1 00:00:04,795 --> 00:00:23,835 Speaker 1: Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio. If 2 00:00:23,875 --> 00:00:27,715 Speaker 1: Donald Trump were a foreign agent trying to destroy the 3 00:00:27,835 --> 00:00:31,635 Speaker 1: United States of America from within, what would he be 4 00:00:31,755 --> 00:00:37,195 Speaker 1: doing differently? Crash the stock market, bring on a recession, 5 00:00:37,315 --> 00:00:41,355 Speaker 1: make it worldwide, maybe a worldwide depression. Use economic policy 6 00:00:41,515 --> 00:00:46,275 Speaker 1: so insane that yesterday they were called insane by CNBC. 7 00:00:47,395 --> 00:00:49,435 Speaker 1: Not only get out of NATO, but pit the US 8 00:00:49,475 --> 00:00:52,915 Speaker 1: against NATO. Sacrifice countries to the Russian dictator. Push a 9 00:00:52,955 --> 00:00:55,875 Speaker 1: ceasefire in Ukraine that serves only to give Russia thirty 10 00:00:55,995 --> 00:01:00,475 Speaker 1: days to refortify its troop positions, threaten our forever. Allies 11 00:01:00,555 --> 00:01:05,195 Speaker 1: like Canada and Mexico. Cut off humanitarian aid worldwide enough 12 00:01:05,195 --> 00:01:08,435 Speaker 1: to start killing people via disease outbreaks in the same month. 13 00:01:09,035 --> 00:01:12,835 Speaker 1: Start dragging our citizens and legal immigrants off the streets 14 00:01:12,875 --> 00:01:15,715 Speaker 1: and out of their homes and hold them in communicado 15 00:01:15,795 --> 00:01:20,915 Speaker 1: in distant concentration camps without trial prior to deportation. Try 16 00:01:20,955 --> 00:01:25,315 Speaker 1: to break the constitution to hold office to avoid prison indefinitely. 17 00:01:25,715 --> 00:01:28,835 Speaker 1: Blackmail the owners of the major media companies to support 18 00:01:28,915 --> 00:01:32,635 Speaker 1: him or at least destroy their own news outlets. Violate 19 00:01:32,715 --> 00:01:35,275 Speaker 1: every law, and make sure all the prosecutors and all 20 00:01:35,315 --> 00:01:37,875 Speaker 1: the judges are loyal to you and not to the law. 21 00:01:38,395 --> 00:01:41,955 Speaker 1: Decapitate not the excess in government, but the people who 22 00:01:41,995 --> 00:01:45,635 Speaker 1: know how to stop plane crashes and epidemics. Turn the 23 00:01:45,755 --> 00:01:49,075 Speaker 1: agencies over to every con man, an idiot and loser 24 00:01:49,115 --> 00:01:52,315 Speaker 1: and lunatic. You could find roll back human rights on 25 00:01:52,355 --> 00:01:56,315 Speaker 1: the failed economic policy of eighteen ninety four that the 26 00:01:56,355 --> 00:01:58,755 Speaker 1: professor must have been talking about the one day he 27 00:01:58,795 --> 00:02:03,915 Speaker 1: didn't cut class in college and burn all governmental records. 28 00:02:04,035 --> 00:02:06,675 Speaker 1: Give a lie an item veto to a compulsive liar, 29 00:02:06,795 --> 00:02:09,955 Speaker 1: drugged up foreigner who literally blows up everything he touches 30 00:02:10,195 --> 00:02:14,075 Speaker 1: and finally take a one hundred million dollar bribe I'm sorry, 31 00:02:14,115 --> 00:02:18,835 Speaker 1: contribution in public during a live infomercial for the Druggies 32 00:02:19,035 --> 00:02:22,755 Speaker 1: self driving self detonating cars, right after announces he's going 33 00:02:22,835 --> 00:02:26,435 Speaker 1: to treat attacks on the dealerships as domestic terrorism, even 34 00:02:26,435 --> 00:02:29,515 Speaker 1: though the last president refused to treat an actual attack 35 00:02:29,555 --> 00:02:32,395 Speaker 1: on the Capitol and an attempt to overturn an election 36 00:02:32,875 --> 00:02:38,195 Speaker 1: by the current president as domestic terrorism. I mean, what 37 00:02:38,355 --> 00:02:43,795 Speaker 1: else could a foreign agent vent on destroying America who 38 00:02:43,835 --> 00:02:48,995 Speaker 1: somehow rose to ultimate power in America do besides that, 39 00:02:50,395 --> 00:02:57,635 Speaker 1: other than maybe start shooting people on Fifth Avenue. The 40 00:02:57,635 --> 00:03:01,115 Speaker 1: then paranoid idea that the country, maybe the presidency, was 41 00:03:01,275 --> 00:03:03,395 Speaker 1: in the grip of, or about to be, in the 42 00:03:03,395 --> 00:03:06,515 Speaker 1: grip of, a foreign AI agent, was the dominant conspiracy 43 00:03:06,555 --> 00:03:10,635 Speaker 1: theory of American politics from nineteen eighteen through the nineteen seventies. 44 00:03:11,555 --> 00:03:16,235 Speaker 1: It gave Richard Nixon a career, It gave Bobby Kennedy 45 00:03:16,315 --> 00:03:19,555 Speaker 1: a career, gave Joe McCarthy a career, and Joe McCarthy's henchman, 46 00:03:19,635 --> 00:03:22,595 Speaker 1: Roy Khane a career, And thus it gave Roy Cohnes 47 00:03:22,635 --> 00:03:26,675 Speaker 1: henchman Donald Trump a career. And when they weren't destroying 48 00:03:26,715 --> 00:03:29,875 Speaker 1: America by claiming other people were destroying America, you could 49 00:03:29,915 --> 00:03:33,675 Speaker 1: turn to the movies where the Manchurian candidate about a 50 00:03:33,755 --> 00:03:37,755 Speaker 1: joint Chinese Russian operation to brainwash Key Americans and thus 51 00:03:37,755 --> 00:03:40,035 Speaker 1: put a stooge in the White House came out in 52 00:03:40,075 --> 00:03:43,635 Speaker 1: theaters in nineteen sixty two, and The One Hundred Days 53 00:03:43,635 --> 00:03:45,955 Speaker 1: of the Dragon, in which the Chinese perfect a way 54 00:03:45,995 --> 00:03:49,035 Speaker 1: to change any person's appearance into that of almost any 55 00:03:49,115 --> 00:03:51,075 Speaker 1: other person and thus put a body double in the 56 00:03:51,075 --> 00:03:54,995 Speaker 1: White House, came out on television in nineteen sixty three. 57 00:03:55,235 --> 00:03:58,955 Speaker 1: So even if you haven't thought about this, you have 58 00:03:59,115 --> 00:04:04,235 Speaker 1: been exposed to the idea of what more could a 59 00:04:04,315 --> 00:04:07,875 Speaker 1: foreign agent do? Then Donald Trump is doing now to 60 00:04:07,995 --> 00:04:11,955 Speaker 1: destroy America. By the way, if you didn't see the 61 00:04:11,995 --> 00:04:15,235 Speaker 1: original Manchurian Candidate, they remade it in two thousand and four. 62 00:04:15,235 --> 00:04:17,755 Speaker 1: Though if if you didn't see the original and you 63 00:04:18,235 --> 00:04:20,595 Speaker 1: got the plot of the remake, you are a better 64 00:04:20,635 --> 00:04:25,635 Speaker 1: person than I am. The problem with the plots, both 65 00:04:25,755 --> 00:04:29,995 Speaker 1: imagined by politicians and those imagined by Hollywood, is that 66 00:04:30,035 --> 00:04:33,755 Speaker 1: they are far too complicated. They certainly don't need to 67 00:04:33,755 --> 00:04:37,555 Speaker 1: be that complicated. The Liberals had been converted by Russian 68 00:04:37,555 --> 00:04:40,315 Speaker 1: propaganda in the thirties, Time to go off in the 69 00:04:40,355 --> 00:04:44,355 Speaker 1: fifties in the movies, they used mind control and hypnotism. 70 00:04:44,435 --> 00:04:47,115 Speaker 1: On television, they used a drug that turned your face 71 00:04:47,155 --> 00:04:50,275 Speaker 1: into putty like Trump's, only it could be turned back 72 00:04:50,275 --> 00:04:54,995 Speaker 1: to la human Again, way too complicated. Everybody from Attorney 73 00:04:55,075 --> 00:04:58,155 Speaker 1: General A. Mitchell Palmer to McCarthy to the author of 74 00:04:58,195 --> 00:05:01,195 Speaker 1: The Manchurian Candidate, Richard Condon, never stopped to think that 75 00:05:01,235 --> 00:05:07,475 Speaker 1: truly all you would need was cash. I always like 76 00:05:07,555 --> 00:05:10,115 Speaker 1: to speculate that those who caved to Trump. From Lindsay 77 00:05:10,155 --> 00:05:13,355 Speaker 1: Graham to Jeff Bezos to Mark Zuckerberg have been blackmailed. 78 00:05:14,355 --> 00:05:19,275 Speaker 1: But that's not really necessary, at least not in the 79 00:05:19,435 --> 00:05:24,515 Speaker 1: non financial sense. Like the fella said, nothing is more 80 00:05:24,555 --> 00:05:27,515 Speaker 1: easily frightened than a billion dollars. I mean, ask Disney 81 00:05:27,715 --> 00:05:32,555 Speaker 1: and ABC, asked Comcast and NBC, Ask Warner Brothers, Discovery 82 00:05:34,155 --> 00:05:38,075 Speaker 1: and CNN. Why waste all that time and effort to 83 00:05:38,115 --> 00:05:44,275 Speaker 1: brainwash Sergeant Raymond Shaw or to create a Chinese puddy 84 00:05:44,395 --> 00:05:49,395 Speaker 1: faced body double for President William lyons Selby when all 85 00:05:49,435 --> 00:05:52,555 Speaker 1: the Raymond Shaws and William lyon Selby's of real life 86 00:05:52,595 --> 00:05:56,155 Speaker 1: you could ever want are available for sale and at 87 00:05:56,195 --> 00:06:01,355 Speaker 1: popular prices. Throw in just enough insanity and Trump has 88 00:06:01,355 --> 00:06:03,995 Speaker 1: that in spades. And now the added element of Trump's 89 00:06:03,995 --> 00:06:08,115 Speaker 1: obvious heroin level addiction to revenge, and you've got your 90 00:06:08,195 --> 00:06:12,195 Speaker 1: foreign agent or good as a foreign agent in chief. 91 00:06:13,515 --> 00:06:15,755 Speaker 1: I mean, hell, what if Trump is so crazy that 92 00:06:15,835 --> 00:06:19,315 Speaker 1: his addiction jones demands that he takes revenge against those 93 00:06:19,355 --> 00:06:21,955 Speaker 1: who hurt him the most in his life. That would 94 00:06:21,995 --> 00:06:25,515 Speaker 1: be the American voter in his three elections one hundred 95 00:06:25,555 --> 00:06:28,675 Speaker 1: and sixty nine million, four hundred and sixty three thousand, 96 00:06:28,875 --> 00:06:32,595 Speaker 1: two hundred and eighty two votes have been cast against Trump. 97 00:06:33,315 --> 00:06:36,955 Speaker 1: That's a lot of people to avenge yourself against. Why 98 00:06:37,355 --> 00:06:40,275 Speaker 1: try it one at a time? Why not just wipe 99 00:06:40,275 --> 00:06:45,235 Speaker 1: out the United States. But even as much as this 100 00:06:45,315 --> 00:06:48,035 Speaker 1: strays from my first point, it still all fits because 101 00:06:48,075 --> 00:06:50,195 Speaker 1: you can post mortem the man who is intent on 102 00:06:50,275 --> 00:06:53,675 Speaker 1: destroying this country, and the sooner you do it, the better. 103 00:06:54,315 --> 00:06:56,155 Speaker 1: But the baseline is still going to be the same. 104 00:06:57,355 --> 00:07:00,915 Speaker 1: One of the two or three noble characters in the movie, 105 00:07:00,995 --> 00:07:05,835 Speaker 1: the Manchurian candidate John mcgiver playing Senator Thomas Jordan, sums 106 00:07:05,915 --> 00:07:09,275 Speaker 1: up my thought here and incidentally gives the attentive viewer 107 00:07:09,275 --> 00:07:11,555 Speaker 1: of the film the ultimate easter egg. This is the 108 00:07:11,715 --> 00:07:15,275 Speaker 1: entirety of the plot. When the actual foreign agent, the 109 00:07:15,315 --> 00:07:18,235 Speaker 1: wife of the idiot to be installed as president in 110 00:07:18,275 --> 00:07:21,515 Speaker 1: the movie, asks Senator Jordan if he will try to 111 00:07:21,555 --> 00:07:26,995 Speaker 1: block her husband's nomination to the ticket, he says, would 112 00:07:27,035 --> 00:07:31,315 Speaker 1: I block you? I would spend every cent I own 113 00:07:31,755 --> 00:07:35,595 Speaker 1: and all I could borrow to block you. There are 114 00:07:35,595 --> 00:07:38,675 Speaker 1: people who think of Johnny as a clown and a buffoon, 115 00:07:38,995 --> 00:07:43,115 Speaker 1: but I do not. I despise John Iceland and everything 116 00:07:43,155 --> 00:07:46,675 Speaker 1: that iceland Ism has come to stand for. I think 117 00:07:47,155 --> 00:07:51,195 Speaker 1: if John Iceland were a paid Soviet agent, he could 118 00:07:51,195 --> 00:07:54,515 Speaker 1: not do more to harm this country than he's doing now. 119 00:07:57,875 --> 00:08:00,835 Speaker 1: Given that the movie script is sixty three years old, 120 00:08:00,875 --> 00:08:04,155 Speaker 1: there's not very much to be changed there. People who 121 00:08:04,195 --> 00:08:07,555 Speaker 1: think of as a clown and a buffoon. I despise 122 00:08:07,715 --> 00:08:12,795 Speaker 1: Donald trump trump Ism. If Donald Trump were a paid 123 00:08:12,875 --> 00:08:16,715 Speaker 1: Russian agent, he could not do more to harm this 124 00:08:16,875 --> 00:08:48,595 Speaker 1: country than he's doing now. The one other thing conspiracy 125 00:08:48,635 --> 00:08:51,595 Speaker 1: theorists and the writers of political science fiction failed to 126 00:08:51,635 --> 00:08:54,075 Speaker 1: see in the fifties and sixties, and thus failed to 127 00:08:54,075 --> 00:08:57,155 Speaker 1: put into their plots, was the maddening reality that those 128 00:08:57,195 --> 00:09:00,915 Speaker 1: who suspected or who saw that might as well be 129 00:09:01,035 --> 00:09:05,955 Speaker 1: a foreign agent president would actually have to stop him. 130 00:09:06,995 --> 00:09:10,515 Speaker 1: They never thought we would hesitate to stop him. Well, 131 00:09:10,515 --> 00:09:12,435 Speaker 1: we are at another one of those moments in which 132 00:09:12,475 --> 00:09:15,835 Speaker 1: the Democrats have the road plock to at least slow 133 00:09:15,915 --> 00:09:20,835 Speaker 1: Trump down, and Chuck Schumer finally came out yesterday and 134 00:09:20,955 --> 00:09:24,795 Speaker 1: said Senate Democrats are going to use it. But I, 135 00:09:25,235 --> 00:09:28,635 Speaker 1: having been burned a few times this month, will believe 136 00:09:28,675 --> 00:09:30,915 Speaker 1: it when I see it, because some of them may 137 00:09:30,955 --> 00:09:34,475 Speaker 1: not use their power because they'll look mad. Please don't 138 00:09:34,475 --> 00:09:38,275 Speaker 1: put it in the newspaper that we got mad. House 139 00:09:38,315 --> 00:09:42,035 Speaker 1: Republicans passed the let Elon Musk do anything he damn 140 00:09:42,075 --> 00:09:45,595 Speaker 1: well pleases, and stop anybody trying to even investigate him bill, 141 00:09:45,955 --> 00:09:48,795 Speaker 1: the one they dressed up as a continuing reservation to 142 00:09:48,955 --> 00:09:51,555 Speaker 1: fund the government for six months and prevent a shutdown. 