Rachel Maddow "A Chirpy Gay Liberal": Financial Times

Financial Times:

In fact, I think they are correct that the media currently tilt leftward in the US, but not for the obvious reason. It says less about the bias of "liberal elite" journalists and more about a breakdown of the established media order, from The New York Times to Mr Drudge.

Mr Drudge's dominance has been undermined by competition. His sensibility infuriated so many people that left-leaning sites such as the Daily Kos sprung up to challenge him. Lately, his thunder has been stolen by the Huffington Post, an unlikely blend of leftwing blogging, reporting and aggregation founded by Arianna Huffington, the media gadfly.

The Huffington Post has leapt past the Drudge Report in traffic, attracting 4.5m unique users in September, compared with 2.1m for Drudge and 2.4m for Politico, a political news site. While Mr Drudge picks out stories that could hurt Mr Obama, the Huffington Post does the opposite, highlighting anything that makes Mr McCain look bad.

This shift leftwards online has been matched on cable television, where Fox News, the rightwing news channel, has increasingly faced its mirror image at MSNBC. The latter's leftish talk-show hosts, Keith Olbermann and now Rachel Maddow, a chirpy gay liberal, dish out scorn about Republicans in opposition to Bill O'Reilly and others at Fox.

The effect is not just to balance out Mr Drudge and Mr O'Reilly but to place old-school media objectivity, as practised by US newspapers, under pressure. Obama-supporting blogs have ridiculed stories in outlets such as The New York Times and The Washington Post that fail to dismiss distortions by Mr McCain.

Read the whole story: Financial Times

Comments

[LipMyStockings]

There was no malice in this description.
I agree it's not the most eloquent i've ever heard; it has a horrible tabloidish ring to it - hence, it's no wonder it was taken up the wrong way.
His explanation is thorough and humble - he's actually a fan of her!
As am I.
Hope the show keeps gaining the momentum it is at the moment.

[tiambers]

c'mon people! he didn't mean anything by it. i love Rachel and i bet she's not offended by the comments, and if you read they guys explanation about what he said, you'll see he wasn't being malicious at all.

[novazembla]

I'm kind of a chirpy gay liberal myself, so it works for me. I would have used the phrase "full of win" to describe Rachel, though.

[BillORights1776]

I'm not sure Brits say "full of win" :)

[Grubstreet]

No, we'd be emailing Mr Gapper asking what on earth the phrase meant. We have no problem in comprehending "chirpy gay liberal". The reaction of most of us would be 'Hey! That sounds cool!' What HuffPost's agenda is in portraying this phrase as being intended as an insult I don't know, but there are a lot of you falling for it.

I have been greatly enjoying my daily visits to this publication over the past few weeks, but this piece of mischief has me saddened and baffled. If it's purely an outburst of anglophobia, I'm very disappointed that HuffPost readers are in such a rush to join in.

[KarateKid]

Boycott the Financial Times. They're going to go under eventually anyway. Why would anyone need that newspaper now?

[trendier]

I meant to say healthy but great breakfast. Opps, my bad. :)

[rowzeer]

Chirpy, gay, liberal?....how about intelligent, thoughtful, witty American!!!

[kesiac]

Rachel is awesome, chirpy, gay and all. I love she is on our liberal team, where we are diverse, and inclusive of all.

[silvertongue]

Soooooo.......WTF? We love her!

[roshni]

Whatever anyone wants to call her, i think she is smart, articulate and awesome. Don't change a thing Rach!

[ladybastet]

I know! I love Rachel! It's the best show I've seen a loooooong time!

[PghDemocrat]

I laughed out loud a few times during Maddow's show last night. Something I can't say I have done with a sitcom in quite some time. She is intellegent, funny and enjoyable to watch. Her football analogy for campaugn strategy was great.

She was also downright giddy to be interviewing Obama today. I found that to be pretty awesome.

[Jason404]

There have been many Americans reading this article, through the Huffington Post website, that have got the wrong impression, due to HP’s sensationalist headline, and cultural misunderstanding.

Regarding the reference to Rachel Maddows, in Britain, chirpy means lively and lighthearted (hardly offensive), and the reference to her sexuality was just a matter of fact, and is not seen as disparaging in any way whatsoever. And the word liberal is not seen as such a dirty word as it seems to be by some people in the USA.

FT's title for the article was "Shock: Drudge loses his grip on US media!", and was, if anything, in praise of the left-wing US media.

[scoundrel]

For the most part, I agree with your assessment and believe that this was primarily a cultural misunderstanding. After exchanging emails with the writer, I don't believe he was using "gay" as a perjorative in describing Rachel. Indeed, nor would I perceive it as negative descriptor. On the other hand, I didn't see the relevance in mentioning it all since I don't think her sexual orientation has anything to do with the great work Rachel does on her show. She's a lot more than any particular label that the media might want to pin on her.

[DeviousSoybeans]

I agree with you that her sexual orientation has nothing to do with her work. The way I understand it, though, the FT article was saying that it says something good about America, which may be known abroad for its repressive puritan views, that Rachel is so popular here. It seems to me that the article is saying that perhaps in actuality we're less judgmental and assholey than the vocal right makes us appear.

[mervr1]

I wouldn't care if Arianna and Rachael were from Mars...I love them both!

Keep up the fabulous work!

[mamacat]

Eh, what's the big deal.

[skantea]

People are tilting toward honesty, plain and simple.

[stefiz]

i have been visiting huffpo since it first started and i am soo glad it is getting the recognition it deserves!!