1
00:00:04,795 --> 00:00:22,075
Speaker 1: Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio. Make

2
00:00:22,155 --> 00:00:27,315
Speaker 1: No Mistake. Tucker Carlson was just fired personally by Rupert Murdoch.

3
00:00:28,115 --> 00:00:32,475
Speaker 1: The phrase breaking news has been overused beyond all recognition,

4
00:00:32,555 --> 00:00:37,595
Speaker 1: but this defines it breaking news and news broken. Tucker

5
00:00:37,635 --> 00:00:40,435
Speaker 1: Carlson has been fired by Fox and Rupert Murdoch and

6
00:00:40,515 --> 00:00:43,755
Speaker 1: the news site Semaphores as his executive producer. Justin Wells

7
00:00:43,955 --> 00:00:46,595
Speaker 1: has also been fired by Fox, and Don Lemon has

8
00:00:46,635 --> 00:00:50,155
Speaker 1: been fired by CNN. And as to Carlson, Hallelujah, Hallelujah,

9
00:00:50,195 --> 00:00:53,795
Speaker 1: Free at last. And Carlson was fired for two reasons,

10
00:00:53,835 --> 00:00:57,515
Speaker 1: one larger than the other because of what the Abbey

11
00:00:57,635 --> 00:01:03,595
Speaker 1: Grosberg misogyny and abuse lawsuit would reveal, and because of

12
00:01:03,675 --> 00:01:07,835
Speaker 1: what the dominion lawsuit prove Tucker Carlson had already said

13
00:01:08,395 --> 00:01:13,715
Speaker 1: about Fox management, including Rupert Murdoch, who just personally fired

14
00:01:13,755 --> 00:01:18,275
Speaker 1: Tucker Carlson. Tucker Carlson was fired because he somehow found

15
00:01:18,355 --> 00:01:22,915
Speaker 1: the line at an endemically sexist, abusive place like News Corp.

16
00:01:23,235 --> 00:01:27,355
Speaker 1: And still managed somehow to cross that line. There are

17
00:01:27,435 --> 00:01:32,195
Speaker 1: tipping points for crap like this, even at Fox. Ask

18
00:01:32,395 --> 00:01:36,715
Speaker 1: Bill O'Reilly ask Roger Ales, and I think ask Tucker Carlson,

19
00:01:37,515 --> 00:01:40,835
Speaker 1: and he trashed his bosses in black and white. He

20
00:01:40,915 --> 00:01:44,315
Speaker 1: may have trash Murdoch. He certainly trash Murdoch's most devoted aids.

21
00:01:44,435 --> 00:01:47,635
Speaker 1: And you do not cross Rupert Murdoch within News Corp

22
00:01:47,915 --> 00:01:51,795
Speaker 1: and long survive. And you can be certain he was

23
00:01:51,875 --> 00:01:54,875
Speaker 1: fired because the Murdoch statement does not say he was fired.

24
00:01:54,915 --> 00:01:58,595
Speaker 1: It reads only Fox News Media and Tucker Carlson have

25
00:01:58,635 --> 00:02:01,635
Speaker 1: agreed to part ways. We thank him for his service.

26
00:02:02,835 --> 00:02:06,915
Speaker 1: He agreed to part way in exactly the manner CEO

27
00:02:07,035 --> 00:02:12,195
Speaker 1: Jeff Schell agreed to depart and BC yesterday they said

28
00:02:12,235 --> 00:02:17,635
Speaker 1: you're leaving, and the other guy said, okay. I mean

29
00:02:17,675 --> 00:02:20,475
Speaker 1: when Fox fired me from its sports department in two

30
00:02:20,475 --> 00:02:23,115
Speaker 1: thousand and one, it gave me a more fulsome farewell

31
00:02:23,155 --> 00:02:26,635
Speaker 1: statement than Carlson just got. It even included quotes from

32
00:02:26,675 --> 00:02:29,795
Speaker 1: me thanking my staff, and they gave me all the

33
00:02:29,835 --> 00:02:32,835
Speaker 1: money they owed me. And there are clear indications Rupert

34
00:02:32,915 --> 00:02:37,595
Speaker 1: does not intend to pay Tucker Carlson. The part about

35
00:02:37,635 --> 00:02:41,155
Speaker 1: firing his executive producer also gives more juice to the

36
00:02:41,235 --> 00:02:45,235
Speaker 1: explanation that this is mostly about that Abby Grosberg suit.

37
00:02:46,195 --> 00:02:48,915
Speaker 1: And while on Twitter this morning, I joked about Carlson's

38
00:02:48,915 --> 00:02:53,675
Speaker 1: firing and said that I did nazee this coming. Kind

39
00:02:53,715 --> 00:02:56,435
Speaker 1: of did. When the opening of the Dominion trial was

40
00:02:56,475 --> 00:02:59,195
Speaker 1: postponed by a day last week, I guessed here that

41
00:02:59,275 --> 00:03:02,835
Speaker 1: Dominion had even more eye popping evidenced against Fox, and

42
00:03:02,915 --> 00:03:05,235
Speaker 1: that could very well have been about Carlson, and it

43
00:03:05,275 --> 00:03:07,235
Speaker 1: could very well have been the result of the more

44
00:03:07,275 --> 00:03:10,275
Speaker 1: recent Grosberg suit. And now we are over the target.

45
00:03:10,555 --> 00:03:13,115
Speaker 1: To quote what I said on this podcast, somewhere there

46
00:03:13,235 --> 00:03:16,595
Speaker 1: was something else in the pile of items produced in Discovery,

47
00:03:16,635 --> 00:03:19,635
Speaker 1: something Dominion new it had, or something Dominion did not

48
00:03:19,795 --> 00:03:22,955
Speaker 1: know it had, that Fox suddenly knew Dominion had something

49
00:03:23,035 --> 00:03:26,115
Speaker 1: worse than Carlson saying he hated Trump, something worse than

50
00:03:26,155 --> 00:03:28,995
Speaker 1: all the executives threatening all the reporters who tried to

51
00:03:28,995 --> 00:03:31,995
Speaker 1: tell the truth, something that might have destroyed, if not

52
00:03:32,115 --> 00:03:35,955
Speaker 1: Fox itself, then a significant chunk of its franchise in

53
00:03:36,075 --> 00:03:39,835
Speaker 1: one fell swoop. Anyway, I still think there is still

54
00:03:39,955 --> 00:03:46,475
Speaker 1: some fatal there there. I'm actually not fond of quoting myself,

55
00:03:46,475 --> 00:03:50,195
Speaker 1: but a week ago tomorrow I kind of predicted which

56
00:03:50,355 --> 00:03:53,755
Speaker 1: part of the Fox franchise a Dominion trial might have

57
00:03:53,835 --> 00:03:58,075
Speaker 1: jeopardized quote Hannity is hateful, garbage, and Ingram hasn't been

58
00:03:58,115 --> 00:04:00,275
Speaker 1: all there since nine to eleven. But I can't imagine

59
00:04:00,275 --> 00:04:03,395
Speaker 1: there's anything by them or about them that could sink Fox,

60
00:04:03,475 --> 00:04:08,515
Speaker 1: Quote News, or Murdoch or just their own shows. But

61
00:04:08,675 --> 00:04:12,355
Speaker 1: Tucker Carlson, every night that eight o'clock comes around and

62
00:04:12,435 --> 00:04:15,755
Speaker 1: we do not hear a voiceover announcer say Tucker Carlson

63
00:04:15,795 --> 00:04:20,115
Speaker 1: Tonight won't be seen ever again because of the you know,

64
00:04:20,835 --> 00:04:25,875
Speaker 1: we now welcome back Bill oh Riley. I'm surprised any

65
00:04:25,955 --> 00:04:28,875
Speaker 1: of us who ever worked with Tucker Carlson believed he

66
00:04:28,915 --> 00:04:31,835
Speaker 1: did not have skeletons in his closet. He had a

67
00:04:31,915 --> 00:04:38,315
Speaker 1: whole house made of nothing but closets. End quote, Tucker

68
00:04:38,315 --> 00:04:40,875
Speaker 1: Carlson Tonight won't be seen ever again because of the

69
00:04:41,395 --> 00:04:46,555
Speaker 1: you know lost in the understandable focus on the parts

70
00:04:46,595 --> 00:04:50,595
Speaker 1: of ex Carlson producer Grosberg's lawsuit that implicated Fox in

71
00:04:50,635 --> 00:04:54,035
Speaker 1: the Dominion scandal was the second part of her complaint

72
00:04:54,835 --> 00:04:57,995
Speaker 1: that got Tucker Carlson fired today that as a woman

73
00:04:58,035 --> 00:05:02,115
Speaker 1: at Fox, she was subjected to quote vile sexist stereotypes,

74
00:05:02,355 --> 00:05:06,235
Speaker 1: especially after she was moved from the Maria Bartiromo Show

75
00:05:06,435 --> 00:05:09,755
Speaker 1: to the Tucker Carlson Show. In her suit, she says

76
00:05:09,795 --> 00:05:13,195
Speaker 1: that the day she started on Carlson's show, her office

77
00:05:13,275 --> 00:05:16,795
Speaker 1: was plastered with images of Nancy Pelosi quote in a

78
00:05:16,835 --> 00:05:21,955
Speaker 1: plunging bathing suit revealing her cleavage. Grosberg also claimed that

79
00:05:21,995 --> 00:05:25,875
Speaker 1: before Michigan's Republican candidate for governor, Tutor Dixon, appeared on

80
00:05:25,915 --> 00:05:29,635
Speaker 1: their show in October last year, Carlson participated in a

81
00:05:29,675 --> 00:05:33,635
Speaker 1: mock debate in his office with his staff over whether

82
00:05:33,795 --> 00:05:38,555
Speaker 1: Dixon or the incumbent governor, Grettin Gretchen Whitmer was quote

83
00:05:38,955 --> 00:05:43,715
Speaker 1: hotter and more effable. This debate was moderated by Carlson's

84
00:05:43,795 --> 00:05:47,955
Speaker 1: editorial producer Andrew Carmichael, who made several sexist remarks about

85
00:05:47,955 --> 00:05:50,715
Speaker 1: the two women's appearance and even polled the office on

86
00:05:50,915 --> 00:05:55,235
Speaker 1: their views. The same offensive discussion resurfaced when miss Dixon

87
00:05:55,355 --> 00:06:00,115
Speaker 1: joined the show again weeks later. End quote. In these discussions,

88
00:06:00,555 --> 00:06:03,635
Speaker 1: no woman, whether she was a Republican politician or a

89
00:06:03,635 --> 00:06:07,555
Speaker 1: female staffer at Fox News, was safe from suddenly becoming

90
00:06:07,595 --> 00:06:12,475
Speaker 1: the target of sexist, demeaning comments, such as being called

91
00:06:12,555 --> 00:06:19,075
Speaker 1: a C word. Fox has had to pay, and pay

92
00:06:19,235 --> 00:06:23,675
Speaker 1: and pay for what O'Reilly did, what Ales did to

93
00:06:23,835 --> 00:06:28,635
Speaker 1: Gretchen Carlson, to Andrea Macris, to dozens of other women,

94
00:06:29,195 --> 00:06:32,035
Speaker 1: And you will recall Carlson's comments on a shock jock

95
00:06:32,155 --> 00:06:34,795
Speaker 1: radio show from two thousand and six through twenty eleven,

96
00:06:34,955 --> 00:06:39,235
Speaker 1: full of misogyny and underaged sex jokes and tinged with

97
00:06:39,395 --> 00:06:42,715
Speaker 1: racism and the not so funny frat boy humor that

98
00:06:42,755 --> 00:06:45,715
Speaker 1: has defined his fifty three years on this earth as

99
00:06:45,715 --> 00:06:48,795
Speaker 1: the kind of immature predator you often read about in

100
00:06:48,835 --> 00:06:51,675
Speaker 1: the newspapers under the heading will he be tried as