143 00:09:52,595 --> 00:09:55,355 Speaker 1: They would need eight votes from Democrats in the Senate 144 00:09:55,395 --> 00:09:58,715 Speaker 1: to get around the filibuster and make this law. They 145 00:09:58,795 --> 00:10:00,875 Speaker 1: could still get them. And if you say, how in 146 00:10:00,875 --> 00:10:02,755 Speaker 1: the hell would that be possible, how in the hell 147 00:10:02,795 --> 00:10:06,995 Speaker 1: did ten Democratic congress people to censure another Democratic Congressman, 148 00:10:08,715 --> 00:10:11,755 Speaker 1: Fetterman said he would vote for it because if you 149 00:10:11,795 --> 00:10:13,955 Speaker 1: want the guy in the government who most looks like 150 00:10:13,995 --> 00:10:17,635 Speaker 1: a foreign agent, foreign as in from the planet of 151 00:10:17,715 --> 00:10:22,435 Speaker 1: the cannimates, it's him. Plus you will never convince me 152 00:10:22,475 --> 00:10:25,555 Speaker 1: he has fully recovered from his stroke. So that's only 153 00:10:25,635 --> 00:10:30,755 Speaker 1: seven more cowards required besides Fetterman. Those seven and Fetterman 154 00:10:30,795 --> 00:10:32,555 Speaker 1: don't really have a strategy as to what to do 155 00:10:32,595 --> 00:10:34,475 Speaker 1: about Trump. They just want to make themselves look good. 156 00:10:34,995 --> 00:10:38,515 Speaker 1: They are all potential Fettermans because they too are here 157 00:10:38,875 --> 00:10:44,515 Speaker 1: to serve Man. The irony is even the Democrats, who 158 00:10:44,555 --> 00:10:46,395 Speaker 1: are prepared to do the right thing, are scared of 159 00:10:46,395 --> 00:10:48,675 Speaker 1: being blamed if there is a government shut down while 160 00:10:48,675 --> 00:10:52,755 Speaker 1: the Republicans are boasting about making a government shut down. 161 00:10:54,275 --> 00:10:57,435 Speaker 1: They are scared because the Republicans theoretically have raised the stakes. 162 00:10:57,475 --> 00:11:00,355 Speaker 1: Oh knows, if the government shuts down, Elon Musk will 163 00:11:00,355 --> 00:11:03,035 Speaker 1: have to fire more government employees and that will be 164 00:11:03,075 --> 00:11:06,475 Speaker 1: the fault of Musk or Trump. No, sir, it's the 165 00:11:06,515 --> 00:11:13,035 Speaker 1: Democrats you're doing it. See if you can follow the 166 00:11:13,155 --> 00:11:18,435 Speaker 1: lack of logic here, the Republicans are not only shutting 167 00:11:18,475 --> 00:11:23,035 Speaker 1: down the government building by building, room by room and 168 00:11:23,195 --> 00:11:28,235 Speaker 1: desk by desk, but they are glorying in it. They 169 00:11:28,315 --> 00:11:32,195 Speaker 1: built a clause into this continuing resolution to protect Elon 170 00:11:32,315 --> 00:11:37,195 Speaker 1: Musk as he fires more government employees. They already are 171 00:11:37,235 --> 00:11:39,675 Speaker 1: shutting down the government, but the Democrats are afraid. If 172 00:11:39,715 --> 00:11:42,275 Speaker 1: the government completely shuts down and the Republicans say the 173 00:11:42,355 --> 00:11:45,635 Speaker 1: Democrats did this, the Democrats won't be able to think 174 00:11:45,675 --> 00:11:48,795 Speaker 1: of a believable answer like, I don't know, the goddamn 175 00:11:48,795 --> 00:11:51,915 Speaker 1: Republicans already shut the effing government down. What the effort 176 00:11:51,995 --> 00:12:00,515 Speaker 1: you talking about? Will Flitzer? So here's an idea when Senate. Democrats, 177 00:12:01,155 --> 00:12:05,835 Speaker 1: any Democrats you at home, when you get add about 178 00:12:05,835 --> 00:12:09,915 Speaker 1: a government shutdown, do what MAGA does. Change the topic 179 00:12:09,995 --> 00:12:14,475 Speaker 1: and yell. Remind the questioner that the bill eliminates any 180 00:12:14,675 --> 00:12:17,555 Speaker 1: chance of the House or the Senate or anybody else 181 00:12:17,835 --> 00:12:24,035 Speaker 1: overriding Elon Musk killing the government and many people who 182 00:12:24,275 --> 00:12:27,675 Speaker 1: rely on the government to stay alive. He is being 183 00:12:27,795 --> 00:12:32,515 Speaker 1: authorized to kill them by remote control and taking the 184 00:12:32,555 --> 00:12:36,955 Speaker 1: cash out of the government. It actually codifies him doing this. 185 00:12:37,395 --> 00:12:40,995 Speaker 1: It is a backfill house and Senate measure confirming him 186 00:12:41,035 --> 00:12:48,795 Speaker 1: as stoned apartheid. Clyde in Chief say something like again, 187 00:12:49,275 --> 00:12:52,595 Speaker 1: just off the top of my head, if Elon Musk 188 00:12:52,675 --> 00:12:55,595 Speaker 1: were a paid Russian agent, he could not do more 189 00:12:55,675 --> 00:13:10,035 Speaker 1: to harm this country than he's doing now. Christ I 190 00:13:10,195 --> 00:13:15,195 Speaker 1: do surprisingly have little shoots of hope for you, little 191 00:13:15,555 --> 00:13:22,315 Speaker 1: crocuses popping up from the march permafrost in media, of course, 192 00:13:22,355 --> 00:13:25,075 Speaker 1: they are popping up through the new piles of manure. 193 00:13:26,115 --> 00:13:29,355 Speaker 1: Gavin Newsom's next career, because he doesn't have one in 194 00:13:29,435 --> 00:13:33,115 Speaker 1: politics anymore, which began with a podcast in which he 195 00:13:33,195 --> 00:13:37,035 Speaker 1: interviewed the anti semi Charlie Kirk, has now proceeded to 196 00:13:37,075 --> 00:13:39,915 Speaker 1: a new interview of the horrible and by the way, 197 00:13:39,995 --> 00:13:42,275 Speaker 1: so out of date lunatic that I really thought he 198 00:13:42,395 --> 00:13:47,835 Speaker 1: was dead already homophobe Michael Savage knee Wiener, and Gavin 199 00:13:47,875 --> 00:13:51,755 Speaker 1: Newsom's next podcast guest will be Steve mannin because Governor 200 00:13:51,795 --> 00:13:54,235 Speaker 1: Newsom didn't like being one of the favorites for the 201 00:13:54,275 --> 00:13:57,835 Speaker 1: Democratic presidential nomination. He apparently always wanted instead to try 202 00:13:57,875 --> 00:14:04,635 Speaker 1: professional suicide. Speaking of podcasts, the loathsome Rom Immanuel now has, 203 00:14:05,195 --> 00:14:07,275 Speaker 1: which he appears to be devoting to telling Democrats to 204 00:14:07,315 --> 00:14:11,235 Speaker 1: stop defending trans athletes and transgendered people and woke issues 205 00:14:11,355 --> 00:14:16,075 Speaker 1: like you know, democracy, and just concentrate on food prices. 206 00:14:17,795 --> 00:14:23,315 Speaker 1: Rom Political Reports is running for president, to which I ask, 207 00:14:23,875 --> 00:14:30,275 Speaker 1: of what country now? The good news Oliver Darcy reports 208 00:14:30,355 --> 00:14:34,235 Speaker 1: that the White House Correspondence Association's mealy mouthed non response 209 00:14:34,275 --> 00:14:38,355 Speaker 1: to Trump pushing around the Associated Press was so mealy 210 00:14:38,395 --> 00:14:41,555 Speaker 1: mouthed that even some members of the White House Correspondent's 211 00:14:41,555 --> 00:14:46,075 Speaker 1: Association have sat up and taken notice. Association President Eugene, 212 00:14:46,275 --> 00:14:48,195 Speaker 1: don't bother me. I'm about to be a TV star. 213 00:14:48,395 --> 00:14:52,675 Speaker 1: Daniels was excoriated by membership on a conference call, and 214 00:14:52,755 --> 00:14:56,075 Speaker 1: he evaded nearly all of their questions, but there is 215 00:14:56,115 --> 00:14:58,875 Speaker 1: now a move a foot to depose him and to 216 00:14:58,915 --> 00:15:01,275 Speaker 1: put somebody else in as president who will make some 217 00:15:01,395 --> 00:15:04,235 Speaker 1: kind of response to Trump before Trump simply cuts to 218 00:15:04,275 --> 00:15:07,995 Speaker 1: the chase and bans all reporters from the White House, 219 00:15:08,715 --> 00:15:12,635 Speaker 1: or from the Eastern time zone or from the country. 220 00:15:13,875 --> 00:15:18,635 Speaker 1: Even more impressively, CBS, Yeah, that's CBS, the un spelled 221 00:15:18,675 --> 00:15:23,755 Speaker 1: CBS has found its hind legs. Turns out late last 222 00:15:23,795 --> 00:15:26,635 Speaker 1: week that company, which was on the verge of completely 223 00:15:26,675 --> 00:15:29,555 Speaker 1: caving to Trump over his blackmail lawsuit about the sixty 224 00:15:29,555 --> 00:15:33,555 Speaker 1: minutes interview with Kamala Harris, instead filed two motions to 225 00:15:33,675 --> 00:15:37,875 Speaker 1: dismiss Trump's amended complaint against them. And then on Monday, 226 00:15:37,955 --> 00:15:41,555 Speaker 1: CBS went to the FCC and its new chief Goebbels. 227 00:15:41,715 --> 00:15:44,195 Speaker 1: I think that's his name. Might be wrong, it might 228 00:15:44,195 --> 00:15:47,275 Speaker 1: be Brendan something. It's hard to keep track of all 229 00:15:47,315 --> 00:15:52,035 Speaker 1: these people. CBS demanded the FCC drop its inquiry into 230 00:15:52,075 --> 00:15:58,155 Speaker 1: the Harris interview, which is after all, an utter fascist, 231 00:15:58,195 --> 00:16:03,075 Speaker 1: pro Trumpist political revenge bullshit investigation, because it quote says, 232 00:16:03,075 --> 00:16:06,155 Speaker 1: CBS completely disregard Yards both the letter and the spirit 233 00:16:06,395 --> 00:16:14,555 Speaker 1: of the Commission's news distortion policy, CBS News, you have 234 00:16:14,715 --> 00:16:20,395 Speaker 1: unsuspected depth for the first time in at least a decade. 235 00:16:21,675 --> 00:16:32,115 Speaker 1: Edward R. Murrow would be proud, speaking of which I 236 00:16:32,155 --> 00:16:35,155 Speaker 1: had the pleasure of attending the first preview of George 237 00:16:35,235 --> 00:16:39,115 Speaker 1: Clooney's new play good Night and good Luck on Broadway 238 00:16:39,195 --> 00:16:42,395 Speaker 1: last night, and Murrow would probably have been proud of 239 00:16:42,435 --> 00:16:45,795 Speaker 1: it too, because it is, like Clooney's movie version of 240 00:16:45,795 --> 00:16:49,355 Speaker 1: twenty years ago, now, a play about Edward R. Murrow 241 00:16:49,835 --> 00:16:53,595 Speaker 1: that is not entirely about Edward R. Murrow. It is 242 00:16:53,635 --> 00:16:58,115 Speaker 1: also artfully and helpfully updated with some creative license, not 243 00:16:58,275 --> 00:17:00,795 Speaker 1: just to the present time, but almost to the present minute. 244 00:17:01,195 --> 00:17:05,515 Speaker 1: The loudest sound all night was the booing that shook 245 00:17:05,555 --> 00:17:09,075 Speaker 1: the Winter Garden Theater when a video montage bridging what 246 00:17:09,275 --> 00:17:12,715 Speaker 1: terrified Murrow about television in his famous nineteen fifty eight 247 00:17:12,835 --> 00:17:16,395 Speaker 1: speech on the subject from that Time to Today ended. 