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Revision as of 10:40, 7 March 2008 by Truthnlove (talk | contribs) (→Career: alias?)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)| Rachel Marsden | |
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| Born | (1974-12-02) December 2, 1974 (age 50) Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada |
| Occupation(s) | columnist, political commentator |
| Website | rachelmarsden.com |
Rachel Marsden (born 1974) is a Canadian conservative political columnist and television commentator based in New York City, United States.
Education and early life
Marsden grew up in the Vancouver suburb of Port Coquitlam, British Columbia. Her father, Claude, was a high school teacher. After graduating with a bachelor's degree in science from Simon Fraser University, Marsden earned a diploma in broadcast journalism from the British Columbia Institute of Technology. Marsden has said that growing up listening to flamboyant Canadian radio personality Jack Webster inspired her move into journalism. She also attended the National Journalism Center.
Career
 | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (March 2008) |
Marsden first broke into print journalism in the early 2000s, writing for conservative web sites and The Washington Times. In 2002, she worked for the Free Congress Foundation, and resigned when her employer learned of a harassment charge against her.
Prior to the 2004 federal election in Canada, she was hired by Gurmant Grewal, a Conservative member of the Parliament of Canada, to assist his constituency office with press releases. However, Grewal dismissed her after news media reported on her working for his campaign under the name "Elle Henderson." She was a regular National Post columnist for two months in 2005 before joining the Toronto Sun as a weekly opinion columnist, a position held until November 2007. In 2006, she moved from Toronto to New York. Her political commentary has been reprinted by other journals, including the New York Post and NewsMax Media.
Marsden was a frequent guest on Dennis Miller Live when she was spotted to become the Canadian pundit for The O'Reilly Factor on the Fox News Channel. Marsden was employed by the Fox News Channel from 2004 to May 2007. She was promoted to panelist on Red Eye w/ Greg Gutfeld, a late-night talk show. A producer on Red Eye praised Marsden, saying that "she has very passionate opinions...she's articulate, intelligent, and we get a lot of favorable mail about her". Marsden has been compared to Ann Coulter in opinion, presentation and appearance. One difference between Marsden and Coulter is that Marsden has many photos of herself on the Internet wearing bustiers or unbuttoned sweaters and proudly displaying her svelte midriff. On May 30, 2007, Marsden was dismissed from Red Eye for what the New York Post reported as "erratic behaviour" and escorted out of the Fox studio by security guards. She commented that her departure was due to a change in the show's format, and that being escorted out is standard procedure.
In October 2007, she was a panelist on CNN's The Situation Room.
In 2008, Marsden launched Grand Central Political, a website that mixes political columns with job opportunities and resumes for the politically-minded. Nathan Tabor's web-based consulting firm TCV Media was involved.
In her public stances, she has defended Joseph McCarthy's legacy and is decidedly pro-Bush. She defends the use of summary execution in certain military contexts. She has been described as feminism's worst nightmare. She is solidly laissez-faire on the issue of women's rights and appears to be of the opinion that the talents and human physical appearance of individuals in a constituency are valid political concerns.
Controversies
As a student, Marsden first came to public attention when she was at the center of the the Simon Fraser University 1997 harassment controversy, in which she and a swimming coach publicly accused each other of sexual harassment.
In 2004, Marsden was given a conditional discharge with one year of probation for criminal harassment of her boyfriend following a breakup.
Identifying an anti-terrorism officer
In September 2007, a relationship between Marsden and a Ontario Provincial Police officer ended. She posted his photo and identified him on her blog as a anti-terrorism officer who had leaked secret anti-terrorism documents to her. Two days later, in an email to his superiors, she described the nationality and activities of the targets of an investigation in Ontario involving the OPP, Canadian Security Intelligence Service and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and problems encountered by those investigators. The officer filed a complaint of criminal harassment against Marsden with the South Simcoe Police but this did not result in charges.
Misplaced Pages
On more than one occasion Marsden asked Misplaced Pages to delete her biography on the site. Her concerns led her to contact Misplaced Pages co-founder Jimmy Wales in 2006, claiming that it was wrong and libellous. He reviewed her biography and, finding that it was not up to standard, helped to clean up the entry as is routine in such cases. On February 29, 2008, the technology gossip blog Valleywag claimed that they had entered into a relationship, and published instant messaging chats that they had allegedly exchanged. On the following day Wales announced on his Misplaced Pages user page (and later moved to his personal blog) that he had met her once, on February 9, 2008, but that he was no longer involved with her. In return, Marsden, who claimed to have learned about the breakup by reading about it on the Internet, turned to eBay and put up for auction a t-shirt and sweater that she claimed to be Wales'.
Notes
- ^ Agent. "Biography for Rachel Marsden". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 2008-01-13.