101
00:06:51,715 --> 00:06:55,795
Speaker 1: a child or as an adult? And let me quote

102
00:06:55,835 --> 00:06:58,355
Speaker 1: also from something buried deep in a New York Times

103
00:06:58,395 --> 00:07:02,155
Speaker 1: report after the settlement about how Dominion's attorney had planned

104
00:07:02,195 --> 00:07:06,155
Speaker 1: to begin his opening statement a week ago tomorrow. Quote,

105
00:07:06,595 --> 00:07:10,195
Speaker 1: a presentation of roughly sixty slides had been loaded into

106
00:07:10,195 --> 00:07:14,915
Speaker 1: the courtroom's audio visual system, some containing new damning revelations

107
00:07:15,155 --> 00:07:24,715
Speaker 1: from the private communications inside Fox new damning inside, more sexism,

108
00:07:25,355 --> 00:07:32,155
Speaker 1: more misogyny, an assault. Who knows. Maybe that's why Rupert

109
00:07:32,235 --> 00:07:39,595
Speaker 1: paid it off. Maybe that's why Rupert fired Tucker, and

110
00:07:39,715 --> 00:07:43,195
Speaker 1: ultimately Tucker. Carlson's firing is actually about the dominion suit,

111
00:07:43,235 --> 00:07:45,715
Speaker 1: but not in the way one might first assume. The

112
00:07:45,795 --> 00:07:48,915
Speaker 1: texts and emails in the dominion suit. Discovery that we

113
00:07:49,115 --> 00:07:52,475
Speaker 1: saw also revealed a world in which Flatley Tucker Carlson

114
00:07:52,515 --> 00:07:55,755
Speaker 1: believed he ran Fox News and everybody else, including management,

115
00:07:55,795 --> 00:07:59,675
Speaker 1: including Murdoch, was there to do his bidding. There is

116
00:07:59,715 --> 00:08:04,475
Speaker 1: a very powerful News Corp. Executive vice president named Arena Briganti.

117
00:08:04,995 --> 00:08:07,275
Speaker 1: She has been there forever she used to do pr

118
00:08:07,355 --> 00:08:10,315
Speaker 1: for Fox News. She is as foul a human being

119
00:08:10,395 --> 00:08:13,075
Speaker 1: as I have ever encountered in this business. And Dominion

120
00:08:13,115 --> 00:08:17,275
Speaker 1: revealed an exchange between Carlson and Laura Ingram about the

121
00:08:17,275 --> 00:08:20,755
Speaker 1: debunking of the Trump lies about the twenty twenty election,

122
00:08:21,235 --> 00:08:27,275
Speaker 1: the debunkings they were so offended by. She is coordinating this.

123
00:08:28,035 --> 00:08:33,035
Speaker 1: Ingram texted Carlson about Briganti. Carlson replied, quote without question,

124
00:08:33,275 --> 00:08:40,475
Speaker 1: Irena hates prime Time. Trust me, that's not speculation. End quote.

125
00:08:40,515 --> 00:08:44,195
Speaker 1: That tension between the executives and the quote unquote real

126
00:08:44,235 --> 00:08:47,595
Speaker 1: newspeople on the one hand and the primetime opinion hosts

127
00:08:47,595 --> 00:08:51,515
Speaker 1: on the other is constant and wearying and eternal in

128
00:08:51,595 --> 00:08:54,755
Speaker 1: cable news, no matter the decade, no matter the venue,

129
00:08:54,795 --> 00:08:57,355
Speaker 1: and it always ends the same way, with the opinion

130
00:08:57,435 --> 00:09:00,915
Speaker 1: hosts losing because they may make more money for management,

131
00:09:00,955 --> 00:09:03,955
Speaker 1: but they also produce more headaches, and they produce all

132
00:09:04,035 --> 00:09:10,035
Speaker 1: the lawsuit and all the in person complaints. Presumably there

133
00:09:10,075 --> 00:09:13,195
Speaker 1: was more evidence of Carlson slamming his bosses, maybe even

134
00:09:13,275 --> 00:09:17,395
Speaker 1: Murdoch himself in print or just in conversation, to say

135
00:09:17,395 --> 00:09:21,075
Speaker 1: nothing of the misogyny and the Grosberg issues. And remember

136
00:09:21,155 --> 00:09:30,395
Speaker 1: this management in television will always protect management. Then I've

137
00:09:30,435 --> 00:09:32,155
Speaker 1: often told the story of when I worked at Fox

138
00:09:32,195 --> 00:09:34,795
Speaker 1: and developed a sourced story that Rupert Murdoch was going

139
00:09:34,795 --> 00:09:37,355
Speaker 1: to sell the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team, and nobody

140
00:09:37,435 --> 00:09:41,235
Speaker 1: knew this. I did not know if I could report it.

141
00:09:41,235 --> 00:09:44,035
Speaker 1: It was Fox's candy store. It was their right to

142
00:09:44,075 --> 00:09:46,355
Speaker 1: tell me I could not report it on their network.

143
00:09:48,035 --> 00:09:51,715
Speaker 1: So I called Murdoch's personal PR unit, and those guys said, yes,

144
00:09:51,795 --> 00:09:53,795
Speaker 1: you can report it. We don't interfere if you think

145
00:09:53,835 --> 00:09:56,315
Speaker 1: it's the real story, as long as you run our

146
00:09:56,355 --> 00:09:58,355
Speaker 1: denial and as long as you make it clear the

147
00:09:58,395 --> 00:10:01,875
Speaker 1: story is not coming from inside the company or the corporation.

148
00:10:02,555 --> 00:10:04,715
Speaker 1: And I did all that, and the denial and the

149
00:10:04,715 --> 00:10:07,555
Speaker 1: disclaimer was twice as long as the story, and two

150
00:10:07,555 --> 00:10:12,355
Speaker 1: weeks later I was fired, And ten years later Rupert

151
00:10:12,475 --> 00:10:16,355
Speaker 1: Murdoch confirmed he had fired me personally because he was

152
00:10:16,435 --> 00:10:20,875
Speaker 1: so angry that I had revealed his secrets, even though

153
00:10:21,475 --> 00:10:25,835
Speaker 1: I had followed his rules and asked before every step

154
00:10:25,875 --> 00:10:31,395
Speaker 1: I took, and Tucker Carlson has not followed Rupert Murdoch's rules.

155
00:10:32,715 --> 00:10:34,915
Speaker 1: I am not defending Murdoch. I am just here to

156
00:10:34,955 --> 00:10:39,955
Speaker 1: explain him. In addition to that, a month ago, yesterday,

157
00:10:39,955 --> 00:10:42,795
Speaker 1: the attorney for Ray Epps, the man the right wing

158
00:10:42,835 --> 00:10:46,795
Speaker 1: has universally smeared as some kind of FBI plant slash provocateur,

159
00:10:47,035 --> 00:10:51,315
Speaker 1: on January sixth, wrote to Carlson demanding a retraction. The

160
00:10:51,395 --> 00:10:54,555
Speaker 1: lawyer asked for a retraction for his quote false and

161
00:10:54,595 --> 00:10:58,755
Speaker 1: defamatory statements, insisted on a quote formal on air apology

162
00:10:58,795 --> 00:11:02,475
Speaker 1: for the lies spread about mister Epps by others and

163
00:11:02,555 --> 00:11:06,035
Speaker 1: Carlson on Fox. Quote the fans notions that mister Carlson

164
00:11:06,075 --> 00:11:08,795
Speaker 1: advances on his show regarding mister EPP's involvement in the

165
00:11:08,875 --> 00:11:13,275
Speaker 1: January sixth insurrection are demonstrably and already proven to be false.

166
00:11:13,355 --> 00:11:16,475
Speaker 1: And yet mister Carlson persists with his assault on the

167
00:11:16,515 --> 00:11:22,195
Speaker 1: truth and if there are any other minor components to

168
00:11:22,235 --> 00:11:25,955
Speaker 1: this necessary. It's noteworthy too that Carlson's January sixth video

169
00:11:26,035 --> 00:11:29,955
Speaker 1: blockbuster charade with Kevin McCarthy blew up, but it blew

170
00:11:30,035 --> 00:11:33,595
Speaker 1: up mostly in his own face. In addition to producing

171
00:11:33,635 --> 00:11:37,395
Speaker 1: so little actual video of any interest to anybody whatsoever

172
00:11:37,635 --> 00:11:39,955
Speaker 1: that he had to reuse most of it on two

173
00:11:40,075 --> 00:11:43,355
Speaker 1: or three different shows, Carlson used some of it to

174
00:11:43,435 --> 00:11:46,995
Speaker 1: smear this EPs. As late as last week, Carlson also

175
00:11:47,035 --> 00:11:49,275
Speaker 1: made reference on air to how many people did not

176
00:11:49,435 --> 00:11:53,275
Speaker 1: believe that the twenty twenty election was legitimate, exactly the

177
00:11:53,355 --> 00:11:56,795
Speaker 1: kind of playing with fire that got Fox sued by Dominion,

178
00:11:57,035 --> 00:12:01,395
Speaker 1: Smart Mattic, probably by Ray Epps, and definitely by Abby Grosberg.

179
00:12:02,955 --> 00:12:07,035
Speaker 1: Last part, No, Tucker Carlson was not fired as part

180
00:12:07,075 --> 00:12:10,275
Speaker 1: of the dominion settlement. Dominion didn't even get a retraction,

181
00:12:10,395 --> 00:12:15,115
Speaker 1: let alone an apology or firings. What occurred in discovery

182
00:12:15,355 --> 00:12:17,955
Speaker 1: for the Dominion lawsuit is a big part of this,

183
00:12:18,315 --> 00:12:21,795
Speaker 1: But do not fall for that logical fallacy B followed A,

184
00:12:21,995 --> 00:12:28,555
Speaker 1: therefore a cause B. Whatever the ultimate nuances proved to

185
00:12:28,635 --> 00:12:33,155
Speaker 1: be Tucker Carlson has now completed an epic hat trick,

186
00:12:33,835 --> 00:12:37,595
Speaker 1: fired by CNN after John Stewart humiliated him during a

187
00:12:37,595 --> 00:12:40,915
Speaker 1: two thousand and four episode of Crossfire, fired by MSNBC

188
00:12:41,075 --> 00:12:43,635
Speaker 1: in two thousand and eight after his audience shrank to

189
00:12:43,675 --> 00:12:47,395
Speaker 1: a number smaller than his staff, and fired by Fox

190
00:12:47,475 --> 00:12:55,155
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty three by Rupert Murdoch. Personally, I'll put

191
00:12:55,195 --> 00:12:57,795
Speaker 1: my early money on the Grosberg suit and women and

192
00:12:57,835 --> 00:13:01,755
Speaker 1: misogyny and the insults to Murdoch and his favorites, and

193
00:13:01,795 --> 00:13:04,915
Speaker 1: then also that Fox eternal question, why are we in

194
00:13:04,955 --> 00:13:06,955
Speaker 1: this guy thirty million a year when we can get

195
00:13:07,195 --> 00:13:12,515
Speaker 1: Pete Hegseth or Jesse Waters or Deucey Junior to be

196
00:13:12,715 --> 00:13:15,235
Speaker 1: just as stupid and just as racist for a tenth

197
00:13:15,275 --> 00:13:21,795
Speaker 1: of that as to Don Lemon. Also misogyny. This is

198
00:13:21,835 --> 00:13:25,195
Speaker 1: not complicated. It may also have been planned to some degree.