248 00:17:16,635 --> 00:17:20,355 Speaker 1: The last clip in the montage was a shot of 249 00:17:20,435 --> 00:17:28,235 Speaker 1: Elon Musk deafening rabid booing entirely deserved ensued. Other updating 250 00:17:28,355 --> 00:17:31,675 Speaker 1: was done more subtly now. In both versions, Clooney has 251 00:17:31,715 --> 00:17:35,995 Speaker 1: emphasized the tragedy of Don Holland Beck the CBS newscaster 252 00:17:36,275 --> 00:17:39,555 Speaker 1: who was driven to suicide by a right wing TV 253 00:17:39,755 --> 00:17:43,915 Speaker 1: critic in the Hearst newspapers named Jack O'Brien, who persecuted 254 00:17:43,915 --> 00:17:47,355 Speaker 1: Holland Beck as an alleged communist who slanted the news. 255 00:17:48,035 --> 00:17:51,835 Speaker 1: Holland Beck really was as good and as influential as 256 00:17:51,915 --> 00:17:54,675 Speaker 1: Murrow and Cloney have made him out to be, and 257 00:17:54,755 --> 00:17:58,755 Speaker 1: in fact, his signed photo hangs above this microphone as 258 00:17:58,795 --> 00:18:02,475 Speaker 1: I record these commentaries. At one point, Clark Gregg, who 259 00:18:02,515 --> 00:18:05,795 Speaker 1: is superb as Holland Beck, refered on the collapse of 260 00:18:05,835 --> 00:18:08,595 Speaker 1: his personal and professional lives. He says he woke up 261 00:18:08,635 --> 00:18:11,875 Speaker 1: that morning feeling as if somebody had hijacked the last 262 00:18:11,875 --> 00:18:15,675 Speaker 1: three years, and that, among other things, all the sensible 263 00:18:15,715 --> 00:18:20,475 Speaker 1: people had moved away. The laughter of surprise and self 264 00:18:20,515 --> 00:18:25,275 Speaker 1: recognition was spontaneous and unanimous as it died down, greg 265 00:18:25,315 --> 00:18:29,275 Speaker 1: as Holland Beck added to Europe, and now the laughter 266 00:18:29,515 --> 00:18:32,395 Speaker 1: was louder. I would be remiss if I did not 267 00:18:32,555 --> 00:18:36,275 Speaker 1: mention again that video montage of television news. In the play, 268 00:18:36,835 --> 00:18:41,555 Speaker 1: dozens of newscasters, good and horrific and everything in between 269 00:18:41,715 --> 00:18:44,555 Speaker 1: are shown, and at one point there is a brief 270 00:18:44,595 --> 00:18:48,315 Speaker 1: clip of one newscaster who is probably identifiable to only 271 00:18:48,395 --> 00:18:51,755 Speaker 1: a handful of us in that theater. The newscaster was 272 00:18:51,755 --> 00:18:55,475 Speaker 1: from WKRC in Cincinnati, and as when I knew him 273 00:18:55,475 --> 00:19:00,395 Speaker 1: in the eighties, KNBC in Los Angeles. His name is 274 00:19:00,475 --> 00:19:05,075 Speaker 1: Nick Clooney, George's father. As to the stage craw As 275 00:19:05,115 --> 00:19:08,315 Speaker 1: to the play itself, it is a technical and logistical masterpiece, 276 00:19:08,595 --> 00:19:11,155 Speaker 1: with more moving sets than if Broadway tried to make 277 00:19:11,155 --> 00:19:15,755 Speaker 1: a musical out of Star Wars, all of them at once. 278 00:19:16,515 --> 00:19:21,195 Speaker 1: I actually feared the possibility of Murrow's studio colliding with 279 00:19:21,235 --> 00:19:24,515 Speaker 1: one of the giant one hundred foot high descending video 280 00:19:24,635 --> 00:19:29,555 Speaker 1: screens which suddenly appear and show him giving Murrow's commentaries 281 00:19:29,635 --> 00:19:33,755 Speaker 1: live as he recreates them on stage. They really have 282 00:19:33,915 --> 00:19:38,235 Speaker 1: tried also to recreate the film, but a live film, 283 00:19:38,475 --> 00:19:41,395 Speaker 1: and in many parts they've done it better, complete with 284 00:19:41,475 --> 00:19:45,155 Speaker 1: vintage clips of McCarthy and Milo Radulovich and others. They 285 00:19:45,155 --> 00:19:48,115 Speaker 1: have largely succeeded in this effort, and certainly, given that 286 00:19:48,195 --> 00:19:51,115 Speaker 1: this was the first preview, they will get better. But 287 00:19:51,155 --> 00:19:53,555 Speaker 1: of course, the point of a Murrow play in the 288 00:19:53,635 --> 00:19:57,035 Speaker 1: year twenty twenty five is that Murrow took risks that 289 00:19:57,075 --> 00:20:00,755 Speaker 1: were in his time, as great as any risk any broadcaster, 290 00:20:01,195 --> 00:20:06,395 Speaker 1: any politician, or any public figure could take today against Trump. 291 00:20:06,995 --> 00:20:09,755 Speaker 1: To the service of that point, Clooney and his team 292 00:20:09,915 --> 00:20:13,715 Speaker 1: managed a third update to the present day. As Murrow 293 00:20:13,795 --> 00:20:16,675 Speaker 1: giving his nineteen fifty eight speech to news directors in 294 00:20:16,755 --> 00:20:20,195 Speaker 1: Chicago about the future of news, about the future of television, 295 00:20:20,275 --> 00:20:23,195 Speaker 1: about wires and lights in a box. He tells that 296 00:20:23,355 --> 00:20:27,355 Speaker 1: audience and tells the audience in the theater that the 297 00:20:27,435 --> 00:20:30,995 Speaker 1: real question isn't what unbridled power will do to us. 298 00:20:31,275 --> 00:20:35,355 Speaker 1: We've seen that, It is what are we willing to 299 00:20:35,475 --> 00:20:39,595 Speaker 1: do about it? This serves as a reminder that we 300 00:20:39,675 --> 00:20:42,435 Speaker 1: begin to lose all chance of stopping Trump and the 301 00:20:42,475 --> 00:20:45,795 Speaker 1: fascists when we begin to cooperate with them or find 302 00:20:45,875 --> 00:20:49,875 Speaker 1: silver linings in their crimes. I can't think of anything 303 00:20:49,955 --> 00:20:55,155 Speaker 1: I agree with with this, Mahmod Khalil, from beliefs to tactics. 304 00:20:56,115 --> 00:20:58,155 Speaker 1: I have looked at this movement and thought it is 305 00:20:58,195 --> 00:21:02,435 Speaker 1: doing more harm to itself than anybody else could. But 306 00:21:03,515 --> 00:21:09,915 Speaker 1: when we start allowing these trumpest bastards to kidnap Green 307 00:21:10,035 --> 00:21:15,075 Speaker 1: card holders with American wives off the streets of major 308 00:21:15,195 --> 00:21:20,315 Speaker 1: American cities because they are non violent anti Semites, or 309 00:21:20,355 --> 00:21:24,915 Speaker 1: they don't like Israel, or they're protesting American policy. And 310 00:21:24,995 --> 00:21:28,915 Speaker 1: because Trump's whores say they are somehow connected to Hamas 311 00:21:28,955 --> 00:21:32,515 Speaker 1: without offering any proof other than Trump ran promising to 312 00:21:32,515 --> 00:21:34,115 Speaker 1: do this. You elected him so he can do it. 313 00:21:34,155 --> 00:21:37,435 Speaker 1: Then when we start doing that, we've already lost the 314 00:21:37,435 --> 00:21:40,235 Speaker 1: country because the next person to be dragged off will 315 00:21:40,275 --> 00:21:46,155 Speaker 1: be the one on campus protesting Trump. If Marco Efing Rubio, 316 00:21:46,595 --> 00:21:51,315 Speaker 1: whose grandfather was ordered deported from this country sixty years 317 00:21:51,355 --> 00:21:55,235 Speaker 1: ago because he violated immigration law, only the order was 318 00:21:55,275 --> 00:22:00,795 Speaker 1: never enforced and Grandpa was later declared a paro lee. 319 00:22:00,915 --> 00:22:04,315 Speaker 1: If Marco Rubio has a case against Mahmud Khalil, go 320 00:22:04,355 --> 00:22:07,315 Speaker 1: to a grand jury and get him indicted, you bastard. 321 00:22:08,075 --> 00:22:11,555 Speaker 1: After al Rubio is a lawyer in the same way 322 00:22:11,595 --> 00:22:14,795 Speaker 1: he is a Secretary of State because somebody else said 323 00:22:14,835 --> 00:22:19,355 Speaker 1: he is, and you know, somebody else said he is. 324 00:22:19,435 --> 00:22:22,955 Speaker 1: That's fine for the definition of lawyers and Trump whorees 325 00:22:23,475 --> 00:22:26,515 Speaker 1: and Trump poor cabinet members, but it is not enough 326 00:22:26,555 --> 00:22:30,555 Speaker 1: to arrest somebody, even somebody we think hurts this country 327 00:22:30,595 --> 00:22:33,795 Speaker 1: with words. Because if we can start doing that again 328 00:22:34,435 --> 00:22:36,755 Speaker 1: like we did a century ago, when we did it 329 00:22:36,755 --> 00:22:39,755 Speaker 1: to people like Emma Goldman then or now my mood Khaliliel, 330 00:22:40,395 --> 00:22:43,155 Speaker 1: we can start simply doing it to all anti Semites, 331 00:22:43,155 --> 00:22:46,555 Speaker 1: in which case I demand that Ice kidnap and detain 332 00:22:46,715 --> 00:22:51,555 Speaker 1: Candace Owens, Charlie Kirk, all the fundamentalist senators and congressmen 333 00:22:51,635 --> 00:22:54,155 Speaker 1: who only support Israel because they want all the Jews 334 00:22:54,195 --> 00:22:58,275 Speaker 1: converted so they can have their big rapture thing, and 335 00:22:58,435 --> 00:23:04,275 Speaker 1: all other anti Semites in this country, like that guy 336 00:23:04,315 --> 00:23:09,755 Speaker 1: in wa Washington and Florida who quotes Hitler. It said 337 00:23:09,835 --> 00:23:16,035 Speaker 1: Hitler did good things and has Hitler's speeches or at 338 00:23:16,155 --> 00:23:21,315 Speaker 1: least did long ago on his bedside table. That Trump guy. 339 00:23:22,955 --> 00:23:32,675 Speaker 1: This is the new criteria detain Trump without trial. Also 340 00:23:32,715 --> 00:23:35,715 Speaker 1: of interest, here the new souvenir Major League Baseball cap 341 00:23:35,755 --> 00:23:38,435 Speaker 1: with the logo that spells out a vulgar Hispanic term 342 00:23:38,475 --> 00:23:43,835 Speaker 1: for women's breasts. And there's no question of it. Now 343 00:23:43,875 --> 00:23:47,475 Speaker 1: there is an organized campaign to try to make Stephen A. 344 00:23:47,795 --> 00:23:52,955 Speaker 1: Smith into a doesn't make you laugh presidential candidate, mostly 345 00:23:52,995 --> 00:23:58,715 Speaker 1: by insisting he's too modest to ever be a presidential candidate. 346 00:24:01,435 --> 00:24:08,555 Speaker 1: That's next. This is countdown. This is countdown with Keith Olberman. 347 00:24:29,475 --> 00:24:31,755 Speaker 1: Stell ahead on this edition to countdown a story that 348 00:24:31,835 --> 00:24:36,075 Speaker 1: fits with the winner of Today's Worst Person's dishonories, part 349 00:24:36,235 --> 00:24:41,595 Speaker 1: of the saga of how I went from sports simple 350 00:24:41,635 --> 00:24:46,915 Speaker 1: things to politics not so simple things, and why that 351 00:24:47,035 --> 00:24:50,835 Speaker 1: may not be as good an idea as it sounded 352 00:24:50,995 --> 00:24:54,515 Speaker 1: at the time, coming up in Things I Promised not 353 00:24:54,595 --> 00:24:57,795 Speaker 1: to tell first, Believe it or not, there's still more 354 00:24:57,835 --> 00:25:00,275 Speaker 1: new idiots to talk about. The roundup of the miss Grants, 355 00:25:00,275 --> 00:25:04,115 Speaker 1: morons and Dunning Kruger Effects specimens who constitute today's other 356 00:25:05,035 --> 00:25:09,395 Speaker 1: worst persons in the world. Here are the nominees the 357 00:25:09,435 --> 00:25:15,075 Speaker 1: Bronze Worse major League Baseball and it's merch partner New Era. 358 00:25:16,115 --> 00:25:18,635 Speaker 1: They've done it again. The two companies have put out 359 00:25:18,675 --> 00:25:24,075 Speaker 1: another set of grotesquely bad novelty caps using the team logos. 360 00:25:24,075 --> 00:25:30,315 Speaker 1: Well abusing the team logos. These are called overlaps. No, 361 00:25:30,395 --> 00:25:35,235 Speaker 1: they don't have your laps. Overlaps your cost forty five dollars, 362 00:25:35,715 --> 00:25:40,115 Speaker 1: and overlap does not mean overlap between baseball logos and 363 00:25:40,355 --> 00:25:43,155 Speaker 1: anybody having thought about what the new product would actually 364 00:25:43,155 --> 00:25:47,035 Speaker 1: look like. No, the caps have the team or city 365 00:25:47,155 --> 00:25:52,555 Speaker 1: name on them, with the team logo like superimposed atop it. 366 00:25:52,715 --> 00:25:55,955 Speaker 1: Like it would say Yankees, and they don't have the NY. 367 00:25:56,035 --> 00:26:02,075 Speaker 1: The Yankees interlocking logo superimposed or overlapping where they get 368 00:26:02,075 --> 00:26:08,075 Speaker 1: the name overlap from. Needless to say, these caps look 369 00:26:08,235 --> 00:26:14,555 Speaker 1: like a series of automobile accidents. Boston the Red Sox 370 00:26:14,675 --> 00:26:18,275 Speaker 1: Big Red be logo on top of the word Boston, 371 00:26:19,355 --> 00:26:25,155 Speaker 1: so it reads bobon, which makes me think of bubonds 372 00:26:25,195 --> 00:26:30,275 Speaker 1: and bubonds as in bubonic plague. The interlocking SD of 373 00:26:30,315 --> 00:26:33,475 Speaker 1: the San Diego Padres over the word padres that one 374 00:26:33,555 --> 00:26:39,395 Speaker 1: reads pass deess airs an unfortunate one. The H of 375 00:26:39,395 --> 00:26:45,355 Speaker 1: the Houston Astros plus the word Astros reads ass hose 376 00:26:47,035 --> 00:26:53,555 Speaker 1: as big h os ass hose, or maybe as hose 377 00:26:53,755 --> 00:26:56,875 Speaker 1: because that's much better sounding. And worst of all, the 378 00:26:56,915 --> 00:27:00,555 Speaker 1: Texas word mark of the Texas Rangers has their big 379 00:27:00,675 --> 00:27:08,795 Speaker 1: T letter logo overlapping it, so it's spells out te tas, which, 380 00:27:08,835 --> 00:27:12,515 Speaker 1: if you know your colloquial Mexican language, is a word 381 00:27:12,675 --> 00:27:17,715 Speaker 1: in Spanish translating roughly to a vulgarity for women's breasts. 382 00:27:19,595 --> 00:27:22,035 Speaker 1: That one has been removed from sale, but you can 383 00:27:22,075 --> 00:27:27,795 Speaker 1: still buy as hose your price forty five dollars amount 384 00:27:27,835 --> 00:27:31,315 Speaker 1: of time they actually spent thinking about these forty five seconds. 385 00:27:32,715 --> 00:27:35,555 Speaker 1: Lebrons worser. If at first you don't destroy yourself, try 386 00:27:35,555 --> 00:27:39,235 Speaker 1: to try again. Darren Batty fired as a Trump speech 387 00:27:39,235 --> 00:27:42,075 Speaker 1: writer the first time after CNN revealed he had attended 388 00:27:42,075 --> 00:27:45,275 Speaker 1: a conference starring white nationalists. He's on the ropes again. 389 00:27:45,715 --> 00:27:49,515 Speaker 1: Now he's acting under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy. 390 00:27:50,675 --> 00:27:53,995 Speaker 1: CNN has now found tweets of his that wed deleted. 