Speaker 1: Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio. Happy
Speaker 1: Insurrection Day. Insurrection Day when Republicans will certify the election
Speaker 1: of a quote president unquote who is constitutionally ineligible to
Speaker 1: hold the office according to the third Clause of the
Speaker 1: Fourteenth Amendment and the Electoral count Reform Act of twenty
Speaker 1: twenty two, and who himself fomented the assault four years
Speaker 1: ago that forever ended our conceit about the peaceful transfer
Speaker 1: of power. The illegitimate president's Republican whorees and servants may
Speaker 1: in fact trudge to the capital through a blizzard to
Speaker 1: make this prostitution of democracy official. The Democrats, they won't
Speaker 1: say any thing because this did not test well as
Speaker 1: a campaign ad, and their flaccid willingness to risk anything
Speaker 1: in our defense is further deflated by their perception that
Speaker 1: this is a fate a compley. And since it is
Speaker 1: a fate a compley, especially because of their own cowardice,
Speaker 1: they now have to do their best to compromise and
Speaker 1: to obey in advance a group of bandits and pirates
Speaker 1: posing as a presidential administration whose only desire to compromise
Speaker 1: is to compromise Democrats, and to compromise the free press,
Speaker 1: and to compromise reality, and to compromise democracy itself. These
Speaker 1: are those Republicans speaking yesterday. Freshman Congressen Brandon Gill quote,
Speaker 1: we want to end the woke chaos that they have
Speaker 1: unleashed on this country, saying that boys can become girls. Unquote.
Speaker 1: Brandon Gill is Dnesh de sus it is idiot son
Speaker 1: in law. Compromise with Denesh Dsuz's idiot son in law.
Speaker 1: Freshman Congressman Riley Moore quote, My constituents have sent me
Speaker 1: here to this town not to work with Democrats, but
Speaker 1: to destroy their agenda. Unquote. Riley Moore's aunt is a senator,
Speaker 1: his grandfather was a governor, and politics is the family business.
Speaker 1: Otherwise he would still be a welder. These are the
Speaker 1: new Republicans with whom the Democrats are supposed to treat,
Speaker 1: the one party democracy Republicans, the Stalinist Republicans, the destroy
Speaker 1: any opposition Republicans. Oh, and if you think they'll learn
Speaker 1: they'll calm down, their IQ will grow to sixty or seventy. Quote.
Speaker 1: We asked everyone not to leak. Please, for God's sake,
Speaker 1: do not give inside information to the enemy. That quote
Speaker 1: is from an old Republican, the lead Republican in the House,
Speaker 1: the creepiest Republican in the House since at least Denny
Speaker 1: Hastert Mike Johnson two days ago. He said that I
Speaker 1: don't know if by the enemy he means the Democrats
Speaker 1: or the media or both, or the temptations of his
Speaker 1: anti porn app And I no longer care which it is.
Speaker 1: This is insurrection Day, and we all know what the
Speaker 1: Republicans would be doing today in the mirror version of
Speaker 1: this grim reality if they were in charge, and Trump
Speaker 1: were in office, and Trump had presidential immunity, and a
Speaker 1: new president was about to sign off on putting him
Speaker 1: in jail, and the Republicans would be doing what they
Speaker 1: actually did do four years ago today, only they wouldn't
Speaker 1: bother to try to be that's subtle or legal about it.
Speaker 1: They would be gassing up the tanks. But no, the
Speaker 1: came Jeffries tells us there are no election deny on
Speaker 1: our side of the isle, because of course they will
Speaker 1: throw that right back in our face in the twenty
Speaker 1: twenty six midterms. Even though the election isn't the point.
Speaker 1: It's the fact that the president elect is constitutionally disqualified
Speaker 1: from holding the office he's been elected to, and he
Speaker 1: has corrupted everything from the judiciary to corporate ends of
Speaker 1: the corporate state. And he's given no indication that there
Speaker 1: will be any elections in twenty twenty six. Orerever again.
Speaker 1: So Leader Jeffries and Leader Schumer are getting busy obeying
Speaker 1: in advance. January sixth, have a nice day, and no.
Speaker 1: Judge Juan Mereshwan is not a hero. He did not
Speaker 1: bring Trump to at least symbolic justice. He did not
Speaker 1: evade the Supreme Court's corruption. He is not the one
Speaker 1: dim light in the darkest of nights. Like nearly everybody else,
Speaker 1: he is too violating historian Tim Snyder's first rule for
Speaker 1: defying tyranny. He is not not obeying in advance. He's
Speaker 1: just covering his own ass, like the prosecutor Alvin Bragg
Speaker 1: is covering his own ass, like Democratic Congressman Tom Swazi
Speaker 1: is covering his own ass, like CNN is covering its
Speaker 1: own ass, And the self destructing Washington Post having now
Speaker 1: killed off its political cartoonist, and nearly the entire hierarchy
Speaker 1: of the Democratic Party, and almost anybody else You could
Speaker 1: mention now it is absolutely true. It is better that
Speaker 1: Mechan did not vacate the conviction of Trump convictions and
Speaker 1: instead stuck an asterisk on Trump that allows all of
Speaker 1: us to refer to him as a convicted felon without
Speaker 1: fear of being sued for defamation by a would be
Speaker 1: dictator who intends to be a dictator not by law
Speaker 1: but by suing ordinary people into submission and bankruptcy. But
Speaker 1: the fact remains that Wan Meerschan could have done all
Speaker 1: this in October. He could have done it before the election.
Speaker 1: Would it have altered the outcome of the election? Who
Speaker 1: the hell knows? With Merrick Garland launching his investigation into
Speaker 1: Trump in twenty twenty one rather than twenty twenty two,
Speaker 1: have altered the outcome of the election, With Joe Biden
Speaker 1: not having convinced himself that people were tired of thinking
Speaker 1: about Trump so he shouldn't newt him in some way
Speaker 1: four years ago have altered the outcome of the election,
Speaker 1: Who the hell knows. But would those things have been
Speaker 1: the right thing to do? That answer is easy, hell yes.
Speaker 1: And Juan Merchhan not only did not do the right
Speaker 1: thing to do, he pretended to be not doing it
Speaker 1: for the sake of the nation and the presidency and fairness.
Speaker 1: And of course by not doing it, he gave Trump
Speaker 1: what Trump wanted, taking the heat out of Trump's status
Speaker 1: as a convicted felon just as the undecided voters were
Speaker 1: making up their mind. To any of the liberals applauding
Speaker 1: him for dragging in Trump Live or by Zoom on
Speaker 1: Friday to tell him he's convicted, but he's not going
Speaker 1: to jail, probably not even getting fined, despite being found
Speaker 1: guilty of paying bribes to a pornographic actress in an
Speaker 1: attempt to interfere with the twenty sixteen election, To any
Speaker 1: of the liberals, remember what Mershawn said. Alvin Brack had
Speaker 1: already postponed sentencing from July tenth to September eighteenth, when
Speaker 1: on September sixth Merchan postponed it again and committed his
Speaker 1: own election interference. Quoting Mershon, adjourning decision on the motion
Speaker 1: and sentencing, if such is required, should dispel any suggestion
Speaker 1: that the Court will have issued any decision or imposed
Speaker 1: sentence either to give an advantage too or to create
Speaker 1: a disadvantage for any political party and or any candidate
Speaker 1: for any office, un quote bullshit. One postponement meant only
Speaker 1: one thing. Advantage Trump postponent meant advantage also Mershan, because
Speaker 1: as enraged as Trump may be or may pretend to be,
Speaker 1: the only person who can use this diaphanous finding with
Speaker 1: which to damage Trump is Trump. Hell Mershon didn't even
Speaker 1: order Trump to show up to his non sentencing Friday.
Speaker 1: He can, as I mentioned, do it by zoom. And
Speaker 1: if the Jewel Meister in chief can contain himself, the
Speaker 1: entirety of this will be forgotten by the inauguration. This
Speaker 1: next one may hit harder for me than for you,
Speaker 1: because I remember Herbert Lawrence Block of the Washington Post,
Speaker 1: her Block one word, hgr Block, our greatest and most
Speaker 1: influential political cartoonist since Thomas Nost And I remember him
Speaker 1: hating Nixon before hating Nixon was cool. And I remember
Speaker 1: him conveying Watergate without words. And I remember I was
Speaker 1: eleven when I found out that it was HERB Block
Speaker 1: who had invented the term McCarthyism, and I remember him
Speaker 1: savaging them all up through George W. Bush until literally
Speaker 1: forty three days before he died. I remember her Block,
Speaker 1: and in the context of her block. I was still
Speaker 1: somehow shocked that the Washington Post, which now seems to
Speaker 1: have lost more journalists even then it has lost subscribers,
Speaker 1: drove out and tell Nay's over the weekend and tell
Speaker 1: Nay's drew for her final submission to The Washington Post,
Speaker 1: the terrified corporate cowards Zuckerman, Sam Altman, Jeff Bezos, extending
Speaker 1: bags of money as they cowered in front of a
Speaker 1: giant statue of a necessarily giant Trump. She threw in
Speaker 1: Patrick soun Schong, the buffoon who owns the La Times.
Speaker 1: And in the most merciless her blocking in touch, she
Speaker 1: depicted not Bob Eiger prostrating himself at the foot of
Speaker 1: the statue, face in the dust, but rather Mickey Mouse,
Speaker 1: and the Post killed her cartoon. Twenty years there nearly
Speaker 1: and nothing like it before. So Telnay's quit on the spot.