199
00:13:25,355 --> 00:13:28,315
Speaker 1: Lemon was the most obvious face of the old sort

200
00:13:28,315 --> 00:13:30,995
Speaker 1: of liberal CNN. John Malone and Chris Lick took over

201
00:13:31,035 --> 00:13:33,795
Speaker 1: and decided to destroy, and the first thing they did

202
00:13:33,915 --> 00:13:37,115
Speaker 1: was to move Lemon from a solo show in primetime

203
00:13:37,155 --> 00:13:39,355
Speaker 1: where he was doing just fine getting along with his

204
00:13:39,355 --> 00:13:43,795
Speaker 1: favorite person himself to the disaster area that has been

205
00:13:43,915 --> 00:13:46,155
Speaker 1: CNN Mornings since the day we signed the place on

206
00:13:46,195 --> 00:13:49,475
Speaker 1: the air in nineteen eighty. CNN Mornings is where CNN

207
00:13:49,555 --> 00:13:53,515
Speaker 1: careers go to die. They once tried me as the

208
00:13:53,555 --> 00:13:58,115
Speaker 1: CNN Morning host I was often at work six months later.

209
00:13:58,435 --> 00:14:02,595
Speaker 1: Mornings are tough. You do not sleep, You do not

210
00:14:02,875 --> 00:14:06,115
Speaker 1: imprint anything in your memory. You don't remember what happened

211
00:14:06,315 --> 00:14:09,475
Speaker 1: five days ago or five seconds ago. Words come out

212
00:14:09,515 --> 00:14:12,075
Speaker 1: of your mouth before you realize you even thought of them.

213
00:14:13,475 --> 00:14:17,275
Speaker 1: In Lemon's case, he said appalling things about Nicki Haley

214
00:14:17,315 --> 00:14:19,755
Speaker 1: and women and when women were and were not in

215
00:14:19,795 --> 00:14:23,235
Speaker 1: their prime. And he said less appalling things about the

216
00:14:23,315 --> 00:14:26,235
Speaker 1: co hosts, and Don Lemon is the kind of talent

217
00:14:26,275 --> 00:14:29,635
Speaker 1: who should never have co hosts. He said less appalling

218
00:14:29,915 --> 00:14:32,755
Speaker 1: things about those two nitwits they had co anchoring with him,

219
00:14:32,875 --> 00:14:37,435
Speaker 1: people whose nit wittedness transcend gender. But they still were

220
00:14:37,515 --> 00:14:42,875
Speaker 1: misogynistic and indefensible. I actually think Chris Lichten CNN may

221
00:14:42,875 --> 00:14:47,235
Speaker 1: have given Lemons some time in hopes that the Nicky

222
00:14:47,275 --> 00:14:50,955
Speaker 1: Haley women's prime story would not stick to him the

223
00:14:50,995 --> 00:14:54,595
Speaker 1: way his bizarre assertion last decade on CNN did not

224
00:14:54,635 --> 00:14:57,595
Speaker 1: stick to him, He said that the missing Malaysian airliner

225
00:14:57,675 --> 00:15:01,875
Speaker 1: might have been swallowed by a black hole, just one

226
00:15:01,955 --> 00:15:06,755
Speaker 1: airplane by a black hole, as opposed to a black

227
00:15:06,795 --> 00:15:14,395
Speaker 1: hole which would consume every planet from here to Andromeda. Well,

228
00:15:14,435 --> 00:15:17,435
Speaker 1: the insults to women did stick, and Don Lemon is gone,

229
00:15:17,515 --> 00:15:21,555
Speaker 1: Having unwittingly helped lickt dismantle CNN in the process, Lemon

230
00:15:21,635 --> 00:15:24,595
Speaker 1: tweeted his dismissal this morning. He then complained he was

231
00:15:24,635 --> 00:15:27,595
Speaker 1: informed by his agent that he was terminated, and he writes,

232
00:15:27,795 --> 00:15:29,715
Speaker 1: I would have thought that someone in management would have

233
00:15:29,715 --> 00:15:32,595
Speaker 1: had the decency to tell me directly in a rare

234
00:15:32,755 --> 00:15:38,155
Speaker 1: post firing spat that doesn't involve me. CNN now denies this.

235
00:15:38,635 --> 00:15:41,675
Speaker 1: It issued a statement that he was offered an opportunity

236
00:15:41,715 --> 00:15:44,395
Speaker 1: to meet with management, but instead released a statement on Twitter.

237
00:15:45,475 --> 00:15:49,555
Speaker 1: The meeting offer is in itself unusual. It's unfortunate Lemon

238
00:15:49,635 --> 00:15:51,595
Speaker 1: turned it down. If CNN is telling the truth, it

239
00:15:51,635 --> 00:15:55,675
Speaker 1: is Chris licked. After all, most people leave fired when

240
00:15:55,675 --> 00:16:00,035
Speaker 1: a contract runs out, even on good terms, even on

241
00:16:00,115 --> 00:16:03,435
Speaker 1: their terms when they wanted to leave. However, you leave

242
00:16:03,555 --> 00:16:07,035
Speaker 1: a television network, you are not told by your boss.

243
00:16:07,395 --> 00:16:10,875
Speaker 1: You are told by your agent that is why you

244
00:16:10,915 --> 00:16:15,755
Speaker 1: have an agent I do not expect Rupert Murdoch called

245
00:16:15,835 --> 00:16:19,395
Speaker 1: up Tucker Carlson and fired him directly. Maybe he had

246
00:16:19,395 --> 00:16:23,555
Speaker 1: a reign of Briganti do it. The rest of this

247
00:16:23,675 --> 00:16:27,275
Speaker 1: updated podcast was recorded last night. It has the other

248
00:16:27,475 --> 00:16:33,235
Speaker 1: CNN disaster, the new Charles Barkley Gaale King Show, Would

249
00:16:33,275 --> 00:16:36,155
Speaker 1: you do Mornings? Guys? And it has worse persons in

250
00:16:36,195 --> 00:16:38,635
Speaker 1: the world, and most especially it has what was the

251
00:16:38,915 --> 00:16:43,315
Speaker 1: big shocking firing and TV. Anybody remember this? It happened

252
00:16:43,355 --> 00:16:47,995
Speaker 1: all the way back glass yesterday. My old ex friend

253
00:16:48,075 --> 00:16:51,355
Speaker 1: Jeff Schell, who had lied to me about bringing back countdown,

254
00:16:51,515 --> 00:16:54,635
Speaker 1: lied for two years or lied to me about lying

255
00:16:54,675 --> 00:16:58,395
Speaker 1: to me about bringing back countdown. He was fired over

256
00:16:58,475 --> 00:17:02,395
Speaker 1: an illicit relationship with a woman, reportedly a CNBC anchor

257
00:17:02,795 --> 00:17:07,155
Speaker 1: whom Russian state media wants aecuted us to flirting, flirting

258
00:17:07,195 --> 00:17:11,715
Speaker 1: with Vladimir Putin and resembling Sharon Stone in the leg

259
00:17:11,795 --> 00:17:16,995
Speaker 1: crossing scene in the movie Basic Instinct. Jeff Shells was

260
00:17:17,035 --> 00:17:21,195
Speaker 1: the most shocking firing in TV for twenty four hours.

261
00:17:22,155 --> 00:17:25,315
Speaker 1: If there's anybody celebrating today's news about Tucker Carlson and

262
00:17:25,395 --> 00:17:31,555
Speaker 1: Don Lemon, it's the folks at NBC Comcast. But lastly,

263
00:17:31,755 --> 00:17:36,235
Speaker 1: the big picture of today's shocking developments, Tucker Carlson is

264
00:17:36,275 --> 00:17:40,235
Speaker 1: off our televisions for now at least Fox may find

265
00:17:40,355 --> 00:17:44,395
Speaker 1: somebody worse they always have, but for now, at least

266
00:17:44,475 --> 00:17:47,115
Speaker 1: for today, for this week, for this month, Fox has

267
00:17:47,275 --> 00:17:50,835
Speaker 1: toppled one of the heroes of the fascist, racist right

268
00:17:50,915 --> 00:17:54,835
Speaker 1: wing as surely as they pulled down the statue of

269
00:17:54,955 --> 00:17:59,235
Speaker 1: Sadam Hussein in Iraq. It is useful to try to

270
00:17:59,355 --> 00:18:02,395
Speaker 1: understand why this happened, and I hope I've helped to

271
00:18:02,515 --> 00:18:08,475
Speaker 1: explain it. Rupert Murda fired him any other questions, because

272
00:18:08,555 --> 00:18:14,675
Speaker 1: really this is a time to celebrate, to dance, to sing,

273
00:18:15,435 --> 00:18:27,555
Speaker 1: to exult in our shoten Freud, so Oh, Nancy Ride

274
00:18:28,155 --> 00:18:30,875
Speaker 1: s got food.

275
00:18:31,555 --> 00:18:41,755
Speaker 2: Talk on our s m Fbraton for your drunkenly sa

276
00:18:42,235 --> 00:18:54,195
Speaker 2: dinerom dinso Been dun feed blast mood and got and

277
00:18:56,355 --> 00:19:02,315
Speaker 2: manchon Bell dn froyd bode Son top.

278
00:19:02,435 --> 00:19:24,235
Speaker 1: Free, don't Kanante Faust still ahead on this initiative countdown.

279
00:19:24,315 --> 00:19:26,835
Speaker 1: It is hard to believe that his spaceship could blow

280
00:19:26,955 --> 00:19:29,075
Speaker 1: up and his car company could lose a quarter of

281
00:19:29,115 --> 00:19:32,155
Speaker 1: its value, and neither would be the low point of

282
00:19:32,515 --> 00:19:36,995
Speaker 1: his week the Twitter Blue check fiasco, or, to steal

283
00:19:37,035 --> 00:19:41,515
Speaker 1: the line from Arrested Development, how Elon Musk blew himself

284
00:19:42,715 --> 00:19:46,275
Speaker 1: speaking of desperately bad businessmen. Saturday, my old colleague Chris

285
00:19:46,395 --> 00:19:50,675
Speaker 1: Licktive CNN, the presumed paced theater, makes his worst programming

286
00:19:50,715 --> 00:19:53,995
Speaker 1: decision ever. Okay, I got it. We'll hire Gail King

287
00:19:54,595 --> 00:19:57,475
Speaker 1: and Charles Barkley and we'll put them on one show

288
00:19:57,515 --> 00:20:02,275
Speaker 1: and we'll call it Charles King. Now. Wait, maybe there's

289
00:20:02,275 --> 00:20:04,475
Speaker 1: a better name somewhere. Wait, give me a day or

290
00:20:04,515 --> 00:20:09,555
Speaker 1: some Oh. While I was still chortling about that yesterday,

291
00:20:10,075 --> 00:20:13,155
Speaker 1: the man who misled me about taking me back to

292
00:20:13,355 --> 00:20:16,675
Speaker 1: MSNBC for two years and then basically told reporters while

293
00:20:16,795 --> 00:20:20,155
Speaker 1: Keith tradef no and I was lying is fired as

294
00:20:20,235 --> 00:20:24,515
Speaker 1: the CEO of NBC for lying and having an extra

295
00:20:24,675 --> 00:20:29,155
Speaker 1: marital relationship inside NBC. There's so much Shoden Freud this week.

296
00:20:29,355 --> 00:20:34,355
Speaker 1: I will actually sing for you the Shodenfreud song. That's next.

297
00:20:34,595 --> 00:20:57,875
Speaker 1: This is Countdown. This is Countdown with Keith Olberman still

298
00:20:57,915 --> 00:21:00,595
Speaker 1: ahead on an all new edition of Countdown, The Shoden

299
00:21:00,675 --> 00:21:04,075
Speaker 1: Freud is Special featuring a disastrous new show at CNN

300
00:21:04,155 --> 00:21:06,995
Speaker 1: under Chris Licked and the ouster of the CEO of

301
00:21:07,115 --> 00:21:10,115
Speaker 1: NBC who lied to me for having an extra marital

302
00:21:10,155 --> 00:21:14,795
Speaker 1: affair inside the company about which he also lied allegedly

303
00:21:14,875 --> 00:21:18,315
Speaker 1: with an on air reporter. This is so much fun.

