1 00:00:04,795 --> 00:00:21,835 Speaker 1: Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio. The 2 00:00:21,995 --> 00:00:25,635 Speaker 1: United States of America is under attack by armed right 3 00:00:25,675 --> 00:00:30,275 Speaker 1: wing terrorists. The Texas Mall Shooter and every other one 4 00:00:30,315 --> 00:00:33,075 Speaker 1: of them bent on killing the enemies living inside their 5 00:00:33,115 --> 00:00:36,915 Speaker 1: own minds might as well be suicide bombers, might as 6 00:00:36,955 --> 00:00:41,795 Speaker 1: well be isis. The receipts on the Texas Mall shooter 7 00:00:41,915 --> 00:00:45,315 Speaker 1: are a mile long. He was a right wing media addict. 8 00:00:45,675 --> 00:00:49,875 Speaker 1: He dedicated a hate filled online rant to the appallingly 9 00:00:49,995 --> 00:00:54,635 Speaker 1: dangerous libs of TikTok twitter account. He posted screenshots from 10 00:00:54,635 --> 00:00:58,995 Speaker 1: the right wing troll Tim Poole. A swastika tattoo covered 11 00:00:59,035 --> 00:01:02,035 Speaker 1: those parts of his body not covered by an SS tattoo. 12 00:01:02,275 --> 00:01:05,035 Speaker 1: He signed one comment with the name Adolf Hitler. He 13 00:01:05,075 --> 00:01:08,475 Speaker 1: repeatedly posed in Nazi uniforms. He used a meme that 14 00:01:08,555 --> 00:01:12,515 Speaker 1: suggested there were only two roots for Latino children identify 15 00:01:12,675 --> 00:01:16,915 Speaker 1: as black or become a white supremacist. And his pedigree 16 00:01:17,315 --> 00:01:21,275 Speaker 1: as a right wing MAGA inspired neo Nazi perpetrator of 17 00:01:21,315 --> 00:01:25,315 Speaker 1: stochastic terrorism fueled by every component of Donald Trump and 18 00:01:25,435 --> 00:01:29,475 Speaker 1: his coalition of hate could not possibly be more easily 19 00:01:29,515 --> 00:01:35,835 Speaker 1: discovered more rapidly verified more thoroughly self convicting, and the 20 00:01:35,915 --> 00:01:39,315 Speaker 1: right wing is claiming it is all fake and cy 21 00:01:39,515 --> 00:01:42,915 Speaker 1: ops and false flags, and he can't be a white supremacist, 22 00:01:42,995 --> 00:01:45,555 Speaker 1: he must be with the Mexican drug cartels because his 23 00:01:45,635 --> 00:01:49,075 Speaker 1: name is Mauricio Garcia. And you can't be Latino or 24 00:01:49,115 --> 00:01:52,195 Speaker 1: have anything except pasty white skin to be a Nazi 25 00:01:52,315 --> 00:01:56,035 Speaker 1: or a white supremacist. And not one of them has 26 00:01:56,075 --> 00:02:00,715 Speaker 1: made the tiny intellectual leap from proud Boy leader Enrique 27 00:02:00,835 --> 00:02:05,395 Speaker 1: Terario's conviction last week or the neo Nazi white supremacist Nickes. 28 00:02:05,435 --> 00:02:07,795 Speaker 1: And I do not know what we do about the 29 00:02:07,835 --> 00:02:12,915 Speaker 1: people in a society who deny every fact that does 30 00:02:13,035 --> 00:02:19,155 Speaker 1: not serve them. Trump was not the first American to 31 00:02:19,315 --> 00:02:22,675 Speaker 1: act this way. He was merely the one who popped 32 00:02:23,195 --> 00:02:27,795 Speaker 1: the top of the genie's bottle. Denial and confirmation bias 33 00:02:27,915 --> 00:02:32,075 Speaker 1: and rationalizations of the most amazing complexity and effectiveness are 34 00:02:32,155 --> 00:02:36,115 Speaker 1: older than the nation itself. But now we have what 35 00:02:37,035 --> 00:02:39,835 Speaker 1: twenty percent of the country, thirty percent of the country, 36 00:02:40,355 --> 00:02:43,435 Speaker 1: counting those who can turn the rejection of reality on 37 00:02:43,555 --> 00:02:46,755 Speaker 1: and off depending on the risk to their fantasy existence. 38 00:02:46,995 --> 00:02:50,835 Speaker 1: Forty percent of the country who have reached that Orwellian 39 00:02:50,955 --> 00:02:54,755 Speaker 1: point of believing it when the party tells them two 40 00:02:54,795 --> 00:02:57,635 Speaker 1: and two make five, to the degree that when you 41 00:02:57,795 --> 00:03:01,515 Speaker 1: reference that magical math and you reference or Well, they 42 00:03:01,515 --> 00:03:04,875 Speaker 1: will look at you blankly and claim that what you 43 00:03:04,955 --> 00:03:11,555 Speaker 1: are doing is Orwellian. I do not know what to 44 00:03:11,635 --> 00:03:17,435 Speaker 1: do with them. I do not know how to deprogram them, 45 00:03:18,075 --> 00:03:23,075 Speaker 1: or even deprogram enough of them, or even some of them. 46 00:03:23,155 --> 00:03:26,875 Speaker 1: I do not know how to begin to suggest how 47 00:03:26,915 --> 00:03:32,315 Speaker 1: to do that when the infrastructure that encourages, supports, and 48 00:03:32,475 --> 00:03:38,555 Speaker 1: backstops their utter delusions has been built slowly but consistently 49 00:03:39,115 --> 00:03:44,915 Speaker 1: for forty years, when that infrastructure is not just unfettered, 50 00:03:45,915 --> 00:03:50,595 Speaker 1: but growing even more, and the national government that could 51 00:03:50,595 --> 00:03:54,435 Speaker 1: have used these last two years in power to push 52 00:03:54,555 --> 00:03:59,395 Speaker 1: back in a thousand small ways just assumed everything would 53 00:03:59,435 --> 00:04:02,435 Speaker 1: go back to normal and has all but ignored the 54 00:04:02,435 --> 00:04:05,875 Speaker 1: reality that there are manifold men mental health crises in 55 00:04:05,915 --> 00:04:09,355 Speaker 1: this country, but the foremost of them is that some 56 00:04:09,635 --> 00:04:13,795 Speaker 1: huge percentage of the citizenry is no longer connected in 57 00:04:13,955 --> 00:04:21,915 Speaker 1: any way to the reality around them. The Saturday massacre 58 00:04:21,995 --> 00:04:25,875 Speaker 1: in Allen, Texas was a right wing terrorist attack, and 59 00:04:26,035 --> 00:04:30,195 Speaker 1: those who helped foster it in this creature Garcia and 60 00:04:30,315 --> 00:04:34,315 Speaker 1: those who benefited from it divide into two groups, and 61 00:04:34,395 --> 00:04:40,075 Speaker 1: two groups only the ones who genuinely believe. He couldn't 62 00:04:40,115 --> 00:04:43,555 Speaker 1: have been right wing, He couldn't have been a white supremacist. 63 00:04:44,075 --> 00:04:46,875 Speaker 1: He must have been sent by the government agency of 64 00:04:46,915 --> 00:04:52,155 Speaker 1: your paranoid choice. He was with the cartels. He would 65 00:04:52,155 --> 00:04:54,715 Speaker 1: not have been stopped if we had some control over 66 00:04:54,795 --> 00:04:59,635 Speaker 1: assault weapons. It wasn't terrorism, it's not their problem. That's 67 00:04:59,715 --> 00:05:01,835 Speaker 1: one group, and the other group is those who don't 68 00:05:01,875 --> 00:05:04,435 Speaker 1: really believe any of that, but they say they do 69 00:05:04,835 --> 00:05:09,275 Speaker 1: just to influence the others. There was a guy, this 70 00:05:09,475 --> 00:05:14,435 Speaker 1: fringe ex actor, I believe his name is Sorbo, who 71 00:05:14,515 --> 00:05:19,515 Speaker 1: asserted yesterday that there are no assault weapons, that they 72 00:05:19,555 --> 00:05:26,555 Speaker 1: do not exist. We have had people like this in 73 00:05:26,635 --> 00:05:31,635 Speaker 1: this country for two and a half centuries. We have 74 00:05:31,755 --> 00:05:37,555 Speaker 1: had people like this in this world since we gained 75 00:05:37,635 --> 00:05:42,635 Speaker 1: the power of speech. Usually they come in smaller units 76 00:05:42,835 --> 00:05:46,115 Speaker 1: like Jim Jones and the People's Temple, or the various 77 00:05:46,155 --> 00:05:51,835 Speaker 1: political terrorist groups that demonized specific minority groups throughout our history. 78 00:05:52,675 --> 00:05:56,395 Speaker 1: But once before the nation was faced with this situation 79 00:05:56,475 --> 00:05:59,355 Speaker 1: where a third or more of its citizens believed in 80 00:05:59,475 --> 00:06:05,075 Speaker 1: things that were not true and did not exist, and 81 00:06:05,115 --> 00:06:09,075 Speaker 1: that happened before and during the Civil War, And despite 82 00:06:09,355 --> 00:06:14,955 Speaker 1: decades of pleading about morals and about monetary realities of agriculture, 83 00:06:15,235 --> 00:06:19,075 Speaker 1: and about the indefensibility of owning another human being, and 84 00:06:19,115 --> 00:06:23,275 Speaker 1: then years of warnings about what the disparity of the 85 00:06:23,315 --> 00:06:27,275 Speaker 1: economies of the North and the South meant, what they 86 00:06:27,315 --> 00:06:33,075 Speaker 1: meant was the inevitable outcome of a shooting war. They 87 00:06:33,115 --> 00:06:35,955 Speaker 1: began a shooting war anyway, on the premise that the 88 00:06:35,995 --> 00:06:39,595 Speaker 1: equations of manpower and production and money were not true, 89 00:06:39,595 --> 00:06:42,595 Speaker 1: could not be true, would never be true, and six 90 00:06:42,675 --> 00:06:48,475 Speaker 1: hundred thousand Americans died as a result of that. The 91 00:06:48,595 --> 00:06:52,075 Speaker 1: United States of America is under attacked by right wing terrorists. 