Speaker 1: I have done that. It is not as satisfying as
Speaker 1: it sounds. You do it when you know that you
Speaker 1: have no choice. Well, you do have some choice. You
Speaker 1: have the choice of quitting or never sleeping again. To
Speaker 1: be clear, she writes, there have been instances where sketches
Speaker 1: have been rejected or revisions requested, but never because of
Speaker 1: the point of view inherent in the cartoons commentary. That's
Speaker 1: a game changer and dangerous for a free press. I
Speaker 1: don't know miss Telnay's. I don't know if she will
Speaker 1: be comforted by this or more worried still, but don't
Speaker 1: worry about a free press. It is no longer a
Speaker 1: free press. Certainly the Washington Post is no longer part
Speaker 1: of whatever free press might be left. I mean, when
Speaker 1: Bezos bribed Trump with his election night congratulations and his
Speaker 1: million dollar donation to the inauguration, at least Bezos didn't
Speaker 1: try to get away with it with some mindless excuse
Speaker 1: or word salad. The Washington Post opinions editor who killed
Speaker 1: the cartoon did do that. His name is David Shipley,
Speaker 1: and somebody, Bezos or somebody else bent on destroying the
Speaker 1: newspaper and freedom of the press in this country. Somebody
Speaker 1: brought him into the Post two years ago. I don't
Speaker 1: know him, but I have two pieces of evidence to
Speaker 1: suggest mister Shipley is not very bright. Firstly, he said
Speaker 1: that his decision to kill this cartoon and subsequently to
Speaker 1: drive tell Nay's out, asking her to reconsider and get
Speaker 1: back to him today. I'll bet if she somehow did,
Speaker 1: she'd get voicemail. Shipley said his decision quote was guided
Speaker 1: by the fact that we had just published a column
Speaker 1: on the same topic as the cart and had already
Speaker 1: scheduled another column, this one a satire for publication. The
Speaker 1: only bias was against repetition, mister Shipley said this, and
Speaker 1: roughly the same moment that the homepage of The Washington
Speaker 1: Post featured four stories about Jimmy Carter and seven stories
Speaker 1: about New Orleans and Las Vegas and exploding tesla's. If
Speaker 1: the only bias is against repetition, the Washington Post is
Speaker 1: the most biased newspaper in the world. The second piece
Speaker 1: of evidence I have that he is not very bright.
Speaker 1: Mister Shipley was married to the conspiracy theorist and all
Speaker 1: around sloppy reporter Naomi Wolf. Maybe he can hire her
Speaker 1: to replace Anne Tellny's doesn't matter. Doesn't matter post is dead.
Speaker 1: It has served its purpose, it has obeyed in advance.
Speaker 1: I know you're tired of that phrase, abbreviated by the
Speaker 1: sorta acronym obinad. I'll try to avoid it, but boy
Speaker 1: is it everywhere, just like the coward's doing it. Fox
Speaker 1: News reported that the truck in New Orleans in the
Speaker 1: attack there had crossed the Mexican US border two days earlier.
Speaker 1: Sometimes they padded their initial report to say the suspect
Speaker 1: drove across the border in that truck, took him ninety
Speaker 1: minutes to retract it, by which point Trump had already
Speaker 1: implied the attack was by an immigrant rather than a
Speaker 1: native Texan who was in or was in the army.
Speaker 1: Mike Johnson is still implying it the obe in ad here.
Speaker 1: Fox had to pay Smart Mattock seven hundred and eighty
Speaker 1: seven million dollars for its lies about that company in
Speaker 1: the twenty twenty election. Remember that, or do you remember
Speaker 1: perhaps the car bombing at Niagara Falls in November twenty
Speaker 1: twenty three, Fox reporter Alexis McAdams confirmed it was a
Speaker 1: terrorist attack and there was a hunt for a second
Speaker 1: terrorist car, and that led to conclusions that it was
Speaker 1: an Islamic terrorism, and that led to the assertion it
Speaker 1: was probably Hamas, and that led to the anchor John
Speaker 1: Roberts demanding to note those who quote perpetrated this attack
Speaker 1: had come into this country legally. Did they come across
Speaker 1: illegally and claim asylum? Were they radicalized in this country?
Speaker 1: Were they radicalized at all? Unlike Smart Mattock the quote,
Speaker 1: perpetrators in this case did not sue Fox because they
Speaker 1: mister and Missus Villani, were from Grand Island, New York,
Speaker 1: and they were coming back from a canceled Kiss concert
Speaker 1: in Toronto and he lost control of his Bentley And
Speaker 1: they weren't terrorists. He was just a bad driver, and
Speaker 1: they weren't suing because they were dead. And Fox was
Speaker 1: still pitching the car bomb terrorism idea the next day.
Speaker 1: But where is the obey in advance part? Well, that's
Speaker 1: Fox's most egregious, most recent self disqualification as truth tellers.
Speaker 1: But Brian Stelter, who will now kiss any manager's ass
Speaker 1: as long as he can retain his regained dream job.
Speaker 1: He wrote of Fox's disastrous error about New Orleans that quote,
Speaker 1: an erroneous early Fox News report about the New Orleans
Speaker 1: terror attack is warping the political dialogue. The false report
Speaker 1: from Fox confuse the public and evidently President elect Donald
Speaker 1: Trump too. Quote Ah, yes, Brian erroneous, false confused When
Speaker 1: Trump exploited a lie to make it look like this
Speaker 1: was foreign terrorism, he was confused as to the reality
Speaker 1: here that this was one of the few times in
Speaker 1: the last decade Trump wasn't confused and tell Nay's goes.
Speaker 1: Brian Stelter is rehired and now with extra strength gullibility.
Speaker 1: And we haven't even gotten to the other attack, the
Speaker 1: one in Vegas. Which story and headlines did you read
Speaker 1: headlines about the instability of Matthew Libbelsberger or his desire
Speaker 1: to see all Democrats killed. The kill democrats part was
Speaker 1: in Josh Marshall's talking Points memo. The instability was in
Speaker 1: Oh look the Washington on his notes feature on his iPhone.
Speaker 1: This man who blew himself and his tesla up in
Speaker 1: front of the Trump Hotel in Vegas had written quote
Speaker 1: military and vets move on DC starting now. Militias facilitate
Speaker 1: and augment this activity. Occupy every major road along FED
Speaker 1: buildings and the campus of FED Buildings by the hundreds
Speaker 1: of thousands. Lock the highways around down with semis right
Speaker 1: after everybody gets in hold until the purge is complete.
Speaker 1: Try peaceful means first, but be prepared to fight to
Speaker 1: get the Dems out of the FED government and military
Speaker 1: by any means necessary. They all must go, and a
Speaker 1: hard reset must occur for our country to avoid collapse.
Speaker 1: So which have you heard more about the suicide car
Speaker 1: bomber and face it, that's what he was, and his
Speaker 1: hopes to have some body murder half the country all
Speaker 1: at once, Or how much that nice Elon Musk helped
Speaker 1: the police sort out what was left of his blow
Speaker 1: him up truck? How about the New York Times on
Speaker 1: a different topic New Year's Day, in this from the
Speaker 1: Democrat who replaced George Santos, Let's try something different at
Speaker 1: how we deal with Trump? That was the headline above
Speaker 1: Tom Swazi's childish op ed. At least it had his
Speaker 1: byline on It might have been written by a kindergartner somewhere.
Speaker 1: To change and fix America requires both parties to work together.
Speaker 1: As a Democratic member of Congress, I know my party
Speaker 1: will be tempted to hold fast against mister Trump at
Speaker 1: every turn, uniting against his bills, blocking his nominees, and
Speaker 1: grinding the machinery of the House and the Senate to
Speaker 1: a halt. That would be a mistake. Only by working
Speaker 1: together to find compromise on parts of the President Elect's
Speaker 1: agenda can we make progress for a Americans who are
Speaker 1: clearly demanding change in the economy, immigration, crime, and other
Speaker 1: top issues. I'm no dupe. Some of mister Trump's actions
Speaker 1: offer little reassurance that he is ready to embrace the
Speaker 1: bipartisanship and compromise essential to a functioning democracy. Hey, Bud, sorry,
Speaker 1: you are a dupe. In fact, that's exactly what you are.
Speaker 1: Have you been on Mars since twenty fifteen, Democrats have
Speaker 1: repeatedly tried to compromise with this would be dictator Joe
Speaker 1: Biden is still doing it. Trump does not want progress,
Speaker 1: he does not want change, he does not want compromise.
Speaker 1: He wants submission. And speaking of submission, does anybody remember
Speaker 1: at Kirsten Cinema? So the Republicans want to ram it
Speaker 1: through the Senate by asking the Senate parliamentarian filibuster rules
Speaker 1: and let them stuff immigration policy into a funding bill.
Speaker 1: And if the parliamentarian says f no, they would then
Speaker 1: simply vote in the Senate to ignore the parliamentarian, to
Speaker 1: break the rules of the filibuster. So Semaphore asks Kirsten
Speaker 1: about this quote. I've heard rumors that there's going to
Speaker 1: be a movement to pressure Senate Republicans to overrule the
Speaker 1: parliamentarian in order to enact policy in reconciliation. That would
Speaker 1: be a backdoor elimination of the filibuster and very dangerous.