304
00:21:18,435 --> 00:21:22,955
Speaker 1: I'm actually going to sing the Shodenfreud a song, the

305
00:21:23,115 --> 00:21:25,875
Speaker 1: Ode to Joy first time for the daily round up

306
00:21:25,875 --> 00:21:27,635
Speaker 1: of the miss Grants, Morons and Dunning Krueger of X

307
00:21:27,635 --> 00:21:31,675
Speaker 1: Specimens who constitute today's worst persons in the world. I

308
00:21:31,755 --> 00:21:34,395
Speaker 1: got a tie here for the bronze between Mark Robinson,

309
00:21:34,395 --> 00:21:36,915
Speaker 1: the Lieutenant governor of North Carolina now running for governor,

310
00:21:37,315 --> 00:21:40,635
Speaker 1: and Phil Jackson, legendary basketball coach about whom there've always

311
00:21:40,635 --> 00:21:46,715
Speaker 1: been racism, rumbles and mumbles. Jackson first, he has revealed

312
00:21:46,795 --> 00:21:50,035
Speaker 1: in a podcast that he stopped watching the NBA during

313
00:21:50,075 --> 00:21:53,355
Speaker 1: the playoff bubble of twenty twenty because the league supported

314
00:21:53,435 --> 00:21:56,835
Speaker 1: Black Lives Matter. They even heard slogans on the floor

315
00:21:56,915 --> 00:21:59,755
Speaker 1: in the baseline. He said, it was trying to cater

316
00:21:59,875 --> 00:22:01,555
Speaker 1: to an audience or trying to bring in a certain

317
00:22:01,555 --> 00:22:03,555
Speaker 1: audience to the game, and they didn't know it was

318
00:22:03,595 --> 00:22:07,115
Speaker 1: turning other people off. Un Quote. NBA rosters Phil are

319
00:22:07,155 --> 00:22:09,955
Speaker 1: now eighty percent black, which is where they were basically

320
00:22:09,995 --> 00:22:13,595
Speaker 1: when you were a coach. Maybe just work with me here, Phil.

321
00:22:13,835 --> 00:22:17,115
Speaker 1: Maybe it mattered to the players, and even to the

322
00:22:17,115 --> 00:22:21,155
Speaker 1: players who weren't black. Maybe it really just mattered to

323
00:22:21,275 --> 00:22:24,275
Speaker 1: people then, and the people who dismissed it as quote

324
00:22:24,475 --> 00:22:27,795
Speaker 1: politics were just finding an excuse for their own racism.

325
00:22:28,475 --> 00:22:28,795
Speaker 2: Phil.

326
00:22:30,515 --> 00:22:33,715
Speaker 1: Meanwhile, he's tied with Lieutenant Governor Robinson, who is African

327
00:22:33,755 --> 00:22:36,235
Speaker 1: American but desperately attempting not to be, at least for

328
00:22:36,235 --> 00:22:39,035
Speaker 1: the sake of the Republican Party. Robinson repeated to a

329
00:22:39,115 --> 00:22:41,955
Speaker 1: North Carolina GOP meeting that American blacks are not owed

330
00:22:41,995 --> 00:22:46,275
Speaker 1: reparations for slavery. Instead, he thinks American blacks owe reparations

331
00:22:46,355 --> 00:22:49,955
Speaker 1: for freedom. What Robinson didn't know was, as he said this,

332
00:22:50,075 --> 00:22:52,035
Speaker 1: he stood behind a podium that was supposed to say

333
00:22:52,235 --> 00:22:56,755
Speaker 1: NC GOP, But the NC and the OP were in black,

334
00:22:56,875 --> 00:23:00,235
Speaker 1: and the G was inside a red star, and the

335
00:23:00,395 --> 00:23:02,835
Speaker 1: prongs of the star stuck out and covered the opening

336
00:23:02,875 --> 00:23:06,755
Speaker 1: in the sea, So the sign seemed to read no GOP.

337
00:23:08,355 --> 00:23:11,115
Speaker 1: You got that right, Mark the runner up, Missouri Senator

338
00:23:11,235 --> 00:23:14,355
Speaker 1: Josh Hawley. That book, he said, was being censored and

339
00:23:14,475 --> 00:23:17,035
Speaker 1: canceled just because he shot a clenched fist of support

340
00:23:17,475 --> 00:23:20,075
Speaker 1: to the January sixth mob that was about to overtake

341
00:23:20,115 --> 00:23:22,595
Speaker 1: the Capitol. Oh, it will be out on May sixteenth.

342
00:23:22,595 --> 00:23:27,035
Speaker 1: That got published anyway, and it's titled Manhood. That's two words,

343
00:23:27,515 --> 00:23:29,955
Speaker 1: one printed on top of the other on a red

344
00:23:29,995 --> 00:23:33,355
Speaker 1: on red cover. It's twenty four dollars and ninety cents

345
00:23:33,395 --> 00:23:39,075
Speaker 1: for Josh Hawley's Manhood. That's the not really hardcover edition obviously,

346
00:23:41,195 --> 00:23:46,795
Speaker 1: but our winner, Elon Muskie. Where do we begin? The

347
00:23:46,915 --> 00:23:49,835
Speaker 1: blue check mark fiasco. NBC News reports there were four

348
00:23:49,955 --> 00:23:53,675
Speaker 1: hundred and twenty thousand legacy blue check marks issued to

349
00:23:53,715 --> 00:23:57,035
Speaker 1: prevent impersonation and scamming. The number of those people who

350
00:23:57,115 --> 00:24:00,355
Speaker 1: signed up for the eight dollars vanity blue check marks

351
00:24:00,595 --> 00:24:05,155
Speaker 1: was nineteen four hundred ninety seven. Basically, twenty one thousand

352
00:24:05,315 --> 00:24:09,755
Speaker 1: did four hundred thousand didn't. The number of legacies who

353
00:24:09,795 --> 00:24:13,435
Speaker 1: signed up as the legacy marks were disappearing twenty eight

354
00:24:14,075 --> 00:24:17,435
Speaker 1: two eight against the deadline. A Twitter source supposed to

355
00:24:17,475 --> 00:24:19,675
Speaker 1: reveal the number of Vanity Blues who signed up in

356
00:24:19,755 --> 00:24:22,995
Speaker 1: total for the final twenty four hours was four hundred.

357
00:24:24,555 --> 00:24:26,715
Speaker 1: Musk apparently tried to make light of this. At first,

358
00:24:26,755 --> 00:24:29,275
Speaker 1: he took three celebrities who questioned the process and said

359
00:24:29,315 --> 00:24:32,475
Speaker 1: he was personally buying Twitter Blue for them, William Shatner,

360
00:24:32,515 --> 00:24:37,515
Speaker 1: Stephen King, and Lebron. James King and Lebron said no thanks. Instantly,

361
00:24:38,075 --> 00:24:41,035
Speaker 1: the blue check mark became not a status symbol, not

362
00:24:41,155 --> 00:24:44,555
Speaker 1: like it was before. It was an anti theft device before,

363
00:24:44,635 --> 00:24:48,315
Speaker 1: not a status symbol instead, now it's a scarlet letter,

364
00:24:48,915 --> 00:24:53,595
Speaker 1: only only blue. It's a blue scarlet letter. And then

365
00:24:54,275 --> 00:24:57,595
Speaker 1: at this point panic apparently set in in musk Land.

366
00:24:57,995 --> 00:25:01,635
Speaker 1: On Saturday, blue check marks reappeared for every Twitter user

367
00:25:02,035 --> 00:25:04,715
Speaker 1: with more than a million followers, complete with the the

368
00:25:04,795 --> 00:25:07,635
Speaker 1: explanation on each user's homepage that they had paid for

369
00:25:07,715 --> 00:25:11,635
Speaker 1: Twitter Blue and had provided a phone number, which they didn't.

370
00:25:12,195 --> 00:25:14,675
Speaker 1: And it's not just cheesy, but under Section forty three

371
00:25:14,795 --> 00:25:17,595
Speaker 1: A of the Lanham Act that is illegal. It's called

372
00:25:17,755 --> 00:25:22,155
Speaker 1: false endorsement, and it's defined as anything quote likely to

373
00:25:22,235 --> 00:25:25,915
Speaker 1: confuse consumers as to the plaine of sponsorship or approval

374
00:25:25,995 --> 00:25:28,995
Speaker 1: of the product. In short, any account with more than

375
00:25:29,035 --> 00:25:32,555
Speaker 1: a million followers that now has a blue check market

376
00:25:32,635 --> 00:25:36,995
Speaker 1: didn't pay for can now sue Elon Musk for false endorsement.

377
00:25:38,115 --> 00:25:41,115
Speaker 1: Of course, this gets even worse. There are countless Twitter

378
00:25:41,155 --> 00:25:43,475
Speaker 1: accounts with more than a million followers, even though the

379
00:25:43,515 --> 00:25:47,395
Speaker 1: celebrity whose account it was is now sadly dead, so

380
00:25:47,555 --> 00:25:50,475
Speaker 1: that Twitter and Musk are now claiming that Pele brought

381
00:25:50,755 --> 00:25:54,155
Speaker 1: bought Twitter blue, and Anthony Bourdain bought Twitter blue and

382
00:25:54,275 --> 00:25:59,355
Speaker 1: Kobe Bryant, and especially problematic given Musks Saudi investors in Twitter,

383
00:26:00,035 --> 00:26:03,355
Speaker 1: Twitter is now claiming that Jamal Kashogi has bought Twitter Blue.

384
00:26:04,155 --> 00:26:06,435
Speaker 1: Happily for the living who did not buy it, there

385
00:26:06,515 --> 00:26:08,515
Speaker 1: is a way out if you got it. If you've

386
00:26:08,515 --> 00:26:10,275
Speaker 1: got one of these vanity blues, you can make it

387
00:26:10,355 --> 00:26:14,315
Speaker 1: disappear simply by altering your name or your avatar photo.

388
00:26:14,755 --> 00:26:16,035
Speaker 1: You may have to do it more than once. But

389
00:26:16,515 --> 00:26:20,795
Speaker 1: sue Elon first, because he sure did it. He went

390
00:26:20,875 --> 00:26:25,995
Speaker 1: and blew himself Elon plas some wag on Twitter said,

391
00:26:25,995 --> 00:26:28,475
Speaker 1: the vanity blue check mark now seems to be compensation

392
00:26:28,595 --> 00:26:31,435
Speaker 1: for guys who have small penises. Okay, the wag was

393
00:26:31,515 --> 00:26:50,955
Speaker 1: me Musk two days worst worse than the line. And

394
00:26:51,075 --> 00:26:53,555
Speaker 1: now to the number one story on the countdown, And

395
00:26:53,635 --> 00:26:56,115
Speaker 1: there's so many things I promise not to tell. It's

396
00:26:56,195 --> 00:26:58,835
Speaker 1: going to take the rest of the show two segments.

397
00:26:59,475 --> 00:27:02,515
Speaker 1: There's the latest news of Chris Licked. His latest solution

398
00:27:02,675 --> 00:27:05,035
Speaker 1: to CNN's free fall is a weekly news show with

399
00:27:05,115 --> 00:27:08,235
Speaker 1: Gail Kate and Charles Barkley. And they announced it Saturday,

400
00:27:08,555 --> 00:27:10,395
Speaker 1: even though they have no idea when it's going to start.

