While Air America Radio flounders over Randi Rhodes' suspension and the fury of us listeners who are missin' her, there is one good story coming out from under their large, controlling, liberally-feathery wing, and that's Rachel Maddow's ability to charm, be herself and promote the best of what progressive is about.
Rachel Maddow: Progressive Media's Next Mainstream Star
By Rory O'Connor, AlterNet. Posted April 10, 2008.
As the seemingly endless Democratic presidential primary slog enters its second spring, one amazing woman has managed -- by relentless dint of hard work, long experience, sharp intelligence, quick wit, quicker quips and a winning smile -- to shatter the glass ceiling and take her rightful place in the traditional boys' club of big-time politics.
No, not her -- Rachel Maddow!
That's right -- a woman who calls herself "a supplicant who worships in the Temple of Journalism" -- but who others have described as "Amy Goodman with animal noises" -- is now firmly ensconced in the upper echelon of the political punditocracy. With her own rising radio show on Air America, coupled with regular appearances on MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann program, where she is often, oddly and excellently paired with Patrick Buchanan, this self-described "35-year-old, liberal, lesbian girl-who-looks-like-a-man" is on the brink of becoming progressive media's next mainstream breakout star. One significant measure of Maddow's new-found favor: the decision by MSNBC, effective next week, to hire her as a regular panelist on its newest nightly campaign program Race for the White House -- and to allow Air America to simulcast the 6 p.m. nightly program as the first hour of its own nightly Rachel Maddow show.
[...] Rachel Maddow is nothing if not clear -- about the distinctions between news, opinion and entertainment, but also about her own distinct beliefs, politics, and persona, and about where progressive media may be heading. "I think the more power the Democrats gain, the better off progressive radio and progressive media is," she concluded. "I felt like I was outside banging on a locked door when Republicans were in power seemingly everywhere. But the closer we get to retaking the country, the closer we get to overtaking the traditional media in terms of content and influence."
http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/81912/
By Rory O'Connor, AlterNet. Posted April 10, 2008.
As the seemingly endless Democratic presidential primary slog enters its second spring, one amazing woman has managed -- by relentless dint of hard work, long experience, sharp intelligence, quick wit, quicker quips and a winning smile -- to shatter the glass ceiling and take her rightful place in the traditional boys' club of big-time politics.
No, not her -- Rachel Maddow!
That's right -- a woman who calls herself "a supplicant who worships in the Temple of Journalism" -- but who others have described as "Amy Goodman with animal noises" -- is now firmly ensconced in the upper echelon of the political punditocracy. With her own rising radio show on Air America, coupled with regular appearances on MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann program, where she is often, oddly and excellently paired with Patrick Buchanan, this self-described "35-year-old, liberal, lesbian girl-who-looks-like-a-man" is on the brink of becoming progressive media's next mainstream breakout star. One significant measure of Maddow's new-found favor: the decision by MSNBC, effective next week, to hire her as a regular panelist on its newest nightly campaign program Race for the White House -- and to allow Air America to simulcast the 6 p.m. nightly program as the first hour of its own nightly Rachel Maddow show.
[...] Rachel Maddow is nothing if not clear -- about the distinctions between news, opinion and entertainment, but also about her own distinct beliefs, politics, and persona, and about where progressive media may be heading. "I think the more power the Democrats gain, the better off progressive radio and progressive media is," she concluded. "I felt like I was outside banging on a locked door when Republicans were in power seemingly everywhere. But the closer we get to retaking the country, the closer we get to overtaking the traditional media in terms of content and influence."
http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/81912/
No comments:
Post a Comment