# I'm not clicking on Rachel Maddow anymore. Life is too short **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 30, 2019, 8:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-clicking-on-rachel-maddow-anymore-life-is-too-short/844194 "2019-11-30T08:45:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2019, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-clicking-on-rachel-maddow-anymore-life-is-too-short/844194/21 "2019-11-30T19:36:10Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > Stop picking on Rachel Maddow! She works so _hard_, she tries so _hard_, and all you want to do is drag her _down_! > > A swan’s neck, a girlish giggle and a mind like a steel trap, what’s not to love? Was her neck always that thick? Delicate it ain’t. It’s the neck of a fullback. Not, of course, that there is anything wrong with that. But I tune in for the first ten minutes for that steel trap. After that her selfsatisfaction wit now deucedly clever she is starts reaching Jimmy Fallon territory. ---
**Author:** ![RioRico](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f04885/32.png) [@RioRico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RioRico)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2019, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-clicking-on-rachel-maddow-anymore-life-is-too-short/844194/22 "2019-11-30T21:04:32Z")
Broadcast media will only rot your mind. Don’t watch any TV personalities. They only sell you to advertisers. ---
**Author:** ![JackieLikesVariety](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackielikesvariety/32/296_2.png) [@JackieLikesVariety](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JackieLikesVariety)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2019, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-clicking-on-rachel-maddow-anymore-life-is-too-short/844194/23 "2019-11-30T22:23:05Z")
> [@Twoflower](#): > > My take on Rachel is that when there’s a significant story that needs explaining, or important backstory that needs to see the light, nobody does it better. The problem is that when the news is more ordinary, her repetition and hype can be a bit over the top. I watch her selectively. could be - I do think her explanations are excellent but it’s been awhile since I’ve seen her. this is a good reminder to look her up on youtube. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tastes_of_chocolate/32/3232_2.png) [@Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tastes_of_Chocolate)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2019, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-clicking-on-rachel-maddow-anymore-life-is-too-short/844194/24 "2019-11-30T22:52:55Z")
I always watch Rachel with a DVR. That way I can pick up the info the first time, skip over the repetition. I agree she is good at connecting together bits of news that I would have missed connecting, but when there isn’t big news the hyping of small bits drives me nuts. ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2019, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-clicking-on-rachel-maddow-anymore-life-is-too-short/844194/25 "2019-11-30T23:17:04Z")
> [@Ambivalid](#): > > What do you mean “the why of the ratings”? Looks like you need to try to figure out what you are missing and what value all these millions of other Americans derive from her program that you dont understand. Obviously, many, many other people have a very different and id say more thoughtful and serious relationship with the issues highlighted on her show. For these people, Maddow’s exhaustive, comprehensive and sometimes unavoidably tedious surgical deconstruction of issues represent the gold standard in instilling appropriate awareness and understanding of issues that those in power can work to obfuscate. Looking at number of viewers is a tricky business. Maddow’s current viewership is about 2.5 million, which means that many, many more people do not watch her show than watch her show. She’s currently a couple ticks behind Laura Ingraham’s show. I’m going to guess that you’re not a big fan of Ingraham’s :). Would you argue that Ingraham’s viewership numbers make it incumbent on those who don’t watch her show to find out what makes her so very popular among other people? My wife watches a lot of MSNBC. Maddow and Chris Matthews are my least favorite of the hosts. The OP is exactly right about the annoyingly and unnecessarily repetitive repetition–the OP’s second paragraph is right on–and while I wouldn’t necessarily call it condescension, Maddow definitely gives off a rather smug vibe of “I’m smarter than everybody.” Chris Hayes, Katy Tur, and several of the other MSNBC hosts are able to explain the same kinds of things in a way that is neither so repetitive nor so smug, and they do it much more effectively. Maddow’s not terrible, don’t get me wrong. But I don’t get the hype. ---