Speaker 1: Stop laughing, she said, backdoor elimination. I took a lot
Speaker 1: of heat for that. She goes on. I did repeatedly
Speaker 1: tell my Democratic colleagues that their attempts to use the
Speaker 1: reconciliation tool to achieve immigration reform would be against the
Speaker 1: reconciliation rules would be ruled out of order that I
Speaker 1: would not be willing to overturn. That's what Kirsten Cinema
Speaker 1: thinks happened when she stopped Democrats that's from tampering with
Speaker 1: the filibuster. That's how she rationalized killing improvements. Kirsten, Kirsten, Kirsten,
Speaker 1: look at me. This is somebody out here in the
Speaker 1: real world actually talking to you. Now, this is not
Speaker 1: just your own ego inside your own echo chamber. You
Speaker 1: were warned that if you stop the Democrats from doing
Speaker 1: anything to the filibuster, the Republicans would do stuff to
Speaker 1: the filibuster anyway, and what has happened. You stop the
Speaker 1: Democrats from doing something to the filibuster, and the Republicans
Speaker 1: have now done it. Anyway, two more more to take
Speaker 1: with you. I guess they're leavening moments. In case you
Speaker 1: thought Republicans in office would do nothing except lying Trump's pockets,
Speaker 1: here is a surprise for you, you cynical bastard. The Office
Speaker 1: of Congressional Ethics has gotten a new name. The Republicans
Speaker 1: say it will now be called the Office of Congressional Conduct,
Speaker 1: which is at least an admission that there are no
Speaker 1: longer any ethics in Congress. And I am happy to
Speaker 1: say that, in the spirit of Tom Squase, I have
Speaker 1: a compromise fix for Trump and the half staff flags
Speaker 1: during his inauguration. He is in an utter rage, even
Speaker 1: for him, that the nation will continue to observe as
Speaker 1: usual mourning for a former president recently deceased. He explains
Speaker 1: the flags must be returned to normal height because no
Speaker 1: president has ever been mistreated more than he. Lincoln, McKinley, Garfield,
Speaker 1: and JFK might argue this point, but the Trump motto is,
Speaker 1: after all, how I pity me? Well, as I said,
Speaker 1: I have a fix, the great compromiser me just tell
Speaker 1: Trump that the flags at half staff are not just
Speaker 1: about Jimmy Carter. They're also a sign of extra special
Speaker 1: respect for him. They are in advance memory of him,
Speaker 1: that the nation has decided to offer Trump a unique
Speaker 1: opportunity to see this sign of honor while he's still alive,
Speaker 1: and tell him that if he goes along with this,
Speaker 1: a picture of him saluting that flag at half staff
Speaker 1: for Jimmy Carter and for himself, that will be so
Speaker 1: special it will get him next week's cover of US
Speaker 1: News and World Report. Also of interest here in this
Speaker 1: all new edition of Countdown, how I did not become
Speaker 1: an actor fifty years ago and how Trump did? Plus
Speaker 1: worst persons and you'll never guess whose birthday it is
Speaker 1: and what she's doing next? And your hint is she's
Speaker 1: my ex and apparently she was RFK Junior's ex. If
Speaker 1: FaceTime counts, that's next. This is Countdown. This is Countdown
Speaker 1: with Keith Olberman still ahead on Countdown. Remember Flacco. There
Speaker 1: is a new book out about Flacco, The Owl, The
Speaker 1: Central Park Owl, literally you must buy it. And Why
Speaker 1: I'm not an actor. It's a terrifying story first, believe
Speaker 1: it or not. There's still more new idiots to talk
Speaker 1: about the daily roundup of the miss grants, morons and
Speaker 1: Dunning Kruger effects specimens who constitute two days. Other worse
Speaker 1: persons in the world Lebron's worse. No, not the late
Speaker 1: newscaster Aaron Brown, but those who covered his passing. Aaron
Speaker 1: Brown was seventy six years old when he died last week.
Speaker 1: I worked with him at CNN in two thousand and
Speaker 1: one and two thousand and two. I found him to
Speaker 1: be well, you know my reputation that was him, a
Speaker 1: very gifted newscaster and a very calming presence, especially since
Speaker 1: he was at CNN on nine to eleven getting used
Speaker 1: to his office and the layout of where the bathrooms were.
Speaker 1: When the planes hit the towers and they put him
Speaker 1: on the air, he went to work literally for orientation meetings.
Speaker 1: Fifteen or sixteen hours later he got off the air
Speaker 1: after talking about the worst terrorist attack in American history.
Speaker 1: He did exceptional work. He continued to do it almost
Speaker 1: every day, as I did and others did in the
Speaker 1: thirty forty days after the attacks, and he did other
Speaker 1: great things in his career. But I was a little
Speaker 1: bit surprised by the nature of the coverage. Aaron was
Speaker 1: not easy during the first break, maybe a month after
Speaker 1: nine to eleven and I had been working at CNN
Speaker 1: along with ABC Radio during that time, and I was
Speaker 1: on his show as a correspondent and a commentator. Aaron
Speaker 1: was going to take a day off, and I was
Speaker 1: going to take a day off, And it was the
Speaker 1: same day off and his Seattle Mariners, he had worked
Speaker 1: in local news in Seattle, were playing the New York
Speaker 1: Yankees at Yankee Stadium. And I had my season tickets then,
Speaker 1: and I said, come up to Yankee Stadium. Let's just
Speaker 1: forget this for a couple of hours and have a
Speaker 1: good time up there. And he looked at me like
Speaker 1: I had just suggested. He pushed pins inside his brain,
Speaker 1: like just you know, hit yourself over the head with
Speaker 1: a mallet. He would have responded to it better. Why
Speaker 1: would I want to do that? Why would I want
Speaker 1: to do that? I have a day off, Why would
Speaker 1: I want to do that? And all he talked about
Speaker 1: was the Seattle Mariners. I never quite figured Aaron Brown out.
Speaker 1: So the encomia from Jeff green Field and Jeff Tubin,
Speaker 1: two people I liked with and worked with also and
Speaker 1: respect greatly to this day. And Jeff Greenfield, who was
Speaker 1: the man for whom I was the principal backup host
Speaker 1: when he had a show on CNN at this same time,
Speaker 1: when Aaron Brown was on the air as the principal
Speaker 1: news anchor at CNN. I appreciate them, I believe them utterly. However,
Speaker 1: the one from Anderson Cooper, I'm not so sure about.
Speaker 1: Let me read from Oliver Darcy's newsletter. CNN mourned the
Speaker 1: loss of former anchor Aaron Brown, who died Sunday at
Speaker 1: seventy six. Anderson Cooper praised Brown as a great writer
Speaker 1: and broadcaster. Anderson Cooper was just starting at CNN in
Speaker 1: two thousand and one about the time I was. He
Speaker 1: was a couple of months ahead of me. But for
Speaker 1: a while he and I were at the same point
Speaker 1: in whatever he saw as the race to the top
Speaker 1: at CNN, and Aaron Brown was in the distant future
Speaker 1: for us. And Anderson didn't like that Anderson was the
Speaker 1: principal backup to Aaron Brown. I was just a correspondent.
Speaker 1: I never hosted Aaron Brown show. And Anderson Cooper spent
Speaker 1: most of the time that I knew him working at
Speaker 1: CNN together for about a year and a half. He
Speaker 1: spent most of his time trying to unseat Aaron Brown,
Speaker 1: get his show from him, and if not, get his
Speaker 1: show from him every night at ten o'clock, supplant him
Speaker 1: as the number one anchor at CNN, and he managed
Speaker 1: to do it. Now, he didn't do it because of
Speaker 1: any of his own machinations, because I don't think Anderson
Speaker 1: Cooper is that good at machinations, nor that means spirited
Speaker 1: Aaron did it. They seem to have left off in
Speaker 1: the obituaries, the story of how Aaron Brown basically stopped
Speaker 1: being the number one newscaster at CNN, and in fact
Speaker 1: stopped being a newscaster of any kind. On February first,
Speaker 1: two thousand and three, the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during
Speaker 1: landing and spread a debris field across Louisiana and Texas.
Speaker 1: It was a nightmare of biblical proportions, to use the cliche,
Speaker 1: and it killed all seven astronauts on board and traumatized
Speaker 1: America at a time when we were still pretty traumatized
Speaker 1: from nine to eleven. I was not supposed to resume
Speaker 1: my news career until about a week later, so I
Speaker 1: missed this story and was at home watching it play out,
Speaker 1: and the secondary story that developed, which was where in
Speaker 1: the hell is CNN's primary anchor Aaron Brown. All the
Speaker 1: news anchors it happening on a weekend were either off
Speaker 1: or on vacation, and the Associated Press report from the
Speaker 1: time noted Tom Brokaw was snorkeling off the Virgin Island
Speaker 1: Saturday morning when he saw the boat's captain forty feet
Speaker 1: away frantically waving, I can just hear this. Tom Brokaw
Speaker 1: was snorkeling off the Virgin Islands. He was on the
Speaker 1: air later that day. The lead anchors for ABC and
Speaker 1: CBS made it on the air too. Peter Jennings apparently
Speaker 1: drove in from the island. Dan Rather was on the
Speaker 1: air by seven thirty am Pacific time, but, returning to
Speaker 1: the Associated Press article, not CNN's Aaron Brown, whose absence
Speaker 1: until Sunday night was the source of much speculation. Brown,
Speaker 1: it turns out, was playing golf in the Bob Hope
Speaker 1: Chrysler Classic at Lakinta in Palm Desert, which was televised
Speaker 1: on CBS midday Saturday, after the network ended several hours
Speaker 1: of shuttle coverage. CNN sources said Brown, who was promoted
Speaker 1: as the network's lead anchor when he was hired away
Speaker 1: from ABC two years ago, told the network he wasn't
Speaker 1: available to come to work. The decision infuriated some executives
Speaker 1: as well as some on his staff, the CNN sources said, Brown,
Speaker 1: through a spokeswoman, declined to comment, but was quoted Sunday
Speaker 1: in the Palm Springs Desert Sun as saying that didn't
Speaker 1: make sense to go to New York. Going to CNN's
Speaker 1: Los Angeles office, as he said, didn't make any sense
Speaker 1: because I didn't have any clothes. A note that is
Speaker 1: now too late for Aaron to hear it. They sell
Speaker 1: clothes in Los Angeles. Brown also told the Desert Sun,
Speaker 1: I felt like I was in two places today and
Speaker 1: it was difficult. I felt a profound sadness at what happened.
