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There are good explanation why MSNBC will pay Rachel Madow $30 million per yr to host one show a week; none are extra vital than the huge size of her loyal target market and her capability to feed them precisely what they tune in for.
This was on full display Monday evening when Maddow interviewed E. Jean Carroll in her first high time cable news appearance due to the fact that she defeated former President Donald Trump in a second defamation trial. The jury, which found that Trump endured to defame Carroll after a earlier jury discovered him liable for sexually assaulting her, awarded her a remarkable $eighty three.three million.
In an introductory monologue, Maddow fittingly set the stage for her guest, recalling her as a pioneering voice for girls’s rights.
But what could have been a dispassionate and sober dialogue of how the presumptive GOP nominee for president used to be adjudged to be a rapist and undisciplined defamer of his victim as a substitute become fun-rebel shaggy dog story session that only lacked excessive-fives since the participants were not in the identical studio. And the shit-consuming grins on display undermined so much of the news price of the interview and most effective supported Trump’s aggrieved victimization racket, which is total bullshit, however why feed the troll?
The schadenfreudtastic interview was once just what TRMS viewers tuned in for. However given the present clip and comment infotainment media landscape, the laughter and joking have been considered with the aid of many in a essential manner. Critics, you’re going to not be stunned to learn, even veered into conspiracy theories. One could feel the political ad being minimize in real time as we watched Carroll jokingly suggest that she would use Trump’s cash to buy Maddow a penthouse.
It used to be the latest example of the present cable information landscape, which has grow to be a affirmation bias theater. MSNBC viewers tune in for the occasion — the jokes, the high fives, and the schadenfreude — however everybody who isn’t an MSNBC super-fan will come away with an uneasy feeling about how the story was once treated.
All the way through Trump’s impeachment hearings, I recommended that a disciplined and sober tone can be acceptable when discussing such a darkish and embarrassing era in American history. In the identical approach that gleeful and competitive commentary on Trump’s impeachments undermined their effectiveness, dancing on his courtroom loss best helps Trump. It’s one thing Trump would do; the media will have to aspire to be better.
To be honest to Maddow, her laughter at Carroll’s jokes gave the impression more in response to her guest’s tongue-in-cheek tips of shopping for sneakers and new wardrobes together with her soon-to-be-gained Trump largesse. But it was no less awkward or unseemly.
Maddow knows exactly what she is doing and has a observe file, evidenced with the aid of her high rankings. MSNBC viewers are thirsty for a Trump loss, which is the biggest thus far. There are likely to be larger court docket losses to come.
If MSNBC and the rest of the liberal media want Trump supporters to take these and other fees critically, they’d do neatly to take them extra severely themselves. If the situation were reversed, after all, Trump would stomp on the necks of his political competitors with insults and mockery. However will have to not excuse Trump’s critics for doing the same.
The publish Rachel Maddow’s Schadenfreudtastic E. Jean Carroll Interview Indisputably Helped Trump first seemed on Mediaite.
