Member-only story
7 Significant Flames Fanned by Rachel Maddow’s “Blowout”
Walter Cronkite was a lifelong Republican. In his day, Cronkite ‘told it like it was, and America trusted what he reported. Richard Nixon was watching Cronkite in the jungles of Vietnam, decked out in a green army uniform complete with helmet and microphone, as he grimly reported to millions of citizens that the Vietnam war had become an unwinable quagmire. President Nixon said, “If I’ve lost Cronkite, I’ve lost Middle America.”
While she may never have the stature of Walter Cronkite, Rachel Maddow has become a force, a journalist who dares to tell it like it is …and goes the extra mile to tell Americans what they may be afraid to hear. I am quite aware that Ms. Maddow, a former Oxford Rhodes Scholar, is often painted by some on the far right as a raging liberal, so biased that she cannot be trusted to tell the truth. Some think this is true of all MSNBC hosts — even Nicole Wallace, a former Republican and John McCain’s former communications director.
To my way of thinking, a scholar is a person of integrity and dedication to their studies— in her case journalism. On that both Cronkite and Maddow have much in common. Ms. Maddow has proven in her previous work Drift to be a thorough researcher, a fine writer and, whether one agrees with her or not, a seeker of the truth as it pertains to the subject of her investigation.