**Author:** ![Ca3799](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9f8e36/32.png) [@Ca3799](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ca3799)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2019, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-clicking-on-rachel-maddow-anymore-life-is-too-short/844194/26 "2019-11-30T23:21:00Z")
I love her style. Yes, the repetition can be annoying to those of us who are ‘fast thinkers’; who are up-to-date on the issues and connect the dots easily. But not all of of us are like that and I appreciate her clarity. There really isn’t another newscaster who can walk you through a story point by point the way she does. The cases she builds are as clear as they can ever be made to be. I also appreciate that when she introduces someone who has written a book or a news article, she gives an overview and then checks with the author to see that her presentation of their view is an accurate one. I rarely ever see anyone else do this. I just spent the holiday with some “New World Order/Conspiracy Theory” relatives. If course they don’t like or trust Maddow, nor do they watch her or listen to her, but the differences between the way she thinks and presents and they way they do is why I think Maddow takes such great pains to be very, very clear in her presentations. Why these folks will believe some random guy with a YouTube video (“Research!”) over Maddow I just cannot nor ever will understand. Also, she’s such a prude! LOL! ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2019, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-clicking-on-rachel-maddow-anymore-life-is-too-short/844194/27 "2019-11-30T23:50:42Z")
She is all clickbait and no news. She staked her whole journalistic reputation upon the Mueller hearings, and lost. That was her entire show. Any talent as an investigative reporter is now laughable. ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2019, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-clicking-on-rachel-maddow-anymore-life-is-too-short/844194/28 "2019-11-30T23:53:47Z")
> [@Ca3799](#): > > {…} Also, she’s such a prude! LOL! It’s true. It’s funny to watch her get all flustered over bad language in transcripts and so on. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![JackieLikesVariety](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackielikesvariety/32/296_2.png) [@JackieLikesVariety](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JackieLikesVariety)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2019, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-clicking-on-rachel-maddow-anymore-life-is-too-short/844194/29 "2019-12-01T02:13:30Z")
> [@](#): > > when she introduces someone who has written a book or a news article, she gives an overview and then checks with the author to see that her presentation of their view is an accurate one. yes, and she is excellent at interviewing them. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2019, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-clicking-on-rachel-maddow-anymore-life-is-too-short/844194/30 "2019-12-01T05:52:31Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > But by “repetitive” I do not mean she tells us on Thursday what she already told us on Wednesday. I mean that on Thursday, she repeats each sentence, with slightly different wording, not once, not 2 or 3 times (which would be good for me, slightly attention deficited), _ **but 10 or 12 times.** _ (I just pulled “10 or 12” out of my hat — maybe it’s even more). I have to select YouTube’s 2X speed option, and still get bored by the repetition. My point was that, if it’s in online video, you can just skip the repetition and jump straight to the point, and then stop once you know the point. I do this all the time with some more clickbaity videos where the title asks a question I’d love to know the anser to. I skip until I learn the answer, then I stop. That’s all I’m suggesting. I did that with Maddow a few times back when I was still watching. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2019, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-clicking-on-rachel-maddow-anymore-life-is-too-short/844194/31 "2019-12-01T07:44:38Z")
If I just want a summary of an important news item, I can usually find it at Reuters, SDMB, or Aljazeera. (Unfortunately, Google, Bing, and Yahoo News Homepages all tend to be too frustrating these days :mad: ) But more than just getting the brief gist of a story … _ **I like Rachel’s commentary!** _ I just want her to _stop repeating every single sentence five times._ ETA: While idly Googling a few weeks ago, I saw that Rachel’s salary is $7 million. I was slightly disappointed: I liked to imagine her as a fellow peasant, making just $2 million or so. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![mjmlabs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mjmlabs/32/69_2.png) [@mjmlabs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mjmlabs)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2019, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-clicking-on-rachel-maddow-anymore-life-is-too-short/844194/32 "2019-12-01T08:02:04Z")
