Up Howard's End

Wash Post's Howard Kurtz "Rachel Maddow, MSNBC's Newest Left Hand": (that's the hand Kurtz uses, well, never mind...)

Rachel and her PR spinners are planting positive profiles with friendly reporters to define and mold her to distance herself from Keith Olbermann while being careful not to bite the hand that feeds her. "It's A Maddow Maddow World" Felix Gillette NYO

Kurtz: "...as she juggles her role as commentator at the conventions with plans to launch her 9 p.m. weeknight program in two weeks, Maddow has become an unwilling symbol of the trend toward ideological cable news. She will follow her mentor Keith Olbermann, MSNBC's fire-breathing liberal and ratings king, who says, "I pushed for her because I needed a good lead-in to the 10 o'clock show," the repeat broadcast of his "Countdown" program. In what media analysts see as a deliberate counterpoint to Fox News, MSNBC's prime time is now lodged firmly on the left. Maddow, who also hosts a radio show on Air America, chafes at being pigeonholed. In an age of so many opinionated talkers, she says, "it's weird to see me as the downfall of cable news objectivity." Besides, she says, she is not an Obama supporter. "I am a liberal," Maddow says. "I'm not a partisan, not a Democratic Party hack. I'm not trying to advance anybody's agenda."