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Speaker 1: Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio Michigan.

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Speaker 1: Kamala Harris fifty three, Trump forty two, Arizona Harris forty nine,

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Speaker 1: Trump forty seven, Wisconsin Harris forty nine, Trump forty seven,

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Speaker 1: Nevada Harris forty seven, Trump forty five, Georgia Harris forty seven,

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Speaker 1: Trump forty seven, North Carolina Trump forty eight, Harris forty six,

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Speaker 1: Pennsylvania Trump fifty Harris forty six, seven swing states combined.

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Speaker 1: In these polls by Morning Consult for Bloomberg News, Harris

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Speaker 1: forty eight Trump forty seven, or as Bloomberg headlined it,

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Speaker 1: quote Harris erases Trump's swing state lead, but Ma Nate

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Speaker 1: sil Robert tells me Harris only has a thirty eight

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Speaker 1: percent chance of winning. Well Son Nate Silver is full

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Speaker 1: of shit. I'll get back to that. I'll get back

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Speaker 1: to him. I'll get back to why the majority of

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Speaker 1: political news organizations are dismissing Harris and all the pro

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Speaker 1: Harris polls, and since she replaced President Biden, they've basically

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Speaker 1: all been pro Harris poles. And I'll get back to

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Speaker 1: the theory of commentary and political election forecasting as it

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Speaker 1: was explained to me forty years ago, and the other

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Speaker 1: theory that political reporting must be like Shakespearean acting. Don't

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Speaker 1: you dare try anything thought of newer than the year

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Speaker 1: eighteen twenty seven. But first, I'd like to point out

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Speaker 1: that there are startling differences between some of these state

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Speaker 1: polls and the ones. Say Fox News published just Sunday,

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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Morning Consult has her ahead by eleven in miss Michigan,

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Speaker 1: Fox had her tied. In Michigan, Fox had her tied.

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Speaker 1: In Pennsylvania, Bloomberg Morning Consult has her behind by four.

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Speaker 1: A Pennsylvania based polster, Susquehanna, came out yesterday with Harris

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Speaker 1: ahead in Pennsylvania by four. There were also two new

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Speaker 1: national polls yesterday, IPSOS doing one for the Bipartisan Veterans

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Speaker 1: Lobbying Group with Honor Action Harris thirty eight, Trump thirty eight,

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Speaker 1: Kennedy four. And you have the famous Redfield pole, which

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Speaker 1: was Trump head of Biden by one and is now

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Speaker 1: Harris ahead of Trump by two. And I'm going to

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Speaker 1: place no value on it because A it's based in London,

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Speaker 1: and B it's Redfield, which sounds like Renfield. And if

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Speaker 1: it's the Renfield Pole. Then it's a pole of Dracula's henchman,

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Speaker 1: so naturally it will lean Trump. Seriously, there are lots

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Speaker 1: of labyrinthine explanations about the variability of the numbers from

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Speaker 1: pole to pole, especially since these are done of registered voters,

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Speaker 1: But the real explanation is a lot simpler than it

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Speaker 1: would seem. Early this afternoon, Wednesday afternoon, the thirty first

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Speaker 1: Kamala Harris's presidential campaign turns ten days old. Lots of

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Speaker 1: people who have lost lots of elections by lots of

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Speaker 1: votes dismissed the polls by saying, well, it's early. But

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Speaker 1: if ever it were literally true that it's early, it's

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Speaker 1: right now. It's early. As I said the other day,

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Speaker 1: there are millions of Americans who literally do not know

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Speaker 1: that Kamala Harris and not Joe Biden is the Democratic

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Speaker 1: nominee for president of the United States. Millions. The poll

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Speaker 1: numbers are all over the place, and incidentally, the direction

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Speaker 1: is not. Those Bloomberg swing state numbers had Trump favored

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Speaker 1: over Biden on the economy by fourteen points. Harris has

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Speaker 1: cut this to eight points in the new Bloomberg numbers.

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Speaker 1: Almost two thirds of black voters in these swing states

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Speaker 1: said they were now more likely to vote in November

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Speaker 1: than they had been. More than one third of all

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Speaker 1: voters in the swing states said that. However, the first

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Speaker 1: five hundred and fifty words of the axios Am newsletter

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Speaker 1: yesterday were entirely about Trump's cabinet choices and such amazingly

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Speaker 1: tone def do you guys read the room? Do you

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Speaker 1: guys even know there is a room? Sentences like this one.

