Rachel Maddow Show

Current, Former Salon Writers Ponder Ben Carson’s ‘Ridiculous Thoughts’ and ‘Crazy Things That He Says’
By Tom Johnson | May 4, 2015 | 9:18 PM EDT

Salon’s Jim Newell doesn’t think Ben Carson will be the 2016 Republican presidential nominee, but he doesn’t see him as a garden-variety wanna-be. Rather, Newell believes that Carson is likely to incur one “spectacular humiliation” after another on the campaign trail. In a Monday article, Newell contended that the “free-flowing style [Carson] showed at the [2013] National Prayer Breakfast has been subject to diminishing returns in the last two years. The novelty is wearing off, and now he’s in a position where he makes a fool of himself just about every time his mouth opens.”

Also on Monday, Steve Benen, a former Salon and Washington Monthly blogger who’s now a producer for MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show, opined on the show’s blog, "As a candidate for national office, [Carson is] likely to keep sharing ridiculous thoughts, which may endear him to some GOP factions, but which probably creates a ceiling for his presidential ambitions.”

Maddow Touts Non-Existent 'Large Crowd' Protesting Outside White House
By Jack Coleman | April 30, 2015 | 7:54 PM EDT

Unstated though strongly implied provision in job description for MSNBC pundit -- propagandizing as necessary to generate large crowds/mobs to protest whatever liberals are angry about that week.

Dutiful as ever, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow did her part to honor this during her show last night. Protests over the death of Baltimore resident Freddie Gray while in police custody have spread to cities beyond Baltimore, Maddow reported.

NBC Reporter Aghast That Getting Arrested Unpleasant for Juveniles
By Jack Coleman | April 30, 2015 | 1:40 PM EDT

Only among liberals is it deemed newsworthy that spending unsolicited time in police custody doesn't resemble a weekend at Disney.

Speaking with MSNBC's Rachel Maddow last night, NBC reporter Rehema Ellis could barely contain her disgust that juveniles arrested in Baltimore on criminal charges aren't being treated with "kid gloves." After all, they're just "kids", right?

Excusing the Rioters: How Media Have Shifted the Blame in Baltimore
By Geoffrey Dickens | April 29, 2015 | 12:59 PM EDT

The Baltimore riots surrounding the death of Freddie Gray became a moment for liberal reporters and commentators to take the blame off those who destroyed cars, looted businesses, burned a church senior center and hurled objects at police officers.

Rachel Maddow: Baltimore Police ‘A Little Out of Control’ During Riots
By Jeffrey Meyer | April 28, 2015 | 7:51 AM EDT

During the 9:00 hour of MSNBC’s live coverage of the ongoing Baltimore riots on Monday night, Rachel Maddow accused the city’s police of being “a little out of control” for returning items being thrown at them by protestors: "But if they're picking up things that are being thrown at them and throwing things back, that implies to me just as a lay observer that the police feel -- that the police are a little out of control, or they may not be necessarily using disciplined police tactics."

Maddow Won't Ask if Pipelines Safer Than Rail for Transporting Oil
By Jack Coleman | April 19, 2015 | 9:08 PM EDT

Sometimes the obvious eludes us. And all too often on MSNBC, the obvious appears deliberately avoided.

Case in point -- Rachel Maddow devoted a significant portion of her show on Thursday, two full segments, to railway accidents involving crude oil. In the last year alone, Maddow pointed out, trains carrying oil have derailed in Galena, Ill., Mount Carbon, W.V., and Lynchburg, Va., igniting huge fires that burned for days and forcing evacuations of local residents. Amazingly, no one was killed in the three incidents she cited, but a derailment and oil fire in Quebec in July 2013 claimed 47 lives.

Hypocrite: Rachel Maddow Railed About McCarthyism, Silent on Reid's Smear
By Scott Whitlock | April 17, 2015 | 12:36 PM EDT

Rachel Maddow on Thursday earned a rare interview with Harry Reid, offering the Senate Minority Leader softball questions on the need for more women in Congress. Yet, the same woman who, in the past, has railed against "McCarthyism," failed to challenge the high profile Democrat on his baseless, guilty-until-proven-innocent smear against Mitt Romney. In 2012, with zero evidence, Reid accused the presidential candidate of not paying taxes and demanded that Romney debunk the accusation. 

Rachel Maddow Hails ‘Political Juggernaut’ Elizabeth Warren
By Jeffrey Meyer | April 1, 2015 | 1:50 PM EDT

On Tuesday night, Rachel Maddow heaped praise on liberal Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren during an exclusive interview in which the MSNBC host deemed her a “political juggernaut.” In introducing Warren, Maddow beamed at how she took on “one of the most powerful corporations in the country on the floor of the Senate.”

Andrea Mitchell Blames Media for Hillary’s Use of Private E-Mail System
By Jeffrey Meyer | March 11, 2015 | 11:05 AM EDT

Speaking to MSNBC's Rachel Maddow on Tuesday night, NBC's Andrea Mitchell blamed the press coverage of Hillary Clinton in the 1990s for why she created a wall of secrecy. Mitchell also complained about having to cover Hillary’s self-inflicted e-mail controversy instead on a women's rights report: “The Clinton Foundation and Gates Foundation report on the no ceilings report was very important and had a lot of data in it, and I wish we had been working on that, frankly.”

Hillary Email Scandal Not Just a GOP 'Hit Job'- WaPo's Anne Gearan
By Jack Coleman | March 10, 2015 | 11:27 AM EDT

There goes another name off Hillary Clinton's shrinking Christmas card list.

When Clinton loses Washington Post diplomatic correspondent Anne Gearan over Clinton's use of a private email account while secretary of state, it's not surprising that the presumptive candidate for president who was previously the presumptive Democrat nominee would decide she better get ahead of this scandal posthaste, reportedly today.

Hillary Clinton Never Used Government Email While Secretary of State; Will Networks Report?
By Curtis Houck | March 3, 2015 | 1:30 AM EST

Late Monday night, The New York Times reported that Hillary Clinton “exclusively used a personal email account to conduct government business as secretary of state” and in turn “may have violated federal requirements that officials’ correspondence be retained as part of the agency’s record.”

With a story potentially as big as this one, the question ahead of the Tuesday morning network newscasts is this: Will the networks cover this story or will they do as they did regarding the Clinton Foundation stories in all but ignoring it?

NBC Report: Child Soldiers Recruited By ISIS Learn About 'Religion'
By Jack Coleman | February 23, 2015 | 6:39 PM EST

It never fails to amuse when news is intentionally vague.

On her MSNBC show this past Friday, Rachel Maddow showed excerpts from an NBC interview with a 16-year-old boy who had joined ISIS, become disillusioned, and managed to escape.