What up between Randi Rhodes and Rachel Maddow ...

[chicagiana]

I caught just SOME of Randi's anger at Rachel. Rachel has always impressed me.

Now I would assume that Rachel got snookered into letting that right wing BITCH spew her BS without being asked critical questions. Randi say Rachel "knew what she was doing".

I didn't hear the whole show. My local market carries Ed Shultz instead of Randi Rhodes. I only caught some of the replay late last night over the internet.

So what is people's take on Rachel vs Randi here???? And what do you think that Al Franken will make of this when he is back on Monday???

[Maat]

1. I've listened to Rachel for years ... and never heard a rightwing word ..

from her ... always been a solid liberal PhD.

I haven't been listening for a couple of weeks ... what happened?

[yankeedem]

2. Randi is great, but pretty weird

about her fellow broadcasters. She constantly takes shots at Franken, and Ed Schultz. I am not really surprised to hear this about her and Maddow, whatever it is. Randi probably thinks she should have gotten the MSNBC gig.

From the HBO special I got this feeling that she feels that she gets no respect. Probably true, but that's not Rachel's fault.

[LaPera]

32. Randi always gives praise to Thom Hartmann, Mike Malloy, Janeane, people

who fucking deserve it... not to light weights like Franken or Shultz.

I get Shultz on the radio but won't listen, I'll run Air America Radio though out my house listening to Rhodes on the internet.

By the same token, I listen to Hartmann on the radio and NEVER listen to the bore Franken on the Internet.

Mike Malloy is in a class by himself...I will go out of my way to find him!!!

[yankeedem]

33. You never criticize anyone on the home team

The sniping about Maddow and Franken is unprofessional. Or do you tell customers about the failings of your fellow employees? If I did I would be fired.

Shultz isn't an employee of AAR so he is fair game.

[LaPera]

34. I understand what your saying & I agree maybe a tiny, tiny bit, however...

But too many in media live by that philosophy and look where we're at!

Could you imagine... if say, Geraldo (had the balls) and seriously questioned "teammate" Hannity's honesty?

Too much looking the other way for business sakes and profits, while the people, (the American people) who need and want the truth and deserve and owed the truth from media, is compromised by rah rah for the home team, and the all mighty bottom line!

[benburch]

3. Let me start by saying that I like Randi...

But she seems major-league pissed off at the people around her lately.

For example, her ex-producer, Tim. Something happened there, but I don't know what exactly. Tim had been with her for YEARS.

[salvorhardin]

5. What happened with Tim!?

I haven't listened to Randi in a few weeks. What's up with that? Also, I heard her a couple weeks ago say something about Air America can go to hell.

[marbuc]

9. Tim , the "fabulous" guy?

The guy that got lucky in Phoenix? what happened to him? Randi takes shots at everybody at Air America, and this is a point of irritation for me. I'm not expecting her to get along with everybody, but keep your beefs off the air.

This is sounding more and more like a "Randi problem." I like Rachel and Al better, so if it comes to choosing sides, bye bye Randi!

[Reverend_Smitty]

10. Wow Tim is gone?

I've been pretty busy at work lately so I haven't been listening, when did he leave/get fired?

[SoCalDem]

4. Randi is a "Staaaaaaar" and does not like to "share' the limelight

she's had "beefs" with Franken,Ed Shultz, and most radio stations she's nbeen at (from what i have read)

[Fleshdancer]

6. Because of the guest Rachel had on her show blamed the Mayor and Governor

And what this guest said about the Mayor of NO really pissed me off too. She criticized him for the interview he gave earlier...the one that gives us all chills - where he tells officials to stop the press conferences and get off their asses and do something.

She said he was grandstanding and was an embarrassment.

I love Rachel, but she gave this guest a pass and it pissed Randi off. Randi's voice was shaky Friday. She was obviously very upset about everything, just like we all are and hearing the crap this guest had to say on AAR was too much.

[bunny planet]

7. All Randi said from what I heard was that the producer who put the woman

on should have screened her and known she was a right wing plant and that Rachel should have let her have it when she was questioning her. Both true, but Randi should have given Rachel the benefit of the doubt, she had been doing a great job all week, got caught out in the end because she wasn't prepared. She should have sensed the bullshit faster and slammed the woman but it was the end of the day on Friday. Randi should've given her a break. She has said glowing things about Rachel before so I think she was just angry that the woman got on AAR's airwaves at all. The thing I found most objectionable about it was that Randi didn't mention Rachel by name, she just said 'that woman just let her talk without challenging her,' or something to that affect. Seems to me, if Randi complains about not getting enough respect herself, she should be extra careful not to disrespect others that way. Otherwise I love Randi, she is a very neurotic person though and sometimes steps on others out of her own insecurity. I didn't hear Randi say 'she knew what she was doing,' but I kind of think she must have meant the inteviewee, not Rachel.

[chicagiana]

26. Methinks that Al should have lent some of his staff ...

Al should have lent some of his staff to Rachel. For that matter, Al should lend that staff to EVERYBODY at Air America.