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Speaker 1: Sources said jd Vance would be very involved with planning

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Speaker 1: Trump's transition the high stakes period between election day and

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Speaker 1: the inauguration, as if jd Vance were not hanging on

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Speaker 1: to his VP nomination by an eyelash, an eyelash with

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Speaker 1: eyeliner on it. Meanwhile, the first one and twenty six

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Speaker 1: words of the Politico Morning briefing yesterday, so it was

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Speaker 1: twice as wrong. They were entirely about Trump's attack ad onslaught,

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Speaker 1: and they included sentences like this bit of well warring quote.

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Speaker 1: Trump insiders aren't fretting, far from it, According to our

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Speaker 1: conversations last night with senior GOP officials, who remained confident

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Speaker 1: that the sheen surrounding Harris will soon fade and their

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Speaker 1: attacks on her record will sink in with critical swing voters.

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Speaker 1: And of course there's that Nate Silver thing I mentioned before,

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Speaker 1: in which he presents a reasonable assessment of the state

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Speaker 1: of the poll of polls Trump forty four and a half,

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Speaker 1: Harris forty four and a tenth, Kennedy down to five percent.

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Speaker 1: But then he explains that his formula shows Trump still

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Speaker 1: has a sixty one point three percent chance of winning

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Speaker 1: the electoral College. And that's the essence of it. The

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Speaker 1: word his, it's Axios's sources, it's Politico's insiders, it's Nate

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Speaker 1: Silver's formula. The essence of running a name brand political website,

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Speaker 1: especially an electoral forecast website, is to make sure that

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Speaker 1: they are your sources and your formulae and your forecast,

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Speaker 1: and nobody else's. This stands out now in the news business,

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Speaker 1: it looks stupid. It didn't used to stand up. This

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Speaker 1: is the way it used to be. When I first

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Speaker 1: started at NBC News, I went on the brand new

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Speaker 1: Internet to read what the hell the Washington Post had

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Speaker 1: to say about this latest minuscule development in the Clinton

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Speaker 1: Lewinsky investigations that we were about to do another hour

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Speaker 1: about live and so I quoted them, and I then

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Speaker 1: went over to the New York Times website and I

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Speaker 1: waited for its twice daily update so I could print

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Speaker 1: out their story and quote them. And the next day

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Speaker 1: I had three NBC News vice presidents on the phone

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Speaker 1: with me tell me I could never do that again.

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Speaker 1: I could only use NBC reporting on that story. And

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Speaker 1: I said there wasn't any NBC reporting on that story.

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Speaker 1: She was off that night, and they said, well, then

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Speaker 1: you can't do the story. So I said, the executive

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Speaker 1: producer chose it as the lead story and built the graphics,

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Speaker 1: and boy were they stumped. But we can't trust their sources.

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Speaker 1: One of them said, I was appalled. You can't trust

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Speaker 1: the Washington Posts and New York Times sources on this story.

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Speaker 1: Our four people on this are better than their forty each.

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Speaker 1: I should rely on Lisa Myers, who was wrong three

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Speaker 1: times last week and was off yesterday. They actually deferred

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Speaker 1: to me on that one, mostly because my show was

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Speaker 1: making them money, which was a first for MSN. But

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Speaker 1: the remnants of this idea, well, you can't quote CBS

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Speaker 1: on NBC. This still exists in political news and electoral

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Speaker 1: forecasting because you never have to identify your own sources

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Speaker 1: nor explain your own formula. But you can blame your

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Speaker 1: own sources and your own formula. You can claim unseen

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Speaker 1: events caused your source to be wrong, or uh your

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Speaker 1: formula to inaccurately self tweak or twerk. Theoretically, though I

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Speaker 1: don't think this is true. You don't even have to

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Speaker 1: have sources or a formula. You could have just made

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Speaker 1: it up. The goal isn't accurate news at Politico or

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Speaker 1: Axios or Nate Silver's website. Do you remember what Axios

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Speaker 1: or Politico reported a month ago about Trump maybe active,

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Speaker 1: the assassination attempt, about Biden and how he was going

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Speaker 1: to stay in no matter what, do you really remember

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Speaker 1: Nate Silver's numbers on the midterms. The goal is brand

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Speaker 1: awareness without you actually remembering any of the ugly details.