391 00:27:54,355 --> 00:27:56,235 Speaker 1: I will leave out the name of who he's referencing 392 00:27:56,235 --> 00:27:58,635 Speaker 1: here because it'll be way funnier if I do it 393 00:27:58,675 --> 00:28:05,435 Speaker 1: this way, Beatty wrote, quote, forget Wainwright Park, that would 394 00:28:05,435 --> 00:28:07,355 Speaker 1: be a scandal once twisted into a rumor that this 395 00:28:07,435 --> 00:28:11,195 Speaker 1: mister X of ours was gay. Forget the foam that 396 00:28:11,235 --> 00:28:14,035 Speaker 1: would be foam parties at gay bars. Forget the war 397 00:28:14,075 --> 00:28:17,315 Speaker 1: promotion and the Neocon sugar daddies. Forget the low IQ, 398 00:28:17,675 --> 00:28:21,835 Speaker 1: forget the twenty sixteen primary. Mister X is tough on 399 00:28:21,955 --> 00:28:25,715 Speaker 1: China and good for military industrial complex, So be a 400 00:28:25,755 --> 00:28:30,195 Speaker 1: good dog and vote for him. Another tweet about mister X, 401 00:28:30,315 --> 00:28:32,995 Speaker 1: if a bunch of DC wants try to reinvent mister 402 00:28:33,235 --> 00:28:36,155 Speaker 1: X as a nationalist, but a respectable one who promises 403 00:28:36,235 --> 00:28:40,355 Speaker 1: tax credits to Black Lives Matter supporters. That is tough 404 00:28:40,435 --> 00:28:43,275 Speaker 1: on China. Will you be a good dog and vote 405 00:28:43,275 --> 00:28:48,035 Speaker 1: for him? And lastly, what happens in the cabana stays 406 00:28:48,155 --> 00:28:52,995 Speaker 1: in the cabana hashtag, Well, mister X. The guy I'm 407 00:28:52,995 --> 00:28:55,315 Speaker 1: calling mister X, but Darren Beatty of the State Department 408 00:28:55,355 --> 00:29:00,115 Speaker 1: did not, is, of course, Marco Rubio, the Secretary of 409 00:29:00,195 --> 00:29:06,395 Speaker 1: State and Darren Beatty's current boss. Only the best people, 410 00:29:07,475 --> 00:29:10,675 Speaker 1: but our winner the worst. David Smith of the British 411 00:29:10,755 --> 00:29:14,315 Speaker 1: newspaper The Guardian, speculating on the twenty twenty eight American 412 00:29:14,355 --> 00:29:18,355 Speaker 1: presidential race. Mister Smith is the Washington bureau chief of 413 00:29:18,395 --> 00:29:21,515 Speaker 1: the Guardian. He attended college and Leeds in England. He 414 00:29:21,635 --> 00:29:23,995 Speaker 1: was the Africa correspondent for the paper. He moved to 415 00:29:24,075 --> 00:29:26,555 Speaker 1: Washington in twenty fifteen. He got married at the Boat 416 00:29:26,555 --> 00:29:29,475 Speaker 1: House in Central Park, and he still doesn't have a 417 00:29:29,475 --> 00:29:32,395 Speaker 1: clue about the country he now covers. He has devoted 418 00:29:32,435 --> 00:29:37,275 Speaker 1: an entire column to well, just read parts of it 419 00:29:37,475 --> 00:29:42,715 Speaker 1: and then I'll notate or i'll translator answer quote. Stephen A. 420 00:29:42,915 --> 00:29:46,475 Speaker 1: Smith was asked by co host Elissa Farrick Griffin what 421 00:29:46,595 --> 00:29:49,435 Speaker 1: he makes of hypothetical polls that show him among the 422 00:29:49,515 --> 00:29:53,715 Speaker 1: leading contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination in twenty twenty eight. 423 00:29:54,915 --> 00:29:58,155 Speaker 1: Actually it shows him last on the list of contenders 424 00:29:58,155 --> 00:30:01,755 Speaker 1: for the presidential nomination in twenty twenty eight at two percent. 425 00:30:02,795 --> 00:30:06,675 Speaker 1: This wasn't some name, you're none a knee poll. This 426 00:30:06,875 --> 00:30:10,275 Speaker 1: was pick from this list. He finished behind Tim Walls. 427 00:30:10,675 --> 00:30:12,515 Speaker 1: But the premise of this attempt to make people stop 428 00:30:12,555 --> 00:30:16,515 Speaker 1: laughing at Stephen A. Smith president is he's fresh and different. 429 00:30:16,755 --> 00:30:18,915 Speaker 1: We don't want these people we've been nominating lately. And 430 00:30:18,955 --> 00:30:21,915 Speaker 1: I Tim Walls, who is as not as fresh and 431 00:30:22,035 --> 00:30:24,795 Speaker 1: as not as different as you can possibly get, has 432 00:30:24,915 --> 00:30:28,115 Speaker 1: fifty percent more support than Steven A. Smith in a 433 00:30:28,195 --> 00:30:31,475 Speaker 1: closed poll. I mean, if Bozo were on this list, 434 00:30:31,635 --> 00:30:36,635 Speaker 1: he would have finished like fifth. The charismatic sports news 435 00:30:36,715 --> 00:30:39,395 Speaker 1: host has become an unlikely force and a party that 436 00:30:39,475 --> 00:30:46,595 Speaker 1: needs critical friends and fresh ideas. Unquote name one name, 437 00:30:47,355 --> 00:30:54,075 Speaker 1: one fresh idea, Name anybody to whom Steven A. Smith 438 00:30:54,275 --> 00:31:00,075 Speaker 1: in politics is a critical friend. Quote Despite or because 439 00:31:00,115 --> 00:31:05,115 Speaker 1: of his lack of political experience, Smith is emerging jing 440 00:31:05,635 --> 00:31:08,795 Speaker 1: as an unlikely force and a Democratic party badly in 441 00:31:08,875 --> 00:31:14,795 Speaker 1: need of critical friends, fresh ideas, and blunt truth. Telling look, 442 00:31:14,835 --> 00:31:18,395 Speaker 1: this is like the fiftieth story about this nonsense, and 443 00:31:18,875 --> 00:31:23,155 Speaker 1: it uses the idea of critical friends and fresh ideas 444 00:31:23,475 --> 00:31:28,275 Speaker 1: twice in one article fifty stories. At least, I would 445 00:31:28,315 --> 00:31:31,115 Speaker 1: guess Stephen A. Smith has forty nine supporters for president, 446 00:31:32,635 --> 00:31:35,995 Speaker 1: also emerging as an unlikely force two percent in the 447 00:31:36,035 --> 00:31:39,915 Speaker 1: poll you're quoting. That's not a force, that's a margin 448 00:31:39,955 --> 00:31:43,395 Speaker 1: of error. And if that phrase ever applied better to 449 00:31:43,395 --> 00:31:45,115 Speaker 1: anybody that I've ever met, I don't know who could be. 450 00:31:45,155 --> 00:31:48,635 Speaker 1: Maybe Joe Scarborough quote. The idea of him running for 451 00:31:48,635 --> 00:31:52,515 Speaker 1: the White House remains wildly speculative, you bet your ass, 452 00:31:52,555 --> 00:31:55,035 Speaker 1: but speaks volumes about a shift in the US media 453 00:31:55,075 --> 00:31:58,555 Speaker 1: ecosystem and a blurring of the lines between culture, entertainment 454 00:31:58,595 --> 00:32:03,315 Speaker 1: and politics. No, it doesn't. It's something to write about 455 00:32:03,355 --> 00:32:07,915 Speaker 1: while you're killing time until the actual dimensions and areas 456 00:32:07,955 --> 00:32:12,075 Speaker 1: of the twenty twenty eight campaign emerged. I mean this time. 457 00:32:12,115 --> 00:32:17,195 Speaker 1: In the two thousand and eight Republican campaign, Rudy Giuliani 458 00:32:17,315 --> 00:32:22,475 Speaker 1: was the leading Republican by a mile. He got one delegate. Also, 459 00:32:22,515 --> 00:32:27,835 Speaker 1: he's a sportscaster. He's a sportscaster known not for breaking stories, 460 00:32:28,675 --> 00:32:32,235 Speaker 1: nor news, nor providing insight, nor being funny, nor being informative, 461 00:32:32,275 --> 00:32:35,795 Speaker 1: but for killing time, for taking a situation where one 462 00:32:35,875 --> 00:32:40,675 Speaker 1: word would do, and using say, twenty seven and forty 463 00:32:40,675 --> 00:32:42,435 Speaker 1: three of them. That is not a blurring of the 464 00:32:42,435 --> 00:32:45,635 Speaker 1: lines between culture, entertainment and politics. That's a blurring of 465 00:32:45,675 --> 00:32:49,715 Speaker 1: your vision if you try to watch him too long. Quote. 466 00:32:49,755 --> 00:32:54,115 Speaker 1: His fans include Kurt Bardella, a media relations consultant and 467 00:32:54,195 --> 00:32:58,635 Speaker 1: democratic strategist who watches First Take That's the show Smith's 468 00:32:58,675 --> 00:33:03,075 Speaker 1: son religiously. Bardella said, he's out there with passion and charisma, 469 00:33:03,195 --> 00:33:05,915 Speaker 1: and he provokes emotion and converse and debate. He's become 470 00:33:05,955 --> 00:33:11,635 Speaker 1: the singular most influential person in all of sports. Well, 471 00:33:11,915 --> 00:33:16,355 Speaker 1: it may be in basketball. The NFL people will cat 472 00:33:16,555 --> 00:33:20,515 Speaker 1: ESPN kind of kind of laugh at him. I mean, 473 00:33:20,555 --> 00:33:22,635 Speaker 1: I've heard them. I don't want to embarrass them and 474 00:33:22,715 --> 00:33:26,715 Speaker 1: use their names if it's anything else like baseball or 475 00:33:26,755 --> 00:33:31,475 Speaker 1: the Olympics, or god forbid, anything lesser than those levels sports, golf, tennis, 476 00:33:31,515 --> 00:33:34,755 Speaker 1: stuff like that. His biggest insight so far has been 477 00:33:34,795 --> 00:33:37,555 Speaker 1: the phrase, we will be right back to talk more NBA. 478 00:33:38,155 --> 00:33:41,915 Speaker 1: That's what he knows about the other sports. Quote more 479 00:33:41,955 --> 00:33:45,755 Speaker 1: from this Kurt Bardella rather than just dismiss it or 480 00:33:45,795 --> 00:33:48,195 Speaker 1: make fun of it or ignore it, Democrats would be 481 00:33:48,195 --> 00:33:50,795 Speaker 1: wise to study what makes him so successful, because there 482 00:33:50,835 --> 00:33:53,275 Speaker 1: is nobody in the Democratic Party that is as relevant 483 00:33:53,275 --> 00:33:56,475 Speaker 1: a voice on a day to day basis as Stephen A. Smith. 484 00:33:58,195 --> 00:34:01,155 Speaker 1: Kurt Bardella, who used to be a Republican, has to 485 00:34:01,195 --> 00:34:05,355 Speaker 1: show on News Nation, the right wing outlet that pretends 486 00:34:05,355 --> 00:34:09,475 Speaker 1: it's some sort of voice of consensus. Some of its hosts, No, 487 00:34:09,595 --> 00:34:12,315 Speaker 1: it's a scam. No, it's the nick at night of 488 00:34:12,395 --> 00:34:15,795 Speaker 1: TV news, where you go after you get fired, and 489 00:34:15,835 --> 00:34:19,035 Speaker 1: they're just there for the paycheck. Some of them seem 490 00:34:19,075 --> 00:34:22,075 Speaker 1: to think they are actually representatives of the great American middle. 491 00:34:22,595 --> 00:34:27,035 Speaker 1: News Nation is where Andrew Cuomo praises Donald Trump and 492 00:34:27,155 --> 00:34:34,075 Speaker 1: Bill O'Reilly. News Nation is where Kurt Vardella praises Stephen A. Smith. Quote. 493 00:34:34,115 --> 00:34:36,995 Speaker 1: Smith's eloquence and in your face style could be appealing 494 00:34:36,995 --> 00:34:40,715 Speaker 1: to voters in this political moment. Unquote. Now Here in 495 00:34:40,755 --> 00:34:43,875 Speaker 1: this story, the other mister Smith of the Guardian has 496 00:34:43,955 --> 00:34:47,515 Speaker 1: actually broke some news Smith's eloquence and in your face. 497 00:34:48,115 --> 00:34:51,475 Speaker 1: This is the first time the words Stephen A. Smith 498 00:34:51,915 --> 00:34:56,355 Speaker 1: and eloquence have been used, not only in the same sentence, 499 00:34:56,555 --> 00:35:01,195 Speaker 1: but in the same twenty four hour period volume Yes, 500 00:35:02,035 --> 00:35:10,035 Speaker 1: grand eloquence, Yes eloquence. I don't think so. Seriously, What 501 00:35:10,075 --> 00:35:13,675 Speaker 1: the hell's going on here? A man who's resilience I admire. 502 00:35:13,835 --> 00:35:16,635 Speaker 1: He was fired by ESPN, he fought his way back there. 503 00:35:16,755 --> 00:35:19,155 Speaker 1: He's now going to make twenty million a year from them. 504 00:35:19,195 --> 00:35:21,195 Speaker 1: A man whose company I have enjoyed because he and 505 00:35:21,195 --> 00:35:23,675 Speaker 1: I went to a Knicks game once. We said almost 506 00:35:23,715 --> 00:35:26,275 Speaker 1: nothing to each other, just watched and tried to understand 507 00:35:26,315 --> 00:35:28,555 Speaker 1: what we were seeing. But the twelve things he said 508 00:35:28,595 --> 00:35:31,555 Speaker 1: to me were insightful and cogent. A man who beat 509 00:35:31,595 --> 00:35:34,595 Speaker 1: the TV system. He keeps going around saying he's not 510 00:35:34,675 --> 00:35:36,955 Speaker 1: running for president. His agent, Mark Shapiro, one of the 511 00:35:36,995 --> 00:35:40,195 Speaker 1: great and this is a compliment. Huckster showman of all time. 512 00:35:40,395 --> 00:35:42,755 Speaker 1: Mark Shapiro says he's not running for president, and week 513 00:35:42,795 --> 00:35:46,155 Speaker 1: after week there's another story about him running for president, 514 00:35:47,155 --> 00:35:48,995 Speaker 1: and all of a sudden, I'm thinking this is Richard 515 00:35:49,035 --> 00:35:52,395 Speaker 1: the Third refusing the crown and adding the word however 516 00:35:52,515 --> 00:35:57,435 Speaker 1: to it. Only Stephen A. Smith is also doing things 517 00:35:57,475 --> 00:36:01,835 Speaker 1: like complimenting the horrible anti semite Candice Owens on a 518 00:36:01,915 --> 00:36:05,795 Speaker 1: podcast his own podcast, and attacking all the Democratic candidates 519 00:36:05,915 --> 00:36:11,355 Speaker 1: and getting pumped by a guy on News Nation. I 520 00:36:11,395 --> 00:36:15,075 Speaker 1: have only spent four years of this century exclusively in sports, 521 00:36:15,635 --> 00:36:18,635 Speaker 1: But I was one of the most prominent figures in 522 00:36:18,755 --> 00:36:22,395 Speaker 1: TV sports, certainly for the last decade of the previous century. 