Speaker 1: It's horrible. A golf tournament, even a fun one, it
Speaker 1: didn't matter. It took the fun out of it today
Speaker 1: for me. How about everybody else in America, especially the
Speaker 1: ones on top of the Space Shuttle. Again, as I said,
Speaker 1: it was his obituary. He's gone. There's no reason to
Speaker 1: include all this in great detail. As you bid farewell
Speaker 1: to a man who was a newscaster. And a prominent
Speaker 1: one twenty years ago. But still you think mention this
Speaker 1: somewhere in perhaps less blunt terms than I have in
Speaker 1: rereading the coverage from two thousand and three when Aaron
Speaker 1: Brown refused to come in to cover the big story
Speaker 1: of the day because he didn't have any clothes and
Speaker 1: it took all the fun out of him. Today, Tom
Speaker 1: Brokaw snorkeled here from the Virgin Islands to cover the store.
Speaker 1: Needless to say, CNN was in quite a mess in
Speaker 1: two thousand and three. I've told those stories many times,
Speaker 1: and I will not belabor my being negative about a
Speaker 1: guy who just died last week by adding to them.
Speaker 1: But at one point in the mornings, they tried this
Speaker 1: group Paul Is as the main host, Jack Cafferty as
Speaker 1: the side host, Anderson Cooper doing the news updates at
Speaker 1: the bottom and top of the hour, and the third
Speaker 1: person in to liven it up me that lasted eight
Speaker 1: days back to worse persons and the runner up Worser.
Speaker 1: It's shared by Nancy Base, the idiot Congresswoman, with what
Speaker 1: her former communications director Natalie Johnson describes as quote your botched,
Speaker 1: cheap hooker inspired boob job unquote and David Freeman, the
Speaker 1: disgraced ex Texas cop who posts online under the moronic
Speaker 1: name Gunther Eagleman because he couldn't think of anything that
Speaker 1: sounded more Germanic Gunter Egelman. All right, here's a sequence
Speaker 1: of tweets Fox News was first US Appeals Court upholds
Speaker 1: Trump verdict in e Gen Carrol defamation case, and then
Speaker 1: the link to the Fox story. Nancy Mace retweets this
Speaker 1: and says, I hope George Stephanopoulos sees this, to which
Speaker 1: Gunther Eagleman Gunta Eagleman responds, Mike drop boom. It apparently
Speaker 1: did not occur to Nancy Mace or Guntor Eagleman that
Speaker 1: the US Appeals Court uphold holding the Trump verdict in
Speaker 1: the Egen Carroll defamation case was siding with Egen Carroll
Speaker 1: against our illegitimate president elect. Nancy Mace deleted hers no, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: not the boob job the tweet, but our winner again.
Speaker 1: Second reference Oliver Darcy of the Media newsletter status. Now,
Speaker 1: let me be clear, this is one of those times
Speaker 1: when worst person in the world is not meant to
Speaker 1: be taken literally. Oliver Darcy does great work, is a
Speaker 1: great guy has great principles, maybe the last person in
Speaker 1: his field with principles. It's possible to look over media
Speaker 1: criticism and say, principle okay, And he has one percent.
Speaker 1: This guy, Darcy, he's got ninety eight percent of all
Speaker 1: the principles in the field. But but however, however, something
Speaker 1: he has written in his preview of the year in
Speaker 1: media in twenty twenty five has just scared the living
Speaker 1: crap out of me. I will just quote it. It's
Speaker 1: very brief. Who will New York Magazine hire to Phil
Speaker 1: it's now vacant Washington correspondent role, And what will Olivia
Speaker 1: Newsy do next? Oh no, don't tell me, Dear God,
Speaker 1: don't tell me. Don't make me think about it. Please,
Speaker 1: I don't want to know. I don't want to guess.
Speaker 1: I don't want to speculate. After the Biden article scandal
Speaker 1: last year and the hints from her ex fiance that
Speaker 1: she had some kind of dream like while still awake
Speaker 1: experience last year and them trying to get the other
Speaker 1: one arrested and get the FBI involved and restraining orders
Speaker 1: and hacking, and then trying to get them fired, and
Speaker 1: she did lose her job, and I don't know what
Speaker 1: the hell happened to him. He's still on a leave
Speaker 1: of absence from Politico. They don't even mention him anymore.
Speaker 1: And then the RFK Junior FaceTime fiasco. Please please don't
Speaker 1: tell me what she's gonna do next. Please don't do
Speaker 1: anything this year. Just sit back, Olivia, just let it
Speaker 1: all wash away. Look, the Aaron Brown should be your
Speaker 1: role model. I didn't even mention the day he played
Speaker 1: at the Bob Hope Desert Classic instead of coming in
Speaker 1: to cover the Space Shuttle blowing up. It'll go away
Speaker 1: if you wait long enough. What will she do next?
Speaker 1: How in the hell could anybody say? Plus, I'm not
Speaker 1: sure the answer to that question, what will she do next?
Speaker 1: Is not destroy the world as we know it. It's
Speaker 1: bad enough. Today's January sixth, as I managed to remember,
Speaker 1: still all these years later, January sixth is also Olivia's birthday. Oliver,
Speaker 1: could you have cut that out for Space Darcy? Two
Speaker 1: days worse person? I mean this kidding, Lee, I feel
Speaker 1: better now. Things I promised not to tell in my
Speaker 1: career as an actor, which lasted twenty four hours. But first,
Speaker 1: some headlines, some updates, some snark, and some postscripts to
Speaker 1: the news. This is the Countdown podcast, and these are
Speaker 1: the places where there's news. Date line, Central Park, New York.
Speaker 1: You remember Flacco, don't you, The giant Eurasian eagle owl,
Speaker 1: not eagle, but eagle owl who escaped from, was liberated from,
Speaker 1: moved out of his enclosure at the Central Park Zoo
Speaker 1: here in fun city. And this is how time passes.
Speaker 1: That happened two years ago next month. Flacco died one
Speaker 1: year ago next month due to what in fact our
Speaker 1: typical hazards of living here, bad apartment buildings and poison. Flacco,
Speaker 1: nearly two feet tall with a wingspan of about six feet,
Speaker 1: was an amazing resident of this city who spent his
Speaker 1: year of freedom living all around Manhattan, and who chose
Speaker 1: roost after roost around the park and basically lived like
Speaker 1: you would live if you could fly, sampling everything that
Speaker 1: was wonderful about New York and living everywhere you could
Speaker 1: find with a good view of the park. It was
Speaker 1: a privilege to be his neighbor and to know he
Speaker 1: was out there, and to see him occasionally and know
Speaker 1: he was there enjoying the hell out of himself. And
Speaker 1: now he has been memorialized in a startlingly beautiful book
Speaker 1: called Finding Flacco. I don't do book recommendations here, but
Speaker 1: you have to get this one. The authors are noted
Speaker 1: New York birders Jacqueline Emery and David Lay. It is
Speaker 1: a coffee table sized edition of two hundred and twenty
Speaker 1: three pages. As they joke about good books, it's a
Speaker 1: great book. Also. It can be doubling as a weapon
Speaker 1: if you need one, if you need to smack somebody
Speaker 1: in the head while you run away. Every page is
Speaker 1: more beautiful than the last, and it's just stunning. Flacco
Speaker 1: was many things, but for most of them was photogenic.
Speaker 1: And there must be four hundred pictures of him in there,
Speaker 1: bright and glowing with his orange eyes and a golden
Speaker 1: and almost brindle coat of feathers. And his story is
Speaker 1: documented from photos of him in the wild to photos
Speaker 1: of him on construction sites and somebody's balcony, and all
Speaker 1: the personal stories about all of us interacting with him
Speaker 1: and seeing him and looking for him and knowing he
Speaker 1: was there. The book is fifty bucks, and it is cheap.
Speaker 1: At fifty bucks, I was genuinely surprised they have not
Speaker 1: charged more. They have a website for this Flaco book
Speaker 1: flacobook dot com, or it is available at all the
Speaker 1: online booksellers finding Flaco and I do not do book
Speaker 1: plugs here. Get the book and you will have him
Speaker 1: with you always. Dyline, Queens, New York. Okay, this is
Speaker 1: not breaking news. It's not nearly as beautiful as Flacco.
Speaker 1: It is about a book, though, and in fact it
Speaker 1: is at least eighty five years old, this news. But
Speaker 1: I only found about it last Friday, and I'm still
Speaker 1: stunned because it's about a place I first went to
Speaker 1: in the year nineteen sixty four, and I have visited
Speaker 1: this area hundreds of times, and I never knew this
Speaker 1: Here were read The Great Gatsby, one of the top
Speaker 1: five American novels ever. F Scott Fitzgerald and Bob Redford
Speaker 1: is in the movie, and Fitzgerald's imagery about the wanton
Speaker 1: destruction of America and society and morals by the rich
Speaker 1: of the nineteen twenties is illustrated in The Great Gatsby
Speaker 1: two symbols, and one of them is this recurring image
Speaker 1: of the ash heaps. The ash heaps, the big piles
Speaker 1: of blah, black leftover charred remains of God knows what
Speaker 1: ash heaps that violated the landscape in that zone where
Speaker 1: New York City turned into Long Island. The ash heaps
Speaker 1: ten feet high twenty thirty ubiquitous in The Great Gatsby.
Speaker 1: They are what comes when people who don't care how
Speaker 1: they make money or how they live their lives despoil
Speaker 1: the land. Ultimately, they are metaphors for those people, maybe
Speaker 1: for us. Well, Friday, I found out the ash heaps
Speaker 1: were real. I never knew that. I mean, I guess
Speaker 1: if press I would have said, yeah, it must have
Speaker 1: been some Moreover, Fitzgerald in the book wrote where they were,
Speaker 1: and I never made the connection. I mean, he didn't
Speaker 1: give the literal address, but he basically gave it away.
