MSNBC: we're less political than Fox News

TCA -- MSNBC's Rachel Maddow isn't worried that the ascension of Barack Obama will impede her ability to criticize political leaders.

"I don’t think we’re at risk of idiocy going out of fashion in Washington," she told TV critics attending the winter press tour in Universal City. "Whether Republican or Democrat ... I don’t worry about not having George Bush to beat up on anymore."

If anything, she says, with Bush exiting office she prefers not to focus on him.

"Beating up on George Bush, I'd rather not, a little bit," she says, and later predicted the president will "give a big speech tonight then go away."

When a critic compares MSNBC with Fox News, Maddow bristles.

"The idea that there’s any equivalency between us and Fox News..." she says. "Fox is a political experiment. Imagine them having somebody as liberal as Joe Scarborough is conservative doing their whole morning? It doesn't make sense."

"We're less about ideology than Fox News," adds the news network’s president Phil Griffin.

Yet after the panel, Maddow told a huddle of reporters she doesn’t own a TV and has "never seen a show on Fox at any time ever."

And Griffin, when asked if MSNBC would ever hire a conservative commentator, seemed reluctant.

"I don’t know, I don't think they would be a pure conservative," he says. "There might be somebody with conservative tendencies... if they’re smart and clever and get along with our other guys.""We’re becoming a network," he says. "We made a decision to take a little risk [with Maddow] ... the first time she ever read a teleprompter was last June ... For the first time in MSNBC history, we had a show beating Larry King. It made the network feel bigger ... we're blossoming, full of energy, life."

Says Maddow: "I’m having the time of my life, and hope I can keep doing this for a long time."