523 00:36:22,395 --> 00:36:25,235 Speaker 1: And then I was one of the most prominent figures 524 00:36:25,235 --> 00:36:29,355 Speaker 1: in TV political commentary while also being a prominent figure 525 00:36:29,395 --> 00:36:31,115 Speaker 1: in the world of sports for the first fifteen years 526 00:36:31,155 --> 00:36:34,475 Speaker 1: of this century. And guess what, I am not qualified 527 00:36:34,515 --> 00:36:39,395 Speaker 1: to run for president. Not qualified, even with how far 528 00:36:39,675 --> 00:36:42,315 Speaker 1: the bar has been lowered, I know how much I 529 00:36:42,395 --> 00:36:48,915 Speaker 1: don't know. I would not vote for me. This whole 530 00:36:48,955 --> 00:36:52,155 Speaker 1: thing seems to be some sort of attempt to build 531 00:36:52,155 --> 00:36:54,835 Speaker 1: for Stephen one quality I think even he would have been. 532 00:36:54,875 --> 00:36:58,955 Speaker 1: He's never been publicly accused of humility. Oh, he's a 533 00:36:58,955 --> 00:37:01,555 Speaker 1: good guy. I didn't really want to be president. Well 534 00:37:01,595 --> 00:37:03,475 Speaker 1: it's a great strategy, I guess, especially if you're not 535 00:37:03,475 --> 00:37:07,235 Speaker 1: going to be president. It'll help his nonsports podcasts unless 536 00:37:07,235 --> 00:37:10,475 Speaker 1: he keeps having people like Candace Owens and Charlie kirk 537 00:37:10,595 --> 00:37:14,195 Speaker 1: On as guests. I mean, there's still people out there 538 00:37:14,235 --> 00:37:18,315 Speaker 1: who think Trump gave up his business and gave back 539 00:37:18,435 --> 00:37:23,715 Speaker 1: money to become dictator. But political journalists grabbed this third 540 00:37:23,795 --> 00:37:27,275 Speaker 1: rail idea at your peril. You look stupid when you 541 00:37:27,355 --> 00:37:29,835 Speaker 1: talk about it. And by the way, I know he 542 00:37:29,835 --> 00:37:33,795 Speaker 1: hasn't had Charlie Kirk on yet yet he had Candace 543 00:37:33,835 --> 00:37:37,515 Speaker 1: Owens on. Charlie kirk is a step up from Candace Owens, 544 00:37:38,955 --> 00:37:42,555 Speaker 1: especially when, like The Guardian, the headline to the David 545 00:37:42,595 --> 00:37:48,875 Speaker 1: Smith article reads, quote you ready democrats are reeling? Is 546 00:37:48,915 --> 00:37:54,155 Speaker 1: Stephen A. Smith the way back to the White House? No? 547 00:37:56,075 --> 00:38:03,195 Speaker 1: David Smith and the Guardian No two days worst persons 548 00:38:05,035 --> 00:38:24,875 Speaker 1: in the world to the number one story on the 549 00:38:24,915 --> 00:38:26,995 Speaker 1: countdown and things I promised not to tell. And the 550 00:38:27,075 --> 00:38:29,595 Speaker 1: further I get away from the day I left NBC, 551 00:38:30,435 --> 00:38:36,275 Speaker 1: the more I realize that almost everybody there and many 552 00:38:36,275 --> 00:38:43,115 Speaker 1: who are still there, was crazy remains crazy. It is 553 00:38:43,155 --> 00:38:47,755 Speaker 1: a nest for aggressive ingratitude and the rewriting of history 554 00:38:47,755 --> 00:38:50,115 Speaker 1: to make sure that everybody who is a success did 555 00:38:50,155 --> 00:38:54,875 Speaker 1: it all on their own, sprang fully grown from the ground, 556 00:38:55,275 --> 00:39:01,075 Speaker 1: and nobody owes anybody anything. And those are the good parts. 557 00:39:01,635 --> 00:39:04,515 Speaker 1: Then there are the really crazy people, the ones who 558 00:39:04,555 --> 00:39:08,035 Speaker 1: are are in charge of covering the election, the ones 559 00:39:08,035 --> 00:39:11,995 Speaker 1: who laid the groundwork years ago for the bottomless pit 560 00:39:12,115 --> 00:39:16,155 Speaker 1: that American news media has fallen into, particularly the curse 561 00:39:16,195 --> 00:39:21,675 Speaker 1: that will, if not corrected, kill us all both sides 562 00:39:21,875 --> 00:39:31,835 Speaker 1: ism Chuck Todd disease, sadly, Katie Turrer disease outside of 563 00:39:31,875 --> 00:39:37,235 Speaker 1: the NBC, Chrystalizid disease, Ryan Lizzid disease, New York Times, 564 00:39:37,235 --> 00:39:43,875 Speaker 1: at this Ohio diner disease. It started with the scumbag 565 00:39:43,955 --> 00:39:50,115 Speaker 1: Roger Ayles at Fox News, It migrated to ken Starr 566 00:39:50,195 --> 00:39:54,995 Speaker 1: and the Bill Clinton prosecution, and it then became, after 567 00:39:55,035 --> 00:39:59,035 Speaker 1: the sufficient number of refs were worked, the we can't 568 00:39:59,035 --> 00:40:01,715 Speaker 1: dismiss these sleeze balls on the right because even if 569 00:40:01,715 --> 00:40:05,475 Speaker 1: they are sleeves balls, they have public support. We need 570 00:40:05,515 --> 00:40:10,075 Speaker 1: every viewer we can get. It's a declining marketplace. Instead 571 00:40:10,115 --> 00:40:13,715 Speaker 1: of saying what American News once said to the sleeze 572 00:40:13,715 --> 00:40:17,315 Speaker 1: balls of any party like Joe McCarthy or Father Coughlin 573 00:40:17,395 --> 00:40:20,315 Speaker 1: or any of the others, which was screw you, We're 574 00:40:20,315 --> 00:40:23,355 Speaker 1: gonna write or broadcast about your perfidy every day until 575 00:40:23,355 --> 00:40:27,835 Speaker 1: you die, they looked at ken Starr's read thin persecution 576 00:40:27,875 --> 00:40:30,715 Speaker 1: of Bill Clinton and said, well, no, they've found nothing 577 00:40:31,075 --> 00:40:33,915 Speaker 1: in two months, in six months, in two years. But 578 00:40:34,195 --> 00:40:36,875 Speaker 1: what if they find something later and it turns out 579 00:40:36,915 --> 00:40:39,475 Speaker 1: we opposed them and we were wrong. We'll get killed 580 00:40:39,515 --> 00:40:43,275 Speaker 1: by right wing media and our fascist bosses like Bob Wright, 581 00:40:45,795 --> 00:40:48,755 Speaker 1: ken Starr and his thugs who went after Bill Clinton 582 00:40:49,035 --> 00:40:52,355 Speaker 1: played the American news media, especially TV news, like the 583 00:40:52,475 --> 00:40:57,435 Speaker 1: proverbial two dollars banjo. No news in the Clinton Lewinsky scandal, 584 00:40:57,515 --> 00:41:00,835 Speaker 1: no problem. A quick phone call Alisa Meyers at NBC 585 00:41:01,035 --> 00:41:04,515 Speaker 1: or any of several correspondents at CNNABC or CBS, or 586 00:41:04,675 --> 00:41:08,395 Speaker 1: anybody at Fox, and suddenly there was breaking news and 587 00:41:08,475 --> 00:41:11,675 Speaker 1: another alleged victim ready to do a tiery on camera 588 00:41:11,755 --> 00:41:15,635 Speaker 1: interview which had already aired a dozen times with clips 589 00:41:15,675 --> 00:41:20,035 Speaker 1: on every network before anybody realized the alleged victim hadn't 590 00:41:20,035 --> 00:41:26,715 Speaker 1: actually alleged anything. It was putrid, but worse, it was profitable. 591 00:41:27,675 --> 00:41:32,475 Speaker 1: And if you questioned it, if you said, this isn't journalism, 592 00:41:32,755 --> 00:41:36,555 Speaker 1: the other networks, the other newspapers, the others invested in 593 00:41:36,595 --> 00:41:39,755 Speaker 1: this story. A real time twenty four to seven soap 594 00:41:39,795 --> 00:41:44,235 Speaker 1: opera would go do any length to attack you. And 595 00:41:44,275 --> 00:41:48,635 Speaker 1: what would your own network do? Hell sir, That's why 596 00:41:48,675 --> 00:41:51,915 Speaker 1: I wanted to tell this story in full, I haven't before. 597 00:41:52,715 --> 00:41:56,355 Speaker 1: Almost by accident, I had become the face of the 598 00:41:56,395 --> 00:42:00,075 Speaker 1: star Clinton Lewinsky story on cable news early in nineteen 599 00:42:00,155 --> 00:42:03,715 Speaker 1: ninety eight, and one day I had enough. I decided 600 00:42:03,755 --> 00:42:06,835 Speaker 1: to get out, and the reaction at NBC News was 601 00:42:06,915 --> 00:42:11,715 Speaker 1: to try to prevent me from leaving. It was going 602 00:42:11,755 --> 00:42:16,155 Speaker 1: to be a hostage situation, to literally threaten my career, 603 00:42:16,435 --> 00:42:20,595 Speaker 1: my income, my future, my family, to try to force 604 00:42:20,715 --> 00:42:25,235 Speaker 1: me to keep working there, to keep pushing whatever Ken 605 00:42:25,355 --> 00:42:30,955 Speaker 1: Starr was cooking. Until you were in the middle of that, 606 00:42:30,995 --> 00:42:35,075 Speaker 1: you can never really imagine what television executives will do 607 00:42:35,275 --> 00:42:38,755 Speaker 1: for ratings or money. I think sometimes they are worse 608 00:42:38,795 --> 00:42:42,835 Speaker 1: than politicians. By that point, I had been in TV 609 00:42:42,875 --> 00:42:45,355 Speaker 1: for sixteen years. I was already thirty nine years old, 610 00:42:45,915 --> 00:42:48,595 Speaker 1: I had some gray hair, I'd already been through the 611 00:42:48,635 --> 00:42:52,395 Speaker 1: grinding machinery of local news in Boston and Los Angeles. 612 00:42:53,155 --> 00:42:56,035 Speaker 1: I had already made my mark on SportsCenter and moved on. 613 00:42:56,195 --> 00:43:00,795 Speaker 1: I thought I had seen it all, ha ha, dumb me. 614 00:43:01,635 --> 00:43:06,195 Speaker 1: I had not, however, seen NBC News president Andrew Lack 615 00:43:07,315 --> 00:43:10,875 Speaker 1: nor had I imagined that he would actually have ready 616 00:43:10,915 --> 00:43:15,035 Speaker 1: to go at a moment's notice, an employee who would 617 00:43:15,075 --> 00:43:18,475 Speaker 1: be willing to try to blackmail me literally threatened to 618 00:43:18,555 --> 00:43:21,795 Speaker 1: bankrupt me and my parents and put them, as Lack's 619 00:43:21,795 --> 00:43:27,715 Speaker 1: employee phrased it, quote on the street. This was in 620 00:43:27,755 --> 00:43:30,155 Speaker 1: the spring of nineteen ninety eight. As I said, I 621 00:43:30,195 --> 00:43:32,235 Speaker 1: had decided I didn't want to do the nightly show 622 00:43:32,275 --> 00:43:36,115 Speaker 1: anymore that was devoted to covering the Bill Clinton Monica 623 00:43:36,195 --> 00:43:39,675 Speaker 1: Lewinsky story, whether there was any news about it that 624 00:43:39,755 --> 00:43:43,195 Speaker 1: day or not, and especially since the network was devoted 625 00:43:43,195 --> 00:43:47,075 Speaker 1: to portraying the Clinton Lewinski story as the worst thing 626 00:43:47,115 --> 00:43:50,995 Speaker 1: to happen to America since the Civil War. The problem 627 00:43:51,195 --> 00:43:54,595 Speaker 1: was the shows I did for Andy Lack's MSNBC in 628 00:43:54,715 --> 00:43:57,795 Speaker 1: nineteen ninety eight. They were making millions of dollars a 629 00:43:57,835 --> 00:44:02,395 Speaker 1: week in profit, and the rest of the network was 630 00:44:02,555 --> 00:44:07,115 Speaker 1: losing money. It had I've never had ratings before. I 631 00:44:07,435 --> 00:44:13,435 Speaker 1: wanted to do something else, something else, anything else, fifty 632 00:44:13,475 --> 00:44:18,715 Speaker 1: percent Lewinski, fifty percent, something else inside NBC. Failing that 633 00:44:18,875 --> 00:44:21,595 Speaker 1: outside NBC, stay in New is, go back to sports, 634 00:44:21,755 --> 00:44:24,155 Speaker 1: do it in New York, go to Los Angeles, anything 635 00:44:24,235 --> 00:44:28,835 Speaker 1: except the show as it was constituted. So, through his personnel, 636 00:44:28,915 --> 00:44:33,395 Speaker 1: Vice president, Elena Nackmanoff, an otherwise fairly pleasant person. There 637 00:44:33,435 --> 00:44:35,635 Speaker 1: came a message from Andy Lack in May of nineteen 638 00:44:35,715 --> 00:44:39,555 Speaker 1: ninety eight. If you go see our personnel consultant, a 639 00:44:39,595 --> 00:44:42,835 Speaker 1: woman named Deborah Byrne, and you talk to her frankly, 640 00:44:43,755 --> 00:44:52,435 Speaker 1: we will consider letting you leave NBC immediately. I went 641 00:44:53,875 --> 00:44:57,435 Speaker 1: first off, Elena Nackmanoff told me on Friday afternoon, June fifth, 642 00:44:57,515 --> 00:45:00,155 Speaker 1: nineteen ninety eight, some of us understand where you're coming from, 643 00:45:00,155 --> 00:45:02,755 Speaker 1: about the madness of covering this scandal every night like this. 644 00:45:02,955 --> 00:45:05,715 Speaker 1: So you're the good sport, a war winner for doing 645 00:45:05,755 --> 00:45:09,635 Speaker 1: this today, Keith, you'll like Deborah Byurn. She's a certified 646 00:45:09,755 --> 00:45:12,595 Speaker 1: social worker, and she's done great things for us. She 647 00:45:12,795 --> 00:45:15,035 Speaker 1: saved a lot of people who were in trouble. I 648 00:45:15,075 --> 00:45:18,235 Speaker 1: don't mean ethical crises like yours, Keith. I mean people 649 00:45:18,235 --> 00:45:22,675 Speaker 1: who were passed out drunk at their desks. I didn't 650 00:45:22,675 --> 00:45:25,755 Speaker 1: stop to ask her, which she thought was worse. In 651 00:45:25,795 --> 00:45:28,555 Speaker 1: any event, Elena walked me through a labyrinth of hallways 652 00:45:28,595 --> 00:45:30,435 