Speaker 1: He said, where the roads and the railroad join up
Speaker 1: to run along the same corridor from the city to
Speaker 1: the Hamptons, that's where the ash heaps were. Turns out,
Speaker 1: there are photographs. The ash heaps were real, and they
Speaker 1: were uglier and more menacing, and they covered a larger
Speaker 1: area even than Fitzgerald described. And it turns out they
Speaker 1: were centered around the intersection of one hundred and twenty
Speaker 1: sixth Street and Roosevelt Avenue in the Corona and Flushing
Speaker 1: areas of Queens here in big city. And you know
Speaker 1: what's there now where Gatsby's ash heaps were one hundred
Speaker 1: and twenty six in Roosevelt. Nothing much, just the Billie
Speaker 1: Jean King National Tennis Center where they play the US
Speaker 1: Open every year, and City Field where the New York
Speaker 1: Mets play and where their old home, say Stadium used
Speaker 1: to be, dating back to nineteen sixty four, and where
Speaker 1: the nineteen sixty four sixty five New York's World Fair
Speaker 1: was and the nineteen thirty nine New York's World Fair.
Speaker 1: And that's what happened to Fitzgerald's ash heaps. And every
Speaker 1: time you go to the tennis or through the Mets game,
Speaker 1: or you just watch either of them on TV, that's
Speaker 1: what you're seeing, the ash heaps. Two points about this.
Speaker 1: To New York Mets fans, this explains everything. Of course,
Speaker 1: Sar Stadium is built on ash heaps, and in the
Speaker 1: kind of irony that fiction like the Great Gatsby and
Speaker 1: authors like fitzg year Old might have dreamed of suggesting
Speaker 1: or implying, but only reality can enact. The main stadium
Speaker 1: at the National Tennis Center is named for yet another
Speaker 1: tennis immortal. It is called the Arthur ash Stadium. Still
Speaker 1: ahead on this all new Big Show. Trump, as you know,
Speaker 1: is an actor, a bad actor. But as I was
Speaker 1: reminded this weekend, anybody can be a great actor for
Speaker 1: a span of from five to fifteen seconds. Ask Trump,
Speaker 1: ask orson wells or as in this next edition of
Speaker 1: Things I promised not to tell. Ask me fifty years ago.
Speaker 1: For literally one day, twenty four hours, I was convinced
Speaker 1: by somebody who should have known, that not only should
Speaker 1: I become an actor, but if I did, I would
Speaker 1: become a great actor. Things I promised not to tell
Speaker 1: about my stunning performance in the Odd Couple. First, we
Speaker 1: have not done this in a long time, featuring a
Speaker 1: dog in need whom you can help. Every dog has
Speaker 1: its day, but this story is near and dear to
Speaker 1: my heart, and especially to the heart of my newest pup, Kit,
Speaker 1: who turned seven months old on Saturday and is just fine.
Speaker 1: Other than his belief than any time of the day
Speaker 1: or night is the time to wrestle with his family
Speaker 1: or bark. While I am recording, Kit came to me
Speaker 1: needing PDA surgery. The ceiling off of a duct between
Speaker 1: the vessels near your heart or in your heart. Oversimplifying, Obviously,
Speaker 1: the duct is between the vessels that carry oxygenated blood
Speaker 1: to the heart and the vessels near your heart that
Speaker 1: carry deoxygenated blood from your heart back to the lungs
Speaker 1: to be reloaded. All mammals have this duct. It seals
Speaker 1: off the moment you or your baby or your dog
Speaker 1: take your first breath, or it doesn't seal off, and
Speaker 1: that's where the PDA surgery comes in. Left that way,
Speaker 1: it will produce a terrible, inconsistent heartbeat, and sooner or
Speaker 1: later it will burst, and it will fill the lungs
Speaker 1: with fluid, and it will kill you or your dog
Speaker 1: or kit. Happily, surgery not only works, it cures. Basically,
Speaker 1: you fix this and you get a normal life expectancy.
Speaker 1: It is delicate surgery. It's costly, it's precise, and it's
Speaker 1: terrifying because the younger the puppy is, or the human
Speaker 1: baby or whatever. The better kit was two pounds and
Speaker 1: six ounces. I have been through a lot of surgeries
Speaker 1: with my dogs, counting oral surgeries. I think this was
Speaker 1: the tenth. Nothing has scared me more. He's so little.
Speaker 1: Then the surgeon reminded me, you know we do do
Speaker 1: this on kittens. He would be a big kitten. Kit's fine.
Speaker 1: You barely can tell where the incision was, and the
Speaker 1: incision ran from his armpit to his knee. So Kit
Speaker 1: is fine, and now I want Tippy to be fine too.
Speaker 1: I nearly wound up with Tippy instead of Kit. It
Speaker 1: was pure logistics and timing that made it otherwise. Tip
Speaker 1: is in Virginia. Kit is in the northeast and was so.
Speaker 1: American Maltese Association Rescue, where I got Kit and where
Speaker 1: Tippy is, has taken care of and taken responsibility for
Speaker 1: this nine month old pup and Tippy's PDA surgery, and frankly,
Speaker 1: we need the money to foot the bill. This is
Speaker 1: more or less my rescue. I don't have anything to
Speaker 1: do with it in terms of running it. But Kit
Speaker 1: came to me through AMAR, and so did Ted, and
Speaker 1: so did my late lamented boys Mi Nay, the Jumper
Speaker 1: and little Mishoe. So I can tell you this organization
Speaker 1: is one hundred percent about the dogs, and the money
Speaker 1: will go to Tippy's recovery, and you don't have to
Speaker 1: worry about any of that. And we could use any
Speaker 1: dollar you can spare. There is a giving grid set
Speaker 1: up for Tip. Just go to givinggrid dot com search
Speaker 1: for Tippy. You'll find him. Anything you can spare will
Speaker 1: help Tip. Thanks you, Kit, thank you, and as always
Speaker 1: I thank you. Finally, on the countdown things I promised
Speaker 1: not to tell, and I was listening to somebody and
Speaker 1: I can't remember who it was in the past couple
Speaker 1: of days talk about Donald Trump, Man of faith. I remember.
Speaker 1: It's something that dawned on me when I was about
Speaker 1: sixteen seventeen years old and has been proven true every
Speaker 1: year since, which is everybody can be a great actor
Speaker 1: for five to fifteen seconds. Some can be a great
Speaker 1: actor for five seconds to fifty years, but anybody, given
Speaker 1: enough takes, as we say, can be a great actor
Speaker 1: for from five to fifteen seconds. I base this on
Speaker 1: two stories that don't have anything to do with Trump. I,
Speaker 1: for one day, one twenty four hour period, in the
Speaker 1: spring of nineteen seventy five, was going to abandon my
Speaker 1: then fairly well formed plan of becoming a sports broadcaster
Speaker 1: and writer, and probably a news reporter as well, abandon
Speaker 1: them entirely to become an actor, on the advice of
Speaker 1: somebody who had seen me working towards a media goal
Speaker 1: and had seen me act, and he suddenly blurted out
Speaker 1: that I should do the latter, and I will tell
Speaker 1: that story last. The other piece of evidence that I
Speaker 1: have is of one of the great tragic stories of
Speaker 1: actual actors, Orson Wells. Whatever else you might have thought
Speaker 1: of him, and what you might think of him in
Speaker 1: terms of creativity, now that it's impossible to judge Citizen
Speaker 1: Kane as if you had never seen any of the
Speaker 1: thousand innovations of Citizen Kane before. Orson Wells was a
Speaker 1: great actor. Now he was not necessarily the most varietous
Speaker 1: of actors. He could not perhaps appear in a thousand
Speaker 1: different styles. You always knew it was him, and he
Speaker 1: was almost always over the top. But if you wanted
Speaker 1: an over the top performance, whether it was as Citizen
Speaker 1: Kane or as the man behind the original thing that
Speaker 1: made him famous, the nineteen thirty eight War of the
Speaker 1: World's radio broadcast, or anything else, the wine commercials. The
Speaker 1: outtake on the famous radio wine commercials where he berates
Speaker 1: the writer and the producer of these wine commercials for
Speaker 1: half an hour on a sixty second spot that he
Speaker 1: was supposed to read whatever the context it is. Orson
Speaker 1: Wells was a great actor, an over the top, wonderful, loud,
Speaker 1: no subtlety, no variation performer, one of the best of
Speaker 1: all time. But by I guess nineteen seventy he had
Speaker 1: basically given up. Orson Wells was tortured for thirty years
Speaker 1: because a the greatest movie he ever made, and to
Speaker 1: that point, anybody ever made, he made in his first movie.
Speaker 1: And what do you do after that? It's nineteen forty one,
Speaker 1: you're about twenty seven, twenty eight years old, and there's
Speaker 1: nowhere to go but down, And he went down. Also,
Speaker 1: he didn't exactly help those people who might have been
Speaker 1: trying to help him erase that reputation. He was incapable
Speaker 1: of suffering fools gladly, or incapable of suffering almost anybody gladly,
Speaker 1: you know, my reputation. His reality was like a thousand
Speaker 1: times that. Okay, So that's Orson Welles. And by the
Speaker 1: time nineteen seventy or so rolls around, he's been beaten
Speaker 1: up and he's given up. His life has only what
Speaker 1: ten years or so to go. He's reduced to doing
Speaker 1: wine commercials, and he just doesn't care anymore. He's probably
Speaker 1: about four hundred pounds and he just doesn't care anymore.
