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

[NoblesseOblige]

Rachel rocks! Get used to it.

[cyoohoos]

Go Rachel. If intelligent = Maddow/gay and stupid = Palin/straight then can I get a gay card? You are an example that your sexual orientation is irrelevant. I didn't know about that until this article came up and I googled it. I loved your show yesterday, I love your show today and I will love your show tomorrow. Repubs can only try useless smears to try and arouse bigotry in Americans and it won't work with me. Christians for Rachel and education. I need to start a group.

[rpr]

Olbermann and Maddow are left? That's news to me Mr Gapper. Maybe from your standpoint, but in my humble opinion they are liberal centrist and are occupying the spot that the MSM used to occupy before it shifted to the right like much of America. I don't think "against McCain and Fox news" qualifies as "left."
Where I come from, "left" begins at Kucinic and Nader.

[DaveC19]

The difference is that the "left" leaning shows talk about things that are fact based. Most guys at Fox like Hannity/Oreally on the other hand mostly just give their (right-wing) opinions. While KO and Rachel are definetly left biased (by what they talk about, and what they omit) they don't just make stuff up out of whole cloth like the other guys do. According to Fox Obama is a communist Muslim, socialist. None of that is based on fact, and is completely made up.

[Teeninchee]

It seems like we in the US mistook the headline to be a put down of Rachel. Hmmm. If you know how the people in the US think, you should have chosen a more US-leaning title. Go Rachel!

[tempting]

Please contact the MSM and tell them how you feel about Rachel and speak your mind of the gay-bashing and hate!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=111

[Jason404]

The headline was by Huffington Post. It is completely misleading.

[louden]

The Financial Times is just like the dad from Heathers:

"I love my dead, gay, son..."

[brodiesgirl]

I don't mind the 'gay' or the 'liberal', but chirpy?? I thought of Palin as kinda 'chirpy' in the first few weeks - 'thanks, but no thanks . . . ' Then, well, mean, followed by intellectually and globally incurious (via Katie), then vicious and racist, and now back to intellectually and globally incurious (via fruit flies & rashid).

But Rachel, chirpy, never. Funny, irreverent, cutely sarcastic, and always, reliably intelligent, curious and informative.

[WillCooney]

Rachel and Keith outshine any other broadcast news shows on any other stations. Both are intelligent and have a sense of humour when reporting. At this point, they're the only one's I find interesting enough to watch.

[JimGroom]

'A chirpy gay liberal' Isn't that special. I'm not allowed to say what I really feel about such childish and sophomoric comments. Looks like the Financial Times is not an adult publication. What a sorry state for a publication that is suppose to represent business interest in our country. Shameful!

[Jason404]

Well, actually, the FT is from the UK, is a very serious paper, and what it said would not be deemed offensive in any way whatsoever here. If you understood what it said, you'd realise that the article was in praise on the left-wing media in the US.

[Europe08]

Jason404 is right. there is nothing wrong with this article. mentioning that a TV host is gay and liberal is not offending in the UK and the rest of Western Europe. it just shows that a TV station is modern and encourages diversity in the choice of its staff.
since I also consider the FT a very serious paper, I was shocked when I saw this HuffPost headline, somehow accusing the FT of an insult. but that was misleading indeed. some transatlantic miscommunication?

[joeyfoto]

I guess it's already been noted that you did not know that The Financial Times is published in London. You also failed to recognize that what they said about Maddow was not said an insult but written in a place where people understand those words and they are OK; and actually you are "allowed to say what you really feel," you just didn't. But Rachel Maddow is still Chirpy Gay and Liberal. Isn't that fun. Even when i disagree with her I learn something from her. Sne's great.

In fact, she's the best thing that's happened to political talk on television in a long time. Rachel Maddow is the perfect chaser to straight-shot ot Keith Olbermann. Did you catch the FT headline on Governor Palin "Conservative, Straight and Stupid?" It's also a great read.

[SouthPrairie]

Rachel is so much more than their label. She is complicated and smart, courageors and sassy, crafty and sagacious, as well as cute and smooth. I love Rachel just the way she is, and the MSM can ruminate all they want about our America being educated and sophisticated enough to accept one another for our gifts and propensities rather than our biases and fears. We are a new America. An America that treats others the way that we would want to be treated. At least MOST OF US ARE.

Obama/Biden '08 VOTE EARLY!!

[Shazzbot]

I'm in the UK right now, and I have to agree with some of the folks here: Americans, you are too ready to leap up and be offended. I lived my first 36 years in America, I was raised in that culture; and now I live in and know UK culture.

Trust me on this, naming someone as gay in the UK has no meaning like it does in the US.

You might be amused to learn that most descriptions of people written about in the press include the price of the house they're living in. (That's something that's always bemused if not amused me here.)

[munki]

What I respect of Rachel is...
She is Smart!

[JolieN]

Love Keith, Love Rachel. They = intelligence and humor in the best possible way.

[MikeCanada]

she really kind of is a chirpy gay liberal...not that that is a bad thing!

[MarkBoston]

I am on a crusade to change the label GAY to " Correct" and LIBERAL to "Progressive" so she would be, in the new vernacular ... " A Chirpy Correct Progressive" .