as does all of the corporate and progressive media.

Last edited Fri Jan 17, 2025, 12:27 AM - Edit history (1)

I think we all appreciate that Rachel is a very smart and hard-working woman. And I doubt anybody here questions her best intentions. That is not the issue.

The issue is that she works for Comcast, which has already demonstrated they are 100% with the fascists and are perfectly happy to keep MSNBC on the air so that they can keep them under control.

I am reminded of December 2000 when Trump fired all the top brass at the Pentagon and replaced them with cronies like Kash Patel. Rachel was, indeed, allowed to report that fact. But that's all. All she was allowed to say is "Golly, that seems strange. Oh well, what are ya gonna do?" And that was the last thing she ever said about it, AFAIK.

It was obvious to any thinking person -- and unquestionably obvious to Rachel -- exactly what was going on. Trump planted these lackeys in order to use the military against the people (which he did) and/or deny National Guard support to the Capitol Police (which he did). But even after we saw all that play out, not a peep from anybody on MSNBC.

So I'm sorry. F that network. F Comcast. I hope Rachel can do something useful with the choker chain Comcast has around her neck. And I really hope that serious alternative media will continue to gain strength, as is happening through the Sirius Progress channel, many podcasts, strong Substack publishers and other places. Perhaps one day Rachel will join us outside the cell she has chosen to remain in.

I feel like this is a ploy to bring back those of us who stopped watching MSNBC. As much as I like Rachel, she is still stymied by her employer, Comcast. They are willing to give us crumbs to bring back eyeballs. We cannot forget who they are. I have cut off all MSM, and believe me it was hard. But TV is dying along with legacy publications and we have to be willing to support and branch out to independent media outlets.

That will save about $220 a month. I'll spend about $100 in an OTA DVR and antenna. There is very little that I watch on Comcast that won't be available OTA. I might do Hulu for $20/month to get ESPN and some other stuff. That will leave me about $200/month. I plan to spend about $100/month supporting progressive media outlets and I'll still have some money left over.

This is the first time I've heard of Sirius Progressive programming. I looked it up, and it's not cheap. And believe me, I've tried to listen to some of the people whose videos and podcasts get posted here. Life is too short to wait for them to get to a point. And yes, Comcast sucks, but they're still putting out good programming. (And you can listen to MSNBC free on the app, no need to be a Comcast subscriber.)

Rachel is a great storyteller, tying history to current events, taking a broader perspective;rather than reiterating the same five facts over and over. She's on Trump's and trumpists' enemy lists -- all the more because she is an out lesbian. She also happens to have a reach that might be the one of the widest in news media. What she says has the chance to influence things, when she could be taking a safe route and not risking the worst of whatever the fascists have lined up.

Honestly, it sounds like you haven't watched her in awhile. Maybe give the 100 Days a chance.

And maybe there are some people who need her storytelling to understand what is happening to this country. I hope she can recruit more people to get into the game, so to speak.

But that is not our big problem, IMHO. Our big problem is that Dems have not pursued any big ideas for over 50 years, and tend to approach every new Republican move to insanity with "OK, we can't go to your extremes, so we'll only meet you at the halfway insane point." Then rinse and repeat, and it continues to shift the Overton Window farther and farther to the right.

Personally, I don't think we need rational, academic voices like Rachel's at the forefront. We have rationalized and normalized every step of the way, and now we have lost everything. We need bold leaders who are not afraid to advance a set of bold, populist ideas and fight for them tooth and nail.

What I am coming to is, what do you expect her to do the next 100 days? Tell more stories?

To heck with that. We need a revolution, not a rationalization. We need action, not understanding.

I know many people will feel comforted to have Rachel to lean on 5 days a weak. This is not a time to feel comfortable. This is a time to fight like hell, and I don't expect to hear any of that from MSNBC. That's not why Comcast keeps them around. Quite the opposite.

We have to get our information from somewhere - I'm open to suggestions.

For you!! Agree 100%.

But to answer your question, in addition to Rachel, there's Amy Goodman and DemocracyNow.

international news. For those that are aware, they are affiliated with the Pacifica Network which in my case in KPFT in Houston which has been a activist radio station since the late 60s. They were actually bombed in by the KKK in 1970 twice. A great network that has long supported progressive politics. ☮

It's a middle finger in Trump's face.

Because it doesn't happen to his boss Putin.

I applaud ANYONE who is brave enough to stand up to dictators, but shooting the bird is the only effect it will have.

M$Greedia won’t save anyone.
We all have to organize and save ourselves.

Add link

She is a first rate researcher

or sham courts There are options but I don't think Americans are ready for that, yet.

Maddow will not save our democracy. No one person can.

anyone SPEAKING OUT now is worth listening to

anyone OBEYING IN ADVANCE can go FUCK THEMSELVES

is recommending not to switch from corporate news, yes MSNBC is corporate news, to independent sources, obeying in advance?

If you want to know how hooked people are on cable news see the above post.

and avoid those obeying in advance (like Joe and Mika)

me, I don't watch any of it but I do watch clips

The more views you give corporate news the more money they get. The more money they get the more schlock they put on to keep people glued.