The right wing is a shrewd bunch of mother-fuckers. Their arguments are compelling. And I often find myself nodding before I remember that they're a bunch of lying SOBs who twist and contort everything so that it doesn't resemble the original thing.

I was on the road Friday and I got stuck listening to a Rush guest host. He was talking about Hurricane and Robert Kennedy Jr. He was listing the number of Cat 4/5 hurricanes over the past 100 years as a way of showing that this was a "cyclical thing". I started nodding because double-uber-lefties do often leap to unsubstantiated conclusions.

But then I remembered how impressed I've been with Robert on "Ring of Fire". And I remembered that all these guys do is take spades and twist them into hearts. Their "facts" aren't facts. They are spin. And to them statistics are simply a list of facts that support your particular arguments.

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

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[NYCGirl]

11. Defend herself? I've never heard Rachel Maddow say a negative word about

Randi Rhodes. EVER.

[annabanana]

12. Randi has a point here

Much to my surprise, there was someone one Rachel's show the other day who went on past a couple of commercials who was making a big deal about massive violence against rescue workers..was pushing RW talking points etc, and Rachel either didn't' recognize the symptoms, or was being polite to someone who HAD actually lost people in the storm &/or flood.. (As a matter of fact, a subsequent caller made a point of saying how completely she disagreed with "the previous caller" and Rachel said that she didn't want to press someone who was obviously hurting) That may be what Randi was talking about. I see her point, but I also think I understand what Rachel was doing..

The two of them should talk to each other once, off the air... really!

[AllieB]

13. Randi was talking about Rachel Maddow's producer, or Franken's producer

not Rachel. Apparently, that producer had brought in questionable guests before; that is the gist I got from Randi's diatribe.

[senseandsensibility]

14. I heard the interview Randi was complaining about live!

As soon as I heard the journalist's voice (her first name is Julia, I think) I knew we were in for trouble. She has the most distinctive voice I've ever heard, a very pronounced southern accent. I recognized her voice from the first syllable. Where did I recognize it from? Why, from the Clinton years when I used to watch cable news and c-span non-stop. She was a right wing hack and Clinton basher. So she started her crap with Rachel, bashing the Dems and the locals and letting * off the hook. Well, this past week was the first time I'd ever heard Rachel, and I had been very impressed with her. So I sat back and thought that Rachel would let her have it. But she didn't. I didn't like it either, and I think Randi was right.

[Mr Rabble]

25. I am with you on this. I listened live, waiting for a response

from Rachael- which never came.

Randi let her have it with both barrels.

[Marr]

15. Maddow had a Republican hack on who laid all the blame in New Orleans

on their 'undignified' mayor and the governor. It was over-the-top. Really- the sort of thing you'd expect to hear on Hannity's show. Maddow didn't stop her for some reason. She thanked the hack for her time and everything.

I thought it was very strange and that Maddow screwed up- but at the same time, I could do without Randi Rhodes calling her out on the air. That just didn't seem very professional.

[KatyaR]

16. On Friday Rachel Maddow had a "booked" guest that Randi objected to.

There were some threads on DU about it, but this guest was promoting a book she wrote that blames what happened in NO on the mayor and the governor. Randi was very upset because she feels that Rachel did a real disservice to AAR by airing this person's views. Randi was beyond pissed.

Whiterosesociety.org has Randi's Friday broadcast if you'd like to hear it.

So, let's see, that was Friday, four days after the hurricane hit, and some Repuke already has a book ready to be sold that blames the Dems for all NO's problems? Gee, what a surprise.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

21. And Rachel appeared as if she was kissing this bushbot's ass. nt

[chicagiana]

28. She must have a VERY LARGE ...

She must have a MASSIVE research staff to clear her facts in so short a time when they haven't even been published yet. Could that have been a tipoff that she was dealing iwht a right wing reactionary turd who didn't CARE if they had the facts right.

Perhaps Rachel is just too used to being around sane people. Al travels "in the enemy's territory". So he probably has a better BS detector and a better sense of how to break down that BS.


Personally I remember getting in trouble after the Columbine shootings. The freepers at the office were sending out email about how one of the victim's father urged us not to jump to conslusions and not to blame guns for the disaster. Then that same dad started spouting idiotic shit about how the media and video games (Quake specifically) had caused the disaster. I pointed out the cognitive dissonance and I got pummeled. It's hard to argue with someone who has had such a loss. So I can understand Rachel's reluctance to step on that landmine.

[BIG Sean]

17. Rachel Maddow is great...Randi is not....

Sorry. But I can not listen to Randi for more than 15 minutes. Yes, she makes some great points, but she is just not as smart, and articulate as Rachel Maddow.

This may not seem fair, but to me, Randi sometimes acts like the Ann Coulter of the left. Enough already!