92 00:06:53,075 --> 00:06:57,715 Speaker 1: They are not yet fully organized nor coordinated, but they 93 00:06:57,755 --> 00:07:01,235 Speaker 1: have countless largely still ad hoc private or nearly private 94 00:07:01,275 --> 00:07:05,235 Speaker 1: communication methods. They have access to two hundred dred million 95 00:07:05,235 --> 00:07:08,435 Speaker 1: guns or three hundred million guns, or god knows how 96 00:07:08,435 --> 00:07:13,115 Speaker 1: many million guns with a capacity to self delude, that 97 00:07:13,155 --> 00:07:17,235 Speaker 1: could send shooter after shooter into places like Allen premium outlets, 98 00:07:17,315 --> 00:07:20,515 Speaker 1: convinced that they could kill as many as they wanted 99 00:07:20,635 --> 00:07:26,115 Speaker 1: and escape alive and elude pursuit forever and become lionized 100 00:07:26,155 --> 00:07:29,675 Speaker 1: by right wing media, and they have a superstructure of 101 00:07:29,835 --> 00:07:35,395 Speaker 1: influencers and pundits and what are essentially teachers who hone 102 00:07:35,595 --> 00:07:39,315 Speaker 1: in them the ability to deny that anything they do 103 00:07:39,595 --> 00:07:47,475 Speaker 1: could possibly be wrong. And every day we hesitate to 104 00:07:47,715 --> 00:07:51,275 Speaker 1: act against them. Every day our leaders like Chuck Schumer 105 00:07:51,355 --> 00:07:55,195 Speaker 1: reveal that their next big response will be a Senate 106 00:07:55,315 --> 00:07:59,995 Speaker 1: Democratic caucus to discuss gun violence and the path forward 107 00:08:00,075 --> 00:08:04,955 Speaker 1: on gun safety legislation, when there is no such path anymore, 108 00:08:06,355 --> 00:08:09,395 Speaker 1: when that is their next response, rather than a slew 109 00:08:09,475 --> 00:08:13,235 Speaker 1: of executive orders pulling as many guns out of the 110 00:08:13,275 --> 00:08:16,355 Speaker 1: hands of the right wing terrorists as we have time 111 00:08:16,475 --> 00:08:19,915 Speaker 1: left to pull, and pulling the communications networks out of 112 00:08:19,955 --> 00:08:22,755 Speaker 1: the hands of the right wing terrorists, and pulling the 113 00:08:22,835 --> 00:08:26,075 Speaker 1: right wing terrorists out of the country. Every day we 114 00:08:26,235 --> 00:08:31,275 Speaker 1: hesitate our ability to defend ourselves against the inevitable day 115 00:08:31,315 --> 00:08:37,315 Speaker 1: when they actually organize their terror becomes weaker and weaker 116 00:08:37,355 --> 00:08:44,075 Speaker 1: and weaker, and ultimately will become nonexistent. It sounds like 117 00:08:44,315 --> 00:08:49,915 Speaker 1: madness to ask when we need to consider an executive 118 00:08:50,075 --> 00:08:54,835 Speaker 1: order declaring a state of national emergency because of right 119 00:08:54,875 --> 00:09:01,795 Speaker 1: wing terrorism. But look at Allen Texas and the denial 120 00:09:02,035 --> 00:09:06,075 Speaker 1: that followed it. And imagine the dozens and the hundreds 121 00:09:06,075 --> 00:09:10,355 Speaker 1: and the thousands of Mauricio Garcias out there becoming literally 122 00:09:11,075 --> 00:09:15,515 Speaker 1: connected to the Proud Boys or a just slightly more 123 00:09:15,595 --> 00:09:20,515 Speaker 1: evil version of Seapack or MAGA or another Trump front 124 00:09:20,795 --> 00:09:25,915 Speaker 1: terrorist group, And then ask yourself what other means exist 125 00:09:26,075 --> 00:09:34,435 Speaker 1: for us to stop a pervasive, nationwide, violent, suicidal, reality 126 00:09:34,555 --> 00:09:40,235 Speaker 1: denying cult that is looking ahead to November fifth, twenty 127 00:09:40,315 --> 00:10:00,675 Speaker 1: twenty four and seeing nothing but opportunity still ahead on 128 00:10:00,675 --> 00:10:04,235 Speaker 1: this edition of Countdown. So, when Tucker Carlson promised to 129 00:10:04,315 --> 00:10:07,875 Speaker 1: reveal where all the bodies are buried at Fox promised 130 00:10:07,875 --> 00:10:10,955 Speaker 1: to bring out the heavy hitters to bully Fox into 131 00:10:11,035 --> 00:10:15,315 Speaker 1: letting him go to some other outlet somewhere, the first 132 00:10:15,395 --> 00:10:21,315 Speaker 1: heavy hitter he meant was Frett Farve, Frett Farv retweeting 133 00:10:21,395 --> 00:10:26,075 Speaker 1: Megan Kelly, that's your opening blast. Brett Farv is a 134 00:10:26,115 --> 00:10:31,955 Speaker 1: political TV conservative heavy hitter. Was he wearing pants at least? 135 00:10:33,995 --> 00:10:34,235 Speaker 2: Yes? 136 00:10:34,355 --> 00:10:37,995 Speaker 1: The President hosts Kevin McCarthy today to say some words 137 00:10:37,995 --> 00:10:41,395 Speaker 1: about the debt ceiling. The President's words may include the 138 00:10:41,515 --> 00:10:45,115 Speaker 1: validity of public debts clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, followed 139 00:10:45,115 --> 00:10:50,275 Speaker 1: by Kevin Surprise buddy. And meanwhile, yes, a quarter of 140 00:10:50,315 --> 00:10:53,755 Speaker 1: a million dollars in ads to pressure Biden to cave 141 00:10:53,875 --> 00:10:59,595 Speaker 1: to McCarthy are appearing on cable news, including on I 142 00:10:59,595 --> 00:11:02,235 Speaker 1: can barely say it. They really did it. They really 143 00:11:02,315 --> 00:11:06,715 Speaker 1: sold these guys time to pressure Biden. And it was 144 00:11:06,795 --> 00:11:08,795 Speaker 1: my late friend near Norman Lloyd, who lived to be 145 00:11:08,835 --> 00:11:11,795 Speaker 1: one hundred and six, and he said, yes, Keith, all 146 00:11:11,835 --> 00:11:14,595 Speaker 1: those funerals I go to, they're depressing and they're wrenching. 147 00:11:14,595 --> 00:11:17,235 Speaker 1: And on the other hand, he said, if I have 148 00:11:17,315 --> 00:11:19,755 Speaker 1: to go to them, I'm still glad that I'm not 149 00:11:19,835 --> 00:11:22,315 Speaker 1: the one who's required to stay after the funeral is over. 150 00:11:23,595 --> 00:11:26,795 Speaker 1: The problem with being even in your sixties is the 151 00:11:26,835 --> 00:11:31,155 Speaker 1: figures of your teens and your twenties are exiting with 152 00:11:31,315 --> 00:11:35,915 Speaker 1: horrifying rapidity. The young upcoming news anchor I saw in 153 00:11:35,995 --> 00:11:38,315 Speaker 1: a drama that played out when I was a nineteen 154 00:11:38,395 --> 00:11:43,155 Speaker 1: year old TV intern has died. The story of John Roland, 155 00:11:43,795 --> 00:11:47,715 Speaker 1: Bill Jorgensen, the publication of the internship paper I had 156 00:11:47,755 --> 00:11:50,275 Speaker 1: to write for college credit for that summer, and the 157 00:11:50,315 --> 00:11:55,275 Speaker 1: famous praise that preceded our newscast every night, it's ten PM. 158 00:11:55,755 --> 00:11:59,755 Speaker 1: Do you know where your children are. That's next. This 159 00:12:00,035 --> 00:12:00,715 Speaker 1: is countdown. 160 00:12:06,315 --> 00:12:09,715 Speaker 2: You know, this is countdown with you know Keith Olberman. 161 00:12:22,515 --> 00:12:25,315 Speaker 1: Okay, I'm messing around with the format today postscripts to 162 00:12:25,355 --> 00:12:28,675 Speaker 1: the news. Next and the passing of a broadcasting great 163 00:12:29,195 --> 00:12:32,475 Speaker 1: who I worked with when I was nineteen years old 164 00:12:32,875 --> 00:12:35,555 Speaker 1: and wrote about first time for the daily round up 165 00:12:35,555 --> 00:12:37,995 Speaker 1: of the miss Grants, morons and Dunning Krueger effects specimens 166 00:12:37,995 --> 00:12:43,075 Speaker 1: who constitute today's worst persons in the world. The Bronze 167 00:12:43,115 --> 00:12:45,915 Speaker 1: to the fine folks at my alma mater MSNBC. And 168 00:12:45,995 --> 00:12:49,155 Speaker 1: know you were not hallucinating that commercial you saw on 169 00:12:49,395 --> 00:12:53,635 Speaker 1: MSNBC insisting that President Biden should cut the Social Safety 170 00:12:53,635 --> 00:12:57,435 Speaker 1: Net and gut every government agency because Kevin McCarthy told 171 00:12:57,515 --> 00:13:00,195 Speaker 1: him to. That was not some sort of clerical error. 172 00:13:00,635 --> 00:13:03,195 Speaker 1: It is a spot produced by a group aligned with 173 00:13:03,275 --> 00:13:07,795 Speaker 1: the Pitiful Speaker Macarthy. He called American Action Network, and 174 00:13:07,915 --> 00:13:10,755 Speaker 1: that network spent a quarter of million dollars to put 175 00:13:10,795 --> 00:13:14,635 Speaker 1: the ads on CNN and ms The CNN part is understandable, 176 00:13:15,315 --> 00:13:18,755 Speaker 1: that's probably the first commercial they've sold this year. But 177 00:13:18,875 --> 00:13:23,035 Speaker 1: the other part, yes, MSNBC also took the money from 178 00:13:23,115 --> 00:13:26,395 Speaker 1: a conservative pack trying to pressure the democratic president of 179 00:13:26,435 --> 00:13:29,555 Speaker 1: the United States and put it on a supposedly liberal 180 00:13:29,595 --> 00:13:36,475 Speaker 1: network because MSNBC is like CNN, drowning the runner up. 181 00:13:36,515 --> 00:13:39,995 Speaker 1: Brett Farv, the disgraced former NFL quarterback, has publicly come 182 00:13:39,995 --> 00:13:43,995 Speaker 1: out to defend Tucker Carlson and Megan Kelly. He has 183 00:13:44,075 --> 00:13:49,635 Speaker 1: retweeted the screeching fascist Kelly's blasting of Fox for, you know, 184 00:13:50,115 --> 00:13:53,235 Speaker 1: having the audacity to pay Carlson the thirty million dollars 185 00:13:53,275 --> 00:13:57,155 Speaker 1: it owes him. Farv added quote, I'm with Tucker. Time 186 00:13:57,235 --> 00:14:00,075 Speaker 1: to boycott Fox until they come to their senses and 187 00:14:00,195 --> 00:14:06,115 Speaker 1: let the man speak. So let's see, that's advertise sportscasting 188 00:14:06,635 --> 00:14:10,875 Speaker 1: and football as industries that mystify Brett Farb And we 189 00:14:10,915 --> 00:14:16,835 Speaker 1: can now add contract law