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PEOPLE & ARTS Tuesday 14 March 2017

Fueled by Trump opponents, Maddow’s popularity rises

DAVID BAUDER noon. “It is nice for me that trying to privilege complex-
AP Television Writer it is happening at a time ity. It just so happens that I
NEW YORK (AP) — Rachel when I feel we are doing tend to think in 17-minute
Maddow can trace the some of our best work.” bursts.”
mood of her audience by Those two things — ratings Maddow said she and her
looking at the ratings. success and Maddow’s staff try to break news, like
Her MSNBC show’s viewer- pride in the work — don’t reporting on a Department
ship sank like a stone in the always intersect. of Homeland Security re-
weeks following Donald “We’re making aggressive port on Trump’s immigra-
Trump’s election, as de- editorial decisions in terms tion policy, and she was
pressed liberals avoided of how far we’re willing to aggressive in bringing the
politics, and bottomed out get off of everyone else’s Flint, Michigan, water cri-
over the holidays. Slowly, news cycle,” she said, “but sis to a national audience.
they re-emerged, becom- it’s paying off because the More often than not, she
ing active and interested news cycle more often sees her role as explaining
again. Maddow’s audi- than not is catching up with how things work. The pro-
ence has grown to the us after we do something.” gram spent considerable
point where February was Maddow has decided to time last week on a New
her show’s most-watched cover the Trump adminis- Yorker magazine piece
month since its 2008 launch. tration like a silent movie, so about foreign investments
Maddow has emerged as the show could pay more by Trump’s real estate
the favorite cable news attention to what is being company. This image released by NBC shows Rachel Maddow, host of “The
host for presidential resistors done rather than what is She’s determined not to Rachel Maddow Show,” on MSNBC.
in the opening days of the being said. The central fo- get lost in the noise, par- Associated Press
Trump administration, just as cus is on connect-the-dots ticularly since she believes
Fox News Channel’s Sean reporting about Trump’s Trump is skillful at distracting ago, Maddow understood a work ethic that is consis-
Hannity is one for support- business interests and deal- the media with a new story why. But the story didn’t re- tently off the charts. ... She
ers or Keith Olbermann was ings with Russia. — even an unflattering one ally interest her. Since she is a very original and unique
the go-to television host for Her show is a news cousin to — when he doesn’t like the doesn’t trust much of what voice.”
liberals in George W. Bush’s HBO host John Oliver’s “Last attention being paid to an- the administration says, While Maddow delivers
second term. Trump fasci- Week Tonight” in its willing- other. Maddow wondered what opinion pieces instead of
nation has helped cable ness to dive into complex “I pray for the day when the these reporters were really straight news, they are well-
news programs across the subjects that don’t seem most important thing about missing by not being there. informed, he said. Lack
political spectrum defy the television-friendly, and fol- the Trump administration “Her approach to real- doesn’t see Maddow as a
traditional post-presidential low the stories down differ- is that the president said ity and the president’s voice of the resistance.
election slump, few as dra- ent alleys. Maddow sounds something inappropriate couldn’t be further apart,” Neither does she.
matically as Maddow’s. long-winded when it on Twitter,” she said. “There said Jeff Cohen, an Ithaca “People want to draft me
Her show’s average audi- doesn’t work. When it does, are bigger and more valu- University professor and lib- as an activist all the time,
ence of 2.3 million in Febru- it’s like an absorbing novel able stories to be chasing eral activist. ascribe that role to me,”
ary doubled its viewership stuffed with characters. than that.” During busy news peri- she said. “I’m not. The rea-
over February 2016, in the “It’s not like I am a teach- When some news organi- ods, “certain voices cut son I know I’m not is that I
midst of the presidential er who is trying to extend zations were upset at be- through,” said NBC News stopped doing that in order
primaries, the Nielsen com- the attention span of the ing barred from an infor- Chairman Andrew Lack. to be the person who ex-
pany said. American news viewer,” mal press briefing held by “And her work is so consis- plained the news and deliv-
“I’m grateful for it,” Mad- said Maddow, a Rhodes White House Press Secre- tently strong. She doesn’t ered the news instead. It’s
dow said one recent after- scholar. “I have no goal of tary Sean Spicer two weeks disappoint, and she’s got a very clear line to me.”q

Review: ‘Roanoke Girls’ is storytelling at its finest

OLINE H. COGDILL Lane Roanoke was 15 anoke. The wealthy Yates cal police cannot find Al-
Associated Press years old when her chroni- loves to spoil his grandchil- legra, Lane follows a set of
Best known for her young cally depressed mother dren and is a benefactor clues her cousin left specifi-
adult novels, Amy Engel hanged herself in their New to the town. But something cally for her.
makes a strong foray into York City apartment. happens during that sum- Engel smoothly alternates
adult fiction with a gripping Her mother never spoke mer that appalls Lane, and between the present and
tale about the power and about her parents, Yates she leaves. that summer a decade
corrosiveness within fami- and Lillian Roanoke, their Ten years later, Lane gets ago.
lies weighed down by the mansion or her small home- a call from Yates, begging Lane never quite got over
past. town of Osage Flats, Kan- her to come home be- her first love, bad-boy Coo-
“The Roanoke Girls” deliv- sas. Lane is surprised when cause Allegra has disap- per Sullivan, nor ever forgiv-
ers a dark story with mod- her social worker says her peared. en her dangerously charis-
ern gothic undertones grandparents are eager The years haven’t been matic grandfather or her
that delves into the worst to have her come live with kind to Lane, who has ba- brittle, cold grandmother.
secrets that families keep. them. In Kansas, Lane finds sically drifted while living While Engel reveals some
“The Roanoke Girls” gains a home of sorts, grow- in Los Angeles, picking up secrets of the house quite
its strength from Engel’s ing close to her cousin Al- menial jobs and eventually This cover image released by early, her focus on the
skillful storytelling that nev- legra, who’s only a year destroying any relationship Crown shows “The Roanoke characters makes the fi-
er succumbs to the prurient older, and exploring the she’s had. Although she Girls,” a novel by Amy Engel. nal revelations even more
but shows how easily the rambling house also called was determined never to Associated Press devastating. “The Roanoke
vulnerable can be manip- Roanoke. Lane also finds return, Lane is drawn back deep guilt for leaving Al- Girls” is storytelling at its
ulated. the cachet of being a Ro- to Roanoke, harboring a legra behind. While the lo- finest.q