Corporate news does not promote democracy. That time is over.

and Lawrence and Steph Ruhle when I can.

Tuning out the voices of reason gets us nowhere but deeper in darkness. What the hell???


.

And most of the voices telling us who we should or should not listen to seem to be coming from Mar a Lago.


.

Smart, does research and attempts to get the truth out. She's not perfect, but in today's world she's as good as I think we can get... and we could do so much worse. She can't save democracy by herself and we can't know where to start if we don't have facts. She is good at digging out facts, and we all have to pull together and stand by each other if we want to survive... and then maybe rebuild from the ashes.

I will watch her, and read what she writes. The better educated the better off we are. But more than that, she's a real person on the blue side who is going to suffer as much or more because of who she is. We support each other or we all fall. Just my opinion.

when she was on Air America radio. Loved her on MSNBC until she started rephrasing the same thing half a dozen times. I'm not an idiot - she's so condescending. Haven't been able to watch in a long time.
I believe MSNBC is just trying to save whatever ratings they have left after the Joe/Mika Mar A Lago debacle. I bet they made her a really sweet deal. It's always about money.

The last time I mentioned I disliked her over the top eye rolls and smirks. You would have thought I had tortured the worlds favorite puppy.

She has 25 million reasons a year to keep going, probably a hell of a lot more soon. Trump will keep her ratings high with the choir

Cable news is anathema to our democracy. Every station CNN Fox MSNBC are excited that Trump won.because it means ratings and views and selling ads.

Rachel does have editors and bosses. Everything she says on TV is approved by the corporation.

There's The Guardian, NPR, PBS, Pro publica, Podcasts, and thousands of local and independent journalists. That's just all the top of my head.

I'm planning to keep being well informed from independent news sources. And spending that extra time with my family and friends or working in my community to help my neighbors.

What's your plan?

So? Maddow is great. I also like The Guardian. They are independent, they aren't going to save us either.

Some people on this platform have basically pinned a lot of their hopes on the return of Rachel Maddow five nights a week

Hey I like Rachel. I used to watch her. She got my hopes up that just around the corner Trump was going to be taken down

How did that work out?

Pinning hopes on corporate media is insane. Especially when they've been pushing the same bullshit for years.

I fixed it for you.

Pinning hopes on corporate media is insane.
VS
Pinning hopes on media is insane.
That's the fix.

I would certainly agree with that, whether it is large corporate media or any other kind of media.

We are the opposition now. We have zero power. We must learn how to take control of the messaging. Following the media never works. We must form a movement that is based on bold ideas that are post-MAGA, post-crony-capitalism, post-oligarchy. The media is irrelevant, or at least there is nothing the media will do to save this country. They can only respond to the noise around them. They aren't even willing to separate facts from lies.

Our relationship with the media should be to lead with ideas and energy such that our movement is the story and the media follows that, not the other way around.

The issue is finding leaders with big ideas that can build such a movement. Without that, nothing else matters. We have already lost the most important foundations of our prior system.

This may sound impossible, until one understands that Trump won because the country is really angry and they are mainly angry about issues revolving around economics. And this, in turn is the result of a 60-year war on the middle class by the oligarchs who are now marching in and taking over every aspect of our government.

They will not be helping any of the people who voted for Trump. They will only be helping the billionaires. And THAT is the opportunity we must seize. The country is very much in an "Eat the Rich" mood, and for very good reason. This should be our single-minded focus for returning to the kind of power that can actually save the remnants of our democracy.

In fact she gets a lot of criticism for her in depth reporting style with people demanding she get to the point.

If most media reported like she did people would understand better why things are as they are. Things like exteme weather events would not be surprising. People would understand why there was inflation after Covid and many other things .

She tells great stories that weaving threads together. How many bombshells has she had about Trump?. That made what zero difference?

As for lumping her with the whores as you put it. She lumpa herself with them, by taking millions of dollars from Comcast.

This is just all bs.

before it was popular. She saw it all coming.

in the run up to the election. I took a news break, like so many others. I’ll tune back in to MSNBC if they start their agressive coverage of the Trump admin. We need voices like that.

I question the motives of those who insist we all tune out and help take down the last shred of decency in the media.

And wish that her presence every night would make a difference, I sadly have to agree with you.

K&R

that remains, wherever I can. I will not help the right wing by killing the few rational voices that still have a voice.

There is a large contingent of agreement among Democrats that we lost the Presidential election on our lack of effective messaging. Walking away with the right wing in total control of the corporate media messaging won’t help sway that consumer segment to our side.

The Comcast spin off of MSNBC presents Democrats with a unique opportunity to do something we probably should have done 30 years ago when Fox News sprung up and started lying daily to news consumers. A re-purposed MSNBC could become a devoted Democratic channel to spreading truth about Democratic policies and about the Republican oligarchy takeover of government and what harm it is doing to Americans.

We need to maintain a presence in this media market.

this!