Speaker 1: But he is still a brilliant actor for five to
Speaker 1: fifteen seconds at a stretch. Mike Nichols, the great director
Speaker 1: of The Graduate and a thousand other wonderful films, and
Speaker 1: the former comedy partner of Elaine May, Nichols and May
Speaker 1: one of the great comedy teams of all time, breakers
Speaker 1: of all kinds of taboos and traditions in the late
Speaker 1: fifties and early sixties, and then he suddenly veered off
Speaker 1: to direct and was brilliant told this story about filming
Speaker 1: Orson Wells in one of the great underrated films of
Speaker 1: all time. One of the greatest movies of all time
Speaker 1: was dismissed because in retrospect, how on the hell you're
Speaker 1: going to make a movie out of Catch twenty two?
Speaker 1: And when they put Catch twenty two out, it wasn't
Speaker 1: as great as the novel, which would have required a
Speaker 1: movie of maybe forty five forty six hours long, with
Speaker 1: seventeen simultaneous scenes going on and plot twists that you
Speaker 1: ever never understood. Catch twenty two was supposed to be
Speaker 1: in a book a kind of Kaleidoscope on fire. That's
Speaker 1: the feel you get from reading it, and you're not
Speaker 1: quite sure what's going on for three hundred pages, and
Speaker 1: somehow Mike Nichols translated this into an excellent film. In fact,
Speaker 1: I think, I think a classic film, and it's just
Speaker 1: now being rehabilitated fifty years later to being well okay.
Speaker 1: One of the streamers did a series of Catched twenty
Speaker 1: two a couple of years ago, and it tried to
Speaker 1: unpack the complexity and left us with a rather boring
Speaker 1: Second World War story. Mike Nichols film did not do that.
Speaker 1: Mike Nichols film gives you, at least that very similitude,
Speaker 1: like you're sort of reading Catch twenty two and it
Speaker 1: comes to life. And one of the reasons is Orson
Speaker 1: Wells makes a cameo in which he plays a general
Speaker 1: who doesn't care, so he's perfect for the role. But
Speaker 1: Mike Nichols told a story about the acting of Orson
Speaker 1: Wells by this year nineteen seventy and how he didn't
Speaker 1: care anymore and to the degree to which he didn't
Speaker 1: care anymore, and it was an extraordinary story, and it
Speaker 1: underscores my point emphasized by Trump and my own personal
Speaker 1: experiences that anybody can be a great actor for from
Speaker 1: five to fifteen seconds. He said, Nichols, that is that
Speaker 1: by the time they got a hold of Orson Wells
Speaker 1: to play General Dreadle, he directed Nichols, that is directed
Speaker 1: Orson Wells personally, and I'm sure was quite nervous in
Speaker 1: doing so. And he said, how would you like to
Speaker 1: approach this scene? And Wells just looked at him inside
Speaker 1: and went, I don't know the lines. I don't have
Speaker 1: any idea of the context. I have never read the script,
Speaker 1: I don't know the book, I don't know these other actors.
Speaker 1: This is what I want you to do. Tell me
Speaker 1: exactly what it is you want me to say. Tell
Speaker 1: me exactly where you want me to stand, Tell me
Speaker 1: exactly how you want me to address and who you
Speaker 1: want me to address as I deliver my lines. Tell
Speaker 1: me when we are in close up, tell me when
Speaker 1: we are taking a second shot for cover. And let's
Speaker 1: get this done. But between each take, I want you
Speaker 1: to repeat to me exactly the way you want me
Speaker 1: to say, exactly the line you want me to say.
Speaker 1: And Mike Nichols had never contemplated this form of acting before,
Speaker 1: and so Mike Nichols said, well, let's try that Orson
Speaker 1: and I believe I don't know. I'm just guessing that Orson.
Speaker 1: Wells responded by saying, please call me mister Wells in
Speaker 1: any event. They go and shoot one of I believe
Speaker 1: Wells's two film scenes in Catch twenty two, and Mike
Speaker 1: Nichols says, all right, stand over here a look towards
Speaker 1: Martin Balsam as you say this, and just tilt your
Speaker 1: head slightly back so I can see under the visor
Speaker 1: and not get too much of a shadow the visor
Speaker 1: on your hat. And you say, if he wants to
Speaker 1: accept a metal while naked, what business is it of yours?
Speaker 1: Emphasizing yours, and Wells goes, he wants to turn of yours.
Speaker 1: Say it to me again, he wants to accept a
Speaker 1: metal while naked? What business is it of yours? I've
Speaker 1: got it, please roll, and Wells delivers it, and then
Speaker 1: delivers it a second time exactly correctly. Do you have enough?
Speaker 1: Are we doing the wide shot of this? All right?
Speaker 1: I'll wait, and then they widen out and shoot the
Speaker 1: same scene again, and he delivers the line again, asking
Speaker 1: Mike Nichols to remind him to do this line one
Speaker 1: more time, how he wants it done, and he does
Speaker 1: it again, and Mike Nichols said, the entirety of Orson
Speaker 1: Wales's performance in Catch twenty two, one of the great
Speaker 1: cameos in one of the great underrated, maybe the greatest,
Speaker 1: most underrated film of all time, is done this way.
Speaker 1: The mina bird theory of acting. Never Mind Lee Strasbourg,
Speaker 1: never mind realism, never mind summoning emotions, never mind any
Speaker 1: of this stuff from that guy in that awful serious
Speaker 1: succession in his theories of acting, Brian Cox. Never mind
Speaker 1: that the mina bird theory, which dovetails with my idea
Speaker 1: that Trump could actually stand there and pretend that the
Speaker 1: only God he believes in is not him and for
Speaker 1: five to fifteen seconds be among the greatest actors of
Speaker 1: all time. This theory came to me first on the
Speaker 1: day I referred to from the Year of Our Lord
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy five, when I I was pretty much convinced,
Speaker 1: even at that late date, with my college career already
Speaker 1: mapped out in front of me, I was going to
Speaker 1: change courses and become an actor. Two friends of mine
Speaker 1: were performing as a project and we all had these
Speaker 1: as seniors at Hackley School in Tarrytown, New York, a
Speaker 1: special project, something that kept us out of class the
Speaker 1: last month or so, on the theory that graduating seniors
Speaker 1: weren't showing up anyway, we might as well give them
Speaker 1: something to do well. My two friends Ron and Eric
Speaker 1: did the Odd Couple, and they asked me, as a
Speaker 1: sometimes member of the group of the acting group at
Speaker 1: Hackley School, to portray Speed, the accountant. And Speed is
Speaker 1: an interesting role and has a couple of funny lines
Speaker 1: and most notably starts to play with the first lines
Speaker 1: of the play. And the first night I came out
Speaker 1: and sat down at the poker table in the darkness
Speaker 1: of our chapel at Hackley School, there was a giant
Speaker 1: cleek light where my light where my butt was supposed
Speaker 1: to be on this chair, and I had to move
Speaker 1: it quickly before the lights came out. Otherwise we would
Speaker 1: have rewritten the Odd Couple, in which the first scene
Speaker 1: is not Speed saying excuse me, sir, aren't you the
Speaker 1: one they called the Cincinnati Kid or whatever it was.
Speaker 1: Instead it would have been curtain rises. Speed is shown
Speaker 1: moving a giant cleeglight out of the view of the audience,
Speaker 1: got it out of the way, hit it somewhere, reprimanded
Speaker 1: the staff not for the last time, and we proceeded
Speaker 1: with the play. We were only giving two performances, and
Speaker 1: we had done I think two dress rehearsals, and it
Speaker 1: had gone fairly well. My major concern as a sixteen
Speaker 1: year old actor who was doing it just for experience
Speaker 1: in front of a crowd while talking, had no goal
Speaker 1: whatsoever of becoming an actor. Enjoyed parts of it, but
Speaker 1: really was worried about forgetting my lines. Well I did, okay,
Speaker 1: didn't forget my lines, kind of enjoyed it, enjoyed the
Speaker 1: flow of it, enjoyed working with the pacing of it
Speaker 1: and trying to time my lines exactly right and how
Speaker 1: loud I should be to be heard in the back
Speaker 1: of the chapel. And then something happened about I don't know.
Speaker 1: Midway through one of the early scenes I was in,
Speaker 1: I started to deliver a line from backstage down to
Speaker 1: a character who was seated closer to the audience, and
Speaker 1: as I said the words, and we'd done it in
Speaker 1: two dress rehearsals and countless other scene rehearsals, I thought intuitively.
Speaker 1: It just came to me. Don't say it yet, widen
Speaker 1: your eyes and stare at the guy before you say it.
Speaker 1: And I don't remember. I've looked several times over the years,
Speaker 1: in the nearly fifty years since, I have looked through
Speaker 1: the script of the End Couple trying to find the scene.
Speaker 1: I can't remember which it is. It's one of three
Speaker 1: or four different scenes. But at some point I looked
Speaker 1: at in my soul and said, pause and stare at him,
Speaker 1: stare daggers at him, and it got a laugh. Not
Speaker 1: Neil Simon, the author of the play, not his laugh,
Speaker 1: my laugh. There was no planning involved in this whatsoever. Then,
Speaker 1: before delivering the line, which I was trying to do
Speaker 1: so I wouldn't forget the rest of the lines and
Speaker 1: get out of my rhythm, something else told me stand up.
