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Rachel Maddow has run a very good show. It’s not a great show because she doesn’t get great guests, and so keeps a steady flow of softies coming through. That’s not her choice. It seems that when the heavies come through, she asks them hard questions. No Tim Russert, she – she makes her guests uncomfortable. When she has them there, she can’t not do that. She has integrity.
For that reason, they don’t come on. They go to see Larry king or David Gregory or Stephanopoulos or Anderson Cooper – Dick Cheney’s people preferred to be on Russert’s Meet the Press, because they could control the message there.
The analogy I like to draw, as an accountant, is Enron, and its relationship with its auditor, Arthur Anderson and Company. Anderson clearly screwed up, and let Enron get away with things. The question is, why? It’s a myriad of relationships, and the profit motive was involved, but the bottom line was that Anderson had to be strong enough to risk losing a client to be right. They had a couple of knights working for them, but mostly, they failed.
The media assumes the same role as auditor. Like Enron, people in high office, public and private, want to control the people who are supposed to be reporting on them. It helps that large corporations own our media, it also helps that we are star-struck. People like Tom Brokaw and Tim Russert have undeserved reputations for integrity. They are exactly the opposite of that – they are rewarded for sycophancy. But they do it with gravitas, which is the key to their success. I’ll never forget Brokaw talking about how he was called back to work when they “captured Saddam Hussein” – whatever happened there. It was perfect news for a suck-up – a spoon fed story and a chance to be an insider reporting on the activities of powerful people. The interesting thing is that he really thought he was doing important work.
Anyway, Maddow doesn’t play those games. So expect that Colin Powell won’t stop by again, and that most insiders know to stay away from her. She’s got a problem. She thinks she’s a journalist.
Piece of Mindful 
Seems to me she only asks tough questions about a few things she is passionate about. She softballs the shit out of many interviews with has with progressives and spews DNC talking points. I think she’s a shill.
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That’s kind of like the point – she doesn’t get people like Powell to go on – she had one representative from the McCain campaign during the whole campaign. The reason? Because she is not a shill. Man do you have it wrong.
A radio guy I listen to – Thom Hartmann, says the same game is played for radio interviews – political guests, like Obama and Hillary Clinton, would only agree to appear only if they can see the questions in advance. Consequently, he didn’t have them on. Kucinich never turned down an invite.
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