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Speaker 1: And in the more mainstream organizations, there is something else

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Speaker 1: that continues to be in play, the cubby hole system,

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Speaker 1: a political coverage of which I've spoken a thousand times.

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Speaker 1: Harris looks to maintain momentum as honeymoon phase winds down.

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Speaker 1: New York Times headline from yesterday before the Bloomberg Swing

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Speaker 1: state polling a few hours later before the selection of

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Speaker 1: the vice presidential candidate, which is a honeymoon phase, and

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Speaker 1: before the Democratic Convention, which is another honeymoon phase. Oh no, no,

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Speaker 1: no no. Harris looks to maintain momentum as honey moon

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Speaker 1: phase lines down. It's almost August. It's on the calendar.

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Speaker 1: It's called the Pooh Pooh method. History says X will

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Speaker 1: happen now. Therefore, my prediction is X. The problem arises

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Speaker 1: when nothing in history happens to match the current situation,

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Speaker 1: in which case you try to jam the current situation

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Speaker 1: into the history cubbyhole, whether it fits or not. The

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Speaker 1: entirety of the Trump presidency was viewed this way. Remember

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Speaker 1: that Washington Post column, We'll be all right no matter

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Speaker 1: who gets elected. The entirety of the Trump post presidency

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Speaker 1: was viewed this way. That twenty twenty three Trump campaign

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Speaker 1: was viewed this way. The assassination attempt, Man goddamn Jones

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Speaker 1: is still expecting a pivot right now. It just has

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Speaker 1: to happen. It just has to it, says it here

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Speaker 1: in the history of predictions, we have always been at

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Speaker 1: war with East Asia. This brings me back to those

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Speaker 1: two theories that I learned so very long ago. The

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Speaker 1: Royal Shakespeare Company presents the brand new eighteen twenty seven

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Speaker 1: season of performances. This is a very simple one. It

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Speaker 1: is a theory that suggests that other than the real

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Speaker 1: attempts to go outside the narrative in which you're playing

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Speaker 1: Julius Caesar but it happened in nineteen sixty six, or

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Speaker 1: it's Hamlet in Brooklyn, if you're not going completely overboard

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Speaker 1: in terms of setting, if you're actually trying to present

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Speaker 1: the play in the original setting in Hamlet's Denmark, in

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Speaker 1: King Lear's country, if you're supposed to do it the

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Speaker 1: way Shakespeare had it set up. If you try to

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Speaker 1: do something that William Charles McCready wouldn't have done in

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Speaker 1: eighteen thirty, goddamn you to hell. The theory is that

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Speaker 1: all of the great Shakespearean actors, particularly of the twentieth century,

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Speaker 1: were simply doing impression of the great Shakespearean actors of

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Speaker 1: the nineteenth century. That anybody who tried anything really different

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Speaker 1: got thrown out on his ass. And thus it is

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Speaker 1: with political reporting. Oh, presidents have always mellowed in office.

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Speaker 1: There won't be any ban, there won't be any attempt

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Speaker 1: to stay in office. We've always had a peaceful transition

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Speaker 1: of power, which, by the way, was never true, but

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Speaker 1: we've decided to pretend it year after year after year.

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Speaker 1: And somebody in the back goes, what about eighteen sixty,

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Speaker 1: How peaceful was that? Try it? And the next thing

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Speaker 1: you know, somebody's thrown a bag over his head and

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Speaker 1: smuggled them out. The other part, of course, is the

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Speaker 1: nineteen eighty five theory, and I'm the only one who

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Speaker 1: calls it that, but it sounds pretty damn good, the

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Speaker 1: nineteen eighty five theory. I got to work in local

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Speaker 1: television the year before that and changed jobs, and I'm

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Speaker 1: going to not mention this, and not mention the guy

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Speaker 1: who told me this, who I had immense respect for

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Speaker 1: and is no longer alive and can't defend himself, and