401
00:27:11,595 --> 00:27:15,115
Speaker 1: Had that not been funny enough, news broke yesterday and

402
00:27:15,315 --> 00:27:18,235
Speaker 1: was expanded upon late last night that my former friend

403
00:27:18,275 --> 00:27:21,835
Speaker 1: of twenty years, Jeff Shell, had been fired as the

404
00:27:21,995 --> 00:27:27,315
Speaker 1: CEO of NBC Universal Chairman of NBC Gone and rarely

405
00:27:27,395 --> 00:27:30,155
Speaker 1: nobody saw it coming. Went off like an atomic bomb

406
00:27:30,195 --> 00:27:35,275
Speaker 1: at every goddamn NBC affiliate from Albuquerque to Sandusky. Jeff Shell,

407
00:27:35,835 --> 00:27:38,755
Speaker 1: who misled me from literally the night the story of

408
00:27:38,835 --> 00:27:42,955
Speaker 1: his getting the NBC CEO job broke in December twenty

409
00:27:43,155 --> 00:27:46,995
Speaker 1: nineteen through September twenty twenty one, misled me that he

410
00:27:47,235 --> 00:27:50,275
Speaker 1: wanted to bring me and count down back to MSNBC,

411
00:27:50,675 --> 00:27:52,675
Speaker 1: that we needed to keep fighting to find a way

412
00:27:52,755 --> 00:27:54,675
Speaker 1: to make it happen, and then had one of his

413
00:27:54,835 --> 00:27:57,235
Speaker 1: lackeyes tell me after two years of this that Rachel

414
00:27:57,275 --> 00:27:59,835
Speaker 1: Maddow has vetoed it. And then when I told this

415
00:27:59,955 --> 00:28:02,795
Speaker 1: story publicly, Shell had one of the NBC news pr

416
00:28:02,915 --> 00:28:05,835
Speaker 1: flunkies say there had never been any real interest in

417
00:28:05,915 --> 00:28:08,235
Speaker 1: bringing me back, and that in essence, I should have

418
00:28:08,395 --> 00:28:12,075
Speaker 1: known Jeff Shell was lying to meet all that time.

419
00:28:13,235 --> 00:28:15,475
Speaker 1: In other words, the chairman of NBC was lying to

420
00:28:15,555 --> 00:28:17,475
Speaker 1: you for two years. You should have known that. That

421
00:28:17,635 --> 00:28:22,155
Speaker 1: is not the flex that NBC thought it was. However,

422
00:28:22,915 --> 00:28:28,235
Speaker 1: apparently it was foreshadowing. Yesterday, Shell wrote a brief note

423
00:28:28,315 --> 00:28:31,075
Speaker 1: emailed throughout NBC Television and the rest of the company,

424
00:28:31,235 --> 00:28:34,115
Speaker 1: explaining he was truly sorry for an inappropriate relationship with

425
00:28:34,195 --> 00:28:37,115
Speaker 1: a woman, and this was his last day at the company.

426
00:28:37,835 --> 00:28:40,875
Speaker 1: There was some kind of complaint, There was a quick investigation,

427
00:28:41,075 --> 00:28:44,275
Speaker 1: and then it was mutually decided that Shell and NBC

428
00:28:44,395 --> 00:28:47,795
Speaker 1: should part ways, which means it was mutually decided you're

429
00:28:47,875 --> 00:28:52,075
Speaker 1: effing fired. And then late last night came the second

430
00:28:52,435 --> 00:28:56,795
Speaker 1: nuclear detonation of the day at NBC. The Hollywood website

431
00:28:56,875 --> 00:29:00,955
Speaker 1: Deadline is reporting quote multiple sources tell Deadline that the

432
00:29:01,035 --> 00:29:04,635
Speaker 1: woman who filed the complaint against NBC Universal CEO jeffsha

433
00:29:05,315 --> 00:29:11,835
Speaker 1: for inappropriate conduct was CNBC anchor and senior international correspondent

434
00:29:11,995 --> 00:29:17,475
Speaker 1: Hadley Gamble unquote. This would be the same Hadley Gamble,

435
00:29:17,875 --> 00:29:22,515
Speaker 1: who interviewed Vladimir Putin, the Dictator of Russia, on stage

436
00:29:22,995 --> 00:29:26,755
Speaker 1: at Russian Energy Week, in a panel in twenty twenty

437
00:29:26,835 --> 00:29:31,195
Speaker 1: one while wearing a very tight black dress. She was

438
00:29:31,235 --> 00:29:33,795
Speaker 1: wearing the dress, not Putin, and then cameras caught Putin

439
00:29:33,875 --> 00:29:37,315
Speaker 1: making goofy faces at her, and then Russian state media

440
00:29:37,395 --> 00:29:39,795
Speaker 1: came out with the story claiming she had been sent

441
00:29:39,915 --> 00:29:43,675
Speaker 1: there as a sex object to distract Putin quote like

442
00:29:43,795 --> 00:29:45,835
Speaker 1: she was in the movie Nine and a Half Weeks

443
00:29:46,035 --> 00:29:50,315
Speaker 1: or basic instinct, and Russian state media invoked the Sharon's

444
00:29:50,435 --> 00:29:55,675
Speaker 1: stone leg crossing scene about Hadley Gamble. Back to the

445
00:29:55,755 --> 00:29:58,795
Speaker 1: Deadline story quote. Deadline has learned that Shell had a

446
00:29:58,875 --> 00:30:02,115
Speaker 1: relationship with Gamble, which started about eleven years ago and

447
00:30:02,275 --> 00:30:05,115
Speaker 1: continued sporadically up until a couple of year years ago,

448
00:30:05,235 --> 00:30:08,915
Speaker 1: when it ended. The complaint was lodged within the past months,

449
00:30:08,995 --> 00:30:11,475
Speaker 1: Deadline has learned the matter went all the way to

450
00:30:11,555 --> 00:30:15,035
Speaker 1: Comcast chairman and CEO Brian Roberts, through the proper channels,

451
00:30:15,275 --> 00:30:19,755
Speaker 1: and was handled expediently. Sources said the outside law firm

452
00:30:19,875 --> 00:30:23,435
Speaker 1: hired to investigate delivered their findings to top Comcast Brass

453
00:30:23,515 --> 00:30:27,435
Speaker 1: within the past week we here and then comes the

454
00:30:27,555 --> 00:30:32,235
Speaker 1: real kicker in the Deadline story quote. Deadline has learned

455
00:30:32,275 --> 00:30:37,155
Speaker 1: that there was communication between Shell and Gamble via company email,

456
00:30:38,035 --> 00:30:43,235
Speaker 1: which came to light in the investigation. Woh by, So

457
00:30:43,435 --> 00:30:49,475
Speaker 1: the chairman of NBC was what sending emails inside the

458
00:30:49,635 --> 00:30:54,555
Speaker 1: NBC email system to his ex lover, a reporter for CNBC,

459
00:30:54,755 --> 00:30:58,795
Speaker 1: inside the company system after the relationship ended, and he

460
00:30:58,995 --> 00:31:03,635
Speaker 1: was asking for what, So you're saying, maybe you should

461
00:31:03,675 --> 00:31:06,035
Speaker 1: have known? I was lying, saying, wasn't just used on

462
00:31:06,195 --> 00:31:11,075
Speaker 1: me my favorite boss, my true friend, friend at Fox

463
00:31:11,155 --> 00:31:13,515
Speaker 1: Sports in nineteen ninety nine, in two thousand, who stayed

464
00:31:13,555 --> 00:31:16,195
Speaker 1: in touch, who moved on to Comcast, and when Comcast

465
00:31:16,315 --> 00:31:19,275
Speaker 1: was buying NBC, reappeared in my life to try to

466
00:31:19,355 --> 00:31:22,435
Speaker 1: talk me out of leaving my show on MSNBC. He

467
00:31:22,515 --> 00:31:25,475
Speaker 1: said he would fix everything because when Comcast took over,

468
00:31:25,515 --> 00:31:28,675
Speaker 1: he would be in charge of NBC cable stations. Probably

469
00:31:28,675 --> 00:31:31,235
Speaker 1: shouldn't have been saying that Comcast execs were under strict

470
00:31:31,275 --> 00:31:34,115
Speaker 1: instructions not to intervene in day to day operations at

471
00:31:34,235 --> 00:31:37,155
Speaker 1: NBC before they actually closed the sale. But what am I?

472
00:31:37,275 --> 00:31:39,875
Speaker 1: The Federal Trade Commission? And then he lied to me

473
00:31:39,955 --> 00:31:43,195
Speaker 1: for two years, or he lied about lying to me.

474
00:31:44,395 --> 00:31:48,115
Speaker 1: Oh now he's lying about this Hadley gamble, and they

475
00:31:48,235 --> 00:31:56,115
Speaker 1: fired him for it. That's a shame. One PostScript to this,

476
00:31:56,355 --> 00:31:59,075
Speaker 1: the Wall Street Journal suggests one of the candidates to

477
00:31:59,115 --> 00:32:03,115
Speaker 1: replace Shell is Caesar Conde, chairman of NBC News. He

478
00:32:03,355 --> 00:32:06,115
Speaker 1: was the guy Shell wanted me to meet to discuss

479
00:32:06,155 --> 00:32:08,275
Speaker 1: the return of Countdown, how to make it happen, And

480
00:32:08,355 --> 00:32:11,395
Speaker 1: one day early in twenty twenty one, this Conde invited

481
00:32:11,435 --> 00:32:14,035
Speaker 1: me to breakfast. A few days later, his assistant then

482
00:32:14,155 --> 00:32:17,155
Speaker 1: called to find an appropriate quiet restaurant nearby where we

483
00:32:17,195 --> 00:32:20,355
Speaker 1: could meet. We found one, we arranged it, it was

484
00:32:20,395 --> 00:32:23,035
Speaker 1: all set, and thirty minutes later she called back and

485
00:32:23,115 --> 00:32:25,555
Speaker 1: canceled the breakfast because suddenly he says, our Conde was

486
00:32:25,555 --> 00:32:27,075
Speaker 1: going to be out of town for a week. Oh,

487
00:32:27,155 --> 00:32:29,675
Speaker 1: we do it whenever he got back, which apparently he

488
00:32:29,755 --> 00:32:33,635
Speaker 1: never has, because the next thing was the statement about

489
00:32:33,635 --> 00:32:35,595
Speaker 1: how I should have known Jeff Schell was lying constantly.

490
00:32:36,875 --> 00:32:39,075
Speaker 1: And if it sounds like I am having waiting too

491
00:32:39,195 --> 00:32:41,955
Speaker 1: much shot and fry to fun, it's because I'm sitting here,

492
00:32:41,995 --> 00:32:45,355
Speaker 1: stamping my feet, having wait too much shot and fryer fun.

493
00:32:46,275 --> 00:32:49,315
Speaker 1: So much fun. I feel like bursting out in song

494
00:32:50,115 --> 00:32:51,755
Speaker 1: Oh Nancy.

495
00:32:57,115 --> 00:33:11,595
Speaker 2: Right, for talk on Our Left and for drunken Resha

496
00:33:12,075 --> 00:33:26,635
Speaker 2: Dinom Dizoa in Don fed Last Mood, Tha gotar Avang

497
00:33:26,835 --> 00:33:39,395
Speaker 2: and Bell din broy bold spree, don't Conanti Faust and

498
00:33:39,555 --> 00:33:40,595
Speaker 2: I'll just leave you with this.

499
00:33:41,795 --> 00:33:46,395
Speaker 1: The happy gamble didn't pay off, and she has left

500
00:33:46,555 --> 00:34:04,555
Speaker 1: Jeff the shell of his former self still ahead on Countdown,

501
00:34:05,395 --> 00:34:07,795
Speaker 1: Part two of things I Promised not to tell And

502
00:34:07,875 --> 00:34:09,755
Speaker 1: it was a big weekend for people who don't like

503
00:34:09,835 --> 00:34:14,195
Speaker 1: people I don't like. There are nine rules of cable news,

504
00:34:14,355 --> 00:34:19,195
Speaker 1: and CNN's new Charles Barkley Gail King Show violates all

505
00:34:19,395 --> 00:34:22,355
Speaker 1: nine of them. First, in each tradition of Countdown, we

506
00:34:22,395 --> 00:34:24,355
Speaker 1: feature a dog in need you can help. Every dog

507
00:34:24,475 --> 00:34:28,115
Speaker 1: has its day. Tobias is an eight year old husky mix,

508
00:34:28,555 --> 00:34:32,875
Speaker 1: a handsome white and creamy tan fella. He has soulful eyes.

