In an era of deepening polarization and culture war, longtime TV and radio personality Leslie Marshall wants us all to lose the wedge.
Marshall, a graduate of Northeastern, is a Fox News contributor, Democratic strategist and distinguished radio broadcaster. She is one of the most successful women to make a name for herself in an industry that remains largely male-dominated — a me there is no shortage of stories about the obstacles women face.
Beginning her broadcasting career in the late 1980s, when the “shock jock” format of radio was beginning to dominate, Marshall vied for airtime alongside a strong field of male radio talent: Howard Stern, Rush Limbaugh (whom once topped ratings a quarter in the early 1990s, he says) and Larry King among them.
He once sent King 36 tapes of material he reviewed on lined paper, with meticulous notes on each tape. The best advice he received from someone in the radio industry was hidden in these notes: “Always be true to yourself,” King told Marshall. “Never lie about what you believe in.”
This stick-to-your-guns ethos is key to Marshall's success. But also a willingness to go into hostile territory and trade blows, which is part of the job description as the Democratic strategist at Fox News. For more than 16 years, what has sustained Marshall in moments of live television talk is the knowledge that when the cameras stop rolling, both she and her co-hosts can put aside their differences and go out to eat.
“When you see a Democrat and a Republican laughing together today, it's now headline news,” Marshall told Northeastern Global News.
“People always ask me why I went with Fox if I'm a liberal,” he says of the job, which he accepted at the urging of Roger Ailes. “Actually, I've always been treated with respect there. Nobody tells me what to say or what not to say.”
Marshall's critique of the stream state of politeness in the US it is not just nostalgia for a more centrist politics. Decency as reflected in the larger culture and shaped by the nation's leaders is an important feature of democratic debate, he says. Transparency in decorum, as he sees it, has made it harder for people to “hear what the other side is saying,” he says. Worse, in an age when political debate has become almost entirely virtual, it has pushed America deeper into its respective news echo chambers.
While he acknowledges that politicians like Donald Trump are largely—and perhaps disproportionately—responsible for deteriorating urban norms, both sides bear some responsibility, he says.
She started her career in the late 1980s
When she first arrived on the scene, Marshall didn't set out to mend partisan fences. It was just to get people talking about “anything and everything” — the living stuff of life: “I really wanted to be a female Phil Donahue,” she says. “I didn't want to do politics. I didn't want to make news — at the time.”
Marshall had an auspicious beginning in radio. In the late 1980s, he had the opportunity to sit down Jerry Wichner, the late-night voice of Florida's east coast. The weekend broadcast was off WNWS, a 50,000 watt station in Miami.
Unsure if she had the requisite polyphony to fill the entire broadcast, Marshall remembers feeling nervous before the show. He remembers that there was an issue People magazine on the desk in front of her. He went through it and read the cover. it happened to be about the time Zsa Zsa Gabor famously slapped a Beverly Hills police officer. Read the story live and react ad-libbed to the situation.
Almost forgetting to give the station's phone number, when she finished her opinion, the lines lit up with callers.
“To me, that was the equivalent of a comedian laughing at a joke,” he says. “Complete strangers calling me to talk to me my opinion — and to share their views with me. After that, I was hooked.”
That night, from Miami, Marshall called her parents in Somerset, Massachusetts. “I said — and I was crying — I just found what I want to do for the rest of my life,” says Marshall.
It was that fateful broadcast that eventually led to Marshall getting her own show over the weekend in Miami, the Leslie Marshall Report, held from 6 A.M. to 9 a.m. In 1990, he was then hired on a full-time basis by WGR in Buffalo, where the show aired during the week. In 1992, Marshall became the younger radio personality to become syndicated when he replaced Tom Snyder as host of the ABC satellite radio network.
Touting the ability to attract callers from across the political spectrum, Marshall tuned in to the issues that mattered most to America and used her platform to foster a vigorous conversation and debate around them. “The easy calls are abortion, gun control and the death penalty,” he says.
But more than just a gift for radio, Marshall's interest in radio was fueled by a desire to speak out, as she frames it, on issues of justice. As a self-identified independent in the 1980s and 1990s, that passion for justice encompassed a wide range of bipartisan issues.
When it came to establishing her own brand, Marshall counseled against what in the twin realms of politics and talk radio amounted to an unprofitable neutrality—namely, remaining independent. He says that, as a “fencing guard,” he simply couldn't compete with the conservative-male-heavy field filled with gunslingers and rabble-rousers like Limbaugh, who commanded legions of listeners.
“I'm not kidding, I read, I think it was 600 pages: the Democratic platform, the Republican platform, and the libertarian platform — bless them. theirs was like 45 pages at the time,” Marshall says. “And I decided, based on the platform, that I had more in common with the Democrats and became a Democrat then and have been a Democrat ever since.”
Although he professionally defends the most mainstream Democratic opinion today – mostly on television – he often does so by stripping away the partisan packaging, getting to the heart of the issues. It's a skill she cultivated in her many years in radio.
“If I don't feel something about a subject, I can't talk about it for several hours,” he says. “And almost every issue I talk about has some element of justice in it.”
Choosing Northeast
“I loved that the city was your campus,” Marshall says of her decision to pursue an undergraduate education at Northeastern. “I wasn't looking for a school in a more rural area with rows and rows of fraternities and sororities. That was not my point. I wanted a city school.”
Marshall envisioned herself at Northeastern long before she walked in. He hung out with friends in Speare Hall on the weekends, longing to dine in the cafeteria with the other students.
“I wanted to be a communications major because I wanted to be in broadcasting,” he says. “I met with financial aid, and between, you know, Pell grants, National Direct Student Loans, co-op or work-study — they made it possible for me to go without having to wait tables until three in the morning.”
She remembers meeting her Michael Woodnick, who taught at Northeastern from 1965 to 2009. He says his classes filled up quickly. Woodnick welcomed Marshall, who was touring the campus with her father, into his office without an appointment.
“And the first thing he said when we sat down was, 'I was about to eat lunch, would you like me to eat half of my sandwich?' Marshall says. “It was just that little bit of personalization that I feel like I wasn't getting at other colleges.”
As it turned out, Woodnick and Marshall shared a birthday. That afternoon, he was sold on the idea of becoming a Husky.
“Northeastern to me was more of a true representation of real life,” Marshall says. “It was just great preparation for life.”
Tanner Stening is a reporter for Northeastern Global News. Email him at t.stening@northeastern.edu. Follow him on Twitter @tstening90.