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Speaker 1: gave me a thousand good pieces of advice, and this

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Speaker 1: one really crappy piece of advice he did not long

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Speaker 1: after my arrival at his station. He did a heartfelt

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Speaker 1: commentary on terrorists. There was a terrorist act in which

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Speaker 1: a group of terrorists took over a cruise ship and

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Speaker 1: pushed a man, a passenger who was in a wheelchair

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Speaker 1: off the cruise ship to show that they were serious. Obviously,

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Speaker 1: if you're going to do a commentary about this, you're

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Speaker 1: going to come out against that. Very few television commentators,

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Speaker 1: even in an unusual market like Los Angeles, would come

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Speaker 1: out in favor of pushing a man who was in

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Speaker 1: a wheelchair off the deck of a cruise ship. Nevertheless,

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Speaker 1: his commentary that night was exactly about this and how

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Speaker 1: horrible terrorism was and how wrong they were to do

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Speaker 1: this to this man. I believe the ship was called

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Speaker 1: the Achille laure but I may have that wrong. The

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Speaker 1: Achille Laurel may have been the thing that sank in

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Speaker 1: the fifties. I can never keep ships straight. It's not

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Speaker 1: Titanic in any event. Without my even asking him about it,

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Speaker 1: I asked how often he did commentaries, and he said

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Speaker 1: very rarely, because the goal of a commentary is to

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Speaker 1: make sure that you never do a commentary that anybody

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Speaker 1: disagrees with. I could feel lunch coming up my throat.

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Speaker 1: Never do a commentary anybody disagrees with. No, if you

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Speaker 1: do a commentary and it's controversial and fifty percent of

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Speaker 1: the people listening don't agree with you, you've lost half

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Speaker 1: your audience. And I thought, well, all right, He didn't

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Speaker 1: skip math class. He's right about that. Go on, you

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Speaker 1: must make sure you don't get into this trap. It's

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Speaker 1: very very enticing to go out there and say something

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Speaker 1: bold and provocative. And I thought, what could you say

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Speaker 1: bold and prorocative about or provocative in English? What could

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Speaker 1: you say about the horrors of pushing a man in

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Speaker 1: a wheelchair off the deck of a ship? What could

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Speaker 1: you say that might be provocative and get people angry

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Speaker 1: about it? Like, you know, at least it was a

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Speaker 1: good sounding splash. I mean, what could you what could

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Speaker 1: you possibly No, don't answer it. I don't want to

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Speaker 1: know what you're thinking. But he explained that if he

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Speaker 1: lost half the audience on this commentary, I suppose by

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Speaker 1: coming out in favor of terrorism, and then he did

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Speaker 1: another commentary that half the people agreed with, he'd be

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Speaker 1: down to one quarter of his audience, and then twelve

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Speaker 1: and a half percent, and soon he would just be

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Speaker 1: talking to me. That man's name was Chuck Todd. No,

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Speaker 1: it was not. Chuck Todd was just a boy at

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Speaker 1: that point, and still is. I did not think very

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Speaker 1: favorably about news commentary after that, and I swore to myself,

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Speaker 1: swore to myself that I would never follow up on

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Speaker 1: a kind of vague, unclear dream in the back of

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Speaker 1: my head someday not only do the news, but do

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Speaker 1: news commentary. I would never in my life do that,

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Speaker 1: and thank god, I have never done news or news commentary.

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Speaker 1: Let me blow through a couple of other headlines here

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Speaker 1: Olverman does news commentary. Reuters is reporting that the Vice

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Speaker 1: president is going to announce her vice presidential pick as

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Speaker 1: early as Monday, before she begins a multi state battleground

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Speaker 1: tour with the running mate later in the week. Two

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Speaker 1: sources quota Reuters the high stakes decision on who will

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Speaker 1: run blah blah blah blah blah. Harris will announce your

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Speaker 1: vice presidentill pick before next week's tour of states that

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Speaker 1: could swing to Republicans or Democrats in November. One of

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Speaker 1: the sources said, I have no idea. I have no

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Speaker 1: idea who it is. Does give you a sense of timing.

