got a girl stomped to dust in the heyday of Dubya Bush's America: just ask the Dixie Chicks, the country and western band vilified for opposing the invasion of Iraq. But Maddow is enjoying a media 'break-out' of unrivalled proportions.

Last week, MSNBC, the cable news channel competing with Fox and CNN, published the

ratings for The Rachel Maddow Show, launched in the 9pm prime-time slot just four weeks earlier. Maddow had doubled their audience, from around 800,000 to a steady 1.7m. "I'm pinching myself," says Phil Griffin, MSNBC president, saying that he expects a new show to take two or three years to do this.

What makes Maddow's rise so telling is that she is the face of a trend, rather than a novelty. The Big Three 'network' news shows that once dominated the national media are dying, their ratings in the basement.

They met their Waterloo in