owen Dick picks. We can 190 00:14:16,875 --> 00:14:21,275 Speaker 1: add Dick picks. Brett doesn't really understand Dick Picks. But 191 00:14:21,355 --> 00:14:25,635 Speaker 1: the winner, the impossibly stupid Junior Trump, speaking for all 192 00:14:25,675 --> 00:14:29,075 Speaker 1: the fascists, pushing the line that Alan Texas mall shooter 193 00:14:29,155 --> 00:14:32,755 Speaker 1: Mauricio Garcia could not have been a white supremacist because 194 00:14:32,795 --> 00:14:38,315 Speaker 1: his name was Mauricio Garcia, ignoring folks like Nick Fuentes 195 00:14:38,475 --> 00:14:43,435 Speaker 1: and Enrique Tario, ignoring the mean Garcia posted showing the 196 00:14:43,475 --> 00:14:47,235 Speaker 1: only two roots he believed Latino youth have identify as 197 00:14:47,315 --> 00:14:51,155 Speaker 1: black or become a white supremacist, ignoring that the hate 198 00:14:51,195 --> 00:14:54,235 Speaker 1: that Junior and his father and their cult members spread 199 00:14:54,355 --> 00:14:58,155 Speaker 1: is color blind, ignoring all that Junior has written. Quote, 200 00:14:58,555 --> 00:15:03,035 Speaker 1: maybe the Mexican national with cartel tats identifies as a 201 00:15:03,035 --> 00:15:06,395 Speaker 1: white supremacist, and there we must totally go along with 202 00:15:06,435 --> 00:15:14,115 Speaker 1: that narrative. Genius. Plus, remember Donald Trump, Junior, you identify 203 00:15:14,195 --> 00:15:22,115 Speaker 1: as a human being, Trump Junior, Today's worse person in 204 00:15:22,355 --> 00:15:39,475 Speaker 1: the world. Postscripts to the news some headlines, some updates, 205 00:15:39,475 --> 00:15:44,275 Speaker 1: some snarks, some predictions. Dateline North, Miami, Florida. John Rowland, 206 00:15:44,435 --> 00:15:47,355 Speaker 1: news anchor at Channel five in New York from nineteen 207 00:15:47,435 --> 00:15:50,835 Speaker 1: sixty nine through two thousand and four, died Sunday at 208 00:15:50,835 --> 00:15:53,755 Speaker 1: the age of eighty one. I was an intern in 209 00:15:53,795 --> 00:15:56,235 Speaker 1: his newsroom when I was nineteen years old, and lately 210 00:15:56,275 --> 00:15:58,395 Speaker 1: I had been thinking a lot about that newsroom and 211 00:15:58,435 --> 00:16:02,035 Speaker 1: about him, and about the extraordinary array of characters in 212 00:16:02,075 --> 00:16:06,515 Speaker 1: that place. When the sad news came about John Roland. 213 00:16:06,235 --> 00:16:15,475 Speaker 2: It's ten pm. Do you know where your children are? 214 00:16:23,595 --> 00:16:28,195 Speaker 1: That's the place the ten o'clock news on Channel five 215 00:16:28,275 --> 00:16:30,915 Speaker 1: in New York. It's ten pm. Do you know where 216 00:16:30,955 --> 00:16:34,435 Speaker 1: your children are? Or, as it was frequently mocked, it's 217 00:16:34,515 --> 00:16:38,995 Speaker 1: ten pm. Do you know what time it is? The 218 00:16:39,075 --> 00:16:42,195 Speaker 1: summer I was there, and I split time working on 219 00:16:42,275 --> 00:16:45,555 Speaker 1: the news assignment desk and for the sportscaster, the legendary 220 00:16:45,675 --> 00:16:48,995 Speaker 1: Bill Mazer. That summer was the time when the newscast 221 00:16:49,075 --> 00:16:52,995 Speaker 1: on Channel five here in New York evolved or went backwards, 222 00:16:53,155 --> 00:16:57,675 Speaker 1: from a gritty, bareed knuckled, sometimes way too violent, groundbreaking broadcast, 223 00:16:57,795 --> 00:17:01,875 Speaker 1: something a little gentler, but still innovative and compelling, just 224 00:17:01,915 --> 00:17:06,675 Speaker 1: not you know, shocking every night. The original anchor of 225 00:17:06,715 --> 00:17:09,675 Speaker 1: the news was Bill Jorgensen, with his shock of white 226 00:17:09,755 --> 00:17:11,875 Speaker 1: hair and his attitude that was like something out of 227 00:17:11,875 --> 00:17:13,795 Speaker 1: the movie The Front Page. I'm going to tell you 228 00:17:13,875 --> 00:17:15,515 Speaker 1: the news now, and you're gonna listen. And if you 229 00:17:15,515 --> 00:17:16,795 Speaker 1: don't want to do it, what are you gonna do 230 00:17:16,835 --> 00:17:19,915 Speaker 1: about it? Watch one of those laughing clowns on Channel eleven, 231 00:17:20,035 --> 00:17:24,595 Speaker 1: Why I Ought to Pound You. In nineteen sixty seven, 232 00:17:24,675 --> 00:17:27,755 Speaker 1: Channel five, which was then owned by the Metromedia Company 233 00:17:27,755 --> 00:17:31,075 Speaker 1: and is now owned by Fox, did something unheard of. 234 00:17:31,795 --> 00:17:34,595 Speaker 1: Not only did it put on an hour of news 235 00:17:34,675 --> 00:17:37,675 Speaker 1: every night. It did so in prime time at ten 236 00:17:37,715 --> 00:17:41,955 Speaker 1: o'clock up against the network shows. It did not offer 237 00:17:41,995 --> 00:17:46,635 Speaker 1: a rerun or its own local comedy or drama or something. 238 00:17:46,675 --> 00:17:51,515 Speaker 1: It did a newscast, and Jorgensen was its centerpiece. He 239 00:17:51,675 --> 00:17:54,955 Speaker 1: signed off each program by saying, thanking you for your 240 00:17:54,995 --> 00:17:58,315 Speaker 1: time this time till next time. There was no fluff, 241 00:17:58,315 --> 00:18:00,675 Speaker 1: there were no features. There was a sportscaster, there was 242 00:18:00,715 --> 00:18:03,555 Speaker 1: a movie and play reviewer. There was a weatherman. There 243 00:18:03,595 --> 00:18:06,675 Speaker 1: was an anchor, two or three sub anchors, and there 244 00:18:06,715 --> 00:18:10,395 Speaker 1: were a dozen reporters sitting at their actual desks in 245 00:18:10,475 --> 00:18:13,795 Speaker 1: the actual grubby little newsroom on the second floor of 246 00:18:13,795 --> 00:18:17,035 Speaker 1: two hundred and five East sixty seventh Street, Jazz past 247 00:18:17,155 --> 00:18:20,995 Speaker 1: Third Avenue in New York. And I walked in in 248 00:18:21,115 --> 00:18:23,755 Speaker 1: June of nineteen seventy eight just as they decided that 249 00:18:23,835 --> 00:18:27,395 Speaker 1: one of the sub anchors, John Roland, the man who 250 00:18:27,515 --> 00:18:30,715 Speaker 1: just died, should start to take over as the main 251 00:18:30,835 --> 00:18:34,315 Speaker 1: guy from Bill Jorgensen. John Rowland was from Pittsburgh, but 252 00:18:34,395 --> 00:18:36,395 Speaker 1: he had been in LA four years and he was 253 00:18:36,595 --> 00:18:39,635 Speaker 1: California cool. I saw him leave his office for the 254 00:18:39,635 --> 00:18:42,955 Speaker 1: studio one night in a great three piece suit, or 255 00:18:42,995 --> 00:18:46,395 Speaker 1: more correctly two thirds of a three piece suit jacket, 256 00:18:46,515 --> 00:18:51,315 Speaker 1: vest and cut off jeans. He must have registered my surprise. 257 00:18:51,875 --> 00:18:53,915 Speaker 1: You're gonna make it in this business, he said to me. 258 00:18:54,075 --> 00:18:56,555 Speaker 1: Of course he said that to everybody, But just remember, 259 00:18:57,115 --> 00:18:59,115 Speaker 1: never take a job where they make you stand up 260 00:18:59,155 --> 00:19:03,315 Speaker 1: from behind the anchor desk. Anyway, just before I got there, 261 00:19:03,395 --> 00:19:07,595 Speaker 1: Channel five Fat Jorgensen's main sub anchor a man named 262 00:19:07,595 --> 00:19:10,955 Speaker 1: George Sharman, and they and Jorgenson agreed that it was 263 00:19:10,955 --> 00:19:15,075 Speaker 1: a good time for Jorgensen to take a sabbatical for 264 00:19:15,155 --> 00:19:18,835 Speaker 1: a couple of months. He and his wife got into 265 00:19:18,835 --> 00:19:21,675 Speaker 1: a motor home and they drove west. And one morning, 266 00:19:21,715 --> 00:19:24,835 Speaker 1: not long after my arrival at the internship part of 267 00:19:24,875 --> 00:19:28,435 Speaker 1: the assignment desk at Channel five, Bill Jorgenson phoned in 268 00:19:28,595 --> 00:19:32,795 Speaker 1: collect from somewhere outside Kansas City, Missouri, and I took 269 00:19:32,875 --> 00:19:35,795 Speaker 1: the call, and once again, his voice was so booming, 270 00:19:35,915 --> 00:19:38,555 Speaker 1: so urgent, that there sounded like there was no reason 271 00:19:38,635 --> 00:19:41,875 Speaker 1: for him to need a phone. If I just opened 272 00:19:41,915 --> 00:19:44,795 Speaker 1: the window, I could have heard him from Kansas City. 273 00:19:45,275 --> 00:19:47,995 Speaker 1: Bill Jorgenson did not tell me the details of the 274 00:19:48,035 --> 00:19:51,435 Speaker 1: problem he had encountered, but he sounded particularly for him 275 00:19:52,115 --> 00:19:55,715 Speaker 1: frantic At his request, I transferred him into the news 276 00:19:55,715 --> 00:19:58,355 Speaker 1: director's office, and minutes later, out came the news director, 277 00:19:58,595 --> 00:20:02,115 Speaker 1: Mark Monsky. We understood he was the only New York 278 00:20:02,155 --> 00:20:05,875 Speaker 1: TV news director licensed to carry a gun, and my 279 00:20:05,995 --> 00:20:08,715 Speaker 1: new colleagues explained to me that that was because everybody 280 00:20:08,715 --> 00:20:11,835 Speaker 1: in the newsroom had thought about killing him. At least once. 281 00:20:12,915 --> 00:20:16,515 Speaker 1: Mark Monsky shouted, hey, everybody. Jargonson and his wife were 282 00:20:16,555 --> 00:20:19,715 Speaker 1: having breakfast in some diner near Kansas City. While they 283 00:20:19,715 --> 00:20:25,515 Speaker 1: were eating, somebody stole their RV and the newsroom erupted 284 00:20:25,875 --> 00:20:30,875 Speaker 1: in applause. When it died down, somebody muttered, I hope 285 00:20:30,875 --> 00:20:33,755 Speaker 1: everybody here is an ALBI, and only a couple of 286 00:20:33,755 --> 00:20:39,555 Speaker 1: people laughed. They began to ease John Roland into Jorgenson's job, 287 00:20:39,875 --> 00:20:41,915 Speaker 1: and so that summer was the beginning of an uneasy 288 00:20:41,955 --> 00:20:45,515 Speaker 1: transition that ended the next spring. I was told by 289 00:20:45,555 --> 00:20:48,715 Speaker 1: my main contact there, a wonderful man named Stanley Pinsley, 290 00:20:48,715 --> 00:20:50,475 Speaker 1: who said he was not being my friend, he was 291 00:20:50,515 --> 00:20:53,195 Speaker 1: just investing in the time in the future when he 292 00:20:53,275 --> 00:20:55,395 Speaker 1: expected I'd be able to hire him at a network. 