509
00:34:33,595 --> 00:34:35,755
Speaker 1: He has not been taken care of by a human

510
00:34:35,795 --> 00:34:38,635
Speaker 1: in years, and understandably, he has trust issues with people,

511
00:34:39,355 --> 00:34:41,635
Speaker 1: and he's on the kill list in the high kill

512
00:34:41,755 --> 00:34:45,515
Speaker 1: shelter at DeVore, California, and he desperately needs out and fast.

513
00:34:45,955 --> 00:34:48,555
Speaker 1: He needs a foster in the area. He needs our

514
00:34:48,635 --> 00:34:51,035
Speaker 1: pledges to help defray the costs of a rescue to

515
00:34:51,075 --> 00:34:54,155
Speaker 1: get him out and train him before they kill him.

516
00:34:54,755 --> 00:34:57,435
Speaker 1: You can find Tobias on my Twitter feeds. And as always,

517
00:34:57,475 --> 00:34:59,395
Speaker 1: if you pledge and we don't save him, you're under

518
00:34:59,435 --> 00:35:03,315
Speaker 1: no obligation. On the other hand, with your help, we

519
00:35:03,435 --> 00:35:07,075
Speaker 1: might save him. I thank you and Tobias thanks year.

520
00:35:24,635 --> 00:35:29,715
Speaker 1: And as promised to two topical editions and things I

521
00:35:29,835 --> 00:35:33,995
Speaker 1: promised not to tell Jeff Shell gone at NBC and

522
00:35:34,195 --> 00:35:37,955
Speaker 1: at CNN, Chris Licht stepped one another rake and soon

523
00:35:38,315 --> 00:35:42,675
Speaker 1: or late one of these rakes will be his last.

524
00:35:44,355 --> 00:35:47,275
Speaker 1: Lickt has gone ahead and done it. He will premiere

525
00:35:47,315 --> 00:35:52,395
Speaker 1: a show about news, co hosted by Charles Barkley, who

526
00:35:52,435 --> 00:35:54,755
Speaker 1: has never done a news show before, and Gail King,

527
00:35:54,795 --> 00:35:57,795
Speaker 1: who has never been on a successful news show before.

528
00:35:58,395 --> 00:36:01,835
Speaker 1: It will be once a week, starting sometime in the

529
00:36:01,875 --> 00:36:05,875
Speaker 1: near future, we think on one of seven possible nights

530
00:36:05,955 --> 00:36:11,515
Speaker 1: to be determined, and they've announced it now. This is

531
00:36:11,635 --> 00:36:15,595
Speaker 1: the genius of Chris licked in action again. And when

532
00:36:15,635 --> 00:36:17,155
Speaker 1: I say genius, of course, I mean when we were

533
00:36:17,195 --> 00:36:19,915
Speaker 1: at MSNBC together we all thought Chris Lickt eight paste.

534
00:36:21,035 --> 00:36:24,155
Speaker 1: There are nine fundamental rules of cable TV news, and

535
00:36:24,235 --> 00:36:27,955
Speaker 1: this idea violates all nine of them. Here they are

536
00:36:28,155 --> 00:36:32,435
Speaker 1: Number one, don't mistake friends of yours for universally popular

537
00:36:32,555 --> 00:36:36,035
Speaker 1: television people. Number two. Remember that, no matter how big

538
00:36:36,115 --> 00:36:38,835
Speaker 1: the ratings, last place in the ratings is still last place.

539
00:36:39,955 --> 00:36:43,675
Speaker 1: Number three. Remember that whatever somebody's ratings are over there,

540
00:36:44,475 --> 00:36:46,595
Speaker 1: that does not mean that they will get those same

541
00:36:46,715 --> 00:36:51,755
Speaker 1: ratings over here. Number four. Remember the law of the

542
00:36:51,955 --> 00:36:57,395
Speaker 1: day part number five. Remember news viewers actually don't want

543
00:36:57,635 --> 00:37:02,155
Speaker 1: pop culture figures or sportscasters giving their opinions on the news.

544
00:37:03,795 --> 00:37:06,155
Speaker 1: I know what you're saying. I'm going into detail on

545
00:37:06,235 --> 00:37:08,595
Speaker 1: this in a little bit. Number six. You may think

546
00:37:08,755 --> 00:37:14,755
Speaker 1: cable viewers want neutral, non ideological balance shows, but there's

547
00:37:14,795 --> 00:37:18,115
Speaker 1: only about just this scant twenty five years worth of

548
00:37:18,235 --> 00:37:21,235
Speaker 1: data proving that no, no, they do not want neutral,

549
00:37:21,315 --> 00:37:27,315
Speaker 1: non ideological balance shows at all. Number seven, once a

550
00:37:27,435 --> 00:37:30,635
Speaker 1: week on cable news might as well be once a year.

551
00:37:31,835 --> 00:37:35,195
Speaker 1: Number eight. If you have reasonably made a bad, big mistake,

552
00:37:35,795 --> 00:37:39,355
Speaker 1: recognize it and do not repeat it. And number nine,

553
00:37:39,555 --> 00:37:43,835
Speaker 1: do not do not pick a cute title for a show,

554
00:37:44,035 --> 00:37:46,595
Speaker 1: especially if it is a play on the name of

555
00:37:46,715 --> 00:37:51,675
Speaker 1: the host or the hosts okay, one by one. Number one,

556
00:37:52,275 --> 00:37:55,755
Speaker 1: don't mistake friends of yours for universally popular TV figures

557
00:37:55,835 --> 00:37:58,875
Speaker 1: or talent. I got nothing against Gail King. She is

558
00:37:58,915 --> 00:38:01,715
Speaker 1: a very nice lady. I knew her so long ago

559
00:38:01,795 --> 00:38:04,475
Speaker 1: that when we met, I was just starting at SportsCenter

560
00:38:04,915 --> 00:38:08,355
Speaker 1: and she was a local newscaster in Hartford, Connecticut. Then

561
00:38:08,395 --> 00:38:10,955
Speaker 1: she had an NBC talk show canceled, She had a

562
00:38:10,955 --> 00:38:14,075
Speaker 1: syndicated talk show canceled, She had a show on Oprah's

563
00:38:14,115 --> 00:38:17,955
Speaker 1: network canceled. Other jobs at XM Radio, at ABC News

564
00:38:18,235 --> 00:38:22,075
Speaker 1: not one success. Then she went to work at CBS

565
00:38:22,315 --> 00:38:25,035
Speaker 1: under Chris lickt Now, if you're Chris licked, you have

566
00:38:25,235 --> 00:38:28,635
Speaker 1: to recognize the first say, six failures out of six

567
00:38:28,795 --> 00:38:33,035
Speaker 1: tries are more important than your successful friendship. You do

568
00:38:33,195 --> 00:38:36,035
Speaker 1: not say of a Gail King Charles Barkley show, as

569
00:38:36,115 --> 00:38:39,155
Speaker 1: Licht actually did last week on the record quote, wouldn't

570
00:38:39,195 --> 00:38:41,355
Speaker 1: that be a fun show to watch? Wouldn't you watch

571
00:38:41,435 --> 00:38:43,795
Speaker 1: that show? I would watch that no matter what network

572
00:38:43,835 --> 00:38:47,435
Speaker 1: go was on. If that's the methodology here, guess what, Chris,

573
00:38:47,835 --> 00:38:51,675
Speaker 1: You will soon get plenty of time to watch any show,

574
00:38:51,755 --> 00:38:55,755
Speaker 1: no matter what network it's on. Number two, Remember that

575
00:38:55,915 --> 00:38:59,715
Speaker 1: last place is still last place. I know that the

576
00:38:59,835 --> 00:39:02,915
Speaker 1: CBS morning show she is now on is the best

577
00:39:03,395 --> 00:39:06,475
Speaker 1: last place show of all the dozens of different last

578
00:39:06,515 --> 00:39:10,035
Speaker 1: place shows CBS has produced in the mornings over the decades,

579
00:39:10,275 --> 00:39:12,395
Speaker 1: dating back to nineteen fifty four, when it was Walter

580
00:39:12,515 --> 00:39:16,595
Speaker 1: Cronkite and a puppet co hosting the morning news, and

581
00:39:16,755 --> 00:39:20,035
Speaker 1: most relevantly, this show was the last news program that

582
00:39:20,155 --> 00:39:22,715
Speaker 1: CNN's new boss had anything to do with, And Gail

583
00:39:22,835 --> 00:39:25,595
Speaker 1: King is thus one of only four or five people

584
00:39:25,715 --> 00:39:28,115
Speaker 1: in the news business he knows the first thing about.

585
00:39:28,555 --> 00:39:32,755
Speaker 1: But it's still a last place show. The ratings from

586
00:39:32,755 --> 00:39:34,955
Speaker 1: the week before last, people who chose to watch a

587
00:39:35,035 --> 00:39:37,195
Speaker 1: network morning show and chose the one Gail King is

588
00:39:37,275 --> 00:39:40,795
Speaker 1: on two point two million, people who chose one of

589
00:39:40,795 --> 00:39:43,555
Speaker 1: the ones Gail King is not on five point nine million.

590
00:39:45,435 --> 00:39:50,155
Speaker 1: Law three. Remember that whatever somebody's ratings are over there

591
00:39:51,035 --> 00:39:52,995
Speaker 1: does not mean they're going to get those same ratings

592
00:39:53,155 --> 00:39:56,915
Speaker 1: over here. An average of million, two hundred and eighty

593
00:39:56,955 --> 00:40:00,755
Speaker 1: four thousand people watched Gail King's show on CBS week

594
00:40:00,795 --> 00:40:03,675
Speaker 1: before last, the most recent day we have of cable

595
00:40:03,755 --> 00:40:07,195
Speaker 1: news ratings. There's a April twentieth two million, two hundred

596
00:40:07,235 --> 00:40:10,915
Speaker 1: and sixty eight thousand people watch CNN between seven pm

597
00:40:10,995 --> 00:40:15,995
Speaker 1: and midnight total. For twenty years, CNN has been relentlessly

598
00:40:16,075 --> 00:40:19,915
Speaker 1: advertising and promoting and pushing Anderson Cooper, who has an

599
00:40:19,915 --> 00:40:23,355
Speaker 1: even higher profile job at CBS than King does. For

600
00:40:23,435 --> 00:40:26,875
Speaker 1: twenty years, he's been pushed. Cooper's CBS show is sixty

601
00:40:26,955 --> 00:40:28,715
Speaker 1: minutes and it gets roughly seven and a half million

602
00:40:28,795 --> 00:40:32,595
Speaker 1: viewers an episode. His CNN show gets five hundred thousand viewers.

603
00:40:34,435 --> 00:40:37,995
Speaker 1: His CNN show gets seven and a half percent the

604
00:40:38,115 --> 00:40:41,635
Speaker 1: ratings of his CBS show. If that number holds up

605
00:40:41,715 --> 00:40:46,515
Speaker 1: for Gail King, her CNN show will get one hundred

606
00:40:46,515 --> 00:40:51,555
Speaker 1: and seventy one thousand viewers. That's like a third of

607
00:40:51,595 --> 00:40:55,595
Speaker 1: what CNN is getting right now in primetime. Yet somebody

608
00:40:55,635 --> 00:40:58,155
Speaker 1: at CNN is saying this will be our breakthrough show.

609
00:41:00,555 --> 00:41:00,795
Speaker 2: Four.