If you’re devoting 100% of your attention to TRMS, you’re doing it wrong. Watch the opening segment. 1st commercial, go make a cocktail. Come back\* and sip that cocktail for 2nd segment. Maybe open up a browser tab to check a story mentioned, or weed out some emails from the Inbox, while the rest of the class gets walked through why what we’ve just learned means what it means. Skim the AP or Reuters headlines. And so on. \*Bring pie. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2019, 8:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-clicking-on-rachel-maddow-anymore-life-is-too-short/844194/33 "2019-12-01T08:03:57Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > But by “repetitive” I do not mean she tells us on Thursday what she already told us on Wednesday. I mean that on Thursday, she repeats each sentence, with slightly different wording, not once, not 2 or 3 times (which would be good for me, slightly attention deficited), _ **but 10 or 12 times.** _ (I just pulled “10 or 12” out of my hat — maybe it’s even more). I have to select YouTube’s 2X speed option, and still get bored by the repetition. Not everyone watched on Wednesday. And that’s how news works. I slavishly follow the Hong Kong news in the Times. Every single article has the same few paragraphs on the background of the crisis cut and pasted from the article the day before and the day before and the day before that. I love her, but she is still on the air to sell soap, and if blowing every story that day into the crisis of the century, blame commercial TV, not her. Ditto for cliffhangers before commercials. ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2019, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-clicking-on-rachel-maddow-anymore-life-is-too-short/844194/34 "2019-12-01T18:50:34Z")
> [@Dallas\_Jones](#): > > She is all clickbait and no news. > > She staked her whole journalistic reputation upon the Mueller hearings, and lost. That was her entire show. Any talent as an investigative reporter is now laughable. She is on at the same time as Hannity you know. Just think about that. Maddow and Hannity in the same field doing their thing. Now who has a problem? ---
**Author:** ![carlb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carlb/32/5930_2.png) [@carlb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carlb)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2019, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-clicking-on-rachel-maddow-anymore-life-is-too-short/844194/35 "2019-12-02T22:42:35Z")
I am generally appreciative of the long wind-ups she gives but, yeah, sometimes I have to skip ahead a bit. I do think it’s helpful to the people who don’t tune in every night, or follow particular stories super-closely. I learned two things about Maddow recently; one that was just mildly amusing and one that increased my (already high) esteem for her. First, she dropped more f-bombs in her recent book (“Blowout”) than I would have expected given her on-air prudishness. As to the second, I recently finished Ronan Farrow’s book, “Catch and Kill,” about Harvey Weinstein, Black Cube, and NBC’s failures in covering and sending out the story. Farrow talks about how, after his story was published by _The New Yorker_, he began to get suddenly uninvited as a guest from NBC-produced shows. He reached out to some people at NBC that he knew, and found out that edicts were coming down from on high that he was not to be interviewed. Quoting from the book: > [@Catch and Kill](#): > > I called Maddow, who listened, and said no one tells her how to run her show. And so it came to pass that, all through the two years after the Weinstein story, I appeared on her show, and never again on any other NBC or MSNBC program. I admire that kind of backbone. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2019, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-clicking-on-rachel-maddow-anymore-life-is-too-short/844194/36 "2019-12-02T23:09:04Z")
I can’t stand watching or listening to Ms. Maddow. She’s awful. Nearly content-free IME, but she does repeat herself endlessly; I agree with that. I’ve tried watching her many times and have no idea why people enjoy listening to her or watching her or relying on her for information. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2019, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-clicking-on-rachel-maddow-anymore-life-is-too-short/844194/37 "2019-12-03T00:12:28Z")
> [@Ambivalid](#): > > The spectrum of perception is amazing to me. For someone to find Rachel Maddow condescending is truly hard for me to wrap my head around. Many things she is but condescending I do not see. A lot of it has to do with face expressions. She has this constant ever-present smirk and sneer. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2019, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-clicking-on-rachel-maddow-anymore-life-is-too-short/844194/38 "2019-12-03T03:12:16Z")
Yeah, she put a tarantula in Mr. Rogers’ sweater once. ---
**Author:** ![dba\_Fred](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c37758/32.png) [@dba\_Fred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dba_Fred)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2019, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-clicking-on-rachel-maddow-anymore-life-is-too-short/844194/39 "2019-12-03T07:04:17Z")
And the tarantula became Mr. Roger’s friend; whereas Rachel didn’t because she took too long and was too repetitive in explaining to Fred (_I like that name_) why she should be his friend. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2019, 8:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-clicking-on-rachel-maddow-anymore-life-is-too-short/844194/40 "2019-12-03T08:43:58Z")
> [@RioRico](#): > > Broadcast media will only rot your mind. Don’t watch any TV personalities. They only sell you to advertisers. [Are you ME???](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=20405533&postcount=11) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-clicking-on-rachel-maddow-anymore-life-is-too-short/844194.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-clicking-on-rachel-maddow-anymore-life-is-too-short/844194.md?page=3)