Speaker 1: I rose slowly and got a second laugh. Then something
Speaker 1: else told me innocently, not even really hearing the applause
Speaker 1: or the laughter from the audience, but just knowing that
Speaker 1: but what was supposed to happen next was not what
Speaker 1: we had rehearsed. I then moved downstage, kind of like
Speaker 1: I was approaching a bomb that was about to go off,
Speaker 1: and I looked at this guy and kind of tilted
Speaker 1: my head to the side and delivered the line. And
Speaker 1: as I started to deliver the line, I got a
Speaker 1: third laugh, to the point where I had to repeat
Speaker 1: the line, which got its own laugh, which was Neil
Speaker 1: Simon's laugh. The kid responding to me with his laugh
Speaker 1: line got a little titter from the audience. And then
Speaker 1: I started to turn back to go back to my
Speaker 1: seat on stage, and stopped and turned back at him again,
Speaker 1: just raised my eyebrows and again said nothing, and I
Speaker 1: got another laugh. Then I walked and sat down, and
Speaker 1: the way I sat down, with utter defeat and a
Speaker 1: slump into the chair, I got a fifth laugh of
Speaker 1: my own. It was only then that I realized that
Speaker 1: none of this was prepared, and none of this was
Speaker 1: what we were planning to do. And as anybody who
Speaker 1: ever directed a bunch of kids, no matter how serious
Speaker 1: they were about it in anything, knows that the most
Speaker 1: important thing about being the adult in the room is
Speaker 1: keeping the plan intact. You don't want somebody suddenly getting
Speaker 1: some sort of creative muse telling him to start acting
Speaker 1: and walking around the stage in new ways. During the
Speaker 1: first performance, and I realized that our advisor, mister Clark,
Speaker 1: who was the director, John Clark, was going to verbally
Speaker 1: beat the hell out of me. God knows he had
Speaker 1: in the past. John Clark was the faculty advisor to
Speaker 1: the Hackley Dial, our student newspaper, to the yearbook, to
Speaker 1: the radio station where I was Chris Berman's protege for
Speaker 1: a year and then became the sports director after Chris graduated,
Speaker 1: and the drama group. So there wasn't a lot of
Speaker 1: media at Hackley, but but there were four separate entities,
Speaker 1: and he was in charge of all of them. So
Speaker 1: he'd known me a long time, and we'd had many
Speaker 1: many disputes, like the time they threatened to throw me
Speaker 1: out of school for an editorial I wrote for the newspaper.
Speaker 1: In any event, we get to the intermission and I
Speaker 1: come off the stage and John Clark is just looking
Speaker 1: at me, But he doesn't look at me like I'm
Speaker 1: insane or I have just broken all the rules of
Speaker 1: Hackley School drama group. He looks at me and he said,
Speaker 1: I want to talk to you afterwards, not now, I
Speaker 1: want to talk to you afterwards about that scene. And
Speaker 1: I said, I'm sorry, I just yid, No, no, no,
Speaker 1: you don't have to be sorry. Just something happened there
Speaker 1: that we should talk about. Don't worry about it. I
Speaker 1: wanted to reassure you don't worry about it, which I've
Speaker 1: never heard him say before. He always wanted me to
Speaker 1: worry about it. So we finished the play and it
Speaker 1: was really good. For a high school group doing the
Speaker 1: odd couple. It was pretty good. I was pretty good,
Speaker 1: And the guy had delivered the line too was pretty good.
Speaker 1: And the guy who played Murray the cop was pretty good.
Speaker 1: And Ron and Eric as Felix and Oscar, they were
Speaker 1: pretty good. We get off the stage and everybody says goodbye,
Speaker 1: and some of the parents come backstage, and some of
Speaker 1: the guys in the audience come backstage, and kids in
Speaker 1: the class come backstage, and everybody says, that was really
Speaker 1: worth it, which is about the highest compliment you can
Speaker 1: give high school actors. And then John Clark takes me
Speaker 1: aside and he said, tell me what made you get
Speaker 1: up and pause before you delivered that line in the
Speaker 1: first act. And I said, I don't know. It just
Speaker 1: felt like the right thing to do. Right then. You
Speaker 1: didn't plan it? No, God, no, what about the second thing, well,
Speaker 1: it seemed to be consistent with what the speed had
Speaker 1: just done. And I have to admit that I heard
Speaker 1: the laugh, and they seemed to be in a mood
Speaker 1: to laugh. This would make me laugh, So I got
Speaker 1: up and I did that. He said, when you gave
Speaker 1: him the double take on the way back before you
Speaker 1: slouched into the chair. I said, I don't know where
Speaker 1: that came from. He said, listen, you and I have
Speaker 1: gone back and forth about this newspaper and the radio
Speaker 1: station and the yearbook, and your desire to become a sportscaster,
Speaker 1: and I'd just like to tell you something. What you
Speaker 1: exhibited on stage tonight was called instinct. I could teach
Speaker 1: this class and this drama group for a thousand years
Speaker 1: with a thousand students every year, and nobody else would
Speaker 1: ever have anything resembling that. I suppose I could get
Speaker 1: together twenty professional actors and not one of them would
Speaker 1: have that kind of instinct in a ten year span.
Speaker 1: I know you want to become a sportscaster, and I'm
Speaker 1: sure you will become that if you choose to proceed
Speaker 1: that way. You've already gotten into Cornell, and you already
Speaker 1: have your plans and you're already working on this magazine
Speaker 1: over here, and working on this book about sports cards
Speaker 1: you're already involved in. You're already going on the route.
Speaker 1: Drop it, drop it right now and become an actor.
Speaker 1: If you become an actor, you will become one of
Speaker 1: the great actors of our time. And I, of course
Speaker 1: just laughed. I went, Okay, what's the joke? He said,
Speaker 1: Have you ever known me to joke with you? Have
Speaker 1: I ever been really nice to you? No, mister Clark,
Speaker 1: have I ever been really nice to anybody here? To
Speaker 1: your knowledge. I don't like to think of myself and
Speaker 1: this was one of the first times I heard an adult,
Speaker 1: particularly one of my teachers, use this term. I don't
Speaker 1: like to think of myself as being an asshole to everybody,
Speaker 1: but I don't think of myself as being gratuitous and
Speaker 1: unnecessarily friendly to everybody either. Listen to me, this was like,
Speaker 1: this was like watching Olivier step on to the stage
Speaker 1: for the first time. And I said, did he do
Speaker 1: a lot of comedy? And now John Clark laughs and went,
Speaker 1: that's it, that's your instinct. There are professionals out there
Speaker 1: who have their own TV series who pray every night
Speaker 1: for that instinct, do not let it go to waste
Speaker 1: in sports casting. And I said, you're serious, and he said,
Speaker 1: I'm serious. Neil Simon would say the same thing to you.
Speaker 1: Well that got to me and I thought, you know,
Speaker 1: and I said this to him. You know what I
Speaker 1: did like out there? And this was my third or
Speaker 1: fourth play. And again it had been just to join
Speaker 1: the group and get a little experience performing in front
Speaker 1: of a crowd, which I figured I'd have to do
Speaker 1: as a sportscaster. I just I just began for the
Speaker 1: first time to kind of enjoy the applause. I mean,
Speaker 1: if you're broadcasting or on ESPN, or on MSNBC, or
Speaker 1: on network radio or doing a podcast, you don't hear
Speaker 1: any applause. I mean, sometimes there are public events in
Speaker 1: which you might get a mighty roar, might go up
Speaker 1: from the crowd, but often years go by between those events,
Speaker 1: and you have to just sort of assume that they're
Speaker 1: out there applauding. And when you do that, of course,
Speaker 1: you turn very slowly but very surely crazy. Yes, they're
Speaker 1: all out there in the dark Norma Desmond Alderman. But
Speaker 1: back to nineteen seventy five and the odd couple. We
Speaker 1: were to present it again the next night. The next night,
Speaker 1: the second of two performances, and now there was a
Speaker 1: buzz going into this because of my performance as speed,
Speaker 1: to the point where one of the two I can't
Speaker 1: remember which, either Felix or Oscar, came to me beforehand
Speaker 1: and said, don't show us up again. He was very upset. Well,
Speaker 1: we did the performance, and it came time for that scene,
Speaker 1: and now I knew where it was and what my
Speaker 1: instincts had told me to do the previous night, and
Speaker 1: I knew they wouldn't be naturally, would not be absolutely organic,
Speaker 1: they would be me with some rehearsal involved. And when
Speaker 1: it came time to deliver that line and I stared
Speaker 1: at that kid before giving it, I got a bigger laugh.
Speaker 1: And when I rose from my seat and looked at
Speaker 1: him before going over to talk to him and deliver
Speaker 1: the line right on top of his head, I got
Speaker 1: another bigger laugh. And when I stood next to him,
Speaker 1: I added a second or two paws before saying the
Speaker 1: line basically to the top of his head, and I
Speaker 1: got twice the laugh I had the night before, and
Speaker 1: now it was rehearsed, it wasn't just a question of instinct.
Speaker 1: Now I was adding to instinct, and I went, hey,
Speaker 1: I like this. And at the intermission John Clark just
Speaker 1: looked at me gave me a thumbs up. He said,
Speaker 1: whenever you have the instinct, don't change the words. Never
Speaker 1: change the words. But feel free to do the business.
Speaker 1: The stairs, the walks, the motions, the double chakes, the
Speaker 1: larger than life noises like my dog's barking out there.
Speaker 1: Do it when it comes to you, naturally, when Kit interferes,
Speaker 1: do it, Hey, Kit, quiet down. So now we go
Speaker 1: out to do the second half of the play. And
Speaker 1: again I have checked the script of The Odd Couple,
Speaker 1: and I can't remember what it was, but there is
Speaker 1: a scene in The Odd Couple in which one of
Speaker 1: the other actors has to say a line otherwise Felix
Speaker 1: cannot come back in from the kitchen. And if you
Speaker 1: do it exactly wrong, where you forget the line entirely,
Speaker 1: Felix will be out in the kitchen forever for eternity.