Speaker 1: at thirty Rock in New York to the office of 653 00:45:30,435 --> 00:45:34,755 Speaker 1: this Deborah burn She was a bespectacled, bent looking woman 654 00:45:34,795 --> 00:45:39,235 Speaker 1: of about sixty with badly dyed hair and a fiercely 655 00:45:39,315 --> 00:45:44,315 Speaker 1: aggressive handshake. She was not big, but frankly, I was 656 00:45:44,315 --> 00:45:46,155 Speaker 1: not convinced I could take her in a fight if 657 00:45:46,195 --> 00:45:48,795 Speaker 1: it came to that. And from the get go her 658 00:45:48,835 --> 00:45:52,635 Speaker 1: manager suggested it might come to that. I am not 659 00:45:52,675 --> 00:45:55,595 Speaker 1: an employee of NBC or MSNBC, and I'm not beholden 660 00:45:55,635 --> 00:46:00,275 Speaker 1: to them. Deborah Burn began loudly and too quickly. I 661 00:46:00,315 --> 00:46:02,515 Speaker 1: work on a contractual basis, meaning I don't get ten 662 00:46:02,555 --> 00:46:04,635 Speaker 1: percent of anything, and I don't get money for attracting 663 00:46:04,675 --> 00:46:08,595 Speaker 1: more business. It was clear whatever money they gave her, 664 00:46:08,635 --> 00:46:11,955 Speaker 1: it did not go to office decorps. There were a 665 00:46:11,995 --> 00:46:16,835 Speaker 1: dozen filing cabinets, no windows, two lamps, her high back chair, 666 00:46:17,195 --> 00:46:20,475 Speaker 1: a metal desk, and the plain wooden chair at its 667 00:46:20,515 --> 00:46:23,675 Speaker 1: side on which I was instructed to sit. I'm not 668 00:46:23,675 --> 00:46:26,235 Speaker 1: here to be critical of NBC or MSNBC or Andy Lack. 669 00:46:26,355 --> 00:46:28,035 Speaker 1: I'm not here to be critical of you. I'm an 670 00:46:28,075 --> 00:46:33,035 Speaker 1: impartial observer and I'm simply here to help nackman off. 671 00:46:33,035 --> 00:46:35,635 Speaker 1: The talent vice president was still there, and Burn turned 672 00:46:35,675 --> 00:46:38,155 Speaker 1: to her for the record. Elena, I need you to 673 00:46:38,195 --> 00:46:44,515 Speaker 1: describe the company's position about Keith's employment Keith, Elena said, 674 00:46:44,595 --> 00:46:46,915 Speaker 1: understands that if he chooses not to work for NBC 675 00:46:47,195 --> 00:46:49,715 Speaker 1: as NBC wants him to work, he will have to 676 00:46:50,355 --> 00:46:56,155 Speaker 1: face consequences. Now, this was a slightly changed story from 677 00:46:56,195 --> 00:46:59,115 Speaker 1: the one Elena Knackmanoff had given me even minutes earlier. 678 00:47:00,395 --> 00:47:02,315 Speaker 1: The one she had given me in her own office. 679 00:47:02,595 --> 00:47:07,395 Speaker 1: Gone was the good sport a war winner crap. Obviously, 680 00:47:07,955 --> 00:47:10,555 Speaker 1: she said, We're not going to release you from your contract, Keith. 681 00:47:10,675 --> 00:47:12,315 Speaker 1: If you want to be on the beach for the 682 00:47:12,355 --> 00:47:17,195 Speaker 1: next two years plus whatever remains after that, so be it. 683 00:47:18,235 --> 00:47:24,715 Speaker 1: That's his contract status. Deborah with a crisp thanks. Deborah 684 00:47:24,715 --> 00:47:28,395 Speaker 1: burn now dismissed the vice president of NBC News who left. 685 00:47:29,155 --> 00:47:32,715 Speaker 1: Burne produced and opened and improbably large folder with my 686 00:47:32,915 --> 00:47:36,115 Speaker 1: name on it in improbably large letters, so I could 687 00:47:36,195 --> 00:47:40,675 Speaker 1: see they had a folder on me ostentatiously shuffled quickly 688 00:47:40,755 --> 00:47:43,835 Speaker 1: through one hundred assorted documents, got to a blank form 689 00:47:43,915 --> 00:47:46,555 Speaker 1: of some kind, and asked me to describe the circumstances 690 00:47:46,635 --> 00:47:50,555 Speaker 1: that had brought me into her office. I explained I 691 00:47:50,675 --> 00:47:53,675 Speaker 1: was asked to come in. I also explained my conviction 692 00:47:53,795 --> 00:47:55,835 Speaker 1: that I had made a complete mistake going into News 693 00:47:55,875 --> 00:47:58,475 Speaker 1: in the first place that I missed doing sports, and 694 00:47:58,675 --> 00:48:00,875 Speaker 1: on top of all that, there had now emerged this 695 00:48:01,035 --> 00:48:03,755 Speaker 1: new kind of news, which I felt was against my 696 00:48:03,875 --> 00:48:06,955 Speaker 1: personal ethics and beliefs about what I should be doing, 697 00:48:07,515 --> 00:48:10,555 Speaker 1: or in fact, what the media should be doing. I 698 00:48:10,675 --> 00:48:13,635 Speaker 1: threw in the word pollution a couple of times. Very 699 00:48:13,755 --> 00:48:17,195 Speaker 1: grand of me, I thought. She didn't look up at me. 700 00:48:17,275 --> 00:48:20,275 Speaker 1: Once all of media is becoming polluted in the way 701 00:48:20,275 --> 00:48:24,035 Speaker 1: you've described. She yanked off her glasses and staring at me, 702 00:48:24,155 --> 00:48:26,635 Speaker 1: not with anger, but with annoyance. You should learn how 703 00:48:26,675 --> 00:48:28,395 Speaker 1: to live with it. It'll be a lot easier for 704 00:48:28,435 --> 00:48:30,955 Speaker 1: everybody if you just do that. You're not a child. 705 00:48:31,035 --> 00:48:33,355 Speaker 1: Grow up. Maybe next time you'll learn to read the 706 00:48:33,395 --> 00:48:37,595 Speaker 1: contract before you sign it. I had to fight a smile. 707 00:48:38,555 --> 00:48:43,875 Speaker 1: This wasn't some sort of counselor. This was Andy Lack's enforcer. 708 00:48:46,195 --> 00:48:50,435 Speaker 1: She'd be threatening to break my legs before we were done. 709 00:48:50,675 --> 00:48:57,075 Speaker 1: They might bring in Brokaw to narrate it. I did 710 00:48:57,115 --> 00:49:02,475 Speaker 1: read the contract thoroughly, I said, suppressing my laughter. This 711 00:49:02,515 --> 00:49:05,635 Speaker 1: isn't about the contract. This is about my morals and 712 00:49:05,875 --> 00:49:09,075 Speaker 1: nobody else's morals, I said, not NBC's not mister Lax. 713 00:49:09,515 --> 00:49:13,155 Speaker 1: Just mine. I don't like the way the news industry 714 00:49:13,195 --> 00:49:15,595 Speaker 1: is handling this story. I have no delusion about being 715 00:49:15,635 --> 00:49:17,715 Speaker 1: able to change the news industry. I don't even feel 716 00:49:17,755 --> 00:49:20,195 Speaker 1: it's my responsibility to try to change the news industry. 717 00:49:20,275 --> 00:49:24,115 Speaker 1: This is about my ethics and my incorrect choices related 718 00:49:24,155 --> 00:49:28,555 Speaker 1: to TV news and TV sports. Now, she put her 719 00:49:28,595 --> 00:49:32,235 Speaker 1: glasses back on. She wrote some notes. She chuckled as 720 00:49:32,275 --> 00:49:35,395 Speaker 1: she wrote them. You may indeed miss sports as you 721 00:49:35,475 --> 00:49:37,995 Speaker 1: put it, and you may feel that sincerely, but it's 722 00:49:38,075 --> 00:49:41,555 Speaker 1: nonetheless an adolescent fantasy. And as to the pollution of 723 00:49:41,595 --> 00:49:44,195 Speaker 1: the media, that's also part of this fantasy world you 724 00:49:44,275 --> 00:49:46,155 Speaker 1: live in. You're grown up now, and you have to 725 00:49:46,355 --> 00:49:48,555 Speaker 1: live with the consequences of your actions. You heard what 726 00:49:48,595 --> 00:49:51,355 Speaker 1: Elena said. If you try to break this contract, NBC 727 00:49:51,475 --> 00:49:55,115 Speaker 1: will punish you severely. This is David and Goliath here, Keith, 728 00:49:55,115 --> 00:49:59,875 Speaker 1: and you're just not seeing it. I started to reply 729 00:50:00,035 --> 00:50:02,915 Speaker 1: something about how I had come down there as there's 730 00:50:02,955 --> 00:50:05,555 Speaker 1: a gesture of compromise that there quest and then she 731 00:50:05,635 --> 00:50:09,635 Speaker 1: shouted me down. You'll have to learn to compromise. She 732 00:50:09,675 --> 00:50:12,155 Speaker 1: emphasized the word as if I had not only not 733 00:50:12,475 --> 00:50:15,435 Speaker 1: just said it, but as if she had just invented it. 734 00:50:16,395 --> 00:50:18,355 Speaker 1: This is what the company wants, this is what the 735 00:50:18,395 --> 00:50:21,515 Speaker 1: audience wants, and you signed the contract. That's your responsibility. 736 00:50:21,635 --> 00:50:24,475 Speaker 1: I've been an NBC employee for twenty years, and they're 737 00:50:24,595 --> 00:50:27,195 Speaker 1: very big, and they're very successful, and they just won't 738 00:50:27,235 --> 00:50:29,995 Speaker 1: sit idly by. This will be David and Goliath, and 739 00:50:30,035 --> 00:50:31,795 Speaker 1: I'm very sorry to have to break it to you, 740 00:50:32,035 --> 00:50:37,755 Speaker 1: but you are not Goliath. I asked her why she 741 00:50:37,835 --> 00:50:41,115 Speaker 1: had just said she'd been an NBC employee for twenty years. 742 00:50:41,115 --> 00:50:43,235 Speaker 1: Two minutes after telling me that she was not an 743 00:50:43,315 --> 00:50:49,395 Speaker 1: NBC employee, she looked at me. She snickered. She wrote 744 00:50:49,395 --> 00:50:53,235 Speaker 1: that down too, Otherwise, she just kept talking. Television viewers 745 00:50:53,235 --> 00:50:55,275 Speaker 1: are fickle, and if you're off the air for two years, 746 00:50:55,275 --> 00:50:57,635 Speaker 1: it'll be real difficult to get back on. People will 747 00:50:57,635 --> 00:51:03,235 Speaker 1: forget you. That's the real world now. Deborah Byrn paused 748 00:51:03,275 --> 00:51:08,155 Speaker 1: and looked over at nothing over in the corner of 749 00:51:08,195 --> 00:51:13,915 Speaker 1: the room. I have a daughter who isn't realistic, she 750 00:51:14,035 --> 00:51:18,435 Speaker 1: suddenly whispered, just like you, lives in a world of 751 00:51:18,435 --> 00:51:22,155 Speaker 1: her own. She judges others and moralizes to them too. 752 00:51:22,955 --> 00:51:27,675 Speaker 1: She's tall like you too. It's difficult for parents to 753 00:51:27,715 --> 00:51:30,915 Speaker 1: have to look up at their children and discipline them. 754 00:51:32,155 --> 00:51:34,795 Speaker 1: Your height has always made it difficult for your parents 755 00:51:35,035 --> 00:51:45,035 Speaker 1: to discipline you. Thus you remain headstrong child. The defeat 756 00:51:45,075 --> 00:51:48,275 Speaker 1: in her voice was total and as disturbing as that, 757 00:51:48,835 --> 00:51:51,475 Speaker 1: and this whole line was getting I really did think 758 00:51:51,515 --> 00:51:54,235 Speaker 1: somebody was gonna pop out from between those filing cabinets 759 00:51:54,315 --> 00:51:56,675 Speaker 1: to tell me I'd been punked, or that this was 760 00:51:56,715 --> 00:52:01,835 Speaker 1: a remake of Candid Camera or something. I patiently explained 761 00:52:01,835 --> 00:52:04,115 Speaker 1: to Deborah Burn that I had not been born at 762 00:52:04,115 --> 00:52:06,155 Speaker 1: my current home of six three and a half inches, 763 00:52:07,275 --> 00:52:12,435 Speaker 1: that in fact, my mother was taller than me until 764 00:52:12,475 --> 00:52:16,195 Speaker 1: I was probably twelve thirteen years old. That my father 765 00:52:16,395 --> 00:52:19,235 Speaker 1: was still taller than me until I got to college. 766 00:52:19,355 --> 00:52:22,435 Speaker 1: But your mother is short, she blurted, with great satisfaction. 767 00:52:22,515 --> 00:52:25,035 Speaker 1: I need descriptions of your parents, of their personalities, for 768 00:52:25,195 --> 00:52:28,915 Speaker 1: my diagnosis, and please stop giving me your obviously prepared answers. 769 00:52:31,275 --> 00:52:33,515 Speaker 1: I was still trying at this point. I started to 770 00:52:33,555 --> 00:52:36,755 Speaker 1: describe my parents. She cut me off. Father passive, of course, 771 00:52:38,075 --> 00:52:40,715 Speaker 1: this time I actually couldn't stop laughing. I said that 772 00:52:40,795 --> 00:52:43,035 Speaker 1: was not my father at all, that he usually did 773 00:52:43,115 --> 00:52:47,155 Speaker 1: what he damned well pleased. This annoyed Debora Burn. No, 774 00:52:47,315 --> 00:52:50,275 Speaker 1: he's passive. I can tell I'm a professional Keith. He 775 00:52:50,315 --> 00:52:52,435 Speaker 1: didn't stand up to your mother, did he. He never 776 00:52:52,475 --> 00:52:54,595 Speaker 1: told her to grow up or act her age? Did he? 777 00:52:54,755 --> 00:52:58,475 Speaker 1: That means he was passive. I could see her writing 778 00:52:58,555 --> 00:53:01,515 Speaker 1: the word passive in block letters on one of the 779 00:53:01,555 --> 00:53:04,555 Speaker 1: forms in which she'd been putting her notes. She's done 780 00:53:04,875 --> 00:53:08,515 Speaker 1: detached this page theatrically. She stuck it into the large 781 00:53:08,635 --> 00:53:11,115 Speaker 1: pile of documents on the top of the thing, and 782 00:53:11,155 --> 00:53:14,595 Speaker 1: she grabbed a fresh page from a stack to her right. 