
agree with him on that. He's argued that anti-Semitism is wrong.
I also admire Buchanan for sticking up for what he thinks is right even when it hurt him personally.
As opposed to most of the Washington crowd whose
approach to political issues is to figure out which is the right ass to kiss -- and to hell with the country.
Look at the movie "Lions for Lambs" -- when Tom Cruise points out to Reporter Meryl Streep exactly WHO helped the Republicans SELL this country on the invasion of Iraq.
I love Rachel Maddow! She is smart, sane and funny. She's a pundit, but she's entertaining to me. I guess because it seems like she hasn't sold her soul yet?
"Yeah, and give that putz, David Gregory, the boot. The dude is a complete dorkosaurus." (Hillary)
So true. At least a rhesus monkey can mimic intelligence.
Re R. Maddow and Pat Buchanan. Unlike Scarborough, Pat is not narrow-minded and if you'll notice - he makes an effort to get along with her. I'm not gonna pretend we swap Agnew stories over pints at O'Hooligans but I know him a tad and he's no stick in the mud. Plus, name the person who's written more eloquently against the War. Maddow has turned out to be smarter than she looks and is a nice addition to the punditocracy. Re his putative "anti-Semitism" - ask Robert Reich,and Mort Zuckerman if they think it's true. They actually know him.
She is the Hannity of the left...
From her site:
"Rachel has a doctorate in political science (she was a Rhodes Scholar) and a background in HIV/AIDS activism, prison reform, and other lefty rabblerousing. She shakes a mean cocktail, drives a bright red pickup, hates Coldplay, loves arguing with conservatives, spends a lot of money on AMTRAK tickets, and dresses like a first-grader."
All that puts her way ahead of Matt on the smarts and street cred scale.
Naturally, I especially like the prison reform bit.
Hear! Hear!
Comments closed May 28, 2008.
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Heads in the Sand
No love for Chuck Todd providing actual information about delegate projections and results?
But sure, give Maddow a show.
Posted by Gabriel | May 14, 2008 11:24 AM