The Dr. Maddow Show

[Nonno]

The Secret to Rachel Maddow's Success -- New York Magazine

Ever heard of something called Dada?”

Rachel Maddow is trying to make an analogy. It’s mid-October, two weeks before the election, and the MSNBC host is comparing the McCain campaign’s recent fixation on “Joe the Plumber” to the anti-bourgeois cultural movement of the early-twentieth century. But this is prime time, and Maddow first has to define Dadaism in as colloquial a way as possible. This is something of a challenge considering she only has about twelve seconds.

“Deliberately being irrational, rejecting standard assumptions about beauty or organization or logic,” she begins. “It’s an anti-aesthetic statement about the lameness of the status quo … kind of?” She twists her face into a cartoon grimace that morphs into a wide smile. “Why am I trying to explain Dadaism on a cable news show thirteen days from this big, giant, historic, crazy, important election that we’re about to have?” she asks with a self-deprecating laugh, as she recognizes the Dadaishness of her own quest. “Because that’s what I found myself Googling today, in search of a way to make sense of the latest McCain-Palin campaign ad!”

It’s hard to imagine many other cable news hosts going down that particular rabbit hole. (Can you picture Glenn Beck referring to the existentialists to make a point?) But then again, Rachel Maddow is not like other cable news hosts. A self-described butch lesbian with short hair and black-rimmed glasses, off-camera she resembles a young Ira Glass more than the helmet-headed anchoresses and Fox fembots who populate television news. Doing the press rounds when MSNBC first announced her show in August, she’d show up to interviews looking like, she says, “a 14-year-old boy” in puffy Samantha Ronson sneakers with iPod headphones dangling from her ears—but then she’d easily segue into an informed foreign- policy or economic discussion that ended with a Daily Show–worthy punch line. Her résumé is similarly unexpected: A Rhodes scholar and an Oxford Ph.D., she’s done stints as an AIDS activist, barista, landscaper, Air America host, and mascot in an inflatable calculator suit. She’s a civics geek who reads comic books, goes to monster-truck rallies, likes to fish, calls herself an “amateur mixologist” of classic cocktails, and even Twitters.

[vraiblonde]

What "success"? She gets good ratings for MSNBC, but that's like saying chocolate covered poop beats all the other poop in terms of flavor.

Cable News Nielsen TV Ratings for Wednesday, September 10 Rachel Maddow ratings

You'll notice that Fox has twice the viewership of MSNBC. Hannity and Colmes has double Rachel Maddow's audience.

[Larry Gude (Premo)]

Originally Posted by Nonno

She twists her face into a cartoon grimace that morphs into a wide smile.

Maddow came on the scene as a fresh face and a fresh view. Since her arrival she has steadily gone the way of her mentor; Olbermann, with the juvenile comments, facial contortions and the 'aren't I kewl' mannerisms, sarcasm and banality. She, I think, is well on her way to copying Olbermann right out of a job.

I liked her for a week. If she, and Keith, want to do comedy, they ought to go bug Stewart for a job so, maybe, some adults can come along and rescue MSNBC from the spiraling demise they have embarked on.

[Nonno]

Originally Posted by vraiblonde

What "success"? She gets good ratings for MSNBC, but that's like saying chocolate covered poop beats all the other poop in terms of flavor.Cable News Nielsen TV Ratings for Wednesday, September 10 Rachel Maddow ratingsYou'll notice that Fox has twice the viewership of MSNBC. Hannity and Colmes has double Rachel Maddow's audience.

I love it when you wax poetic.