293 00:20:56,075 --> 00:20:58,995 Speaker 1: That by the end of that transition, Bill Jorgensen was 294 00:20:59,075 --> 00:21:02,835 Speaker 1: kind of, you know, destabilized by things the way anchormen 295 00:21:02,955 --> 00:21:06,715 Speaker 1: sometimes can be, and as a sign of how well 296 00:21:06,755 --> 00:21:10,635 Speaker 1: he thought he was taking his slow replacement by John Rowland, 297 00:21:10,635 --> 00:21:12,675 Speaker 1: Bill Jorgenson thought it might be funny to show up 298 00:21:12,675 --> 00:21:16,435 Speaker 1: in the newsroom carrying a giant box with dynamite written 299 00:21:16,475 --> 00:21:18,915 Speaker 1: on the side and saying, if I'm going to go, 300 00:21:19,075 --> 00:21:22,315 Speaker 1: I'm gonna take all you bastards with me. But I 301 00:21:22,355 --> 00:21:24,715 Speaker 1: never confirmed that story, and honestly, how are you going 302 00:21:24,795 --> 00:21:27,755 Speaker 1: to do that? I do know that. A couple of 303 00:21:27,755 --> 00:21:30,475 Speaker 1: months later Bill wound up over on Channel eleven and 304 00:21:30,515 --> 00:21:33,195 Speaker 1: seemed fine. He anchored there for eight years and they 305 00:21:33,235 --> 00:21:36,315 Speaker 1: had a priceless ad campaign for him that began it's 306 00:21:36,395 --> 00:21:42,595 Speaker 1: ten pm. Do you know where Bill Jorgenson is? Anyway? 307 00:21:42,715 --> 00:21:45,475 Speaker 1: There was a kid next to me on the assignment desk, 308 00:21:45,515 --> 00:21:48,315 Speaker 1: another intern, who asked me what kind of course credit 309 00:21:48,315 --> 00:21:51,635 Speaker 1: I was getting from Cornell for my summer at Channel five. 310 00:21:51,675 --> 00:21:54,195 Speaker 1: And this was a nine to five thing or three 311 00:21:54,195 --> 00:21:57,155 Speaker 1: to eleven, five days a week, Suit and tie. Get 312 00:21:57,195 --> 00:21:59,235 Speaker 1: on the phone and call the victim's brother and ask 313 00:21:59,275 --> 00:22:01,915 Speaker 1: him when the funeral is kind of job? It was work, 314 00:22:02,475 --> 00:22:06,115 Speaker 1: And I said I'm getting one hour of credit, and 315 00:22:06,155 --> 00:22:09,275 Speaker 1: he laughed at me, and he said, bad luck Penn 316 00:22:09,355 --> 00:22:14,515 Speaker 1: State's giving me thirteen. I used to think internships were 317 00:22:14,555 --> 00:22:16,515 Speaker 1: the greatest thing in the world for people who wanted 318 00:22:16,555 --> 00:22:19,955 Speaker 1: to get into TV or radio, news or sports, even unpaid, 319 00:22:19,995 --> 00:22:23,195 Speaker 1: even slave wages, and I used to recommend them. I 320 00:22:23,195 --> 00:22:26,195 Speaker 1: have mixed emotions now, after forty five years of slowly 321 00:22:26,315 --> 00:22:28,915 Speaker 1: realizing that, you know, g whiz, A lot of people 322 00:22:28,955 --> 00:22:32,395 Speaker 1: who have that ambition actually can't afford to go three months, 323 00:22:32,715 --> 00:22:35,715 Speaker 1: even at the age of nineteen, without a paycheck. I 324 00:22:35,755 --> 00:22:37,635 Speaker 1: mean I had to commute to the job from the 325 00:22:37,675 --> 00:22:41,355 Speaker 1: suburbs and all things considered with dry cleaning and everything 326 00:22:41,395 --> 00:22:45,035 Speaker 1: else for my suits. For my suits, I probably paid 327 00:22:45,075 --> 00:22:49,915 Speaker 1: one thousand dollars over the summer in expenses, to be fair, 328 00:22:50,275 --> 00:22:52,675 Speaker 1: between what I learned about TV and the business and 329 00:22:52,715 --> 00:22:54,995 Speaker 1: who I met there and who I still know from 330 00:22:55,035 --> 00:22:58,675 Speaker 1: there and the contacts they gave me. I was repaid 331 00:22:58,715 --> 00:23:02,075 Speaker 1: a thousandfold, but that would not have meant much. If 332 00:23:02,075 --> 00:23:03,955 Speaker 1: it had meant that in the summer of nineteen seventy eight, 333 00:23:03,995 --> 00:23:08,875 Speaker 1: I didn't have any you know, food or housing. For 334 00:23:09,075 --> 00:23:11,155 Speaker 1: my one credit at Cornell, I had to write a 335 00:23:11,155 --> 00:23:14,795 Speaker 1: paper about my experience twenty pages minimum. If I recall 336 00:23:14,915 --> 00:23:17,795 Speaker 1: correctly and submit it to my professor and to my 337 00:23:17,915 --> 00:23:21,675 Speaker 1: supervisor at Channel five. And I still have it, although 338 00:23:21,715 --> 00:23:24,995 Speaker 1: one page is missing. And the reason I still have 339 00:23:25,075 --> 00:23:27,955 Speaker 1: it is in large part because one day my friend 340 00:23:27,995 --> 00:23:31,635 Speaker 1: Stanley Pinsley called me at Cornell in the fall of 341 00:23:31,675 --> 00:23:34,675 Speaker 1: my senior year, after my internship had ended, and said, 342 00:23:34,915 --> 00:23:38,275 Speaker 1: what did you do? You committed career suicide and your 343 00:23:38,355 --> 00:23:42,795 Speaker 1: career hasn't even started yet. I was utterly mystified why 344 00:23:42,875 --> 00:23:44,875 Speaker 1: whatever he was talking about, and I told him so 345 00:23:45,275 --> 00:23:49,555 Speaker 1: he said, my supervisor, the newsroom comptroller, Christine Tomlinson, had 346 00:23:49,595 --> 00:23:53,875 Speaker 1: made one hundred copies of my internship paper and distributed 347 00:23:53,915 --> 00:23:59,235 Speaker 1: it to everybody at Channel five News. I had not 348 00:23:59,395 --> 00:24:05,315 Speaker 1: anticipated this. I had written freely and openly, include mentioning 349 00:24:05,515 --> 00:24:08,035 Speaker 1: which on air person was referred to by all the 350 00:24:08,035 --> 00:24:11,835 Speaker 1: producers as Ted Baxter, and which one was apparently having 351 00:24:11,875 --> 00:24:14,395 Speaker 1: an affair that his wife didn't know about, and which 352 00:24:14,435 --> 00:24:17,155 Speaker 1: one was drinking so heavily that it would kill him. 353 00:24:17,155 --> 00:24:21,475 Speaker 1: Not five years later. I called Christine Tomlinson up the 354 00:24:21,475 --> 00:24:23,595 Speaker 1: next day and she said, well, yes, I should have 355 00:24:23,635 --> 00:24:26,275 Speaker 1: warned you, but you know, last year New York Magazine 356 00:24:26,315 --> 00:24:29,355 Speaker 1: did a huge, long story about us five or six pages, 357 00:24:29,835 --> 00:24:32,115 Speaker 1: and your paper was better, and it was so much 358 00:24:32,155 --> 00:24:37,075 Speaker 1: more interesting than that. Everybody loved it, everybody except Ted Baxter. 359 00:24:38,835 --> 00:24:41,875 Speaker 1: I found the New York magazine piece about the Channel 360 00:24:41,915 --> 00:24:44,795 Speaker 1: five ten o'clock news recently. It was written by, of 361 00:24:44,795 --> 00:24:49,715 Speaker 1: all people, Jeff Greenfield, the same Jeff Greenfield of CNN 362 00:24:49,715 --> 00:24:52,795 Speaker 1: and ABC and CBS, twenty four years after he wrote 363 00:24:53,155 --> 00:24:56,395 Speaker 1: his piece on Channel five News in nineteen seventy seven. 364 00:24:56,435 --> 00:24:58,595 Speaker 1: Twenty four years later, Jeff would have his own nightly 365 00:24:58,675 --> 00:25:02,235 Speaker 1: show on CNN, and I wound up being his backup post. 366 00:25:03,715 --> 00:25:06,475 Speaker 1: But back to the late Roland, I should mention that 367 00:25:06,595 --> 00:25:08,635 Speaker 1: late in my internship there was a night where the 368 00:25:08,675 --> 00:25:11,595 Speaker 1: sportscaster Bill Mazer was going to be off and the 369 00:25:11,635 --> 00:25:14,355 Speaker 1: regular backup was out of town and his backup was 370 00:25:14,395 --> 00:25:16,355 Speaker 1: out of town, and a couple of people, including the 371 00:25:16,395 --> 00:25:20,475 Speaker 1: sports producer Cliff Gelb, wanted to put me on at 372 00:25:20,515 --> 00:25:24,155 Speaker 1: age nineteen, having never been on television before, and they 373 00:25:24,195 --> 00:25:27,075 Speaker 1: tried to get grassroots support for this in the newsroom, 374 00:25:27,115 --> 00:25:29,595 Speaker 1: and they went to John Roland, and John Roland looked 375 00:25:29,635 --> 00:25:31,275 Speaker 1: at them and then he looked at me and he said, 376 00:25:31,515 --> 00:25:34,995 Speaker 1: h sounds great. If they agree let me know. I'll 377 00:25:34,995 --> 00:25:37,955 Speaker 1: teach you how to use the teleprompter. Keith. Well, they 378 00:25:37,995 --> 00:25:42,675 Speaker 1: didn't agree, but thank you, John, and I think this 379 00:25:42,755 --> 00:25:45,595 Speaker 1: is an appropriate time to read you some of that 380 00:25:45,715 --> 00:25:48,195 Speaker 1: internship paper that I referenced. I'm going to do it 381 00:25:48,235 --> 00:25:50,995 Speaker 1: out of