Tina Brown: Give "Meet The Press" To Rachel Maddow

The Daily Beast:

The Meet the Press panel needs fewer David Broders and more Christopher Hitchenses--irresponsible wits who can challenge the B-list senators and warhorse commentators who trundle on and download all that sonorous received wisdom. And for the top spot, how about going way outside the box? How about bringing in the cool forensic skills of a David Boies? Or the fresh intelligence of a web star like Josh Marshall or Glenn Greenwald? Or the political/policy smarts of a journalistic intellectual like the Guardian's Michael Tomasky?

Or how about... a woman? Since NBC has not heeded my last suggestion to appoint either the unsung cable Rottweiler Greta Van Susteren or a reinvented Katie Couric, I say give Meet the Press to Rachel Maddow. She's smart. She's quick. She's witty. She does her homework. And she listens to what the person she's talking to is saying. She doesn't just go to the next question on her list.

If Obama is post-racial, Maddow is post-gender--divested of hair-frosted femininity in the anchor genre and more appealing because of it. Like him, she's a calm, unflappable new era phenomenon. Sure, she's a lefty, and in the past week she's been swinging away at Obama's cabinet choices, but I suspect she's ambitious enough to dial it back if she had to. (She also has that weird TV gene that's so hungry for air time she'd probably insist on keeping her five-day job at MSNBC. Russert himself was on every show except Project Runway.)

Read the whole story: The Daily Beast

Comments

[lovable]

IF RACHAEL WAS THE HOSTS NO CONSERVATIVE OR REPUBLICAN WOULD EVER GO ON. THEY WOULD BE AFRAID. you see miss maddow has facts on her side and would not allow spin or lies.
thats why she will never get it. it will be someone like a reporter who never does their homeowrk ( david gregory , andrea mitchell , mika or some other airhead. my pick is rick sanchez or arron brown. real journalists. who ask real questions and not about the process .

[Mikeeee]

Unfortunately a very accurate assessment.

[kothian1]

...and nothing of value would be lost.

[thankulord13]

Yes another White woman supporting one of her own... so typical... why not give it Gwen Ifill. She is not partisan and she is an actual journalist. I like Rachel Maddow but we all know where her loyalties lie!

[Mikeeee]

Yep, so far I've seen her loyalties seem to lay with the truth. Damn, she must be stopped!!

[thankulord13]

Whatever the truth as she sees it... From those rosy white worldview eyes... The rest of us are so lucky! Still say Gwen Ifill is better suited for the job. Why do I care Rachel Maddow won't get it any way. They just need to keep Tom Brokaw.

[Bluedanube]

Being a regular on the cocktail weenie circuit of the Beltway Brahmins she's a logical pick. She parrots the conventional wisdom of the Village Elders and would be a very safe choice to insure the interests of the status quo are represented. Ifill is incapable of thinking outside the box even though she loves shopping for shoes with Condeleeza Rice.

[LittlePurpleUSA]

I dunno. I'm a bit torn. I like Rachel on her show but I'm afraid she won't change MTP, it'll change her.

http://littlepurpleusa.blogspot.com

[vote-obama]

i think this is a terrible suggestion and this woman should be banned from making any suggestions in the future. all maddow does on her show is whine about everything and that is the last thing that is needed on meet the press.

[babymonster]

AMERICA NEEDS RACHEL. GIVE IT TO HER.

[metamyelocyte]

fantastic idea for a fantastic woman. rachel maddow is a breath of fresh air and i absolutely adore her and the way she approaches the news.

[RobinLandseadel]

I made the same recommendation after watching Rachel chew up and spit out David Frum. Even sent that recommendation to her e-mail.

[naschkatze]

I'm not a great admirer of Tina Brown, but I think this is an excellent suggestion. Would that NBC would surprise all of us and pick someone like Rachel Maddow over people like David Gregory and Andrea Mitchell.

[OverIt]

I lOVE LOVE LOVE Rachel and have been watching her every single night even after the election but I don't think this is the right format for her. Rachel is amazing but way to unopologetically liberal for MTP, a forum that has up to now maintained at least the apperance of non-partisanship. That said, if someone at NBC disagrees with me, I will be glued to my screen on Sundays to watch Dr. Maddow... although I would miss her nightly shows terribly!

[ReasoNseeKer]

No way they give it to Rachel -- too liberal. Not that there's anything wrong with being liberal, but you need a moderate for meet the press. I'd like to see Fox's Major Garrett get it. He did a great job covering the Obama campaign -- very fair.

[kothian1]

In a perfect world the moderator's personal politics shouldn't enter into it...at least not if they were actually practicing journalism.

[huffyISaHottie]

for God sake...at least give it a try

[rubberneck]

Rachel's gay agenda would never allow her to be fair.

[RobinLandseadel]

Gay agenda---L­.O.L.

[kothian1]

Would somebody please explain to me what the "gay agenda" is? Being treated as equally human ? Pretty radical stuff that.

[rbarry647]

Rachel would be great but I doubt they would actually do it.

[BabsfromKansas]

Wonderful!

[bagelmaven]

YES< YES, YES,....He­ll I would love to see Rachel make a run for something big or become Secretary of State or UN ambassador one day. she is BrILLIANT, wonderful, nice and not hard to look at .. she's beautiful. Can you tell I love her? I do because she is SHARP!!!!

[ChangeNeeder]

Yes, yes, yes please put the Rhodes Scholar in!!!!

I don't care what the critics say about her not having enough experience. She has intelligence.

America wants brains again---- that's why we selected the smart guy to be our next president.