[LiviaOlivia]

18. Rachel had Julia Reed on Friday. Reed is a RW whore

I was really shocked that Reed was on AAR. Rachel didn't get confrontational with her because she(Rachel) felt sorry for her having
to evacuate NO. Bad choice for a guest. RWers have many outlets to spew their hate and lies. Liberals don't.

Reed documented at Media Matters:
http://mediamatters.org/archives/search.html?string=julia+reed

[DemNoir]

20. Rachel explained

That she did not want to start a confrontation with her because she lives in New Orleans and has lost her home.

[HootieMcBoob]

19. Randi is way too quick to criticize her teammates

She probably has a point but it just strikes me as classless. I enjoy Randi's show and have been listening to it since the days when I could only stream it though my computer, but there are times when I just think, she's not the kind of person I would want to spend much time with. I know she cares deeply about what she does and what she talks about but she's totally self involved and is a poor listener and is sometimes very rude to her listeners who call in. She makes me laugh out loud often and is very informative but sometimes she just rubs me the wrong way.

[DemNoir]

23. I agree

This Diva attitude with Randi is way out of control. Her constant bashing of AAR is really inappropriate, do it off the air.

I am listening to her less and less. She is a narcissist and every thing and everyone must revolve around her.

Rachel is smarter and a better radio host, maybe thats the problem.

[Zinfandel]

35. What bullshit...in a four hour segment, five days a week, Randi might

bring up her pet peeves, for what, six or seven minutes every couple of shows? Get real! What Randi has to say and her insight to what's going on in this world of ours, is far more important than offending ones little ears...And I'm positive she know better than you or I what's really going on at AAR!!!!

[stepnw1f]

22. Buushit!

starting divisive crap here like this after New Orleans... not appreciated.

[cmf]

24. I heard both shows on Friday

Rachel had some witch from uptown NO who had evacuated to Mississippi. She placed all of the blame of the slow response directly on Nagin and Blanco. She said that they should have asked for federal help sooner, and that Nagin's outburst on TV was just political grandstanding. She said that NO was a cesspool on a normal day, full of thugs, etc. and she didn't know why she lived there anyway. Rachel just let her go on and on, blaming the victim.

After the interview, one of the callers (or maybe a producer) called Rachel on it, asking why she let her say stuff like that. And Rachel said that she didn't want to come down hard on her, since she had likely just lost everything in the storm and flood.

So Randi began her show saying that she couldn't believe that she was hearing that type of bigoted, RW shit on Air America, and faulted Rachel and her producers for not calling this woman out on it.

It's all kind of sad, since I've never heard Rachel say a bad thing about Randi, instead, she's always had nice things to say about her on the air. I hope it can get straightened out. But, essentially, Randi was right, Rachel should have tactfully called this woman out on what she was saying, or at least cut the interview short when she saw what direction it was going in.

[Garbo 2004]

30. Apparently Reed lives in NYC and NOLA. "Aquaintance" of Bush family as she

terms herself. Writer for Vogue, among other publications, and did a puff piece on the Bush twins last year. Talking head on cable news shows who slams Dems. It's what she does. It's who she is, as Randi would say.

I like Maddow and wish she'd have a regular show at a decent hour (her news hour airs at 2 am my time). I missed the Reed interview and so was shocked when Randi went on a rant about what happened. But her point that someone (like the producer) should have done their homework on Reed before just letting her promote what clearly, from her background, is a pro-Bush anti-Dem political agenda has validity IMO.

And if Reed hated NOLA so much why not go back to her native Mississippi? Or her place in NY? Somebody should have done their homework before letting her on the air. No doubt Reed considered it a coup to spout her shit on AAR of all places.

And as far as I can tell, Reed has only one book (about the South) that came out in paperback in April. She doesn't have a book on the 2005 hurricane so if she was booked to flog a book it likely was "Queen of the Turtle Derby" originally published in hardback in 2004. And if she was a booked guest, not an impromptu call, for sure someone should have done research on her before putting her on the air so the host would know where she was coming from when she spouted her shit.

[Rosco T.]

27. Did you hear Randi's comment "things I would say if I was only on XM.."

".. and that sounds pretty good right now" (paraphrase)...

There is severe unhappiness in the AAR family now... and otherwise I suspect.

ok, fess up, who would like to hear 3-4 hours of Randi UNLEASHED, UNCENSORED????

[RandiFan1290]

29. I have listened to Randi

for 11 years. She will tell you the truth even if you don't like it.
AA will not promote their station. That pisses a lot of people off and Randi is the only one that will tell you about it.

[Zen Democrat]

31. I love Rachel Maddow, but I have to go with Randi on this one ...

I heard the interview at issue and was shocked that Rachel Maddow let this woman go unchallenged. Rachel Maddow was way too gracious and lent credibility to that woman spinning the Bush talking points.

Rachel let this woman go on and on repeating her condemnation and blame toward Gov. Blanco and Mayor Nagin and seemed to be, at the least, tacitly agreeing with her since she didn't contest one thing that witch said.

I have to agree with Randi.