In the era of a cable news chaos, Rachel Maddow is reigning supreme.
The network she’s on, MSNBC, has surged to No. 1 in the primetime cable news rankings, buoyed in part by Maddow’s hard-hitting coverage of President Donald Trump. The anchor was interviewed for the latest issue of Rolling Stone and made it clear that she doesn’t get worried about how news might be received ― by Trump supporters or not.
“I don’t think much about how the news is received, or whether or not it is moving people,” she said. “The news is the news, whether or not people are feeling it. The scandals of the Trump administration, I’d argue, are the most serious scandals that any president has ever faced, not even just since Nixon.”
While her show might be rocketing in the ratings ― pulling in significant numbers in the 25–54 age bracket ― she has faced her fair share of criticism, particularly when it came to her March reveal of Trump’s 2005 tax returns from those who thought she over-hyped the reveal.
“I felt like I did exactly what I wanted to do,” she told Rolling Stone. “You can’t really do any worthwhile work if you’re hoping for a specific response from people. This is what I do and some people like it and some people don’t, and some days you’re up and some days you’re down in terms of whether people think you’re a good person or a bad person.”
She has defended the segment before, telling Vulture shortly after the episode aired that she had “no regrets” over the way it went down.
And she thinks good journalism is something that needs to be applauded and promoted, not attacked.
“I am a cheerleader for the American media and I feel like the free press is going to be what saves us from the political crisis that we are in,” Maddow said. “We just need to keep doing what we’re doing ... news doesn’t just happen – people need to appreciate that news comes from people digging it up and that journalism is a noble thing, and we’ve got to cheer for it when it succeeds.”
Read the full interview over at Rolling Stone.
Before You Go