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Speaker 1: There is, after all, the convention coming up, and the

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Speaker 1: printing of ballots and various legal requirements for a vice

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Speaker 1: president to be named a date which JD. Vance could

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Speaker 1: tell you off the top of his head in every

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Speaker 1: state of the Union. I like tim Walls, the governor

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Speaker 1: of Minnesota. I worry about giving back some of the

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Speaker 1: youth thing, since you know, he looks like Rupert Murdoch.

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Speaker 1: Now if you changed his glasses, he might not look

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Speaker 1: like Rupert Murdoch anymore. I'm not kidding. Worlds have turned

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Speaker 1: on things like what kind of frames a guy is wearing?

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Speaker 1: Polling Among them, Democrats repeatedly favors Pete footage edge. There

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Speaker 1: is the possibility that you are overfilling the let's break

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Speaker 1: all the boundaries at once bag. In doing that, A

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Speaker 1: lot of people see Mark Kelly and say astronaut and

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Speaker 1: say and I like this idea a lot. He has

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Speaker 1: an identical twin brother. How would you know that you

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Speaker 1: didn't have two vice presidents? And I say, have you

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Speaker 1: ever heard either of them speak in public? We need

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Speaker 1: a rousing campaigner here. Shapiro, who just dropped an s

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Speaker 1: bomb out on the campaign trail yesterday, qualifies, absolutely, Waltz

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Speaker 1: certainly qualifies. But just keep thinking. If you're gonna go

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Speaker 1: with tim Ah, could could could we get Dvance to loan?

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Speaker 1: Could we get jd Vance to loan some of his

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Speaker 1: just for men? Maybe just just don't give back all

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Speaker 1: of the youth that Kamala had Harris represents. Speaking of

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Speaker 1: Kamala Harris, boy oh boy, Trump sure has those great

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Speaker 1: political instincts going. He's doubled down on the idea that

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Speaker 1: Kamala Harris, married to a Jewish Man, hates the Jews. ABC.

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Speaker 1: Former President Trump, in an interview on Tuesday, claimed Harris,

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Speaker 1: who is married to a Jewish man, quote, doesn't like

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Speaker 1: Jewish people, and seem to agree. He agreed with a

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Speaker 1: radio host who called Doug M Hoff quote a crappy Jew.

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Speaker 1: I think, from an advertising point of view, that perhaps

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Speaker 1: you want to have of, say several million dollars invested

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Speaker 1: in billboards that simply read Trump quote a crappy Jew

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Speaker 1: and offer no context, no explanation as to who he

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Speaker 1: is calling a crappy Jew. Trump calls him a quote

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Speaker 1: crappy jew unquote. See how far Trump gets at that point.

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Speaker 1: But he went on WABC rate in New York yesterday,

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Speaker 1: formerly one of the great radio stations of all time.

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Speaker 1: I have worked there, and now the place where they

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Speaker 1: still hope Rush Limbaugh will come back from the dead

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Speaker 1: and be better than some of their other hosts, like

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Speaker 1: this idiot Sid Rosenberg. Trump said that Harris looked uncomfortable

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Speaker 1: while she met with Benjamin and Yahoo last week. You

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Speaker 1: can see the disdain. He said. He doesn't know what

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Speaker 1: the word disdain means. Number One, she doesn't like Israel.

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Speaker 1: Number two, she didn't like Jewish people. You know it,

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Speaker 1: I know it. Everybody knows it. Nobody wants to say it.

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Speaker 1: Every time Trump refers to everybody knows it, it means

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Speaker 1: he's had more conversations with the invisible people who exist

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Speaker 1: only in his head. I'm right. Don't you all agree

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Speaker 1: with me? See I told you they all agreed with me. Wooo,

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Speaker 1: weird is a compliment for Donald Trump. Trump continued of Harris,

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Speaker 1: she disliked Jewish people and Israel even more than Biden did.

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Speaker 1: This host Rosenberg used to be a sportscaster. I'm not

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Speaker 1: holding that against him. Used to be a bad sportscaster.

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Speaker 1: I am holding that against him. He said Venus and

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Speaker 1: Serena Williams were animals. He said they should be posing

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Speaker 1: in a magazine, not Playboy but National Geographic. That's who

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Speaker 1: Sid Rosenberg is. Scum bag. On a good day, he's

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Speaker 1: a scumbag. So then they had this dialogue. He in

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Speaker 1: Rosenberg Rosenberg says he's Jewish, like Bernie Sanders is Jewish.

