Rachel Maddow To Chris Hayes: My Job Is 'Very, Very Difficult' (VIDEO)

Rachel Maddow and new MSNBC host Chris Hayes had a candid discussion about the difficulties of their jobs on the Sunday edition of Hayes' new show, "Up."

To be clear, neither host was complaining about the burden of being paid a hefty salary to host a television show about things that interested them. But both readily acknowledged that it takes a lot of effort to get a show right.

Hayes started the conversation by referencing an earlier interview he had held with Nancy Pelosi. "It's very hard to do a good interview, I find, with a politician," he said. "...I always feel like I've kind of been defused."

Maddow said that politicians often "don't allow themselves to be interrupted" and take control of the conversation. "You and I are both naturally polite," she said. "...They make you feel like you are not allowed to interject."

After discussing the Pelosi interview, Hayes abruptly turned to Maddow herself. "Do you like being on TV, and, if so, why?" he asked. She said she loved "everything about this job," but admitted that it has its challenges.

"It never gets any easier at all," she said. "It's very, very difficult. I feel like I am in the wrong gear. I feel like I can't possibly be doing this right because it can't possibly be this hard. It's very difficult, and it's awesome."

Maddow also revealed that she tossed aside some of the gimmicks and branded segments that she initially had when her show began because she found that she was "completely incapable" of adhering to a format on her program.

Of course, both Hayes and Maddow will have a lot of time to work out their issues with their craft. Hayes just started his show, and Maddow signed a new multi-year contract with MSNBC in August.

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Comments

[afgail]

05:16 PM on 10/01/2011

The reason Maddow finds her job difficult is because she is one of the rare news show host who is doing honest, real journalism. She doesn't just shoot off her mouth spouting opinion, she does research and drills down on issues that the political class hopes nobody ever looks into or check their "facts". She is holding up our democracy, creating an informed citizenry, almost all by herself. For that I am truly grateful.

[HopeWFaith]

02:33 AM on 09/27/2011

Rachel, I have spread the word about your show, and I can honestly say, I've turned people on to you. Ha. Like that phrase? Friends and family across the nation and all the way to "the valley" in Texas, now watch and love you. I'm in NJ and write weekly to a decent chain of people across the nation. Your show is great. I love that you regularly, no always, have people of incredible intellect and balanced thinking on. Bernie Sanders should be on even more often.

My next wish is that you become the anchor on Meet the Press. One of my favorite shows, but sadly, I do not think it manages to be balanced or fair to Democrats. We need you there, too.

Next, when can we see a nice, long conversation between you and Bill Moyers (my very favorite of all time news persons-now living)?

[mercedes1947]

01:53 AM on 09/21/2011

If only there were one, just one, politician 1/100th as savvy, articulate, as bright and enjoyable as Rachel, this country might have a chance.

[rjaxone]

01:42 AM on 09/21/2011

Rachel's journalistic talent and honesty is as good as it gets these days. But comon, she could leave the airways tomorrow---and take Mathews, O'Donnell, an Ed with her; and it would really make much impact on anything....

All the talking heads are as replaceable as blades of grass in the summertime....

[HopeWFaith]

02:36 AM on 09/27/2011

No, they are not replaceable. That is the unfortunate idea that is sold to the nation, but it is not truth. I didn't just miss Keith Olberman, I literally now watch him on his new Current TV show. Some of us are loyal.

[margem1]

12:29 AM on 09/21/2011

If it's deep analysis and truth you want, the Rachel Maddow show is the best place to find it. I admire how she shows respect for ALL guests from any place on the political spectrum. She's a class act. And smart. Her hard word shows every night. I just wish ignorant people would listen to her and risk being educated.

[barrada nicto]

04:02 PM on 09/20/2011

Rachel sets new standards for truth in journalism. She is as transparent as a clean pane of glass.

Watch her more than once and you won't be able to arrive at any other conclusion.

