Being Easter Sunday and all that, I felt redemption for something I wrote in passing reference about Rachael Maddow. I called the MSNBC cable news hostess a "liberal flame thrower."
Maddow is, yes, a liberal. The "flame thrower" element is a description applied by Fox's Bill O'Reilly for anyone on the left of which he disagrees.
I'm in agreement with Ms. Maddow more often than not.
As is so often the case, the post in question mentioned Maddow once in a critical review of MSNBC's new primetime host Ed Schultz. The comments from readers on The Moderate Voice and my own blog all chastised me for my Maddow characterization.
I stand corrected.
From a pure journalistic perspective, Maddow is the best interviewer on television since the death of Tim Russert.
A Rhodes scholar, she does her homework. Her producers have the intelligence to allow her enough time to probe deep into a guest's responses. In this regard, she's a bulldog. She's relentless. And she carries it out in a low-key professional manner. No yelling and insulting ala O'Reilly and his sidekick Sean Hannity.
Furthermore, Maddow is an excellent teacher. She can grasp a complex subject such as the budget reconciliation bill and explain it in language a fifth grader can understand. I'm a political junkie and not embarrassed to admit how much I learned about the U.S. Senate's 60-vote majority cloister rule after listening to Maddow's explanation.
She also offers provocative guests, experts in their fields, one seldom sees on MSNBC, CNN or Fox. Maddow is not a Washington Beltway protege which works to her advantage.
When she sticks to politics or relative substantive issues, Maddow is on firm ground even if one disagrees with her slants, angles and any other agendas on her platter.
And, unlike most TV hosts, she not only apologizes for errors or misstatements from previous shows, she corrects "mischaracterizations" as was the case of describing Colin Powell as "uncomfortable" with a series of questions she asked the former Secretary of State. Powell said that wasn't the case, she reported the following day.
She does tend to be a little prissy with those "Holy Mackerel" stories. The "GOP In Exile" and the show's concluding segment are fluffy time killers, but, by and large, she offers an informative and entertaining show.
"The Rachael Maddow Show" is like a fine wine. It grows on you.
2 comments:
I'm a huge fan of Rachel Maddow, but not just since she started appearing on TV. I was a huge fan of her Air America radio show. Her radio style is coming back into the TV format more and more, and each time a little change is made it reminds me of a maturation of a radio show segment. I wish they would bring back "Ask Dr. Maddow" but in a different way than the radio show did the segment.
And like most fine wine, the greatness and subtlety of it are often missed by the majority of those who don't take the time and effort to enjoy what they are experiencing from that vintage bottle.
Great post!
I share the observations about Rachel being smart and an adept interviewer. I also like the fact that she's courteous to her guests. I disagree that she ages (or wears?) like a fine wine. I understand it's part of her gig, but she can come across as glib and condescending. While I generally agree with her politics, not everyone is an idiot on the right, as she oftentimes suggests, in tones unsubtly dismissive. LJR
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