Left and centered: Air America radio's Rachel Maddow is out, brilliant, and ready to defend the other L word: liberal.Talk radio, at least the right-wing variety, isn't exactly known for brains. But the AM dial got a shot of ginkgo biloba Ginkgo Biloba Definition Ginkgo biloba, known as the maidenhair tree, is one of the oldest trees on Earth, once part of the flora of the Mesozoic period. The ginkgo tree is the only surviving species of the Ginkgoaceae family. in April with the debut of out lesbian anchor Rachel Maddow Rachel Anne Maddow (born April 1, 1973) is an American radio personality and political analyst. She is the host of The Rachel Maddow Show on Air America Radio, which airs live on weekdays from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern Time. , one of the stars of Air America Radio Air America Radio is a talk radio network and program syndication service in the United States. The network started programming on March 31, 2004 and features discussion and information programs with hosts reflecting liberal and progressive points of view. , the fledgling liberal talk network. A Rhodes scholar Rhodes scholar n. A student who holds a scholarship established by the will of Cecil J. Rhodes that permits attendance at Oxford University for a period of two or three years. Rhodes scholarship n. who used her time at Oxford to earn a Ph.D. in politics, Maddow is anything but the shy, retiring academic type. At age 31 she's a veteran AIDS and prisoners' rights The nature and extent of the privileges afforded to individuals kept in custody or confinement against their will because they have been convicted of performing an unlawful act. For most of U.S. activist, and she's storming the radio dial with the same force she used in scaling the ivory tower ivory tower n. A place or attitude of retreat, especially preoccupation with lofty, remote, or intellectual considerations rather than practical everyday life. . "[For] an out, queer lefty there aren't many opportunities to jump into talk radio, because it is so right-wing, coast to coast," Maddow tells The Advocate during a week when Air America's name star, Al Franken, beat uberconservative Rush Limbaugh's ratings in the much-courted 25-to-54-year-old demographic in New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. . "I feel like I've won the job lottery," Maddow enthuses. "This is one of those jobs that everybody fantasizes about but that you don't imagine you'll ever actually get." Maddow's not exaggerating when she refers to a job lottery. She got her start as an on-air personality through a contest at Massachusetts station WRNX. "I was crashing in Massachusetts with friends, trying to finish my dissertation, and they were big fans of a local morning show whose sidekick left," she recalls. "There was an open audition, and they convinced me to go on a lark. [The station] hired me on the spot." From the beginning she made it clear to station managers that she wasn't going to muffle her identity as an out lesbian and a political radical. "I didn't give them much choice," she says. "They had a choice whether or not to hire me, but I'm one of those people who's just incapable of being in the closet." Even in the lesbian-friendly realms of western Massachusetts, Maddow attracted her share of conservative criticism. She credits open-minded station managers at WRNX and WRSI WRSI Water Requirements Satisfaction Index WRSI Whitewater Research & Safety Institute WRSI War Reserve - Secondary Items WRSI Waste Recovery Seattle International, LLC (Newcastle, WA) for making her radio career possible. "All credit to the straight guys who hired me," she says. "I was lucky to get support from progressive straight guys running these companies who were willing to take a chance." Programmers at Air America Radio were quick to recognize Maddow's talent. Hiring her away from the Northampton, Mass., station WRSI, where Maddow had her own morning show, they matched her up with Chuck D, legend of rap group Public Enemy, and Daily Show creator Lizz Winstead. The result is Unfiltered Please wikify (format) this article or section as suggested in the Guide to layout and the Manual of Style. Remove this template after wikifying. This article has been tagged since , a three-way gabfest airing weekdays 9 A.M.-noon. Despite their diverse backgrounds, the three quickly developed a unique chemistry. "[Rachel] steers the bus," Chuck D says. "Rachel is one of the best professional radio broadcasters I've worked with. You need somebody who's passionate and can represent that voice that's not heard, bat also you need a person that's great in radio." Winstead, who has helped craft the current events-based comedy of Jon Stewart and Bill Maher, says Maddow's broad knowledge helps keep Unfiltered on track. "She's somebody who knows everything about everything," Winstead says. "If I go off on some emotional, crazed tangent, she always brings it back to the facts. She's the one who brings the level of dialogue [up]." Lehoczky also writes for the Chicago Tribune. |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion