How This Wonky-Tonk Woman Won TV

6:00 AM PDT 10/4/2011 by Marisa Guthrie

Rachel Maddow, MSNBC's primetime superstar, delivers news with agenda, but not hysteria, as her style of civil political discussion reveals a turning tide (even Roger Ailes says Fox News has gone too far) that may help stem cable's ratings erosion in an increasingly unpleasant political environment.

Thank you for coming," says Rachel Maddow to a visiting reporter. "Why are we doing this?" It's the last Friday in September, and we are walking briskly -- at 5-foot-11, Maddow always moves at a near-jog -- toward the elevator on the fourth floor of her office at NBC's 30 Rockefeller Plaza headquarters.