[hogman]

10:10 PM on 09/20/2011

Really.
Read this, it's from an anti-war website and not a right-wing site most of you would dismiss with a wave of your hand.

http://www.antiwar.com/blog/2011/09/13/debunking-rachel-maddow/

[barrada nicto]

11:25 PM on 09/20/2011

That kind of name-calling doesn't impress.

[mercedes1947]

02:23 AM on 09/21/2011

This link is from antiwar.com and organization of Randolph Bourne devotees. Randolph Bourne is an historic figure that had a Gigantic chip on his shoulder. From his bio:

"...he was stripped from editorial power in 1918 � the result of an uncharacteristically underhanded intervention by his former mentor John Dewey, one of the objects of Bourne's disillusioned antiwar pen." Phelps quotes a letter Bourne sent to a friend shortly thereafter, in which he laments that "I feel very much secluded from the world, very much out of touch with my times�. The magazines I write for die violent deaths, and all my thoughts are unprintable."

Yet the ruination of his career was far from the only price he had to pay. Westbrook quotes John Dos Passos' claim, from his novel 1919 (1932), that, in addition to his professional setbacks, "friends didn't like to be seen with Bourne," and "his father" � who had walked out of his life a quarter-century before � "wrote him begging him not to disgrace the family name."

Talk about your victim mentality.

During his life he was 'at war' with everyone. It is not a surprise this blog wants to start a 'war' against Rachel Maddow.

If you read this blog ask yourself why the blogger assumes Ron Paul was talking about the entire Vatican including the Holy See.

The answer is, he thinks no one will ask this and therefore his argument will be accepted.

Tripe.

[abigtuna]

01:45 PM on 09/21/2011

Rachel is that you?

[JBDenver]

02:14 PM on 09/20/2011

Anyone remember Keith O? I think I saw his picture on a milk carton.

[ALPHAKITA]

02:36 PM on 09/20/2011

lol

[barrada nicto]

03:46 PM on 09/20/2011

His new show is wonderful.

[JBDenver]

04:09 PM on 09/20/2011

I THOUGHT I saw a new Tele Tubbie - Dipsy Shitzie

[sunelpru]

02:06 PM on 09/20/2011

HAYES WHO? MADDOW WHO?

[SoulOfWit]

03:33 PM on 09/20/2011

Fear no facts

[barrada nicto]

03:47 PM on 09/20/2011

Get a life.

[sunelpru]

07:07 PM on 09/21/2011

HOW DO YOU PRONOUNCE THAT FUNNY NAME OF YOURS?

[spud3]

01:29 PM on 09/20/2011

Ironically....the only thing these two people have in common is that they both got their glasses off the 2 dollar table at goodwill.

[barrada nicto]

03:47 PM on 09/20/2011

Sadly, they care a whole lot more about truth than image.

[BlackWidowPilot]

08:36 PM on 09/25/2011

Amusingly and predictably yet another apparent authoritarian who, unable to refute anything that Dr. Maddow or Mr. Hayes report on, resorts to a schoolyard ad hominem in a vain effort to kill the messengers who keep delivering unwelcome news.

Leland R. Erickson

Citizen

[factsalive]

01:17 PM on 09/20/2011

Maddow I get from start to finish.

In my opinion, her show is the best of the best among all tv news and commentary shows. I don't doubt that she works hard at it. Her hard work and that of her staff is always apparent.

Chris Hayes? Well, it's too early to tell and I wish him well. I did catch his first two shows and simply couldn't get my head around most of what was being said. Too much chatter, chatter, chatter and giggle, giggle, giggle. My advice: Settle down; go for the follow up questions; give us information that we don't have a la Maddow. (And challenge with the facts "guests" like Bob Herbert when they are wrong, dead wrong in the case of Herbert on the American Jobs Act. If you want someone who knows a lot about the jobs act, say, then book folks like Jamie Dupree. Get it?).

http://blogs.ajc.com/jamie-dupree-washington-insider/2011/09/12/jobs-act-analysis/

[barrada nicto]

03:52 PM on 09/20/2011

Hayes is a little high-strung. His heart is in the right place though. Hope it gets it together.