order, because the fun stuff, the anecdotes of 382 00:25:51,035 --> 00:25:53,875 Speaker 1: being in a New York City TV newsroom in nineteen 383 00:25:53,915 --> 00:25:57,635 Speaker 1: seventy eight, we're in the last few pages, and the 384 00:25:57,675 --> 00:26:00,555 Speaker 1: behind the scenes process stuff, which is interesting but not 385 00:26:00,675 --> 00:26:03,515 Speaker 1: quite as that interesting. That was all at the beginning, 386 00:26:03,955 --> 00:26:07,795 Speaker 1: so it is just in even though I wrote it 387 00:26:07,875 --> 00:26:15,635 Speaker 1: in like September nineteen seventy eight vignettes isolated recollections of 388 00:26:15,635 --> 00:26:21,355 Speaker 1: a summer at WAWTV New York on the Friday edition 389 00:26:21,395 --> 00:26:24,475 Speaker 1: of Sports Page. I was assigned a myriad of tasks, 390 00:26:24,635 --> 00:26:27,755 Speaker 1: ranging from keeping the UPI wire updated, to listening to 391 00:26:27,795 --> 00:26:29,835 Speaker 1: a Crackley radio in the back of the room for 392 00:26:29,875 --> 00:26:32,915 Speaker 1: a ballgame, to watching both the title fight and the 393 00:26:32,955 --> 00:26:37,075 Speaker 1: New York Apples tennis match on the TV. The newsroom 394 00:26:37,115 --> 00:26:40,515 Speaker 1: was more interested in the fight, obviously enough, why did 395 00:26:40,555 --> 00:26:45,195 Speaker 1: you just switch the channel? Sports Page producer Norman Ross queried, 396 00:26:45,955 --> 00:26:48,635 Speaker 1: I'm supposed to get the apples score, Norman. I want 397 00:26:48,635 --> 00:26:51,075 Speaker 1: to watch the fight, Keith, but you told me to 398 00:26:51,075 --> 00:26:53,075 Speaker 1: get the score. Norman. It's not easy doing all these 399 00:26:53,075 --> 00:26:55,035 Speaker 1: things at once. I mean, I've got to get this score. 400 00:26:55,035 --> 00:26:56,475 Speaker 1: I gotta watch the wire, I gotta watch the fight. 401 00:26:56,515 --> 00:26:58,675 Speaker 1: I gotta listen to the radio all at once. I 402 00:26:58,715 --> 00:27:02,595 Speaker 1: didn't do all this for my health, you know. Well, 403 00:27:02,675 --> 00:27:08,075 Speaker 1: thank God for you, he said again. I'm working sports 404 00:27:08,235 --> 00:27:10,355 Speaker 1: and standing at the back of the room, paying off 405 00:27:10,395 --> 00:27:14,315 Speaker 1: the Casey's Kitchens delivery boy. Food in hand. I start 406 00:27:14,395 --> 00:27:17,635 Speaker 1: munching on an overpriced cheeseburger, and I see the small 407 00:27:17,715 --> 00:27:20,835 Speaker 1: presence of the assignment editor, Steve Anderson, marching towards me. 408 00:27:21,195 --> 00:27:25,435 Speaker 1: Out he thrusts a sheet of paper. Make me twenty 409 00:27:25,435 --> 00:27:28,475 Speaker 1: copies of this please. In the blink of an eye, 410 00:27:28,515 --> 00:27:31,755 Speaker 1: I detect the presence of three news interns lounging around 411 00:27:31,755 --> 00:27:35,515 Speaker 1: the assignment desk. And remember, I'm doing sports, Steve. I 412 00:27:35,635 --> 00:27:37,755 Speaker 1: just got my dinner and all, since you do have 413 00:27:37,875 --> 00:27:40,875 Speaker 1: three of your own interns back at the desk, could 414 00:27:40,915 --> 00:27:44,675 Speaker 1: I do it after I eat? He just stared blankly 415 00:27:44,755 --> 00:27:46,515 Speaker 1: at me. It was as if I had told him 416 00:27:46,675 --> 00:27:50,515 Speaker 1: I had shot his mother. He barely said six words 417 00:27:50,555 --> 00:27:55,155 Speaker 1: to me the rest of the summer PostScript. Steve Anderson 418 00:27:55,195 --> 00:27:57,875 Speaker 1: was fired at summer's end because he didn't get along 419 00:27:57,915 --> 00:28:03,915 Speaker 1: well with most staffers. I'm working reception, seated at the 420 00:28:03,915 --> 00:28:07,075 Speaker 1: front desk with a large scale phone in front of me. 421 00:28:07,635 --> 00:28:11,635 Speaker 1: Out of his office steps the Director of News, Mark bvs. Monsky, 422 00:28:11,755 --> 00:28:17,195 Speaker 1: the boss again. I'm eating two slices, two monstrous slices 423 00:28:17,395 --> 00:28:21,195 Speaker 1: of Sicilian pizza from the world's greatest pizza parlor, Venice 424 00:28:21,195 --> 00:28:24,955 Speaker 1: Pizza on Third Avenue, and that's a plug. Monsky just 425 00:28:25,155 --> 00:28:28,475 Speaker 1: stares at me. He is five feet eight if he's lucky, 426 00:28:28,515 --> 00:28:31,515 Speaker 1: and yet he looks like the jolly green giant. My 427 00:28:31,955 --> 00:28:36,875 Speaker 1: good God, he bellows. The newsroom goes silent. Look at this. 428 00:28:37,795 --> 00:28:40,395 Speaker 1: If I had this much food, I'd have to swim 429 00:28:40,395 --> 00:28:45,715 Speaker 1: an extra forty minutes every night. God love you. I'm 430 00:28:45,755 --> 00:28:49,875 Speaker 1: sorting mail, barely noticing the various names as I stuff letters, cards, 431 00:28:49,915 --> 00:28:53,075 Speaker 1: and flyers in the mailboxes. At the door of the newsroom, 432 00:28:53,515 --> 00:28:58,395 Speaker 1: suddenly a slew of whatever happened to postcards a promotional 433 00:28:58,435 --> 00:29:01,355 Speaker 1: attempt to draw viewer interest in the latest Channel five 434 00:29:01,435 --> 00:29:05,115 Speaker 1: news future. I look at them. Whatever happened to Charlie 435 00:29:05,195 --> 00:29:08,675 Speaker 1: Chan movies. The next one, hey, whatever became of the 436 00:29:08,755 --> 00:29:12,515 Speaker 1: Charlie Chan movies? The next one after that, whatever happened 437 00:29:12,515 --> 00:29:15,635 Speaker 1: to the guy who played Charlie Chan werner Oland? And 438 00:29:15,675 --> 00:29:23,035 Speaker 1: the last one Charlie Chan again. I'm working reception. When 439 00:29:23,035 --> 00:29:26,155 Speaker 1: you work reception, you rarely notice anyone entering the newsroom 440 00:29:26,195 --> 00:29:28,635 Speaker 1: from the door at the left of your desk. This 441 00:29:28,755 --> 00:29:32,355 Speaker 1: time you notice, could you tell me where Roger Higgle? 442 00:29:32,515 --> 00:29:36,755 Speaker 1: Is not an extraordinary question, not from a normal person, 443 00:29:36,955 --> 00:29:38,875 Speaker 1: from a six foot two inch man in a pink 444 00:29:38,915 --> 00:29:41,795 Speaker 1: and white rabbit suit, though it is an extraordinary question. 445 00:29:42,955 --> 00:29:47,475 Speaker 1: His female colleague, shorter but nonetheless similarly dressed, wiggled her 446 00:29:47,475 --> 00:29:51,275 Speaker 1: whiskers at me. I let my head fall straight forward 447 00:29:51,315 --> 00:29:54,835 Speaker 1: and hit the desk in front of me once more. 448 00:29:54,835 --> 00:29:58,195 Speaker 1: I'm at the reception desk. Line three three, five buzzes. 449 00:29:59,115 --> 00:30:02,435 Speaker 1: That's reporter Gabe Pressman's private phone. It must be important, 450 00:30:03,195 --> 00:30:08,075 Speaker 1: mister Pressman's office. In perfect secretarial tone, how much is it? 451 00:30:08,315 --> 00:30:11,355 Speaker 1: The woman at the other end of the line asks, pause, 452 00:30:12,195 --> 00:30:15,715 Speaker 1: how much is what, ma'am? The record, the candidly elvis 453 00:30:15,715 --> 00:30:19,755 Speaker 1: record you were just advertising? How much is it, ma'am? 454 00:30:19,795 --> 00:30:22,915 Speaker 1: You have the news department Okay, how much is it? 455 00:30:24,275 --> 00:30:27,955 Speaker 1: You don't understand. We don't sell candidly Elvis records here. 456 00:30:28,475 --> 00:30:32,195 Speaker 1: This is a news operation. Oh you don't sell candidly 457 00:30:32,235 --> 00:30:40,115 Speaker 1: Elvis albums. No, ma'am. Pause, Then what do you sell? 458 00:30:42,955 --> 00:30:47,875 Speaker 1: She had me there, the news director's assistant, Sherry Edell, 459 00:30:47,995 --> 00:30:50,435 Speaker 1: and I are talking about the nutty phone calls we get. 460 00:30:50,595 --> 00:30:54,315 Speaker 1: See previous example. I once got a call from Jimmy 461 00:30:54,355 --> 00:30:58,475 Speaker 1: the Greek Snyder. She noted, Really, I said, didn't know 462 00:30:58,475 --> 00:31:00,835 Speaker 1: what to call him? Do you say, mister the Greek? 463 00:31:02,635 --> 00:31:06,075 Speaker 1: I'm back at reception. All the good things happen at reception. 464 00:31:06,555 --> 00:31:10,195 Speaker 1: A woman calls repeatedly for Stuart Kleine, the reviewer and humorist. 465 00:31:10,555 --> 00:31:13,355 Speaker 1: He is never in during her calls, always there in 466 00:31:13,435 --> 00:31:17,315 Speaker 1: between them. Finally, she goes beyond a simple message, listen, 467 00:31:17,355 --> 00:31:21,315 Speaker 1: can I ask you a personal question about Stu? Well? 468 00:31:21,355 --> 00:31:23,715 Speaker 1: I don't see why not. I don't know him all 469 00:31:23,715 --> 00:31:27,355 Speaker 1: that well, but I'll try my best. Okay, about Stu, 470 00:31:27,715 --> 00:31:33,635 Speaker 1: she asked cautiously, I may be going out with him tonight. Yeah, Well, 471 00:31:33,675 --> 00:31:37,795 Speaker 1: have you ever again, she paused, hesitantly, have you ever 472 00:31:37,835 --> 00:31:43,115 Speaker 1: seen a wedding ring on his finger? I'm at the 473 00:31:43,155 --> 00:31:46,675 Speaker 1: news desk. It's ten to ten minutes before the show 474 00:31:46,715 --> 00:31:53,715 Speaker 1: goes on the air. The phone rings. News This is Jorgenson, 475 00:31:54,555 --> 00:31:57,675 Speaker 1: announces the voice of God, or at least the voice 476 00:31:57,675 --> 00:32:00,835 Speaker 1: of the show's anchor. Bill Jorgensen tell the production people 477 00:32:00,875 --> 00:32:03,555 Speaker 1: there's a stuck elevator. They'd better walk up to the 478 00:32:03,595 --> 00:32:09,555 Speaker 1: studio or they'll I'll never make it in time. Yes, sir, goodbye. Click. 