104
edits
Changes
→Career
After working as a producer, anchor, camerawoman, and reporter for a cable news outlet in her hometown, and as a videographer for [[Rugby Canada]] and [[BC Rugby]], her first major media position was with [[ABC News]]’ [[20/20]] in New York City, where she apprenticed under [[Connie Chung]]. Marsden worked in DC as a Director of a conservative think-tank that was a key component of President [[George W. Bush]]’s beltway coalition during the lead-up to the [[Iraq War]].
After working as a producer, anchor, camerawoman, and reporter for a cable news outlet in her hometown, and as a videographer for [[Rugby Canada]] and [[BC Rugby]], her first major media position was with [[ABC News]]’ [[20/20]] in New York City, where she apprenticed under [[Connie Chung]]. Marsden worked in DC as a Director of a conservative think-tank that was a key component of President [[George W. Bush]]’s beltway coalition during the lead-up to the [[Iraq War]].
[[Image:whletter.jpg|right|thumb|200px|White House letter to Rachel Marsden]]
[[Image:whletter.jpg|right|thumb|200px|White House letter to Rachel Marsden]]
She returned to her native [[Canada]] to work as an operative on two simultaneous federal campaigns for [[Stephen Harper]]’s [[Conservative Party]] in the province of [[British Columbia]]. At the same time, she began hosting a call-in talk-radio show in [[Vancouver]], [[BC]], where she interviewed guests ranging from Canada’s Deputy Prime Minister to [[Watergate]] figure [[G. Gordon Liddy]] from the [[Richard Nixon]] administration.
It was this hour-long interview with Liddy – in which he talked in-depth about his role in [[Watergate]] and the scandal’s aftermath – that caught the attention of [[David Asper]], the Executive Vice-President of the [[CanWest Global]] media empire, who offered her a Toronto-based political columnist position at the [[National Post]], in conjunction with then publisher [[Lester Pyette]].
Having quickly established a unique, controversial, populist conservative voice in the Canadian media, she switched to a regular column in the [[Sun Media chain]], and started her own public relations and communications company on [[Toronto]]’s [[Bay Street]].
While based in [[Toronto]], Marsden started out with the [[Fox News Channel]] in 2004 as the Canadian Correspondent for [[The O'Reilly Factor]] -- the top-rated cable news show in the world -- after she was spotted as a regular panelist on [[Dennis Miller]]'s [[CNBC]] show in [[Los Angeles]]. She was recruited by [[Rupert Murdoch]]’s chief lieutenant and former [[Ronald Reagan]] communications strategist, [[Fox News]] CEO [[Roger Ailes]], who personally selected her to be the only conservative (and only woman) on a daily talk show with three other co-hosts. She immigrated to the USA on a rare visa, typically reserved for [[Nobel Prize]] recipients, [[Academy Award]] winners and leading world experts.
Marsden soon became regarded as one of the most influential conservative voices in North America. Her defense of new French President [[Nicolas Sarkozy]] was cited by the nation’s top radio talk-show host, [[Rush Limbaugh]], in encouraging Americans to stop their criticism of [[France]]. Her column “Since Jesus Isn’t Running, Why Not Rudy?” chided far-right conservatives for their lack of initial support for [[Republican]] presidential candidate [[Rudy Giuliani]] – a politician whose positions and policies Marsden has admitted most closely resemble her own.
After several months, Marsden left the show, stating, “The show has drastically changed direction since its inception and no longer has a place for a political expert.”
Marsden has since returned to her entrepreneurial roots, preferring to pick and choose interviews, appearances and projects, and working with various television and radio networks as a free-agent. She continues to work as a political and media consultant.
She is currently authoring her first book about politics, due in [[2009]].
Since arriving in the USA, Marsden has been named “Worst Person In The World” by [[NBC]]’s [[Keith Olbermann]], a leader of the liberal media. She’s often the object of speculation by the [[New York]] gossip media, alongside A-list celebrities like [[Nicole Kidman]] and [[Paris Hilton]] – a fact that Marsden has called “a puzzling, and frankly extremely stupid phenomenon.”
==References==
==References==