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Speaker 1: Are you kidding me? Trump says, yeh. Rosenberg says he's

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Speaker 1: a crappy jew. Yeah, Trump said again. Rosenberg goes on

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Speaker 1: saying of em Hoff, he's a horrible jew. Trump says, yeah,

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Speaker 1: I don't know. I think you could get somewhere just

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Speaker 1: this and that. Testimony from nineteen ninety from the late

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Speaker 1: missus near the first t Trump, who testified that he

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Speaker 1: kept a copy of Hitler's speeches on a nightstand next

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Speaker 1: to his bed, and there was a big argument. Trump

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Speaker 1: wanted to make sure that you knew that it was

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Speaker 1: not mind. COMF, No, I didn't have mine. COMF, did

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Speaker 1: you have another Hitler book? No comment? Then he explained

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Speaker 1: that he was given the book by somebody who was Jewish.

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Speaker 1: I just think you might be able to do more

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Speaker 1: with this. Donald Trump is an anti Semite. Donald Trump

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Speaker 1: is a racist. Why are we not doing more with this?

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Speaker 1: Especially since this subject might be of some importance to

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Speaker 1: the new nominee for president and her husband. Last headline,

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Speaker 1: I'm beginning to think, as a veteran follower of the

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Speaker 1: New York Mets baseball team that jd Vance, Trump's vice

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Speaker 1: presidential nominee. Wait, let me check, yes, still a based

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Speaker 1: presidential nominee. Okay, jd Vance. Watching him implode is like

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Speaker 1: watching the general manager of the New York Mets self destruct.

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Speaker 1: And we've had a bunch of them turned out. This

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Speaker 1: whole thing he's denying about. Oh, I was just having

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Speaker 1: some fun by calling Democratic women who didn't have children

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Speaker 1: cat ladies. He fundraised off that while running for Senate,

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Speaker 1: and Media Matters found three more Fox interviews late in

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Speaker 1: July and early in August of twenty twenty one in

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Speaker 1: which he went after Democrats were being childless. Let me

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Speaker 1: just quote them. Vance claim during those appearances that the

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Speaker 1: Left has effectively been taken over by a lot of childless,

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Speaker 1: childless people, childish people, well, we're guilty of that obviously,

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Speaker 1: but childless people ensuring that the Democratic Party is quote

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Speaker 1: dominated by a bunch of sociopaths who don't care about

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Speaker 1: America's children, and told Kamala Harris, AOC and so forth

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Speaker 1: to have your own kids and layoff of mine. The

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Speaker 1: night after he attacked Democratic childless cat ladies on Tucker

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Speaker 1: Carlson Show. Remember Tucker Carlson, Vance returned to Fox and

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Speaker 1: told Tammy Bruce that he was quote sick of these

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Speaker 1: bureaucrats experimenting on my children by requiring kids to be

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Speaker 1: vaccinated against COVID nineteen and recommending masking in schools. There

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Speaker 1: was one other observation I will leave you with on

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Speaker 1: the subject of JD. Vance before he disappears, and he

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Speaker 1: has some sort of personal issue like Trump threatened to

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Speaker 1: kill him or something. All those childless keep saying childish, childish,

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Speaker 1: childless cat ladies, all of them that he has insulted.

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Speaker 1: You know who's childless? Ginny Thomas is childless. What's her

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Speaker 1: husband doing again? Let's the ohh on that's writer. Her

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Speaker 1: husband is the corrupt Supreme Court justice. That's right, She's

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Speaker 1: a childish, childish cat lady, according to JD Vance. Bye,

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Speaker 1: JD have a nice time. Hey. I understand the Mets

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Speaker 1: will be looking for a general manager next year. Also

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Speaker 1: of interest here, I do not mind the National Association

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Speaker 1: of Black Journalists interviewing Trump on stage in Chicago, even

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Speaker 1: though he's also a white supremacist who believes there are

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Speaker 1: quote black jobs unquote. What I mind is them not

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Speaker 1: having a journalist interview Trump. What kind of journalism is

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Speaker 1: there in having moderate the panel, a person who is

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Speaker 1: paid to fluff for fascism on national television every day.