Speaker 1: Your play, instead of being less than two hours, will
Speaker 1: take many millennia. Well, sure enough, the youngest kid in
Speaker 1: our cast, a guy named Ron, had very few lines
Speaker 1: in the play. He was one of the poker players,
Speaker 1: and he was supposed to say, hey, Felix, come on
Speaker 1: in here with that sandwich or whatever the line was.
Speaker 1: And he forgot my greatest fear, and it hadn't happened
Speaker 1: to me, and I hadn't seen it before. My greatest
Speaker 1: fear was forgetting the line, and here it was happening
Speaker 1: next to me, and the poor kid panicked immediately. He was,
Speaker 1: I believe, a sophomore, so he was two years younger
Speaker 1: than everybody in the cast except me. He was probably
Speaker 1: about my age, maybe a little younger. And he froze.
Speaker 1: And when I say he froze, I mean as Scoop
Speaker 1: the accountant. One of my props I had with me
Speaker 1: was a notepad and a pen and some pencils in
Speaker 1: my vest pocket, and I wrote the line down for
Speaker 1: this poor guy and handed it to him on a
Speaker 1: piece of paper, and he was so frozen, so terrified,
Speaker 1: so distraught at what had happened, that he could not
Speaker 1: even recognize that that was the line that had to
Speaker 1: be said. So mister Clark in the back signaled to us,
Speaker 1: turned the lights off, brought the curtain down symbolically, since
Speaker 1: there was not a real curtain, and that was the
Speaker 1: end of the performance. I believe we went out and
Speaker 1: finished the play, but by that point a lot of
Speaker 1: people had left backstage. Twenty four hours after John Clark
Speaker 1: had put into my head the idea that I could
Speaker 1: be the greatest actor of a generation in the same
Speaker 1: dressing area, with the same makeup, lights, nity mirrors. Poor Ron,
Speaker 1: who had just screwed up the play by freezing, with
Speaker 1: the worst possible outcome unless you fell off the stage
Speaker 1: into the crowd. Ron took about three steps off the
Speaker 1: stage and into that back dressing area and face planted
Speaker 1: and started to wail. I don't know how many times
Speaker 1: in your life you have seen an otherwise healthy and
Speaker 1: uninjured sixteen year old boy suddenly begin to scream while
Speaker 1: crying to unravel like a toddler, But not in anger,
Speaker 1: not in demand, not in selfishness, but in guilt, his
Speaker 1: horror that he had screwed up the play. The idea
Speaker 1: that you could do that by simply forgetting the line
Speaker 1: and get so screwed up that you couldn't even recognize
Speaker 1: the line when it was literally staring you in the face.
Speaker 1: I went white as a sheet for twenty four hours.
Speaker 1: I had contemplated the idea that I was going to
Speaker 1: give up the whole sports casting thing. And I'd already
Speaker 1: gone home and looked at the Cornell catalog that I'd
Speaker 1: gotten to see what the arts classes were like, and
Speaker 1: if they would admit somebody who was not in the
Speaker 1: arts college to trying out for the plays, and what
Speaker 1: the student related, non Cornell class work might be there,
Speaker 1: and if I could do that and try a little
Speaker 1: of that, and try a little sportscasting and see what
Speaker 1: worked out. And at that point I went to hell
Speaker 1: with this. I never want to be this close to
Speaker 1: this happening again, let alone have it happened to me.
Speaker 1: So as Orson Wells by nineteen seventy and Catch twenty
Speaker 1: two had given up his great ability, had given up
Speaker 1: his stage work, had given up everything that required him
Speaker 1: to actually work rather than perform for five to fifteen
Speaker 1: seconds at a time. In nineteen seventy five, at the
Speaker 1: age of sixteen, at the start of what would have
Speaker 1: been an otherwise I don't know, thirty three thirty four
Speaker 1: Oscar career, I don't know what it would have been.
Speaker 1: I said, I will never act again, nor will I
Speaker 1: ever go see a live performance again. I can't be
Speaker 1: this close to this horrible thing happening to anybody ever again, No, sir,
Speaker 1: I believe. The next performance I saw was Amadaeus on
Speaker 1: Broadway in nineteen eighty one. It took a girl named
Speaker 1: pat McAllister to see it. I was trying to impress her,
Speaker 1: and I have to admit I sat there half in
Speaker 1: mortal terror of doing something wrong that would send her away,
Speaker 1: and half in mortal terror of somebody up there in
Speaker 1: the stage freezing. It was a terribly uncomfortable experience, more
Speaker 1: for the latter than the former. I did not see,
Speaker 1: I think another live performance, maybe one or two, until
Speaker 1: I went to see Book of Mormon in twenty eleven.
Speaker 1: Just couldn't do it. My memories of Ron overwhelmed my
Speaker 1: memories of the great acting career that never was. I
Speaker 1: would have been three orson Wells. And yet when people
Speaker 1: have come to me the Simpsons Family, Guy BoJack Horseman,
Speaker 1: the movie I've told you about previously, that I was
Speaker 1: in dead solid perfect and I realized that at no
Speaker 1: point did I have to act for more than five
Speaker 1: to fifteen seconds at a stretch. I took comfort and
Speaker 1: was able to perform because like Trump up there pretending
Speaker 1: to be faithful, pretending to be the most religious man
Speaker 1: on earth and fooling them, Like Orson Wells with his
Speaker 1: five to fifteen seconds mimicry of Mike Nichols's version of
Speaker 1: what he should say for his character in Catch twenty
Speaker 1: two for five to fifteen seconds, anybody can be a
Speaker 1: great actor, anybody, even me, even Trump. I've done all
Speaker 1: the damage I can do here. Thank you for listening.
Speaker 1: I should tell you more about mister Clark and the
Speaker 1: validation of this story. That's nineteen seventy five. One day
Speaker 1: I was walking into my office, or perhaps I was
Speaker 1: already seated in my office at CNN in the lobby
Speaker 1: of World Trade Center number one in nineteen eighty two
Speaker 1: or nineteen eighty three, as the CNN National Sports Correspondent,
Speaker 1: which was my third full time job in broadcasting. I
Speaker 1: was twenty four to twenty five years old, and we opened.
Speaker 1: We had a giant glass wall where everybody in the
Speaker 1: lobby could stare at what we were doing and not
Speaker 1: hear a word. We were saying the definition of TV news.
Speaker 1: But in the lobby we could see thousands of people
Speaker 1: pass through the crossroads of the Nation. Was not Grand Central.
Speaker 1: It was having an office with a big picture window
Speaker 1: in the lobby of the World Trade Center. And one
Speaker 1: day I saw mister Clark walking across, and it was
Speaker 1: no question that was him. He was in a bow tie,
Speaker 1: as he had been often in Hacke seven eight years previously.
Speaker 1: And I just went, my god, it's mister Clark walking
Speaker 1: past my TV office. Because I did not go into
Speaker 1: the acting profession, and so I ran out and flagged
Speaker 1: him down. And he turned around and did a double
Speaker 1: take and shook his head a couple of times to
Speaker 1: make sure I was not an apparition, and went, Keith,
Speaker 1: my god, what are you doing here? And I said, well,
Speaker 1: as you know, I didn't go into acting. He burst
Speaker 1: into laughter. He remembered the entirety of the story. That
Speaker 1: poor kid Ron, Oh my god, I think he's still
Speaker 1: back there in the chapel, crying his eyes out. I said,
Speaker 1: I can't even go to a show live after that.
Speaker 1: I understand completely. I guess you made your right course,
Speaker 1: your my choice there and took the right course. Where
Speaker 1: you know you're working here, you're working. I sometimes I'm
Speaker 1: in this building. Let's have lunch I said, what do
Speaker 1: you do. You're not at Hackley anymore? Are you teaching?
Speaker 1: I said, where would you be teaching around here? And
Speaker 1: when I'm not teaching? I worked for the Port Authority
Speaker 1: which owned the World Trade Center, built the World Trade Center,
Speaker 1: and I didn't ask he was rushing off to do
Speaker 1: something else. I did not find out what John Clark
Speaker 1: was doing for the Port Authority. All I can be
Speaker 1: sure of was it probably did not involve the odd
Speaker 1: couple or telling some kid somewhere that he would be
Speaker 1: the next rate actor. Thanks for listening. Brian Ray and
Speaker 1: John Phillip Shaneil the musical directors have Countdown, arranged, produced,
Speaker 1: and performed most of our music. Mister Chanelle handled orchestration
Speaker 1: and keyboards. Mister Ray was on the guitars, bass and drums.
Speaker 1: It was produced by Tko Brothers. Our satirical and fithy
Speaker 1: musical comments are by the best baseball stadium organist ever,
Speaker 1: Nancy Faust. The sports music is the Olderman theme from
Speaker 1: ESPN two, written by Mitch Warren Davis courtesy of ESPN Inc.
Speaker 1: Other music arranged and performed by the group No Horns Allowed.
Speaker 1: My announcer today was my friend Stevie van zandt everything
Speaker 1: else was as ever my fault. Get the Flacco book,
Speaker 1: Finding Flacco, and help our friend Tippy if you can.
Speaker 1: Let's countdown for today, two weeks until we inaugurate a
Speaker 1: constitutionally ineligible president. Just four and seventy six days until
Speaker 1: the scheduled end of his lame duck term. The next
Speaker 1: scheduled countdown is next Thursday. This Thursday, I guess I
Speaker 1: hope to announce a new schedule for this series. Three
Speaker 1: a week, two and a half a week. I hope
Speaker 1: to make that announcement by next Monday. All I wanted
Speaker 1: to do was retire. As always, bulletins is the news
Speaker 1: warrants till next time. I'm Keith Olremman. Good morning, good afternoon,
Speaker 1: good night, and good luck. Countdown with Keith Oldreman is
Speaker 1: a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit
Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.