783 00:53:14,675 --> 00:53:18,835 Speaker 1: What about your parents' finances, I explained, they were both retired, 784 00:53:18,995 --> 00:53:21,715 Speaker 1: so you take care of them. I began to answer 785 00:53:21,715 --> 00:53:24,315 Speaker 1: that they were both extremely independent, when she cut me 786 00:53:24,355 --> 00:53:27,395 Speaker 1: off again. I said, so you are responsible for them financially, 787 00:53:27,555 --> 00:53:32,635 Speaker 1: don't evade me. My amusement at this obviously deranged woman 788 00:53:33,155 --> 00:53:37,715 Speaker 1: now began to be overcome by anger. I swallowed both 789 00:53:37,755 --> 00:53:41,555 Speaker 1: the anger and the amusement, and I explained I handled 790 00:53:41,635 --> 00:53:45,955 Speaker 1: their finances, so you're their sole financial support, just as 791 00:53:45,955 --> 00:53:52,515 Speaker 1: Elena and Nachmanoff's report to me indicates. I thought, so, 792 00:53:52,515 --> 00:53:57,715 Speaker 1: so you're the superstar in the family, are you. I 793 00:53:57,795 --> 00:54:02,075 Speaker 1: began to try to bring us back to this planet. 794 00:54:02,355 --> 00:54:04,995 Speaker 1: When Deborah Byurn rose in her chair and leaned in 795 00:54:05,035 --> 00:54:09,875 Speaker 1: toward me and tell me, Keith, what exactly will your 796 00:54:09,915 --> 00:54:13,155 Speaker 1: parents do for money? What will keep them from being 797 00:54:13,235 --> 00:54:19,115 Speaker 1: out on the street when their precious superstar is blacklisted 798 00:54:19,155 --> 00:54:26,155 Speaker 1: from television? This purported social worker who worked for NBC 799 00:54:26,315 --> 00:54:30,435 Speaker 1: or didn't work for NBC, or maybe both, depending on 800 00:54:30,475 --> 00:54:34,595 Speaker 1: which minute it was, went into detail about the threat 801 00:54:34,675 --> 00:54:38,875 Speaker 1: she was now making on behalf of NBC News MSNBC, 802 00:54:39,315 --> 00:54:44,475 Speaker 1: Andy lack Lanna nackman Off, and our corporate parent ge. 803 00:54:44,595 --> 00:54:49,035 Speaker 1: Even if I simply quit the Clinton Lewinsky Show, indeed 804 00:54:49,115 --> 00:54:53,195 Speaker 1: quit television, NBC would declare that my contract was still 805 00:54:53,235 --> 00:54:56,795 Speaker 1: in force. It would suspend me, It would not pay me. 806 00:54:57,155 --> 00:54:59,275 Speaker 1: It would then sue me for the salary it had 807 00:54:59,315 --> 00:55:01,515 Speaker 1: already paid me. Then it would sue me for the 808 00:55:01,555 --> 00:55:03,995 Speaker 1: money it had spent on promoting the show. Then it 809 00:55:04,035 --> 00:55:08,075 Speaker 1: would get a co order extending my contracts indefinitely until 810 00:55:08,075 --> 00:55:10,955 Speaker 1: the suspension ended, and then it would suspend me some more. 811 00:55:12,075 --> 00:55:17,195 Speaker 1: Let that sink in, she said, first time I ever 812 00:55:17,195 --> 00:55:19,675 Speaker 1: heard that phrase, Let that sink in. And then she 813 00:55:19,715 --> 00:55:21,555 Speaker 1: didn't even pause for a second to let me let 814 00:55:21,555 --> 00:55:25,355 Speaker 1: that sink in Instead, she burst out with this, the 815 00:55:25,435 --> 00:55:27,955 Speaker 1: greatest of all the non secutors on a day of 816 00:55:28,075 --> 00:55:32,475 Speaker 1: non sequiturs, you have what I would classify as a 817 00:55:32,595 --> 00:55:36,915 Speaker 1: Howard Stern kind of personality. Well now I was back 818 00:55:36,955 --> 00:55:39,155 Speaker 1: to actually biting my tongue to keep from laughing at 819 00:55:39,155 --> 00:55:41,755 Speaker 1: the image of a bunch of therapists at a conference somewhere, 820 00:55:41,955 --> 00:55:48,075 Speaker 1: dryly discussing the parameters of the Howard Stern kind of personality, Dogmatic, unbending, 821 00:55:48,235 --> 00:55:50,755 Speaker 1: presenting absolutely forceful opinions on the air that no one 822 00:55:50,795 --> 00:55:53,115 Speaker 1: is permitted to disagree with. Imagine going on a date 823 00:55:53,155 --> 00:55:59,115 Speaker 1: with Howard Stern. I tried not to. All he would 824 00:55:59,155 --> 00:56:01,475 Speaker 1: be doing would be talking about himself. It would be unbearable. 825 00:56:01,595 --> 00:56:03,115 Speaker 1: You're like him on the air, and I can see 826 00:56:03,115 --> 00:56:05,075 Speaker 1: that who you are on the airs who you are 827 00:56:05,075 --> 00:56:06,875 Speaker 1: in life. Of course, I've never seen your show. I 828 00:56:06,915 --> 00:56:12,355 Speaker 1: don't have cable. Ever been married? I recovered from these 829 00:56:12,395 --> 00:56:14,435 Speaker 1: non sequitors quickly enough to explain that I had not 830 00:56:14,475 --> 00:56:20,435 Speaker 1: been married engaged again, No, I thought I might be 831 00:56:20,475 --> 00:56:23,835 Speaker 1: about to be. Ever had a long term relationship of 832 00:56:23,875 --> 00:56:27,475 Speaker 1: any kind? I told her I had, Oh, really, how 833 00:56:27,675 --> 00:56:32,795 Speaker 1: long term? I answered? Eleven years? And when did that end? 834 00:56:33,995 --> 00:56:37,875 Speaker 1: I calculated it had ended four years previously to the month, 835 00:56:37,915 --> 00:56:41,275 Speaker 1: in fact, and you haven't had an eleven year relationship since, 836 00:56:42,795 --> 00:56:46,515 Speaker 1: I explained to her as pleasantly as I could. While 837 00:56:46,555 --> 00:56:48,835 Speaker 1: I looked to see if there were any emergency exits, 838 00:56:49,675 --> 00:56:52,515 Speaker 1: or calculated if there might be a window somewhere outside 839 00:56:52,555 --> 00:56:54,395 Speaker 1: that I could throw myself through to get out of 840 00:56:54,435 --> 00:56:56,875 Speaker 1: the building as fast as possible, I explained to her 841 00:56:56,875 --> 00:56:59,955 Speaker 1: as pleasantly as possible that I didn't know any way 842 00:57:00,075 --> 00:57:04,115 Speaker 1: of squeezing an eleven year long relationship into four calendar years, 843 00:57:04,275 --> 00:57:06,115 Speaker 1: so that I answer here would have to be no. 844 00:57:07,355 --> 00:57:13,075 Speaker 1: I told you to stop giving me prepared answers right 845 00:57:13,115 --> 00:57:18,515 Speaker 1: then again, she switched tones and topics. How much do 846 00:57:18,595 --> 00:57:22,355 Speaker 1: you drink? She demanded. I said, I almost never drank. 847 00:57:22,675 --> 00:57:24,795 Speaker 1: She dropped her pen and stared at me again. Well 848 00:57:24,795 --> 00:57:28,035 Speaker 1: what does that mean, I said, I believed I'd had 849 00:57:28,635 --> 00:57:32,595 Speaker 1: four glasses of wine during the current calendar year, and 850 00:57:32,715 --> 00:57:36,195 Speaker 1: it was June. She took the glasses off and leaned 851 00:57:36,235 --> 00:57:39,035 Speaker 1: in as far as she could without again rising from 852 00:57:39,075 --> 00:57:43,435 Speaker 1: her chair or falling off it. Well, then, how much 853 00:57:43,595 --> 00:57:47,675 Speaker 1: drug do you do? Told her, I'd never used drug 854 00:57:48,035 --> 00:57:52,235 Speaker 1: or drugs stronger than alcohol, And before I could criticize 855 00:57:52,235 --> 00:57:54,555 Speaker 1: her grammar, she got red and angry. Then what's that 856 00:57:54,715 --> 00:57:57,235 Speaker 1: smell on your breath? Look, you just don't get this. 857 00:57:57,395 --> 00:58:01,235 Speaker 1: Do you look at my telephone? Keith, and I did 858 00:58:01,315 --> 00:58:05,795 Speaker 1: as instructed. I looked at an ordinary a black telephone, 859 00:58:06,275 --> 00:58:09,235 Speaker 1: although given her manifest insanity, for all I knew she 860 00:58:09,235 --> 00:58:11,955 Speaker 1: would shortly reveal it was a direct line to Elvis Presley. 861 00:58:12,275 --> 00:58:14,195 Speaker 1: If I didn't want a black telephone and I have 862 00:58:14,275 --> 00:58:16,515 Speaker 1: a black telephone, I'll just have to make the best 863 00:58:16,515 --> 00:58:19,075 Speaker 1: of it, won't I, I said. I thought she was 864 00:58:19,075 --> 00:58:21,675 Speaker 1: holding up very well under the strain of that disappointment. 865 00:58:22,395 --> 00:58:24,995 Speaker 1: I instantly regretted the snidness of that remark, because it 866 00:58:25,035 --> 00:58:27,755 Speaker 1: was just gonna make things worse. And then, to my astonishment, 867 00:58:27,835 --> 00:58:30,555 Speaker 1: she sat back in her chair, ran her hand through 868 00:58:30,555 --> 00:58:34,075 Speaker 1: her hair, and almost whispered, thank you for saying that. 869 00:58:34,795 --> 00:58:39,715 Speaker 1: I appreciate it. The pause in the storm did not 870 00:58:39,955 --> 00:58:44,675 Speaker 1: last long. You're seeing a therapist, it says here you've 871 00:58:44,715 --> 00:58:48,715 Speaker 1: been discussing these so called ethical issues. I said, we've 872 00:58:48,715 --> 00:58:50,835 Speaker 1: made a lot of progress. Well, you can't resolve the 873 00:58:50,835 --> 00:58:52,875 Speaker 1: work matters without getting at the core problems, which are 874 00:58:52,875 --> 00:58:55,835 Speaker 1: obviously personal and family related, not to mention the alcohol 875 00:58:55,875 --> 00:58:58,635 Speaker 1: and the drug. So talking about work with your therapist 876 00:58:58,795 --> 00:59:00,795 Speaker 1: is probably not going to solve this to the satisfaction 877 00:59:00,835 --> 00:59:03,515 Speaker 1: of NBC. So I will need to talk to your therapist. 878 00:59:03,715 --> 00:59:06,955 Speaker 1: And I want you to sign a here and now 879 00:59:07,195 --> 00:59:09,355 Speaker 1: permitting me to do so, unless that is this therapist 880 00:59:09,395 --> 00:59:11,235 Speaker 1: of yours is working towards making you adjust to the 881 00:59:11,275 --> 00:59:14,155 Speaker 1: facts that you signed this contract and this is your job, 882 00:59:14,235 --> 00:59:15,955 Speaker 1: and this is the real world, and this is David 883 00:59:15,995 --> 00:59:17,875 Speaker 1: and Goliath, and that's all there is to it. And 884 00:59:17,915 --> 00:59:19,475 Speaker 1: you're on the air tonight at eight o'clock, and that's 885 00:59:19,515 --> 00:59:24,035 Speaker 1: it now. She paused and stared off into space again, 886 00:59:24,875 --> 00:59:28,555 Speaker 1: like when she mentioned her daughter. When I was in 887 00:59:28,595 --> 00:59:31,675 Speaker 1: my early twenties, I was traveling from Smith College to 888 00:59:31,755 --> 00:59:37,755 Speaker 1: Montreal by train. She suddenly announced My meeting with her 889 00:59:37,755 --> 00:59:41,435 Speaker 1: went on for two hours. It featured threats against my parents, 890 00:59:42,355 --> 00:59:44,715 Speaker 1: It had her yelling at me, it had her accusing 891 00:59:44,795 --> 00:59:49,955 Speaker 1: me of using alcohol and drug And yet this was 892 00:59:49,995 --> 00:59:52,675 Speaker 1: the only point where I really considered trying to make 893 00:59:52,715 --> 00:59:56,475 Speaker 1: a break for the door. The Montreal Canadians hockey team 894 00:59:56,515 --> 00:59:59,275 Speaker 1: were on that train, very drunk, very happy, very boastful 895 00:59:59,315 --> 01:00:02,755 Speaker 1: of their conquests during their trips to the various cities 896 01:00:02,795 --> 01:00:05,955 Speaker 1: of their hockey league. In one of them, I suspect, 897 01:00:06,035 --> 01:00:08,155 Speaker 1: giving your fantasy world interest in sports, you may have 898 01:00:08,155 --> 01:00:11,795 Speaker 1: heard of him, Boom boom, Jeffreyon. He came over and 899 01:00:11,835 --> 01:00:15,635 Speaker 1: tried to pick me up. I nodded robotically and began 900 01:00:15,675 --> 01:00:18,235 Speaker 1: to wonder if I suddenly leaped from the wooden chair 901 01:00:18,275 --> 01:00:21,635 Speaker 1: and did run out of her office, would she continued 902 01:00:21,675 --> 01:00:25,075 Speaker 1: to tell this story anyway after I left. We didn't 903 01:00:25,115 --> 01:00:27,035 Speaker 1: talk of such things then, not in the nineteen fifties. 904 01:00:27,075 --> 01:00:31,115 Speaker 1: A married man, an athlete, a tall athlete. Now, of course, 905 01:00:31,115 --> 01:00:32,795 Speaker 1: if I was a reporter and this happened, I'd have 906 01:00:32,835 --> 01:00:34,755 Speaker 1: to report it. I'd put it on the news. That's 907 01:00:34,835 --> 01:00:36,475 Speaker 1: just the way the world has changed the real world, 908 01:00:36,555 --> 01:00:40,115 Speaker 1: that is. Keith. I suggested that at every news organization 909 01:00:40,155 --> 01:00:42,395 Speaker 1: for which I had worked, the code had been the 910 01:00:42,395 --> 01:00:45,635 Speaker 1: same that unless an incident involved the law, or it 911 01:00:45,675 --> 01:00:49,835 Speaker 1: diminished a player's ability or availability in a game, we 912 01:00:49,915 --> 01:00:53,955 Speaker 1: in fact didn't report it. Like at ESPN. I related 913 01:00:53,995 --> 01:00:56,195 Speaker 1: a story similar to her own that had occurred in 914 01:00:56,275 --> 01:00:59,515 Speaker 1: Miami at the past World Series in nineteen ninety seven. Well, 915 01:00:59,875 --> 01:01:02,155 Speaker 1: she resumed indignantly. You might have gotten away with that 916 01:01:02,235 --> 01:01:05,275 Speaker 1: under an old contractor in the sixties, where hippy like 917 01:01:05,315 --> 01:01:07,955 Speaker 1: you might have fit in. But this isn't the sixties. 