Rachel Maddow's Positive Impact On Health Care Debate

Posted: Friday, August 14, 2009 | Posted by Chico Brisbane | Labels: , , , ,



The newest kid on the block over at MSNBC, Rachel Maddow, is kicking ass and taking names. Among those names are former House Majority Leader Dick Armey and his braintrust Freedom Works. On Aug. 7 Maddow raised questions about Armey's day job at the lobbying law firm DLA Piper and the activities of his conservative political action group Freedom Works, which has taken credit for the disruption of public debate at townhall meetings across the country.

Maddow raised valid questions about a potential role for the law firm — and its clients — in the protests.

“The fact that Dick Armey and FreedomWorks are standing alongside regular Joes like Rick Scott to lead the charge against health care reform could be just a coincidence. Or it could be a stark reminder of who we're dealing with here. Who is actively organizing the campaign against health care reform? Scaring real Americans with increasingly paranoid and kooky lies about health care and then providing a script for how to express that fear.”

Today Mr. Armey resigned from DLA Piper amid a wave of negative attention his "grassroots" organization, Freedom Works, has drawn for helping to organize protesters at health care town hall meetings with members of Congress.

Today on MSNBC during the daily hand-off between Countdown with Keith Olbermann and The Rachel Maddow Show, Olberman introduced Maddow as the person who got Dick Armey fired and will now be making her first appearance on NBC's Sunday political talk show, Meet The Press, with none other then Dick Armey.
Maddow didn't waste anytime downplaying the friendly banter and rightfully so. Armey was not fired, he resigned and the fact that he did so in light of Maddows reporting the day before is irrelevant. Since her debut on MSNBC, Maddow has stayed true to the reputation she held as a progressive talk radio host on Air America where she still holds a popular syndicated slot.

Maddow's commentary, while sometimes overly sarcastic, is always based on journalistic fact finding and truth in reporting. She has stayed above the fray and avoided the Fox News rivelry in spite of being singled out by many over at Fox News for her commentary as well as her sexual orientation. If anything, Fox News could learn a plethora of useful information from Maddow should they ever take an interest in honest commentary.


- Chico Brisbane
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