479 00:32:10,435 --> 00:32:14,155 Speaker 1: I raced to the production desk. Bill Jorgensen just called. 480 00:32:14,155 --> 00:32:18,115 Speaker 1: He says, there's a stuck elevator, and the associate director 481 00:32:18,155 --> 00:32:25,835 Speaker 1: looked up at me, hopefully, Is Jorgensen on it? No, 482 00:32:26,075 --> 00:32:32,875 Speaker 1: I say he damn. I have more about the Channel 483 00:32:32,915 --> 00:32:36,155 Speaker 1: five newsroom from my internship paper from nineteen seventy eight, 484 00:32:36,635 --> 00:32:39,195 Speaker 1: including the man who is still on television in New 485 00:32:39,275 --> 00:32:42,795 Speaker 1: York who they all called Ted Baxter and did not 486 00:32:42,995 --> 00:32:46,195 Speaker 1: know it until he read what I had written about it. 487 00:32:47,115 --> 00:32:53,515 Speaker 2: Next, it's ten pm. Do you know where your children are? 488 00:33:06,635 --> 00:33:09,875 Speaker 1: The ten o'clock news opening from Channel five in New 489 00:33:09,955 --> 00:33:12,195 Speaker 1: York in the summer of nineteen seventy eight, when I 490 00:33:12,275 --> 00:33:15,115 Speaker 1: was an intern there, splitting my time between the sports 491 00:33:15,155 --> 00:33:19,395 Speaker 1: department and sportscaster Bill Maser and the news department and 492 00:33:19,475 --> 00:33:23,235 Speaker 1: the incoming news anchor John Roland, who was slowly replacing 493 00:33:23,275 --> 00:33:27,315 Speaker 1: the outgoing news anchor Bill Jorgensen. John Rowland, as I mentioned, 494 00:33:27,315 --> 00:33:29,355 Speaker 1: died Sunday at the age of eighty one, and he 495 00:33:29,395 --> 00:33:32,195 Speaker 1: was always very nice to be. There was a lengthy 496 00:33:32,315 --> 00:33:35,395 Speaker 1: internship paper. I thought it was only twenty six or 497 00:33:35,395 --> 00:33:37,755 Speaker 1: twenty seven pages. I see the ones in front of 498 00:33:37,755 --> 00:33:41,075 Speaker 1: me reading up to like thirty two. Let me finish 499 00:33:41,075 --> 00:33:43,475 Speaker 1: with a few more anecdotes that were included in the paper. 500 00:33:43,555 --> 00:33:48,595 Speaker 1: I think they're worth your time. Marvin Scott Stanley Pinsley's 501 00:33:48,715 --> 00:33:52,675 Speaker 1: Ted Baxter is just back from on assignment in New Jersey, 502 00:33:52,755 --> 00:33:56,915 Speaker 1: honoring the infamous famous Amos proprietor of the cookie fortune 503 00:33:56,955 --> 00:34:01,275 Speaker 1: making industry. His chocolate chip models are unbelievable, and despite 504 00:34:01,275 --> 00:34:04,195 Speaker 1: his fame, he has kept his business offices in laughable 505 00:34:04,235 --> 00:34:08,595 Speaker 1: piseic they give him a day, he gives correspondent Scott 506 00:34:08,635 --> 00:34:13,715 Speaker 1: a crate of just baked cookies. Hi, guys, Scott yells 507 00:34:13,755 --> 00:34:16,995 Speaker 1: to producer Gary Kay and associate producer Frank Chaffey. Look 508 00:34:17,035 --> 00:34:21,675 Speaker 1: what I got. Kay and Choffe materialize at the door 509 00:34:21,755 --> 00:34:25,795 Speaker 1: of the room where Scott stands. The cookies. Twenty three 510 00:34:25,955 --> 00:34:31,955 Speaker 1: of twenty four packages are immediately gone. One remains. It 511 00:34:32,035 --> 00:34:36,755 Speaker 1: is on Marvin's desk. Gary kay actual name Gary Krackow, 512 00:34:37,075 --> 00:34:40,115 Speaker 1: a huge bearded man without a smidgeon of tact is 513 00:34:40,155 --> 00:34:44,395 Speaker 1: on a hunt for more cookies. He and Choffey finally 514 00:34:44,475 --> 00:34:48,315 Speaker 1: spot the last bag. They race Marvin Scott to his 515 00:34:48,355 --> 00:34:53,995 Speaker 1: own desk. Crackow grabs the bag of cookies, puts it 516 00:34:54,035 --> 00:34:59,595 Speaker 1: in one fist, raises it high above his head, squeezes it, 517 00:35:00,435 --> 00:35:05,915 Speaker 1: and all the cookies disgorge themselves into Gary Krackou's mouth. 518 00:35:07,515 --> 00:35:14,075 Speaker 1: No fare you, guys, says Marvin Scott. The newsroom's reliance 519 00:35:14,115 --> 00:35:17,955 Speaker 1: on the Casey's Kitchen's delivery service was incredible. There would 520 00:35:17,955 --> 00:35:20,315 Speaker 1: have been no semblance of nutrition had it not been 521 00:35:20,355 --> 00:35:24,435 Speaker 1: for their intrepid staff of incompetence marching up the stairs 522 00:35:24,595 --> 00:35:28,395 Speaker 1: five to fifteen times a day. This day I call 523 00:35:28,475 --> 00:35:32,395 Speaker 1: out for lunch. I bellow the customary, anyone for Case's, 524 00:35:32,955 --> 00:35:36,875 Speaker 1: Case's anybody, and I am instructed to order two regular 525 00:35:36,915 --> 00:35:40,515 Speaker 1: coffees and a diet coke. I dial the number Casey's. 526 00:35:41,235 --> 00:35:44,515 Speaker 1: Can I have a vanilla shake? Two cheeseburgers, fries diet coke, 527 00:35:44,595 --> 00:35:48,875 Speaker 1: two regular coffees. This is the newsroom at Channel five. Sorry, 528 00:35:48,875 --> 00:35:53,675 Speaker 1: the guy just quit. What the delivery boy just quit? 529 00:35:54,195 --> 00:35:55,635 Speaker 1: We set him up there an hour ago with a 530 00:35:55,635 --> 00:35:58,995 Speaker 1: turkey sandwich for Danny Meanan. We haven't seen him since 531 00:35:59,835 --> 00:36:02,595 Speaker 1: it was his first day on the job. I guess 532 00:36:02,675 --> 00:36:09,595 Speaker 1: he couldn't take Channel five. I said, naturally, it can 533 00:36:09,635 --> 00:36:14,915 Speaker 1: do that to you. This is from a sub chapter 534 00:36:15,035 --> 00:36:18,795 Speaker 1: of the paper called Fun with Norman, Cliff, Bill and Lee. 535 00:36:18,835 --> 00:36:22,355 Speaker 1: They were the participants in a program called Sports Page. 536 00:36:22,595 --> 00:36:24,995 Speaker 1: This is nineteen seventy eight, and they decided to put 537 00:36:24,995 --> 00:36:28,355 Speaker 1: on a half an hour sportscast at eleven o'clock every night. 538 00:36:28,755 --> 00:36:33,635 Speaker 1: This anticipated by one year ESPN's Sports Center. It did 539 00:36:33,715 --> 00:36:35,315 Speaker 1: not go well in the ratings, but there were a 540 00:36:35,355 --> 00:36:38,555 Speaker 1: lot of factors that made that almost to certainty that 541 00:36:38,555 --> 00:36:40,875 Speaker 1: it would not do well. And the irony of all 542 00:36:40,915 --> 00:36:43,915 Speaker 1: ironies is that Bill Maser's co anchor on this show, 543 00:36:44,235 --> 00:36:47,355 Speaker 1: on which I interned, was named Leigh Leonard, and he 544 00:36:47,555 --> 00:36:50,435 Speaker 1: was the first Sports Center host, the man who signed 545 00:36:50,675 --> 00:36:55,595 Speaker 1: ESPN on to television a year later in nineteen seventy nine. 546 00:36:55,635 --> 00:37:02,035 Speaker 1: Fun with Norman, Cliff, Bill and Lee. My responsibilities on 547 00:37:02,075 --> 00:37:06,035 Speaker 1: Sports Page were, to say the least very I monitored 548 00:37:06,115 --> 00:37:09,275 Speaker 1: the United presid International Sports Wire and culled its contents, 549 00:37:09,315 --> 00:37:11,995 Speaker 1: a task that enabled me to do an excellent imitation 550 00:37:12,075 --> 00:37:15,755 Speaker 1: of a thermal teletype printer. From four PM on, it 551 00:37:15,795 --> 00:37:18,675 Speaker 1: was my responsibility to watch the wire for stories that 552 00:37:18,795 --> 00:37:21,555 Speaker 1: might be used on the show, label each of the 553 00:37:21,555 --> 00:37:25,115 Speaker 1: three copies of each story, sort each into its proper sport, 554 00:37:25,155 --> 00:37:27,915 Speaker 1: and make sure the two anchorman writers Maser and Lee 555 00:37:28,035 --> 00:37:31,715 Speaker 1: Leonard got the stories they needed. I worked not only 556 00:37:31,755 --> 00:37:35,555 Speaker 1: with Gelb, but with the other associate producer, Marlene Phillips, 557 00:37:35,755 --> 00:37:39,315 Speaker 1: and the producer director Norman ross Cliff assigned me the 558 00:37:39,355 --> 00:37:44,275 Speaker 1: task of researching and writing the bumper teases, graphics superimpositions 559 00:37:44,435 --> 00:37:47,115 Speaker 1: that were aired for about thirty seconds just before each 560 00:37:47,115 --> 00:37:50,155 Speaker 1: of the three commercial breaks during the show. Some were 561 00:37:50,195 --> 00:37:54,035 Speaker 1: previews of upcoming features, others, as Norman favored, previews of 562 00:37:54,075 --> 00:37:57,035 Speaker 1: the availability of city golf courses the next day or 563 00:37:57,075 --> 00:38:00,595 Speaker 1: of the upcoming ballgames in the area. Marlene gave me 564 00:38:00,675 --> 00:38:03,475 Speaker 1: the thrilling task of typing the rundowns for each show, 565 00:38:03,515 --> 00:38:07,995 Speaker 1: the list of items and approximate times, plus which sportscaster 566 00:38:08,195 --> 00:38:11,835 Speaker 1: was to read which story for Norman. I tried a 567 00:38:11,835 --> 00:38:15,155 Speaker 1: little initiative. The first show I felt missed several important 568 00:38:15,235 --> 00:38:18,555 Speaker 1: national stories that Norman simply wasn't aware of. He generally 569 00:38:18,595 --> 00:38:20,515 Speaker 1: made up the rundowns off the top of his head. 570 00:38:21,115 --> 00:38:24,035 Speaker 1: For the last four days, I