[Still Posting]

12:58 PM on 09/20/2011

With all objectivity - FOX simply doesn't have two smart people who could sit down together and have a decent conversation.

[ALPHAKITA]

02:36 PM on 09/20/2011

In YOUR opinion.

[Still Posting]

04:42 PM on 09/20/2011

'In YOUR opinion.'

Wow. Nothing gets past you does it?

[SoulOfWit]

03:35 PM on 09/20/2011

They do, but that's grounds for dismissal at Faux News. You can't have your paid staff dabbling in facts, now can you?

[Evan Pritchard]

12:19 PM on 09/20/2011

Between the internet and the Tea Party, I refuse to believe that spending an hour criticizing Republicans can be that hard.

[Blue Pup in PHX]

01:26 PM on 09/20/2011

No, probably NOT that big of a stretch for pretty much ANYONE with half a working brain...that being said, doing what Rachel does and making it fun and interesting and doing so with grace, humility, humor and style...THAT my dear, takes talent and effort.

[Evan Pritchard]

01:37 PM on 09/20/2011

Style? In *those* glasses? Uh uh.

[ALPHAKITA]

02:37 PM on 09/20/2011

Agree with you.

[SoulOfWit]

03:35 PM on 09/20/2011

Fact checking is hard.

[Joseph Vala]

11:53 AM on 09/20/2011

Looking like Beaker and spewing hate speech about conservatives is difficult? I pity her … kinda.

[ABandApart]

12:21 PM on 09/20/2011

Getting facts right is always difficult. That's why Fox News chooses to phone it in with opinions peddled as facts.
Rachel's fact-checking is impeccable. That's why Fox very rarely names or confronts her.

[Joseph Vala]

02:40 PM on 09/20/2011

She is an ideologue attack dog, nothing more. She cherry picks stories slanted towards hurting cons and embellishes as much as possible.

If she were for real, her ratings wouldn't be 1/3 of Bill O'Reily. Case Closed.

[Jeffrey Miller]

01:25 PM on 09/20/2011

Hate speech: A term for speech intended to degrade, intimidate, or incite violence or prejudicial action against someone based on race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, or disability. The term covers written as well as oral communication.

She's critical of Conservatives, but that's very different from hate speech.

[timk2000]

11:45 AM on 09/20/2011

Oh poor guy! I mean girl. Maybe? So hard to make millions of dollars sitting behind a desk and reading from a promtor! I feel so bad. She's there in an air conditioned studio with food and drinks and a green room with couches and all those infrastructure jobs the libs talk about pay about $24 an hour. Outside in the heat, the rain, the snow. Poor Rachel. Having to do research on the web to get info on all her lib guest. There are 10's of thousands of troops still in war. Even though Obama likes to claim the wars are over, they are still fighting. Being killed, injured, blinded, missing limbs, but Maddow has challenges. That Peolosi interview was so hard. Probably had to take a week of and go to the Hamptons to relax after that? 14 more months and MSNBC can crawl back into the hole it came from. No more Obama money to GE! Bye bye.

[Still Posting]

12:58 PM on 09/20/2011

'Oh poor guy! I mean girl.'

That's all you got. Same old thing, over and over.

Grow up.

[Blue Pup in PHX]

01:49 PM on 09/20/2011

No kidding! Ain't homophobic hate grand?

[Jeffrey Miller]

01:32 PM on 09/20/2011

Putting aside your sophmoric comments about gender identiy, perspective is nice, but so is context. You probably don't watch her show, or listen to her radio show, otherwise you'd see how much time she spends railing against the government (left and right) for continuing these wars, her in depth reporting on Afghanistan and Iraq, and her relentless fight for those people who don't make what they should or who are unemployed. I've no doubt she has a hard job. If you knew anyone who worked in television, especially covering politics, that it's not easy.

[Clevelandinwi]

11:24 AM on 09/20/2011

Super! They're both wonderful! It's always nice to see people like these two when you know limpbug, ingrate, hannitie, buyer, etc exist in the tv world.