Rachel Maddow's show is excellent, but tends to become annoying at times. She is of the opinion that if comedy and sarcasm is useful some of the time in talking about current events, then it is useful all of the time when talking about current events. Listening to her laughing and giggling her way through a story about people losing their homes can be very tiring and irritating. She may find that funny; I don't.
Posted by Bill H at October 21, 2008 07:49 AMYou off your meds? What kind of farcical nonsense is this site going to become under your stewardship?
Oh, BTW, I like Maddow a lot.
Posted by DL at October 21, 2008 07:53 AMthe American broadcast industry is no longer a corporate propaganda monolith
Not sure I follow, is the subsequent reference to KO supposed to be an example of this? Last I heard he worked for a corporate propoaganda monolith. He is also a talk show host and not a news organization. Same goes for Maddow.
agree that most teevee news stinks - I stick with PBS
What kind of farcical nonsense is this site going to become under your stewardship?
ROFLMAO!
Oops...Aaaaaggghh, me hearties. What be ye problem? Ya got a poop deck stuffed up yer stern fore mizzen? Aaaarrrggghhh! (I forgot that today was talk like a pirate day at TLC, and had my hat on. Wednesday is funny hat day. Not my favorite day -like blog in your underwear day- but I can get by with it).
Maddow is okay. I like Olbermann, too. Like paradox, I'm out there hitting the International and National news to know what's going on in the world. If you stick to any one source, regardless of that source, your world view quickly narrows.
Uhhh...arrgghh!
Posted by phidipides at October 21, 2008 08:40 AMRachel rocks! She's smart, knowledgeable, and funny -- the smart answer to Fox News.
Posted by Gabrielle at October 21, 2008 08:41 AMI don't watch TV much, but have caught Maddow after the debates and during the interminable commercial breaks during night football games.
What amazes me still is the false equivalence between her and, say, Hannity or O'Reilly. For one, she lets her guests finish their sentences, only interrupting if they run on into several paragraphs. She doesn't insult them, and instead treats them with respect. If she disagrees with, say, Pat Buchanan, they'll acknowledge the point of disagreement politely and move on. She doesn't ambush her guests with surprise topics. She sticks to facts (y'hear that Randy Rhodes?).
Furthermore, she's super intelligent in that she hears what the interviewee says and adjusts/adapts her line of questioning accordingly. Way too many interviewers follow a script. Maddow doesn't -- if a surprise comes up she'll follow up to explore that topic. If the interviewee dodges the question she'll pursue that.
Yes, the show is pitched to the left side of the spectrum. But it is revealing that the left is embracing the style of Rachel Maddow while the right embraces the style of O'Reilly and Hannity.
Posted by Anonny at October 21, 2008 09:01 AMHaven't watched Maddow ...that said..I don't plan to start watching it either.
On another front I see that the Fairly Unbalanced News network in addition to having Glenn Beck join it's staff, Judith "I was effing right" Germ Miller will be on hand ready to wage war ...It appears the execs over there also think it's most likely it'll be Preznit Obama for the next 4 years....they're ready to crank up the FAuxrage ....and I have a sinking feeling it'll be worse than than the 90's. Oy.....
Posted by emal at October 21, 2008 09:31 AMRachel's show is a must see for me. Rachel, Keith and Bill Moyer are the only corporate news sources I watch. All three are very intelligent.
Posted by smooth at October 21, 2008 09:44 AMI like Rachel a lot, and I'm turning on the tv when she comes on, mainly to give her the ratings, but I watch her, just like I loved her on Air America before I had to switch it off because of the other idiots like Randi, and Stephanie Miller, who turned into assholes in the primary. Never went back, since Rachel's on tv now. I still miss Al Franken.
I can see how at some point Rachel's going to have to separate herself from Tweety's idiocy and Olberman's clowning (don't like him all that much, even if he does some good stories once in a while.) Rachel's way smarter than those two, and I believe will eventually hold her own. Right now, though, she's still dependent upon the big boys before her, and knows she has to indulge them for the time being. She's insanely smart, though, and very fair, even when Frum insulted her right out of the gate. If she's going to last long, she'll have to be. Frankly, Olberman's making a mistake by becoming a dKos diarist - that is, if he wants to get a wider audience instead of becoming known as a mouthpiece for the partisans. Whatever. Rachel wants to be a real news person; Olberman, I think, just wants to be liked.
Posted by iamcoyote at October 21, 2008 09:44 AMI used to watch KO every night (the 11:00 rebroadcast). This was at the genesis of his "Special Comments". It was refreshing to hear someone call the Administration out for their BS.
As time went on, a left wing bias became apparent in the stories covered and the unbalanced nature of some hit type pieces. If one wants to support Countdown as some type to counter propaganda outlet to FAUXNEWS, fine, but it's better at manipulating than informing.
Maddow's show is a little different, but I suspect the same biases will manifest themselves in time.
Posted by brisa at October 21, 2008 09:55 AMAnyone care to comment on how "they" arrive at these numbers:
Fox News Channel’s “O’Reilly Factor,” the highest-rated hour on cable news, reached an average of four million viewers in September; it had two million during the same period a year ago.
If it is some indicator of what station is on at a given time ... big deal - my Dad is is a huge fan of Fox News -- has it on hours at a time -- but usually sleeps thru at least half of it. If it is some poll, then it is the word of someone who generally watches Program A vs Program B.... Now if it is Nielsen TV Ratings by the Nielsen Media Research company ... then it again is still the diaries and boxes (meters) of what station the TV is on.... Since these "sample people" generally have their "favorites" and simply keep their TVs "tuned in" -- how can they seriously come up with the "real numbers"
Reports of NBC/MSNBC "suits" announcing budget cuts of $500 million for next year, due to loss of viewers, ratings, and advertisers.
Posted by Mary at October 21, 2008 05:12 PMI watch both Keith Oberman and Rachel Maddow I think they are both good shows. They talk about the topics that you don't get on cnn or fox
Posted by KW at October 21, 2008 10:05 PMBeen following her since her days on AAR with Chuck D. I'm a big fan. I think she is actually even better on TV. She has the brains and the sarcasm to really take righties to the woodshed.
Posted by midwestdem at October 22, 2008 06:00 AMMary,
Are you insinuating they will get rid of her the way they did Donahue when he crossed the right wing media establishment?
Posted by midwestdem at October 22, 2008 06:02 AM