very thorough interview with Rachel Maddow

[Donna Halper]

Given the erroneous posting that "Rachel Maddow's show is 
tanking,"  I wanted to call list-members' attention to a long and 
very interesting piece about her in Variety.

6 March 2009


Maddow's unique style spikes ratings:


Smarts, smile fuel MSNBC host's rapid rise



By Ted Johnson

If there was any doubt about MSNBC's faith in Rachel Maddow, look 
where they sent her in the past few weeks: She guested on Jay Leno 
and visited the ladies at "The View."

And when Keith Olbermann was anchoring MSNBC's coverage of President 
Obama's first speech before Congress, she was the first analyst he 
called upon for reaction -- a plum position that in the past may have 
gone to Tim Russert.

After struggling for years to fill the prime 9 p.m. slot -- with 
personalities as disparate as Rita Cosby to Dan Abrams -- the network 
has landed a solid performer in Maddow. Her ratings are a vast 
improvement over what has been there recently, and she has helped 
erase doubts the network could carry over sizable audiences from the 
record heights of the campaign season.  [rest of article is 
here: 
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118000926.html?categoryid=14&cs=1&query=rachel+maddow 
]