918 01:01:08,075 --> 01:01:10,235 Speaker 1: This is the real world of today, and you won't 919 01:01:10,235 --> 01:01:12,635 Speaker 1: get away with that kind of attitude under this contract 920 01:01:12,835 --> 01:01:15,315 Speaker 1: or any other contract in the future. You could even 921 01:01:15,355 --> 01:01:18,395 Speaker 1: go back to your precious sports and you'd soon find 922 01:01:18,435 --> 01:01:21,115 Speaker 1: out about the real world. Don't kid yourself, it'll be 923 01:01:21,195 --> 01:01:24,995 Speaker 1: David and Goliath. I said that the decision not to 924 01:01:25,035 --> 01:01:28,555 Speaker 1: report the story in Miami was made under this contract 925 01:01:29,235 --> 01:01:32,395 Speaker 1: by executives from NBC Sports. And now she sat bolt 926 01:01:32,475 --> 01:01:35,075 Speaker 1: upright and slammed her glasses back on her face. I 927 01:01:35,115 --> 01:01:37,195 Speaker 1: can't get this done in just one session, you know, 928 01:01:39,875 --> 01:01:43,075 Speaker 1: Deathly afraid that she was about to recite another memory 929 01:01:43,075 --> 01:01:46,435 Speaker 1: from the glorious days of rail travel, I agreed to 930 01:01:46,475 --> 01:01:49,435 Speaker 1: return the following Thursday, knowing full well, as I said so, 931 01:01:49,635 --> 01:01:52,755 Speaker 1: that I would never come back to her office, even 932 01:01:52,915 --> 01:01:57,315 Speaker 1: as a hostage or in a body bag. Well, I 933 01:01:57,355 --> 01:02:00,195 Speaker 1: don't know about you, she said, as she opened her door. 934 01:02:00,555 --> 01:02:03,795 Speaker 1: But I'm exhausted, I told her. Indeed so was I, 935 01:02:03,875 --> 01:02:05,915 Speaker 1: which was rather un fortunate, because now I had to 936 01:02:05,915 --> 01:02:08,955 Speaker 1: go Doe two live hours of television. Yes, I guess 937 01:02:09,035 --> 01:02:13,235 Speaker 1: you do. She suddenly stared at my feet, then quickly 938 01:02:13,315 --> 01:02:15,755 Speaker 1: up at my head, as if she were estimating what 939 01:02:15,915 --> 01:02:19,355 Speaker 1: size I took in caskets. But you're so much taller 940 01:02:19,355 --> 01:02:26,795 Speaker 1: than I am, so you'll recover more quickly. MSNBC had 941 01:02:26,875 --> 01:02:28,755 Speaker 1: arranged a car service to take me out to the 942 01:02:28,835 --> 01:02:32,195 Speaker 1: studios in New Jersey from thirty Rock, and I spent 943 01:02:32,235 --> 01:02:37,915 Speaker 1: the entire trip writing all this down, pages and pages 944 01:02:38,195 --> 01:02:42,235 Speaker 1: of notes and quotes and boom boom Jeffreon and my 945 01:02:42,395 --> 01:02:46,035 Speaker 1: own height at birth. And I called my therapist on 946 01:02:46,075 --> 01:02:48,115 Speaker 1: my phone, and I asked her if there was a 947 01:02:48,275 --> 01:02:50,795 Speaker 1: New York state number that I could call to complain 948 01:02:51,315 --> 01:02:55,355 Speaker 1: about a certified social worker who seemed to be certifiable 949 01:02:55,635 --> 01:02:58,515 Speaker 1: and who had just threatened me. She gave me a 950 01:02:58,595 --> 01:03:00,875 Speaker 1: number I called while still in the car, and they 951 01:03:00,955 --> 01:03:06,155 Speaker 1: said they had no record of any social worker named Deborah. 952 01:03:06,595 --> 01:03:09,915 Speaker 1: When I got to the MSNBC studios in Seicaugus, New Jersey, 953 01:03:09,955 --> 01:03:12,275 Speaker 1: now the home of MLB Network of all things, I 954 01:03:12,315 --> 01:03:14,395 Speaker 1: went to my little office. I picked up a small 955 01:03:14,475 --> 01:03:17,355 Speaker 1: microcassette tape recorder that I kept in the desk there 956 01:03:17,675 --> 01:03:20,555 Speaker 1: and I went in to see my executive producer, Phil Griffin. 957 01:03:21,155 --> 01:03:24,875 Speaker 1: I explained how this woman Burn had threatened me, and 958 01:03:24,955 --> 01:03:27,915 Speaker 1: I mentioned that I'd called the state Social worker hotline 959 01:03:27,955 --> 01:03:32,675 Speaker 1: and appeared that Deborah Burn was operating without a license. 960 01:03:32,955 --> 01:03:35,275 Speaker 1: And as I did this, I kept flipping that mini 961 01:03:35,355 --> 01:03:38,515 Speaker 1: cassette machine from hand to hand until I was sure 962 01:03:38,835 --> 01:03:42,835 Speaker 1: Phil Griffin had gotten the implication. Completely phony on my part, 963 01:03:42,875 --> 01:03:45,675 Speaker 1: But like James Jones says in Field of Dreams, there 964 01:03:45,675 --> 01:03:49,395 Speaker 1: are rules here. No, there are no rules here. My 965 01:03:49,475 --> 01:03:55,755 Speaker 1: executive producer buried his head in his hands. Needless to say, 966 01:03:55,755 --> 01:03:58,275 Speaker 1: the Deborah Burn thing had blown up in NBC's face. 967 01:03:58,475 --> 01:04:00,755 Speaker 1: They went into a full fledged panic at the news 968 01:04:00,755 --> 01:04:03,315 Speaker 1: that she was not registered as a certified social worker. 969 01:04:03,315 --> 01:04:05,755 Speaker 1: And it turned out that was a clerical mistake. It 970 01:04:05,875 --> 01:04:08,875 Speaker 1: was her own clerical mistake. She was registered, but she 971 01:04:08,955 --> 01:04:12,595 Speaker 1: was registered only under her maiden name. But for the 972 01:04:12,635 --> 01:04:16,235 Speaker 1: next few weeks NBC was completely on the defensive about me. 973 01:04:16,635 --> 01:04:19,555 Speaker 1: Soon they were promising to make me Tom Brokaw's air 974 01:04:19,675 --> 01:04:23,155 Speaker 1: Apparent if I would only stay. I said, yeah, but 975 01:04:23,195 --> 01:04:26,035 Speaker 1: it says in Brian Williams' contract that he's Tom Brokaw's 976 01:04:26,075 --> 01:04:29,395 Speaker 1: air apparent. The executive in question laughed and said, no, 977 01:04:30,315 --> 01:04:33,235 Speaker 1: Brian only thinks it says in Brian Williams contract that 978 01:04:33,235 --> 01:04:36,755 Speaker 1: he's Tom Brokaw's heir apparent. It can be you stick 979 01:04:36,795 --> 01:04:42,555 Speaker 1: with the Lewinsky story, oh and layoff ken Starr, and 980 01:04:42,595 --> 01:04:45,315 Speaker 1: I have to think that one through too long. If 981 01:04:45,355 --> 01:04:47,355 Speaker 1: they could make poor Brian think that he was the 982 01:04:47,395 --> 01:04:50,475 Speaker 1: heir apparent when he wasn't, they could make me think 983 01:04:50,475 --> 01:04:52,635 Speaker 1: I was the heir apparent when I wasn't as well, 984 01:04:53,195 --> 01:04:55,915 Speaker 1: and that price laying off ken Starr, that was a 985 01:04:55,995 --> 01:04:59,715 Speaker 1: non starter. The stalemate continued for a few weeks until, 986 01:04:59,755 --> 01:05:01,755 Speaker 1: as I have related here previously, a friend in the 987 01:05:01,795 --> 01:05:04,835 Speaker 1: Sports division revealed that NBC had lied to me to 988 01:05:04,875 --> 01:05:06,875 Speaker 1: get me to sign my contract with them, that I 989 01:05:06,915 --> 01:05:09,915 Speaker 1: was not being paid as they had told me, primarily 990 01:05:09,955 --> 01:05:12,955 Speaker 1: by the News division, but by the Sports division. I 991 01:05:13,035 --> 01:05:16,235 Speaker 1: then met with Monica Lewinsky's first lawyer, Bill Ginsburg, to 992 01:05:16,275 --> 01:05:21,195 Speaker 1: discuss suing NBC over such illegal negotiation tactics. Ginsburg thought 993 01:05:21,235 --> 01:05:23,995 Speaker 1: just leaking the fact that we had met would spring 994 01:05:24,115 --> 01:05:27,915 Speaker 1: me sure enough. About six weeks later, Leanna Akmanoff suddenly 995 01:05:27,915 --> 01:05:30,035 Speaker 1: called my agent told her they were willing to sell 996 01:05:30,035 --> 01:05:34,515 Speaker 1: my contract to Fox Sports in Los Angeles, yippie. So 997 01:05:34,715 --> 01:05:38,195 Speaker 1: do not doubt what television executives are willing to do 998 01:05:38,355 --> 01:05:42,355 Speaker 1: to protect their ratings and their profits even in the 999 01:05:42,395 --> 01:05:45,835 Speaker 1: event of full fledged fascism. And do not doubt what 1000 01:05:45,955 --> 01:05:49,395 Speaker 1: a zelot with even minimal skills at medium manipulation like 1001 01:05:49,475 --> 01:05:52,475 Speaker 1: Ken Starr can do to the news you watch or 1002 01:05:52,515 --> 01:05:58,275 Speaker 1: hear or read, even after he's dead. Also, most relevantly now, 1003 01:05:58,315 --> 01:06:01,515 Speaker 1: as CNN's talent faced the prospect of conforming to the 1004 01:06:01,555 --> 01:06:04,275 Speaker 1: right wing party line, or suddenly finding themselves with a 1005 01:06:04,275 --> 01:06:08,955 Speaker 1: conservative co host, or finding themselves unemployed. There's one more 1006 01:06:09,075 --> 01:06:12,435 Speaker 1: MSNBC story to tell that is relevant. I went back 1007 01:06:12,475 --> 01:06:15,315 Speaker 1: there in two thousand and three and we did pretty well. 1008 01:06:15,995 --> 01:06:18,475 Speaker 1: And then in twenty ten they began to pressure me 1009 01:06:18,555 --> 01:06:23,315 Speaker 1: to change my tone and to add in more diverse voices. 1010 01:06:23,395 --> 01:06:27,475 Speaker 1: And they did not mean women or members of minority groups, 1011 01:06:27,595 --> 01:06:31,875 Speaker 1: or people like i'd hired, like Rachel Meadow. They meant conservative, 1012 01:06:31,955 --> 01:06:35,995 Speaker 1: diverse voices. That's when I began to pack my bags 1013 01:06:36,035 --> 01:06:39,155 Speaker 1: to leave, and a few months later I left, and 1014 01:06:39,195 --> 01:06:41,115 Speaker 1: then four years later they asked me to come back 1015 01:06:41,155 --> 01:06:45,835 Speaker 1: as long as I agreed to have a conservative co host. 1016 01:06:46,115 --> 01:06:50,355 Speaker 1: I passed. But here's the problem. I don't know anybody 1017 01:06:50,355 --> 01:06:54,715 Speaker 1: else pressured in those ways who has also passed, Not 1018 01:06:54,795 --> 01:07:01,155 Speaker 1: at CNN, not at MSNBC, not anywhere else. Do not 1019 01:07:01,315 --> 01:07:04,915 Speaker 1: doubt what some television talents are willing to do just 1020 01:07:04,995 --> 01:07:21,035 Speaker 1: to remain. I've done all the damage I can do here. 1021 01:07:21,115 --> 01:07:24,195 Speaker 1: Thank you for listening. I swear I had that conversation 1022 01:07:24,235 --> 01:07:26,835 Speaker 1: with that woman, I swear to God, and it went 1023 01:07:26,875 --> 01:07:29,995 Speaker 1: on and on and on and on. Brian Ray and 1024 01:07:30,035 --> 01:07:32,635 Speaker 1: John Phillip Chanel, the musical directors of Countdown. Once she 1025 01:07:32,715 --> 01:07:35,395 Speaker 1: started talking about getting hit on by Boom Boom jeffreyon 1026 01:07:35,475 --> 01:07:38,555 Speaker 1: of the Montreal Canadians, I really thought it was being 1027 01:07:38,595 --> 01:07:42,835 Speaker 1: recorded for use on some ESPN show or NBC Sports 1028 01:07:42,835 --> 01:07:46,795 Speaker 1: show or something. I just to this day. Brian Ray 1029 01:07:46,835 --> 01:07:49,475 Speaker 1: and John Phillip Shaneil, the musical directors of Countdown Arrange, 1030 01:07:49,515 --> 01:07:52,595 Speaker 1: produced and performed most of our music. Mister Chanel handled 1031 01:07:52,675 --> 01:07:55,755 Speaker 1: orchestration and keyboards. Mister Ray was on the guitars, bass 1032 01:07:55,755 --> 01:07:59,515 Speaker 1: and drums. It was produced by Tko Brothers. Our satirical 1033 01:07:59,555 --> 01:08:02,155 Speaker 1: and pithy musical comments are by the best baseball stadium 1034 01:08:02,235 --> 01:08:06,795 Speaker 1: organist ever Nancy Faust the sports I'm getting choked up over. 1035 01:08:06,835 --> 01:08:10,355 Speaker 1: This is the Olderman Thief from the ESPN two written 1036 01:08:10,395 --> 01:08:14,875 Speaker 1: by Stephen A. Smith, No written by Mitch Warren Davis 1037 01:08:14,915 --> 01:08:18,555 Speaker 1: Curtis VSPN Inc. Other music arranged and performed by the 1038 01:08:18,555 --> 01:08:21,595 Speaker 1: group No Horns Allowed. My announcer today is my friend 1039 01:08:21,715 --> 01:08:28,035 Speaker 1: Larry David. Everything else was as ever my fault Larry 1040 01:08:28,115 --> 01:08:32,315 Speaker 1: David for the Democratic nomination. That's countdown for today, just 1041 01:08:33,195 --> 01:08:38,675 Speaker 1: four hundred and ten days. Ten days until the scheduled 1042 01:08:38,795 --> 01:08:42,755 Speaker 1: end of his lame duck and lame brained term, unless 1043 01:08:42,875 --> 01:08:47,595 Speaker 1: Musk removes Trump sooner or the actuarial tables to The 1044 01:08:47,635 --> 01:08:50,715 Speaker 1: next scheduled countdown is Monday. As always, bulletins as the 1045 01:08:50,715 --> 01:08:54,555 Speaker 1: news warrants, remember impeach Trump. It will not work now. 1046 01:08:54,875 --> 01:08:57,715 Speaker 1: It will, however, win the Democrats the midterms as long 1047 01:08:57,755 --> 01:09:01,155 Speaker 1: as there are midterms. Until next time. I'm Keith Olberman. 1048 01:09:01,235 --> 01:09:24,355 Speaker 1: Good morning, good afternoon, good night, and good luck. Countdown 1049 01:09:24,435 --> 01:09:28,155 Speaker 1: with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio. For more 1050 01:09:28,275 --> 01:09:33,195 Speaker 1: podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or 1051 01:09:33,235 --> 01:09:35,075 Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts.