Maddow Image by Getty Images

“OMG CRYING!”

“I literally sobbed during “Queer Eye”!”

“Stop, you’re going to make me cry!”

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

The Schmooze isn’t really interested in the commodification of tears (almost always female) as proof of profundity. But the clip that’s making the rounds of Rachel Maddow trying and failing to work through her tears as she reports on “tender age shelters” is worth a watch.

Maddow was attempting to report on facilities where babies and toddlers who have been forcibly taken from their parents are being housed by the US government. The AP reports that the Trump administration has opened three such shelters in Texas near the US-Mexico border. Children at the shelters, say reporters who have spent time inside, are hysterical. They do not know where their parents are.

Rachel Maddow chokes up and cries on air as she struggles to deliver news that migrant babies and toddlers have been sent to “tender age” shelters pic.twitter.com/O6crm8cvyR

— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) June 20, 2018

Maddow’s public display of emotion is a worthwhile watch because it reifies the crimes against humanity that she is reporting. And because crying is a normal psychic response to emotion and doesn’t make you less of a professional. And because if watching a person you respect cry helps you contextualize the urgency of this issue, you should watch it happen.

And if that doesn’t do it for you, here is seven and a half minutes of children who have been separated from their families weeping in terror and crying for their moms and dads:

And then, once you’re ready, you can find out how to help.

Jenny Singer is the deputy lifestyle editor for the Forward. You can reach her at [email protected] or on Twitter @jeanvaljenny

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

$90 $180

$360

Other amount