voluntarily prepared and presented 571 00:38:24,075 --> 00:38:26,755 Speaker 1: him with my list of suggested UPI stories that he 572 00:38:26,795 --> 00:38:29,995 Speaker 1: could choose from. By Friday, when I was delayed in 573 00:38:30,035 --> 00:38:33,035 Speaker 1: giving him the list on time, Norman was demanding its 574 00:38:33,035 --> 00:38:38,035 Speaker 1: delivery and inquiring as to its whereabouts. From Bill and Lee, 575 00:38:38,235 --> 00:38:40,995 Speaker 1: the anchors, I was assigned the responsibility of keeping them 576 00:38:41,075 --> 00:38:43,875 Speaker 1: up to date on the scores. This very often meant 577 00:38:44,035 --> 00:38:46,595 Speaker 1: racing up the two flights of stairs to the studios 578 00:38:46,635 --> 00:38:49,915 Speaker 1: with a scribbled score or two. This proved much more 579 00:38:49,955 --> 00:38:53,195 Speaker 1: successful than the hit and miss system of Channel five's 580 00:38:53,235 --> 00:38:58,355 Speaker 1: inefficient intercom system. Things were going smoothly until Wednesday. I 581 00:38:58,395 --> 00:39:00,955 Speaker 1: came in at four as usual, went to the office 582 00:39:00,995 --> 00:39:04,195 Speaker 1: and encountered a short, curly haired individual with the first 583 00:39:04,235 --> 00:39:08,315 Speaker 1: combination Long Island and Virginia accent I'd ever heard. This 584 00:39:08,515 --> 00:39:13,715 Speaker 1: was Michael Berg, the sports intern. In our first conversation, 585 00:39:13,835 --> 00:39:15,795 Speaker 1: I discovered he had no intention of a career in 586 00:39:15,795 --> 00:39:18,555 Speaker 1: sportscasting as I did, and really was not that hot 587 00:39:18,635 --> 00:39:23,355 Speaker 1: on his internship. I fumed. I was there temporarily only 588 00:39:23,435 --> 00:39:25,715 Speaker 1: till Michael Berg showed up, and he didn't even want 589 00:39:25,755 --> 00:39:28,875 Speaker 1: the job. I went to see Hanita Hirsch, who was 590 00:39:28,915 --> 00:39:32,635 Speaker 1: in charge of all internships at Channel five, hoping perseverance 591 00:39:32,675 --> 00:39:38,355 Speaker 1: and fortuitous timing would match up with fate. It did not. Finally, 592 00:39:38,555 --> 00:39:42,755 Speaker 1: Cliff Gelb came up with a compromise beautiful in its simplicity. Mike, 593 00:39:42,835 --> 00:39:46,035 Speaker 1: who had a smattering of experience in news, would alternate 594 00:39:46,075 --> 00:39:49,475 Speaker 1: with me between news and sports during the off periods. 595 00:39:49,515 --> 00:39:53,035 Speaker 1: The unlucky intern would work news. I was so delighted 596 00:39:53,075 --> 00:39:55,555 Speaker 1: I volunteered to take the first two week shift on 597 00:39:55,675 --> 00:39:59,835 Speaker 1: news starting on Monday. The plan met with both Christine 598 00:39:59,875 --> 00:40:03,835 Speaker 1: Tomlinson's and Nita Hirsch's approval, and Mike and I became friends. 599 00:40:04,675 --> 00:40:07,595 Speaker 1: Swarts Page became a success from an interns viewpoint, with 600 00:40:07,675 --> 00:40:10,155 Speaker 1: plenty to do and a lot of coordination between the 601 00:40:10,195 --> 00:40:13,555 Speaker 1: staff and the recruits. Unfortunately, the program was not a 602 00:40:13,595 --> 00:40:17,275 Speaker 1: success from a television viewpoint. Competing with a heavyweight title 603 00:40:17,355 --> 00:40:21,915 Speaker 1: fight for local baseball broadcasts and the NBA Championship game, 604 00:40:22,235 --> 00:40:25,475 Speaker 1: the experimental series was a ratings failure and the show 605 00:40:25,555 --> 00:40:29,155 Speaker 1: was not accepted as a regular feature, so it was 606 00:40:29,235 --> 00:40:36,395 Speaker 1: back to news for a while. News and sports. The 607 00:40:36,475 --> 00:40:40,155 Speaker 1: typical news day began either at nine am or three pm. 608 00:40:40,315 --> 00:40:43,275 Speaker 1: The early shift was probably more rewarding. Not only did 609 00:40:43,275 --> 00:40:45,395 Speaker 1: I get to see the news build up from next 610 00:40:45,395 --> 00:40:47,475 Speaker 1: to nothing to the scope required to fill an hour 611 00:40:47,595 --> 00:40:49,875 Speaker 1: show and fill it well, but I got none of 612 00:40:49,875 --> 00:40:52,715 Speaker 1: that sense of coming in halfway through a mystery movie 613 00:40:52,955 --> 00:40:57,675 Speaker 1: that always ensued when working the evening shift. There were drawbacks, 614 00:40:57,675 --> 00:41:00,915 Speaker 1: of course, as in rush hour traffic. I can remember 615 00:41:00,955 --> 00:41:03,675 Speaker 1: one dynamite day of delays on the Penn Central Line 616 00:41:03,675 --> 00:41:07,075 Speaker 1: that turned my crowded but acceptable forty minute train ride 617 00:41:07,115 --> 00:41:09,795 Speaker 1: in into an hour and a half of standing in 618 00:41:09,875 --> 00:41:12,995 Speaker 1: the aisle. But all in all, the morning shift was 619 00:41:13,035 --> 00:41:16,955 Speaker 1: particularly enjoyable. The newsroom was dead upon my arrival, cool 620 00:41:17,155 --> 00:41:20,355 Speaker 1: and quiet, with a sense of anticipation in the air. 621 00:41:20,955 --> 00:41:23,315 Speaker 1: When I would get there, only the assignment editor first, 622 00:41:23,355 --> 00:41:27,835 Speaker 1: Mike Lynn, later Joe Mancini, the desk assistant, Danny Meanan, 623 00:41:28,195 --> 00:41:31,115 Speaker 1: the managing editor, a brilliant man named Roger Higgle, who's 624 00:41:31,115 --> 00:41:34,435 Speaker 1: inside an incredible news reaction made him a wonder even 625 00:41:34,595 --> 00:41:38,435 Speaker 1: just to watch, and one reporter with crewe usually Steve Bowman, 626 00:41:38,515 --> 00:41:41,435 Speaker 1: cigarette in one hand, coffee cup in the other, were 627 00:41:41,435 --> 00:41:45,275 Speaker 1: already in for the day. The early shift was bisected 628 00:41:45,315 --> 00:41:48,435 Speaker 1: by a one to two hour ritual called the Mail. 629 00:41:49,315 --> 00:41:54,235 Speaker 1: Daily the newsroom received one or two cartons perhaps five 630 00:41:54,315 --> 00:41:59,155 Speaker 1: hundred pieces of useful and useless press releases, newspapers, and 631 00:41:59,275 --> 00:42:02,915 Speaker 1: letters for individuals and staffers. Sorting the mail usually took 632 00:42:02,915 --> 00:42:06,515 Speaker 1: a half an hour. Opening the press releases. The intern's 633 00:42:06,595 --> 00:42:11,315 Speaker 1: task two varied in time consumption. It is still amazing 634 00:42:11,355 --> 00:42:13,915 Speaker 1: to me that we interns were entrusted with the first 635 00:42:13,995 --> 00:42:18,435 Speaker 1: gatekeeping position. We deemed which of the innumerable press releases 636 00:42:18,475 --> 00:42:22,675 Speaker 1: and notices were even remotely possible for stories, and who 637 00:42:22,715 --> 00:42:26,475 Speaker 1: filed them according to day in the newsroom's daybook file. 638 00:42:27,635 --> 00:42:30,515 Speaker 1: Other tasks were the usual lab tracks, to drop off 639 00:42:30,635 --> 00:42:33,555 Speaker 1: or pick up film, sundry errands, and of course the 640 00:42:33,595 --> 00:42:38,555 Speaker 1: phone calls, those never ending phone calls. As an aside, 641 00:42:38,555 --> 00:42:41,835 Speaker 1: here let me read part of this again. Other tasks 642 00:42:41,875 --> 00:42:44,835 Speaker 1: were the usual lab tracks, to drop off or pick 643 00:42:44,955 --> 00:42:51,115 Speaker 1: up film. I should explain what film was. Television news 644 00:42:51,235 --> 00:42:56,155 Speaker 1: until the early nineteen seventies was shot exclusively on film. 645 00:42:56,515 --> 00:42:58,795 Speaker 1: I don't remember which millimeter. It could have been eight, 646 00:42:58,955 --> 00:43:00,915 Speaker 1: it could have been eighty eight. I was never good 647 00:43:00,915 --> 00:43:04,275 Speaker 1: at that, but it was all done on film. Videotape 648 00:43:04,315 --> 00:43:06,795 Speaker 1: did not come in until nineteen seventy two or nineteen 649 00:43:06,835 --> 00:43:10,155 Speaker 1: seventy three, and in nineteen seventy eight, I believe Channel 650 00:43:10,235 --> 00:43:12,635 Speaker 1: five was the last of the New York newsrooms to 651 00:43:12,795 --> 00:43:16,395 Speaker 1: use any film at all. Often a reporter would come 652 00:43:16,395 --> 00:43:20,315 Speaker 1: in hand the intern me a couple of rolls of film, 653 00:43:20,715 --> 00:43:24,275 Speaker 1: and I had to race to the basement laboratory and 654 00:43:24,475 --> 00:43:27,595 Speaker 1: sit there while it was rush developed, before they knew 655 00:43:27,595 --> 00:43:29,875 Speaker 1: whether they had what they needed to put a story 656 00:43:29,915 --> 00:43:33,155 Speaker 1: together or anything at all. They could develop a roll 657 00:43:33,235 --> 00:43:36,435 Speaker 1: of film in less than forty minutes, and you could 658 00:43:36,475 --> 00:43:40,555 Speaker 1: sit there and get high off the fumes. I may 659 00:43:40,635 --> 00:43:43,435 Speaker 1: be the youngest person still in the news business who 660 00:43:43,515 --> 00:43:48,315 Speaker 1: actually ran film to and from the lab. Back to 661 00:43:48,355 --> 00:43:50,715 Speaker 1: what I wrote in nineteen seventy eight about Channel five, 662 00:43:51,795 --> 00:43:54,355 Speaker 1: research was done too, at the direction of the assignment 663 00:43:54,475 --> 00:43:57,395 Speaker 1: editor or a particular reporter. Very often we would use 664 00:43:57,435 --> 00:44:00,995 Speaker 1: the street and building's index to call friends or neighbors 665 