1011
2008-07-15
2008-06-19
Air America's
Sweetheart
By Mette Bach
Since Rachel
Maddow hit airwaves with her eponymous show on Air
America in 2004, the former Rhodes Scholar
Since Rachel
Maddow hit airwaves with her eponymous show on Air
America in 2004, the former Rhodes Scholar has become
one busy politico. Listeners can hear the 35-year-old
California native play part logician and part
devil’s advocate in the plum listening hours of 6
p.m. to 9 p.m. every Monday through Friday on XM
Satellite Radio. We called up Maddow, who now lives
with her partner, artist Susan Mikula, in New York
City and Massachusetts, to get the newswoman’s take
on the recent spate of gay headlines.
A lot of folks are calling you progressive media’s
next big star. How does that feel?
I’m still trying to figure out who progressive
media’s last big star was.
Would you move to TV?
I would love to be hosting a show in each media and I
haven’t made a secret of that, and I think
that’s maybe not the etiquette. Remember that
book for girls on how to get a man called The Rules?
Somebody told me that I’m not following the
rules. Just like trying to get a man, you never admit
that that’s what you’re doing. I’m not
supposed to admit that I want a TV show.
Not following the rules seems to work for you.
I made a decision to stop doing what I was doing
before—which was activism—and start
doing media. I don’t see being in the media as doing
activism. Producing in the corporate world can be very
blunt. That’s the downside. The upside is
getting paid to speak your mind.
Rachel, you don’t exactly emanate “corporate.”
Air America is corporate writ small and NBC is
corporate writ large. It’s easy to demonize the
corporate world. It’s been a very positive
experience on a personal level.
Let’s talk about gay marriage.
For me, it’s kind of like the right to serve as a
gay person in the military. I don’t know
whether I would want to do that. I value military
service. I also value marriage. If people want to do that,
they damn well better have the right to.
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