- ^ Goddard, John, "Cop claims harassment by the 'Babe for Bush'", Toronto Star, December 21, 2007
- ^ Rebecca Traister (2007-03-29). "Fox's Ann Coulter 2.0". Salon.com. Retrieved 2008-01-20.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - Rachel Marsden (2004-05-04). ""Screwing the Vote" is Not the Answer". OpinionEditorials.com. Retrieved 2008-01-20.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - "Woman pleads guilty to harassment of former radio personality in Canada". The San Diego Union-Tribune. Associated Press. 2004-10-13. Retrieved 2008-01-19.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - Marisa Babic (2004-05-10). "No regrets hiring Marsden: Grewal". The Surrey Now.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Stewart Bell (2007-12-19). "Ont. anti-terror officer investigated on leak allegations". National Post. Retrieved 2008-03-05.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ "About Rachel Marsden". Rachel Marsden. Retrieved 2008-01-13.
- "Eye-opener". New York Post. 2007-05-31. Retrieved 2008-01-13.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - Campbell Robertson. "At 2 A.M., Dark Humor Meets the Camera Lights". New York TImes. Retrieved 2008-03-06.
- Canadian Press, "Toronto columnist Marsden ousted from Fox News", Toronto Star, May 31, 2007
- Jim Kouri (2008-01-31). "Rachel Marsden and CPAC: There's a New Sheriff in Town". American Chronicle. Retrieved 2008-03-05.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - Marsden was involved in a CNN's The Situation Room discussion in October 2007. The subjects included the nomination of Michael B. Mukasey for U.S. Attorney General. Jack Cafferty made a reference to the waterboarding controversy, and mentioned Alberto Gonzales's secret memo that the Geneva Conventions did not apply to Taliban and Al-Qaeda prisoners and Marsden response was: "Well, I think that we do have to define torture. I mean, one man's "torture" is another man's CIA-sponsored swim lesson. I want to take issue with what Jack Cafferty said about enemy combatants. These are not prisoners of war, they are enemy combatants. It's perfectly legal as per the Peace of Westphalia to line them up against the nearest wall on the battlefield and shoot them." Of course, the USA is not a signatory of the Peace of Westphalia. Earlier in the discussion, she asserted that the Venona project proved that Joseph McCarthy was right and that history would show that George W. Bush was "right". See: Rachel Marsden CNN Situation Room
- Marsden sometimes draws attention to her physical appearance in relation to current issues; in a feisty three-way five minute debate on Hamilton, Canada's CHCH-TV CH Live, in a segment entitled "Female Furor?" with TV news host Donna Skelly (See Donna Skelly Biography on Canada.com) and MP Andrea Horwath, about deep funding cuts for the government agency Status of Women Canada, Marsden said: "It's always the untalented, ugly women who are complaining about the fact that feminists need to do more and that there needs to be more done for women." She then suggests the notion of Pamela Anderson and Margaret Thatcher as examples of successful women who do not complain about the status of women in Western society. See Rachel Marsden debates Andrea Horwath. Marsden also appears in a humorous poster entitled "Babes for Bush" with the caption "Eat Your Heart Out, Suckers!", which she displays on her own web site, in the ample photos section.
- David Finley (1999-08-01). "Liam Donnelly's Conviction by Prejudice: Lessons for Harassment Policy". The Fraser Institute. Retrieved 2008-01-13.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - Siri Agrell (2008-03-04). "Ms. Marsden's cyberspace breakup: tit-for-tat-for-T-shirt". Globe and Mail. Retrieved 2008-03-06.
- "Vancouver woman charged with harassment". CBC News. 2002-11-21.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - "Regina v. Rachel Marsden, Reasons for Sentence of the Honourable Judge W. J. Kitchen". British Columbia Provincial Court (Criminal Division). 2004-10-12. Retrieved 2006-12-30.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - Hall, Neal (2004-10-13). "Rachel Marsden pleads guilty, gets probation". Vancouver Sun.
{{cite news}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help) - Berry, Steve (2004-10-13). "'Immature' Marsden guilty of harassing former lover". The Province.
{{cite news}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help) - John Goddard (2008-01-05). "No harassment charges against pundit Marsden". Toronto Star. Retrieved 2008-01-19.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - Siri Agrell (2008-03-02). "Canadian pundit, Misplaced Pages founder in messy breakup". The Canadian Press. Retrieved 2008-03-06.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - Siri Agrell (2008-03-04). "Ms. Marsden's cyberspace breakup: tit-for-tat-for-T-shirt". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 2008-03-05.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - "Misplaced Pages Founder's Fling With Columnist Ends in Nasty Public Breakup". FOXNews.com. 2008-03-03. Retrieved 2008-03-05.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - "Fury of a woman scorned – on Misplaced Pages". The Times. 2008-03-04. Retrieved 2008-03-05.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - "Ex takes her revenge on Mr Misplaced Pages". The Sydney Morning Herald. 2008-03-04. Retrieved 2008-03-05.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - "Misplaced Pages's Wales defends breakup, expenses". USA Today. 2008-03-05. Retrieved 2008-03-05.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help)
External links
- Rachel Marsden – official website
- This article uses content licensed under the GFDL from deleted revisions of Misplaced Pages's article on Rachel Marsden. A list of previous authors of the page can be found at Talk:Rachel Marsden/GFDL History.