00:44:01,035 --> 00:44:04,155 Speaker 1: of a newsmaker. We were unable to reach I remember 666 00:44:04,235 --> 00:44:06,475 Speaker 1: trying to try down the number of a mysterious woman 667 00:44:06,475 --> 00:44:10,395 Speaker 1: whose phone was unlisted by calling each of forty other 668 00:44:10,515 --> 00:44:13,795 Speaker 1: tenants in the same apartment building. The woman had become 669 00:44:13,835 --> 00:44:17,595 Speaker 1: noteworthy because her two sons regularly beat her and tied 670 00:44:17,635 --> 00:44:20,355 Speaker 1: her to the bed to get money to buy record 671 00:44:20,395 --> 00:44:25,435 Speaker 1: albums and rock concert tickets. If you wonder how we 672 00:44:25,515 --> 00:44:28,515 Speaker 1: could have had the gall to interrupt people's lives and 673 00:44:28,675 --> 00:44:31,635 Speaker 1: urge them to leave notes on other people's doors or 674 00:44:31,795 --> 00:44:35,515 Speaker 1: rouse neighbors from their sleep, it was easy. Saying the 675 00:44:35,555 --> 00:44:40,355 Speaker 1: caller was from Channel five News not only inspired genuine awe, 676 00:44:40,435 --> 00:44:45,395 Speaker 1: but it also gave the caller tremendous confidence. The evening 677 00:44:45,555 --> 00:44:48,275 Speaker 1: news shift began during the peak of activity, the hustle 678 00:44:48,315 --> 00:44:51,275 Speaker 1: and bustle of three o'clock. The little phone calling was done. 679 00:44:51,275 --> 00:44:54,115 Speaker 1: At this point, most story assignments had been made, and 680 00:44:54,155 --> 00:44:57,875 Speaker 1: the issues were now execution and logistics. How, for instance, 681 00:44:57,915 --> 00:45:00,475 Speaker 1: to get a camera crew that started its day at 682 00:45:00,555 --> 00:45:04,115 Speaker 1: noon to a news event at six fifteen. When union 683 00:45:04,195 --> 00:45:06,515 Speaker 1: rules were cou wired, they'd get a one hour lunch 684 00:45:06,555 --> 00:45:11,875 Speaker 1: within six hours of starting work. Sports was something else. 685 00:45:12,035 --> 00:45:15,795 Speaker 1: Entirely tasks were few and far between. Once sports page 686 00:45:15,835 --> 00:45:19,035 Speaker 1: was discontinued. The three o'clock starting time for the shift 687 00:45:19,115 --> 00:45:23,595 Speaker 1: was woefully inaccurate. Bill Maser himself rarely arrived before four thirty. 688 00:45:23,955 --> 00:45:26,435 Speaker 1: He would pound out his evening's copy and then take 689 00:45:26,475 --> 00:45:29,355 Speaker 1: a one to two hour lunch. At about five thirty, 690 00:45:30,115 --> 00:45:33,075 Speaker 1: the intern me was left to read the New York 691 00:45:33,115 --> 00:45:37,395 Speaker 1: Post six or seven times, sit back in Maser's wonderful 692 00:45:37,435 --> 00:45:41,475 Speaker 1: reclining chair, and answer the occasional phone call. Most of 693 00:45:41,515 --> 00:45:43,635 Speaker 1: the time was occupied by chatting with one of the 694 00:45:43,635 --> 00:45:46,955 Speaker 1: film editors, Hank Greenberg or Cliff Gelb, now promoted to 695 00:45:46,995 --> 00:45:51,195 Speaker 1: associate producer of the news show. As airtime neared, things 696 00:45:51,235 --> 00:45:54,635 Speaker 1: picked up. If there were a televised sporting event that night, 697 00:45:55,075 --> 00:45:57,475 Speaker 1: it was down to the second floor videotape room to 698 00:45:57,475 --> 00:45:59,875 Speaker 1: watch the first half hour to hour of the game 699 00:46:00,115 --> 00:46:03,635 Speaker 1: and select a minute or so or good action for highlights. 700 00:46:04,115 --> 00:46:06,755 Speaker 1: A home run or fine defensive play usually filled the 701 00:46:06,755 --> 00:46:10,715 Speaker 1: bill nicely. Returning to the newsroom, I usually watched either 702 00:46:10,795 --> 00:46:14,315 Speaker 1: the conclusion of that game or a movie with Bill, Stanley, Pinsley, 703 00:46:14,355 --> 00:46:16,875 Speaker 1: and whoever else. Had nothing to do all the time 704 00:46:16,955 --> 00:46:20,275 Speaker 1: updating Bill's scoreboard, checking with the people in graphics to 705 00:46:20,315 --> 00:46:22,995 Speaker 1: make sure they got all the required information, keeping an 706 00:46:23,035 --> 00:46:26,235 Speaker 1: eye on the UPI wire for late stories, trading opinions 707 00:46:26,235 --> 00:46:29,515 Speaker 1: on the Yankees, or watching amazed as Bill Maser did 708 00:46:29,555 --> 00:46:34,595 Speaker 1: a variety of high blood pressure exercises. My dual internship 709 00:46:34,635 --> 00:46:37,555 Speaker 1: continued through early August, when I determined I should leave 710 00:46:37,595 --> 00:46:39,355 Speaker 1: to give myself a week or two to get my 711 00:46:39,595 --> 00:46:43,235 Speaker 1: FCC third Class license and just generally relax after a 712 00:46:43,275 --> 00:46:47,835 Speaker 1: busy summer preparatory to returning to school, I decided to 713 00:46:47,835 --> 00:46:50,795 Speaker 1: go out with a little class. I shelled out twenty 714 00:46:50,835 --> 00:46:54,595 Speaker 1: five bucks for a cake intended to read to the 715 00:46:54,675 --> 00:46:59,475 Speaker 1: Channel five newsroom thanks for a great summer. The master 716 00:46:59,715 --> 00:47:04,035 Speaker 1: decorators at the nearby bakery butchered the job, and only 717 00:47:04,075 --> 00:47:06,555 Speaker 1: a last second and revision saved me from wishing a 718 00:47:06,595 --> 00:47:25,995 Speaker 1: fond goodbye to the Chanelle Number five new room. Also, 719 00:47:26,035 --> 00:47:28,515 Speaker 1: as I remember, I had to carry that damned cake, 720 00:47:28,795 --> 00:47:31,915 Speaker 1: a big sheet cake bigger than me. I had to 721 00:47:31,955 --> 00:47:35,715 Speaker 1: carry it about four blocks. The punchline of all punchlines, 722 00:47:35,755 --> 00:47:37,875 Speaker 1: as I mentioned before, Channel five in New York was 723 00:47:37,875 --> 00:47:41,395 Speaker 1: on East sixty seventh Street in the year two thousand 724 00:47:41,395 --> 00:47:45,195 Speaker 1: and seven, so that's what nearly thirty years later, I 725 00:47:45,275 --> 00:47:48,515 Speaker 1: bought an apartment on East sixty ninth Street in New 726 00:47:48,595 --> 00:47:51,675 Speaker 1: York City, and out my bedroom window as I looked 727 00:47:51,715 --> 00:47:55,715 Speaker 1: over the glorious landscape of Manhattan. Out my bedroom window, 728 00:47:55,915 --> 00:48:00,315 Speaker 1: I overlooked the place I had been an intern thirty 729 00:48:00,435 --> 00:48:05,035 Speaker 1: nine years before. All that travel, and I'd gone block 730 00:48:05,075 --> 00:48:07,635 Speaker 1: and a half. I've done all the damage I can do. 731 00:48:07,715 --> 00:48:07,875 Speaker 2: Here. 732 00:48:07,915 --> 00:48:09,795 Speaker 1: Here are the credits. Most of the music was arranged, 733 00:48:09,795 --> 00:48:12,795 Speaker 1: produced and performed by Brian Ray and John Phillip Shanel, 734 00:48:12,835 --> 00:48:16,435 Speaker 1: where the Countdown musical directors. All orchestration and keyboards by 735 00:48:16,515 --> 00:48:19,955 Speaker 1: John Phillip Shanel, Guitars, bass and drums by Brian Ray, 736 00:48:20,275 --> 00:48:24,115 Speaker 1: produced by Tko Brothers. Other Beethoven selections have been arranged 737 00:48:24,155 --> 00:48:26,955 Speaker 1: and performed by the group No Horns Allowed. The sports 738 00:48:27,035 --> 00:48:29,915 Speaker 1: music is the Olderman theme from ESPN two, and it 739 00:48:29,955 --> 00:48:32,915 Speaker 1: was written by Mitch Warren Davis courtesy of ESPN, Inc. 740 00:48:33,595 --> 00:48:37,035 Speaker 1: Musical comments by Nancy Fauss. The best baseball stadium organist 741 00:48:37,075 --> 00:48:40,435 Speaker 1: ever Our announcer today was Richard Lewis. Everything else was 742 00:48:40,475 --> 00:48:44,155 Speaker 1: pretty much my fault, including the bad math, because two 743 00:48:44,235 --> 00:48:48,355 Speaker 1: thousand and seven minus nineteen seventy eight is not thirty 744 00:48:48,435 --> 00:48:52,115 Speaker 1: nine years it's twenty nine years. Thank god there was 745 00:48:52,155 --> 00:48:55,275 Speaker 1: a job in broadcasting for me to go into. I 746 00:48:55,355 --> 00:48:58,155 Speaker 1: may return to this internship paper if time permits, in 747 00:48:58,195 --> 00:49:01,195 Speaker 1: the days to come. In the interim. That's countdown for 748 00:49:01,195 --> 00:49:03,675 Speaker 1: this the eight hundred and fifty fourth day since Donald 749 00:49:03,715 --> 00:49:06,635 Speaker 1: Trump's first attempt to coup against the democratically elected government 750 00:49:06,675 --> 00:49:09,915 Speaker 1: of the United States. Don't forget to keep arresting him 751 00:49:10,035 --> 00:49:13,395 Speaker 1: while we still can. The next schedule countdown is tomorrow. 752 00:49:13,475 --> 00:49:17,155 Speaker 1: Until then, I'm Keith Olran calling from the assignment desk 753 00:49:17,195 --> 00:49:20,035 Speaker 1: of Channel five News in New York. Thank you for 754 00:49:20,075 --> 00:49:37,155 Speaker 1: your time this time. Until next time, It's Tim Gian. 755 00:49:38,075 --> 00:50:10,235 Speaker 2: Do you know where your children are? Hey? 756 00:50:10,275 --> 00:50:13,435 Speaker 1: Millions of Americans from many backgrounds, many lifestyles and a 757 00:50:13,475 --> 00:50:17,915 Speaker 1: wide countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio. 758 00:50:18,195 --> 00:50:23,515 Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, 759 00:50:23,635 --> 00:50:25,595 Speaker 1: or wherever you get your podcasts.