610
00:41:01,555 --> 00:41:04,475
Speaker 1: Remember the Law of the Day part Early on the

611
00:41:04,475 --> 00:41:06,675
Speaker 1: mo ing A, February twenty second, two thousand and five,

612
00:41:06,715 --> 00:41:09,315
Speaker 1: the President of CBS Less Moonbez and the president of

613
00:41:09,395 --> 00:41:13,475
Speaker 1: CBS News Andrew Heyward sneaked into my apartment building. There

614
00:41:13,515 --> 00:41:15,515
Speaker 1: had been a late hitch in their plan to hire

615
00:41:15,555 --> 00:41:17,475
Speaker 1: Katie kirk Away from the Today Show, which was on

616
00:41:17,675 --> 00:41:20,075
Speaker 1: in the mornings, to make her the anchor of the

617
00:41:20,155 --> 00:41:23,955
Speaker 1: CBS Evening News, which was on, as their clever title implied,

618
00:41:24,875 --> 00:41:28,995
Speaker 1: in the evenings. Now, these guys were confident they could

619
00:41:29,035 --> 00:41:31,235
Speaker 1: get around that hitch, but they had no backup plan,

620
00:41:31,315 --> 00:41:33,955
Speaker 1: and they decided really kind of at the last minute.

621
00:41:34,155 --> 00:41:37,755
Speaker 1: I was the backup plan. Now, apart from my what

622
00:41:37,915 --> 00:41:39,875
Speaker 1: the hell, let me tell you what I really think, pitch,

623
00:41:39,995 --> 00:41:41,635
Speaker 1: I mean, my odds getting the job are about one

624
00:41:41,675 --> 00:41:44,835
Speaker 1: in one thousand, I asked them before you signed, Katie Kirk,

625
00:41:44,915 --> 00:41:47,595
Speaker 1: have you considered the possibility that being a successful co

626
00:41:47,755 --> 00:41:51,355
Speaker 1: host of a morning show might not translate into being

627
00:41:51,475 --> 00:41:55,755
Speaker 1: a successful sole anchor of the CBS Evening News, which

628
00:41:55,795 --> 00:41:58,515
Speaker 1: is on in the evenings. Have you considered what we

629
00:41:58,635 --> 00:42:03,075
Speaker 1: called in radio day parts. It's not the same job.

630
00:42:03,755 --> 00:42:05,635
Speaker 1: It's not what people know. I know her for morning

631
00:42:05,715 --> 00:42:10,515
Speaker 1: shows are interviews, Evening newses are reading teleprompter and then

632
00:42:10,555 --> 00:42:13,915
Speaker 1: getting on a plane for Afghanistan. It's not what people

633
00:42:13,995 --> 00:42:17,435
Speaker 1: watch her for. And Les Moonvez said, but she's a star.

634
00:42:17,995 --> 00:42:22,075
Speaker 1: And I said, let me just tell you precisely how

635
00:42:22,155 --> 00:42:25,155
Speaker 1: it matters that what time somebody is on is bigger

636
00:42:25,195 --> 00:42:26,715
Speaker 1: than whether or not they're star. When I was a

637
00:42:26,755 --> 00:42:29,035
Speaker 1: local sportscaster in LA, Channel five, we did the ten

638
00:42:29,075 --> 00:42:31,715
Speaker 1: o'clock news, so I came on about ten to fifty

639
00:42:31,755 --> 00:42:34,635
Speaker 1: every night. I was I've got to use the word,

640
00:42:34,715 --> 00:42:38,035
Speaker 1: I was beloved. The ratings went up at ten fifty

641
00:42:38,075 --> 00:42:40,235
Speaker 1: every night. It was the only newscast in a major

642
00:42:40,275 --> 00:42:42,355
Speaker 1: city in America where the ratings went up when the

643
00:42:42,395 --> 00:42:46,075
Speaker 1: sports guy came on. Naturally, I got hired away by

644
00:42:46,115 --> 00:42:49,155
Speaker 1: another station, your station last Channel two in LA. They

645
00:42:49,195 --> 00:42:51,395
Speaker 1: got paid seven times when I was making and we

646
00:42:51,475 --> 00:42:53,835
Speaker 1: did the eleven o'clock news. So I came on not

647
00:42:53,955 --> 00:42:56,235
Speaker 1: at ten fifty, but at eleven thirty every night, and

648
00:42:56,395 --> 00:43:00,155
Speaker 1: I was hated. None of the viewers got my jokes.

649
00:43:00,475 --> 00:43:05,475
Speaker 1: Nobody liked me anymore. They hated me, and I was shocked.

650
00:43:05,835 --> 00:43:08,715
Speaker 1: My bosses were shocked, and their bosses were shocked. And

651
00:43:08,795 --> 00:43:12,075
Speaker 1: then they spent a shocked fortune on research to figure

652
00:43:12,075 --> 00:43:14,315
Speaker 1: out why it didn't work. And they came back and

653
00:43:14,355 --> 00:43:17,595
Speaker 1: they said, look, the evidence is overwhelming. All the people

654
00:43:17,675 --> 00:43:21,475
Speaker 1: who loved this guy's sportscasts apparently had the jobs where

655
00:43:21,475 --> 00:43:23,035
Speaker 1: they had to be in the office at seven or

656
00:43:23,035 --> 00:43:24,955
Speaker 1: eight in the morning because the whole East coast West

657
00:43:25,035 --> 00:43:27,675
Speaker 1: coast thing, and they were literally staying up as late

658
00:43:27,755 --> 00:43:31,075
Speaker 1: as they could to watch them at ten fifty. When

659
00:43:31,155 --> 00:43:33,675
Speaker 1: you put him on at eleven thirty, all the people

660
00:43:33,715 --> 00:43:39,995
Speaker 1: who liked him are asleep less andy, I said, ten

661
00:43:40,155 --> 00:43:42,995
Speaker 1: fifty pm and forty minutes later at eleven thirty pm,

662
00:43:43,115 --> 00:43:46,795
Speaker 1: they are different day parts. And if ten fifty pm

663
00:43:46,955 --> 00:43:49,955
Speaker 1: at eleven thirty pm are different day parts, then seven

664
00:43:50,075 --> 00:43:53,755
Speaker 1: am and six thirty pm are completely different day parts.

665
00:43:56,315 --> 00:43:59,075
Speaker 1: They didn't listen. I didn't expect them to. They hired

666
00:43:59,115 --> 00:44:01,115
Speaker 1: Katie Kirk who was a morning success and was a

667
00:44:01,275 --> 00:44:05,835
Speaker 1: nighttime disaster, and now CNN one to hire a morning

668
00:44:06,995 --> 00:44:10,875
Speaker 1: not success and put her on at night. So what

669
00:44:10,955 --> 00:44:15,315
Speaker 1: could possibly go wrong here? Back to our laws Number five,

670
00:44:15,435 --> 00:44:19,035
Speaker 1: news viewers actually do not want pop culture figures or

671
00:44:19,155 --> 00:44:22,515
Speaker 1: sportscasters giving their opinions on the news. I don't have

672
00:44:22,715 --> 00:44:25,115
Speaker 1: stats on this. I just again have my own experience

673
00:44:25,475 --> 00:44:28,275
Speaker 1: when I was a news commentator on MSNBC and had

674
00:44:28,315 --> 00:44:31,235
Speaker 1: as a sideline co host of an hour of Dan

675
00:44:31,315 --> 00:44:34,315
Speaker 1: Patrick's ESPN radio show and then co host a Football

676
00:44:34,435 --> 00:44:37,315
Speaker 1: Night in America on NBC. That was fine. Keep the

677
00:44:37,395 --> 00:44:40,675
Speaker 1: politics out of the sportscast, and nobody cares if you

678
00:44:40,755 --> 00:44:45,115
Speaker 1: do both the sportscast and the newscast. But anytime I

679
00:44:45,275 --> 00:44:49,555
Speaker 1: was perceived as a sportscaster giving opinions on the news,

680
00:44:50,115 --> 00:44:52,635
Speaker 1: like when I first left ESPN to go to MSNBC

681
00:44:53,075 --> 00:44:54,955
Speaker 1: and then when I left Fox Sports to become a

682
00:44:54,995 --> 00:44:59,195
Speaker 1: news anchor at CNN, big trouble. Viewers could accept the

683
00:44:59,355 --> 00:45:02,355
Speaker 1: change and even the overlap from news to sports, but

684
00:45:02,475 --> 00:45:07,395
Speaker 1: from sports to news, particularly commentary, It's going to take

685
00:45:07,435 --> 00:45:12,115
Speaker 1: a year two, maybe maybe three before viewers will accept

686
00:45:12,635 --> 00:45:16,875
Speaker 1: Charles Barkley, will take him seriously, and in the interim

687
00:45:18,195 --> 00:45:20,235
Speaker 1: what could also happen is he could really tarnish his

688
00:45:20,315 --> 00:45:25,955
Speaker 1: sports brand. Six. You may think cable viewers want neutral,

689
00:45:26,035 --> 00:45:28,635
Speaker 1: non ideological, balance shows, but there's only about twenty five

690
00:45:28,715 --> 00:45:32,955
Speaker 1: years of data proving, oh, they don't. Pre Chris licked,

691
00:45:33,075 --> 00:45:36,675
Speaker 1: CNN was not purely ideological, but nobody watching thought they

692
00:45:36,675 --> 00:45:40,755
Speaker 1: were piously neutral, especially not about Chump the new fascist

693
00:45:40,795 --> 00:45:43,475
Speaker 1: owners and licked promise to return to the old CNN

694
00:45:43,555 --> 00:45:48,435
Speaker 1: whatever that was. What they got was hemorrhage. CNN's ratings

695
00:45:48,475 --> 00:45:50,515
Speaker 1: for the first quarter of this year are down thirty

696
00:45:50,875 --> 00:45:53,795
Speaker 1: four percent from the first quarter of twenty twenty two.

697
00:45:54,715 --> 00:45:57,875
Speaker 1: As the announcement was made, Barkley promised his show would

698
00:45:57,915 --> 00:46:00,955
Speaker 1: not lean any one way politically, and I in turn

699
00:46:01,115 --> 00:46:04,595
Speaker 1: promise that whatever the audience size is on week one,

700
00:46:05,515 --> 00:46:09,395
Speaker 1: he really does that and remains neutral. His audience size

701
00:46:09,395 --> 00:46:13,715
Speaker 1: will be thirty four percent smaller on week two. Seven

702
00:46:14,355 --> 00:46:16,915
Speaker 1: Once a week on cable news might as well be

703
00:46:17,155 --> 00:46:22,315
Speaker 1: once a year. No once a week show has ever

704
00:46:22,875 --> 00:46:26,795
Speaker 1: succeeded in cable news. I was there when it started.

705
00:46:28,275 --> 00:46:32,035
Speaker 1: CNN later tried a rotation of five once a week

706
00:46:32,115 --> 00:46:35,315
Speaker 1: shows in primetime in the late nineties and promptly lost

707
00:46:35,435 --> 00:46:40,315
Speaker 1: its ratings monopoly. Every network has tried them except Fox.

708
00:46:41,155 --> 00:46:43,475
Speaker 1: MSNBC is trying it now with Rachel Maddow and the

709
00:46:43,635 --> 00:46:47,715
Speaker 1: ratings are really disturbing. Before she cut back to Monday's

710
00:46:47,795 --> 00:46:50,635
Speaker 1: only her high watermark ratings like the old saw Goes

711
00:46:50,875 --> 00:46:54,915
Speaker 1: were the rising tide that lifted all boats. Last Monday

712
00:46:54,955 --> 00:46:57,075
Speaker 1: at nine PM a week ago, she drew two hundred

713
00:46:57,075 --> 00:47:00,075
Speaker 1: and thirty five thousand viewers in the advertising demo, which

714
00:47:00,115 --> 00:47:02,795
Speaker 1: is very good these days. The show before her at

715
00:47:02,795 --> 00:47:05,395
Speaker 1: one hundred and forty seven thousand. The show after her

716
00:47:05,475 --> 00:47:07,395
Speaker 1: had one hundred and forty one thousand. In other words,

717
00:47:07,915 --> 00:47:12,275
Speaker 1: about ninety thousand additional demo viewers showed up just for

718
00:47:12,395 --> 00:47:15,635
Speaker 1: Meadows once a week show, and then they went away.

