Gay History Month: Rachel Maddow
Rachel Maddow is the first openly gay anchor to be hired to host prime-time news in the United States.
The Rachel Maddow Show first aired on television in 2008. She was first seen as a guest political analyst on MSNBC and CNN, and first heard on her syndicated radio show, The Rachel Maddow Show, in 2005.
Rachel Maddow was born in California and came out as a lesbian when she was a teenager. When in college at Stanford University, she was one of only two openly gay freshmen, according to her university paper.
At Stanford, Maddow majored in public policy and she was an AIDS activist.
In 1995, she received a Rhodes Scholarship to travel to Oxford for graduate studies at Lincoln College. She earned her doctorate degree in political science with a concentration in prison reform and AIDS.
As much as Rachel’s show is informative, I think her status as a ‘talking head’ (even if a liberal one) compromises her show being ‘news’. If FOX News isn’t ‘news’ because it’s only 75% true information and the rest is right-wing spin, Rachel doesn’t count as news either.
Traditionally, there has always been special segments of the news that are labeled “analysis” or “commentary.” Again, traditionally, as long as those parts of the news were labeled properly, everyone understood that opinion and point of view were purposefully being presented.
The reason why I think Rachel rocks and why I’m So Totally Not Worthy
, is because she’s part of a movement to bring journalist boundaries back. Jon Stewart is all about getting opinion and agenda out of news reporting, and Rachel Maddow is undermining the recent idea that all opinions are equal by insisting that opinions/commentaries be backed up by facts.
She’s academic in the best sense. In academia, you can state your opinion/thesis, but you’d better back it up with research and quotes with proper citations. You’d better do your homework and base your opinions on what has been observed and measured so far.
Kari, the problem with Fox News is not that they are biased, it’s that they lie about it. Rachel Maddow will come right out and tell you that she is a liberal. Fox says they are “a fair and balanced news organization”, when they clearly are not. I think if they billed themselves truthfully, people wouldn’t have any problem with it. Rachel also backs up her opinion with fact, Fox just makes things up as they go along.
Did she come out at 15, like the text on the page says, or 17, like the text in the video says?
To Randy:
The ONLY thing that really matters is that Dr. Rachel Maddow “came out” as a teen, with balls bigger that both yours and mine put together! As as a Physician, I can guess the size of yours.
I don’t get to see Maddow on tv so I’m glad I see clips on 365. I wondered who we would get to speak our side on national news. I couldn’t be happier with Rachel. She’s smart, stands up for herself, confronts, is funny…..For a while I thought Al Franken might be the answer to Limbaugh and Fox news. Maybe he didn’t have the right forum but it didn’t seem he had the impact of RM. I’m not that media savy about what’s out there but I think Maddow does a great job balancing the right.
Does she have to be on 365gay.com every day?
To FACEBOOK USER:
In fact, YES, Dr. Rachel Maddow does need to be on 365gay.com every day. We NEED her and people like Ms. Ali Davis to keep all of us fully informed.
Respectfully