Rachel Maddow Tells Katie Couric, "I'm Not Competing on the Pretty-Girl-on-Cable Front"
RACHEL MADDOW: Fear of failure. It's not that I believe a segment will be better because I read those extra 20 pages. It's because I'm worried that if I don't, I'll say something wrong. It's negative motivation, which makes for a high-stress atmosphere.
KATIE COURIC: Have you ever done anything where you were like, "Ugh, I can't believe I said that"?
RACHEL MADDOW: All the time. We run big, ostentatious, flagrant corrections where I all but whip myself on the air. [Laughs.]
KATIE COURIC: How do you feel about online mud fights you see in the comments sections?
RACHEL MADDOW: I think it's both annoying and beneficial that there's so much freedom online. But I try to insulate my dad from it—he's obsessed with what everybody says about me—and my partner, who gets a lot of the hate mail. I try to protect them from things that will make them worry. Especially the threats.
KATIE COURIC: Do you consider yourself a journalist, or a commentator?
RACHEL MADDOW: This is going to sound like a cop-out, but I really just consider myself a cable-TV host. I really believe in trying to increase the amount of useful information in the world and in being accurate in the sense that you can take what I say to the bank, even if you disagree with me.
KATIE COURIC: How do you think President Obama's doing?
RACHEL MADDOW: I don't want to be president. Like, "Today your job is Libya, Japan, unemployment, the government shutdown—oh, and by the way, Yemen, Syria and Jordan. That's your job today. And you'd better get it right."
KATIE COURIC: Nice try. How do you think President Obama's doing? [Laughs.]
RACHEL MADDOW: [Laughs.] I think he has been skilled and farsighted in a lot of the stuff that he's done. And in other things, unskilled and not farsighted. On balance I'd say that he is doing most of what he said he'd do.
KATIE COURIC: What's in your iPod and on your DVR right now?
RACHEL MADDOW: I finally got a television, but the cable thingy doesn't work. But we never watch anyway. Anything I really want I can find online.
KATIE COURIC: So what's on your iPod? Who's your new favorite? Mine's Adele.
RACHEL MADDOW: Oh, this is really embarrassing. But because of the nuclear power plant disaster in Japan, I started listening to the Feynman lectures, these talks by a physics professor at Caltech from the sixties.
KATIE COURIC: Like Bill Nye the Science Guy?
RACHEL MADDOW: He's, like, the original Science Guy, except that he won the Nobel Prize in physics. It's really helpful in terms of explaining stuff that you don't really understand. Yeah, Richard Feynman—ay-oh!
KATIE COURIC: Wow. All right. Who is someone you'd love to have on the show?
RACHEL MADDOW: Osama bin Laden or one of his henchmen. I would love to have a conversation with them. I would also like to kill em with a dull spoon, but I'm not supposed to say that.
