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Monday, October 5, 2009

MSMBC Has Cornered the Market on Bright Women

It finally occured to the management at MSMBC that if a woman was attractive and smart and had proved herself either on the radio (Rachel Maddow) or NBC assignements (Andrea Mitchell) or as a medical reporter (Nancy Snyderman), maybe she could get her own show! What a boon to intelligent viewers.
All three of these babes are simply great. Rachel is such a rising star that she is chosen for the Flagship: Meet the Press. There, she slaughters Dick Army and is the internet show with host David Gregory. She goes on to rip on David Brooks and spar with some grumpy conservative whose name escapes me. (Neverless, he looked like a luminary.)
But best of all, she is a real muckraker. Unlike the majority of talking heads, she knows how to look things up and find things out. What a hoot to watch her show and learn things nobody else knows. And Kent Jones, her comic relief? He is as original as she is. What a pair.
I don't know how on earth NBC could have harbored Nancy Snyderman for years, knowing her ability to ace medical school, and still kept her hidden. It took that showman Dr.Oz to show networks that medical stuff sells. Here's a solid reporter in the field who is limited to three minute spots on the nightly news, and the network executives don't have a clue what she can do. Voilla. Give her an hour a day and she shines like the sun.
Now, take Andrea Mitchell. Also given an hour, coincidentally right after Nancy. She's NBC's answer to Farred Zakaria, she knows so many of the powerful people and can quiz them on air. Years of newshenery on NBC have set her up to create a really interesting show. She owes her shine to the network; again, they were awfully slow to showcase her.
Anyhow, a belated hats off to the News Department at NBC MSNBC, and even CNBC, although the latter is enamored of Maria Bartelomo who doesn't hold a candle to the MSNBC ladies.
I have thought often of how hard it is to have a national sensibility here in California. If I want to watch Morning Joe, (which I do), i have to get up at 3 in the morning. To see Howie Kurtz's Reliable Sources, which is usually really fine, I have to wake up at 7 a.m.on Sunday here in San Diego. The cretinous network guys don't have the sense to feed it from here, hence the lack of sleep for us current affairs junkies. Pooh to em all. They catch on way too slow. At least they got the gals right.