Political analyst Rachel Maddow may be an openly gay, former AIDS activist who doesn’t own a TV set. But her smarts and self-assurance have catapulted her to the forefront of cable TV’s talking heads, and made her a likely bet for her own time slot on MSNBC.
Maddow, a longtime host on the liberal talk-radio network Air America, has been an unlikely beneficiary of the long presidential primary season.
Originally a guest analyst on CNN, as well as MSNBC, she quickly moved up the ladder to become MSNBC’s exclusive commentator on the liberal end of the political spectrum. The buzz about her as a media star in search of her own time slot grew louder last month after she filled in for eight nights as the substitute host on Countdown with Keith Olbermann , while Olbermann was vacationing.
Soon thereafter, the New York Times, the Nation and the Kansas City Star all ran admiring profiles.
“Everything about her radiates competence and a deft, bright careerism,” wrote Rebecca Traister of The Nation. “She wants to succeed, makes no bones about campaigning for her own television show and yet evinces a regular-person charm and self-doubt that ensures you’ll never mistake her ambition for bloodthirst or bullying.”
Many fans have clicked on a link created by an independent fan club, maddowfans.com, sending letters to MSNBC executives exhorting them to give her her own show.
All of which was not lost on the cable network seeking to make a name among a younger demographic.
“At some point, I don’t know when, she should have a show,” MSNBC President Phil Griffin told Jacques Steinberg of the New York Times, after her stint as a substitute host. “She’s on the short list. It’s a very short list. She’s at the top.”
For her part, Maddow has returned the adoration.
“They know I would love to do it,” the 35-year-old Ph.d told the Times about getting her own show.
To that end, she recently signed on with Olbermann’s agent, Jean Sage. She has also agreed to write a book on the shifting role of the military for Crown Publishing. Her editor will be Rachel Klayman, who edited Barack Obama’s second book, The Audacity of Hope.
Maddow is a different-style political commentator. She doesn’t do anger or bluster, making her points with surgical precision and, often, humor. When some of her conservative sidekicks chattered on about presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama’s purported elitism, she noted that John McCain, the presumptive GOP nominee, is the candidate with nine homes and $520 shoes.
Generally, her manner is more amused than aggressive. The daughter of an Air Force captain, Maddow is a wonk who loves getting into the nitty gritty of policy. “I’m not that much of a typecastable liberal,” she told the Times. “I am not a fan of either candidate.”
Nor is she cut from the same cloth as most pundits.
After growing up in the Bay Area, Maddow got a public policy degree from Stanford, and then went to work with ACT Up and the AIDS Legal Referral Panel. In 1995, she traveled to Oxford as a Rhodes scholar, where she began a doctorate in political science, focusing on AIDS in prisons. She returned to western Massachusetts to finish her dissertation, supporting herself doing mostly menial jobs, including one at a Northampton coffee-bean factory cleaning out buckets.
Her media debut was fortuitous. She landed a job as the “news girl” at a local radio station, among her many odd jobs while finishing her degree. When Air America launched in 2004, she applied for a job and they took a big chance on her.
Originally, she co-hosted Unfiltered with Chuck D and Lizz Winstead. After that show was canceled a year later, Maddow got her own weekday slot. Her radio show is heard from 6 to 9 p.m. weeknights on 32 stations nationally.
Maddow, who divides her time between homes in Northampton, Ma. and Greenwich Village shared with longtime girlfriend, artist Susan Mikula, has said she would like to do both TV and radio. She said that if O’Reilly and Hannity can pull it off, she can too.
Asked by the Times whether she thought America was ready for an openly gay news host, she demonstrated her usual aplomb.
“Well, I think Ellen DeGeneres has shown people are ready for her,” she said. “But I will not dance the way Ellen does.”
Here’s a clip of Maddow filling in as host on Countdown with Keith Olbermann:
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2 Comments
#1. MSNBC Joke of a station 08.11.2009
Well I have searched the web for fan clubs for Maddow and seems to be a reoccurring theme…… Be the first to post a comment lol…… I think I found one that had 10 fans on it SHEESH I wonder what her ratings are Hmmmm Well, maybe she is the big draw and what is keeping MSNBC Afloat in the ratings battle……. I am just one sheep who likes being lead around by the tail,” Here go protest here” Hmmm lol
#2. MSNBC Joke of a station 08.11.2009
What does it feel like to be on TV and know that your audience either watches out of sheer amazement you can say that with a straight face knowing you have a few relatives watching along with a few cooks. Oh, wait!, You have some one who shares your popularity, “Oberman…”
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