With her trademark chunky glasses and journalistic acumen, Rachel Maddow has been hosting The
Rachel Maddow Show since 2008, turning it into one of the highest-rated programs in
cable news.
But while her deft political expertise and storytelling has attracted millions of die-hard
television viewers, she hasn't been perfect.
What happens when you investigate the investigator?
Here's a look at the shady side of Rachel Maddow.
The scoop that wasn't
After months of speculation about President Donald Trump's personal finances, the internet
went into a frenzy on March 14th, 2017 after Maddow tweeted "BREAKING: We've got Trump
tax returns.
Tonight, 9pm ET.
MSNBC (Seriously)."
It seemed like the lid was about to be blown off of… something.
Instead, though, viewers got the biggest anticlimax in live journalism since Geraldo Rivera opened
Al Capone's vault.
Before the show aired, the White House announced that the documents would simply show Trump
paid $38 million in taxes on an income of $150 million.
And by the time Maddow got around to showing the tax forms, they had already been posted
online by the Daily Beast.
About the only news that was actually broken during the segment was the fact that the pages
Maddow had in her possession had "CLIENT COPY" stamped on the front, prompting her guest,
journalist David Cay Johnston, to suggest that Trump may have leaked the documents himself
in order to get good press.
"Donald has a long history of leaking material about himself when he thinks it's in his interest."
Whoops!
She blames you
Maddow's anti-climactic presentation of Trump's tax return stirred up some backlash against
the MSNBC star, including plenty of late night jokes.
"Rachel took us on an emotional roller coaster, because like a roller coaster, at the end,
you're right back where you started and feeling a little queasy."
But she pushed back against critics, blaming her audience for having unrealistic expectations.
She told the Associated Press,
"Because I have information about the president doesn't mean that it's necessarily a scandal.
It doesn't mean that it's damning information.
If other people leapt to that conclusion without me indicating that it was, that hype is external
to what we did."
Saving Joy Reid
MSNBC's Joy Reid came under fire in late 2017, when a series of homophobic posts were discovered
on her old blog.
She apologized, calling her remarks "insensitive, tone deaf and dumb," but in early 2018, more
offensive posts emerged, and many assumed the talk show host would likely lose her job
as a result.
However, she didn't, and according to some, that's due in part to support from Maddow,
who tweeted,
"Brains, guts, heart and soul, beloved Joy Reid has always been a treasured and brilliant
colleague, but I've never been prouder to work with her than I am now."
According to the Daily Beast, that support tipped the balance, with a former NBC producer
saying,
"[Maddow's blessing was] the word of God that Joy Reid was safe."
Friends in low places
Roger Ailes resigned from his position as chairman and CEO of Fox News in 2016 amid
multiple sexual assault allegations.
After receiving $40 million to walk out the door, he joined the Donald Trump campaign.
So it was a surprise when, after he passed away in 2017, one of the most heartfelt eulogies
came from Maddow.
During an interview with Access Hollywood, the MSNBC host said the media mogul was a
friend and mentor.
Maddow stressed she didn't want to, quote, "dismiss any of the serious allegations" against
Ailes but also wanted people to know that he had a different side to him, according
to her, that was professional and supportive.
"It's interesting because we were always… obviously on very different ends of the ideological
spectrum.
And we stayed in pretty close touch, I considered him a friend."
That didn't go over well with many, but Maddow addressed the backlash on The Howard Stern
Show, saying,
"There are a lot of people who are mad at me for saying anything nice about him, given
the other things we learned about him before he died."
"I'm not downplaying those things to also say this is a true thing about the way he
interacted with me, and he was a friend."
Someone give her a map
In October 2017, U.S. soldiers in Niger were ambushed by roughly 50 Islamic State militants,
leaving four Green Berets dead.
In response, Maddow aired a segment tying their deaths to a recent travel ban Trump
had issued regarding the nation of Chad.
Chad, you see, is actually a U.S. partner in counter-terrorism, and had a number of
troops stationed in Niger.
After the travel ban, though, they pulled their troops out.
Critics claim there were a couple major problems with Maddow's theory, though.
First, there was no evidence that Chad's decision was directly related to the travel ban.
And more importantly, the Chad troops were fighting a different terrorist group, Boko
Haram, clear on the other side of the country from where the Green Berets were killed.
Needless to say, political analysts in the media were taken aback by Maddow's assertions,
with Willa Frej writing on the Huffington Post,
"[Maddow's] theory was so flimsy that it could be debunked by a quick glance at a map."
Her Reddit AMA was 'a bust'
Finally, perhaps Maddow's biggest scandal of all came in 2013, when her Reddit Ask Me
Anything was panned by some members of the internet community because she didn't answer
enough political questions for their taste.
The session was so poorly received that an MSNBC spokesperson released a statement defending
it:
"Rachel addressed a variety of topics from the Reddit community, including the war in
Afghanistan, Ron and Rand Paul, government spending, gun regulation, her editorial process,
media bias, conflicts within the Democratic party, and partisan gridlock."
Sure, she's tough enough to stand up to the President.
But Reddit trolls?
That's enough to give anyone a headache, even Rachel Maddow.