719
00:47:15,995 --> 00:47:20,555
Speaker 1: They stopped watching MSNBC. So they are paying and maybe

720
00:47:20,595 --> 00:47:22,515
Speaker 1: this had something to do with Jef Shell getting fired.

721
00:47:22,995 --> 00:47:25,275
Speaker 1: They are paying Rachel Maddow thirty one million dollars a

722
00:47:25,395 --> 00:47:30,555
Speaker 1: year to get an additional ninety thousand viewers a week.

723
00:47:31,595 --> 00:47:34,395
Speaker 1: In fact, that may be generous the rest of the

724
00:47:34,435 --> 00:47:36,675
Speaker 1: week when it's not her in the nine pm slot.

725
00:47:37,315 --> 00:47:39,755
Speaker 1: The nine pm slot average one hundred and seventy nine

726
00:47:39,835 --> 00:47:42,795
Speaker 1: thousand demo viewers. They may be paying Rachel thirty one

727
00:47:42,875 --> 00:47:46,475
Speaker 1: million dollars a year for only fifty six thousand viewers

728
00:47:46,595 --> 00:47:51,395
Speaker 1: above average a week. And the ratings at eight pm

729
00:47:51,635 --> 00:47:55,555
Speaker 1: and ten pm were higher on the nights she wasn't

730
00:47:55,755 --> 00:47:58,915
Speaker 1: on on nine PM compared to those when she was.

731
00:48:01,355 --> 00:48:03,915
Speaker 1: It is a maxim of cable news. Nobody is going

732
00:48:03,995 --> 00:48:05,915
Speaker 1: to watch your net work on nights you are not on,

733
00:48:06,235 --> 00:48:09,355
Speaker 1: just because they want to say thank you to your employer.

734
00:48:10,155 --> 00:48:13,435
Speaker 1: Even if everything I'm saying about Barkley and King is wrong.

735
00:48:14,115 --> 00:48:16,635
Speaker 1: Shows that are on once a week do not help

736
00:48:16,715 --> 00:48:19,195
Speaker 1: the other shows on your cable news network. You want

737
00:48:19,235 --> 00:48:20,955
Speaker 1: to succeed based on a bunch of shows that are

738
00:48:20,995 --> 00:48:23,995
Speaker 1: on once a week, you're gonna need about twenty eight

739
00:48:24,115 --> 00:48:26,795
Speaker 1: really good once a week shows, and that's just for

740
00:48:26,915 --> 00:48:32,195
Speaker 1: prime time. Law eight of the nine. If you've recently

741
00:48:32,315 --> 00:48:35,315
Speaker 1: made a bad mistake, recognize it and don't repeat it.

742
00:48:36,315 --> 00:48:41,235
Speaker 1: Chris Lick's last brainstorm was to go big, to hire

743
00:48:41,235 --> 00:48:43,995
Speaker 1: a big name to appear once a week, to take

744
00:48:44,075 --> 00:48:48,115
Speaker 1: what was previously the online only supplement to Bill Maher's

745
00:48:48,235 --> 00:48:50,195
Speaker 1: show on HBO and put it on live on Friday

746
00:48:50,275 --> 00:48:54,435
Speaker 1: nights on CNN. Friday the seventeenth, two hundred and seventy

747
00:48:54,515 --> 00:48:59,795
Speaker 1: seven thousand viewers Every other hour that night on MSNBC

748
00:48:59,955 --> 00:49:02,475
Speaker 1: and Fox had at least one million viewers. Bill Maher

749
00:49:03,075 --> 00:49:08,075
Speaker 1: two hundred and seventy seven thousand, two hundred and seventy

750
00:49:08,195 --> 00:49:11,315
Speaker 1: seven thousand viewers is about at the point where you

751
00:49:11,435 --> 00:49:14,275
Speaker 1: have to consider whether it's worth paying for all that

752
00:49:14,435 --> 00:49:20,235
Speaker 1: electricity required to link the studio and the last rule

753
00:49:20,355 --> 00:49:23,355
Speaker 1: Rule nine. Do not pick a cute title for a show,

754
00:49:23,435 --> 00:49:25,315
Speaker 1: especially if it is a play on the name of

755
00:49:25,435 --> 00:49:29,275
Speaker 1: the host or hosts. People don't believe this today. But

756
00:49:29,315 --> 00:49:31,835
Speaker 1: as I've mentioned before, Tucker Carlson used to work at

757
00:49:31,955 --> 00:49:35,035
Speaker 1: MSNBC had his own primetime show, and as a favor

758
00:49:35,155 --> 00:49:39,275
Speaker 1: to a friend, I served as the liberal foil to

759
00:49:39,395 --> 00:49:42,955
Speaker 1: Tucker Carlson for a few demo pilot shows, and at

760
00:49:43,035 --> 00:49:46,275
Speaker 1: some point the former CNN president, the one who tried

761
00:49:46,315 --> 00:49:48,555
Speaker 1: the five nights a week with once a week shows

762
00:49:48,955 --> 00:49:51,515
Speaker 1: he was then running MSNBC, Rick Kaplan. He saw these

763
00:49:51,555 --> 00:49:56,115
Speaker 1: demos and he liked the interplay, probably because I was

764
00:49:56,195 --> 00:49:58,755
Speaker 1: just saying whatever I could say to get me off

765
00:49:58,835 --> 00:50:00,835
Speaker 1: the stage the fastest, so I go back to my

766
00:50:00,915 --> 00:50:04,475
Speaker 1: office and write my show. So Kaplan approached me with

767
00:50:04,515 --> 00:50:06,755
Speaker 1: a offer. He would tear up my contract. He would

768
00:50:06,755 --> 00:50:08,755
Speaker 1: give me a huge raise if I would do Countdown

769
00:50:09,195 --> 00:50:11,515
Speaker 1: and stick around until eleven o'clock every night and co

770
00:50:11,755 --> 00:50:16,195
Speaker 1: host co host with Tucker Carlson. It would be perfect,

771
00:50:16,275 --> 00:50:19,315
Speaker 1: he said, because he could combine our initials and give

772
00:50:19,355 --> 00:50:24,555
Speaker 1: the show the greatest name in cable news history, TKO.

773
00:50:26,115 --> 00:50:29,795
Speaker 1: The content of the show it's feasibility, and this did

774
00:50:29,875 --> 00:50:31,715
Speaker 1: not matter to him. What he was in love with

775
00:50:32,115 --> 00:50:37,795
Speaker 1: was the title, TKO. It's perfect, the name of the

776
00:50:37,875 --> 00:50:41,475
Speaker 1: new Charles Barkley Gale King show. It leaves me wondering

777
00:50:41,515 --> 00:50:43,755
Speaker 1: if Chrislick actually did this, if he actually developed not

778
00:50:43,835 --> 00:50:46,795
Speaker 1: a show, but a title for a show. Charles Barkley's

779
00:50:46,835 --> 00:50:51,115
Speaker 1: nickname is King Charles. So let's see, he can't host

780
00:50:51,155 --> 00:50:54,395
Speaker 1: it by himself. He doesn't even host his own basketball

781
00:50:54,435 --> 00:50:56,835
Speaker 1: show by him so he needs a co host he needs.

782
00:50:57,835 --> 00:50:58,435
Speaker 2: I got it.

783
00:50:59,035 --> 00:51:03,715
Speaker 1: It's perfect. He needs somebody named King. That way, the

784
00:51:03,835 --> 00:51:08,395
Speaker 1: title of the show be King Charles. Let's see who

785
00:51:08,475 --> 00:51:11,435
Speaker 1: can we get? Stephen King? No, he'll never do it.

786
00:51:11,555 --> 00:51:15,675
Speaker 1: Nose eyebrows, scare children. Larry King, No, no, sadly no,

787
00:51:15,755 --> 00:51:18,475
Speaker 1: he's gone. Now. Oh look, if anybody could come back

788
00:51:18,475 --> 00:51:20,595
Speaker 1: to do a new show, it would be Larry Now

789
00:51:21,635 --> 00:51:25,315
Speaker 1: King Wally from Sportsphone. Now he's the PA announcer for

790
00:51:25,355 --> 00:51:27,955
Speaker 1: the Knicks, right, so he's got a larger audience every night. Wait,

791
00:51:28,035 --> 00:51:31,835
Speaker 1: I got it, Gail King, King Charles get it. Isn't

792
00:51:31,875 --> 00:51:34,755
Speaker 1: that clever? I would watch that no matter what network

793
00:51:34,795 --> 00:51:41,715
Speaker 1: goes on, so it couldn't be worse. Actually I'm wrong

794
00:51:41,755 --> 00:51:44,355
Speaker 1: about that. The show could have been called King Charles,

795
00:51:44,915 --> 00:51:49,315
Speaker 1: and it could have three hosts, Gail King, Charles Barkley,

796
00:51:50,195 --> 00:52:09,555
Speaker 1: and King Charles of Great Britain. Okay, so Jeff Shell's gone,

797
00:52:09,915 --> 00:52:13,195
Speaker 1: Chris Lick closer to his end. Ha ha, I have

798
00:52:13,435 --> 00:52:16,475
Speaker 1: done all the damage I can do here well almost.

799
00:52:19,315 --> 00:52:22,435
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening. Here are the credits. Most of

800
00:52:22,475 --> 00:52:24,675
Speaker 1: the music was arranged, produced and performed by Brian Ray

801
00:52:24,715 --> 00:52:27,035
Speaker 1: and John Phillip Shaneil. They are the Countdown musical directors.

802
00:52:27,395 --> 00:52:31,155
Speaker 1: All orchestration and keyboards by John Phillip Shanelle, Guitars, bass

803
00:52:31,195 --> 00:52:34,715
Speaker 1: and drums by Brian Ray, produced by TKO Brothers. Other

804
00:52:34,755 --> 00:52:37,875
Speaker 1: Beethoven selections have been arranged and performed by No Horns Aloud.

805
00:52:38,235 --> 00:52:41,035
Speaker 1: The sports music is the Olberman theme from ESPN two

806
00:52:41,075 --> 00:52:42,955
Speaker 1: and it was written by Mitch Warren Davis Curtisy of

807
00:52:43,195 --> 00:52:46,675
Speaker 1: ESPN Inc. Musical comments by Nancy Fauss. The best baseball

808
00:52:46,715 --> 00:52:49,515
Speaker 1: stadium organist ever and our announcer today was John Dean.

809
00:52:50,515 --> 00:52:53,235
Speaker 1: Everything else pretty much Michault. So that's countdown for this,

810
00:52:53,275 --> 00:52:55,515
Speaker 1: the eight hundred and thirty ninth days since Donald Trump's

811
00:52:55,515 --> 00:52:57,955
Speaker 1: first attempted coup against the democratically elected government in the

812
00:52:58,075 --> 00:53:02,235
Speaker 1: United States. Don't forget keep arresting him while we still can.

813
00:53:02,915 --> 00:53:05,955
Speaker 1: The next scheduled Countdown is tomorrow. Until then, I'm Keith Olderman.

814
00:53:05,995 --> 00:53:09,595
Speaker 1: Good morning, good afternoon, good night, and good luck.

815
00:53:23,955 --> 00:53:33,595
Speaker 2: Ride a show lot, food talk on our s, arm FB,

816
00:53:33,995 --> 00:53:45,595
Speaker 2: Trapton for Your Drunken SA died from diveso in Don

817
00:53:45,795 --> 00:53:54,995
Speaker 2: feed bast mood, Tha got a bench and fell, Don

818
00:53:55,275 --> 00:53:59,635
Speaker 2: Broyd Bode Sun Top three.

819
00:54:04,075 --> 00:54:09,595
Speaker 1: Don't Can. Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio.

820
00:54:09,915 --> 00:54:15,035
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

821
00:54:15,315 --> 00:54:17,275
Speaker 1: or wherever you get your podcasts.