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Speaker 1: A Trump student huge is going to interview Trump at

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Speaker 1: the NABJ convention, a biased, unsalvageable apologist for Trump. This

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Speaker 1: is a terribly ironic thing for me to say, I

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Speaker 1: can abide Trump being there. I cannot accept Harris fing

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Speaker 1: Faulkner being there. That's next. This is countdown. This is

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Speaker 1: countdown with Keith Oboman still ahead of us on this

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Speaker 1: edition of Countdown. It is hard to believe that on Friday,

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Speaker 1: it will have been forty five years since the captain

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Speaker 1: of the New York Yankees baseball team was killed piloting

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Speaker 1: his own, our own private plane, taking lessons for it

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Speaker 1: at an airport in Ohio. And in those days when

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Speaker 1: there was not yet an Internet, there was not yet

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Speaker 1: an ESPN, there was not yet even a CNN. There

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Speaker 1: were about eight prominent national radio networks covering the story

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Speaker 1: in real time. The TV networks that would have were

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Speaker 1: not on the air. The sportscaster on one of those

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Speaker 1: radio networks was a rookie who had been in the

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Speaker 1: business for about eight days and had to figure out

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Speaker 1: how to cover this extraordinary story. The rookie was me.

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Speaker 1: That's coming up in things I promised not to tell first,

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Speaker 1: there's still more idiots to talk about. The daily roundup

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Speaker 1: of the mis grants, morons and Dunning Krueger effects specimens

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Speaker 1: who constitute today's worst persons in the world. And we

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Speaker 1: start with honorary mention me. If you listened early yesterday,

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Speaker 1: say before eight am Eastern time, you heard the show

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Speaker 1: begin with the theme and then me doing this and

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Speaker 1: then starting the theme again. Now this happens, I cough.

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Speaker 1: I will confess to having coughed throughout my lifetime. Yes

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Speaker 1: it's true. JD Vance, I'm a cougher. But what I

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Speaker 1: normally do is stop the recording and start a new one.

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Speaker 1: And for some reason I did not stop the recording.

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Speaker 1: I simply kept recording. And so when it came time

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Speaker 1: for me to edit the show together, I took the

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Speaker 1: first take and played the whole thing, So you heard

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Speaker 1: what I just recreated for you. This was indicative of

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Speaker 1: the fact that I have something going on as usual

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Speaker 1: chest wise, and it's just summer, and you know, climate

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00:28:52,595 --> 00:28:57,475
Speaker 1: change and pollution and age mostly age. So I apologize.

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Speaker 1: We'll try to have heard any of that in the future.

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Speaker 1: I just talked like this much easier in my voice anyway.

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Speaker 1: That's why this one has been a little more disjointed

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Speaker 1: and less prepared. Of course, they're a little bit more

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Speaker 1: fun when they're less prepared, because I don't pre edit.

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Speaker 1: For instance, the Bronze Matt Gates. Matt Gates has now

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Speaker 1: written about the Venezuelan quote election unquote, and what he

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Speaker 1: doesn't understand is that we're all pretty much in agreement here.

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Speaker 1: Maduro lost and is trying to stay in power. And

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Speaker 1: yet Matt Gates writes, Maduro lost the election in Venezuela badly,

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Speaker 1: then simply declared victory anyway. He is an illegitimate dictator. Now,

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Speaker 1: I don't mean to tell mister Gates his business. Who

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Speaker 1: am I kidding? That's all I've done professionally since nineteen

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Speaker 1: seventy nine is to tell other people their business. Matt Gates,

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Speaker 1: who supported Donald Trump losing the election in the United

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Speaker 1: States badly not four years ago, then simply declared victory

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Speaker 1: anyway and tried to be an illegitimate dictator. When he

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Speaker 1: writes the same thing of Maduro, Matt are you four

426
00:30:11,435 --> 00:30:16,595
Speaker 1: or against? You're against this, Matt Gates. I mean it's

427
00:30:16,595 --> 00:30:22,635
Speaker 1: like Matt Gates suddenly declared himself being against botox or well,

428
00:30:22,995 --> 00:30:28,515
Speaker 1: botox overdoses, Botox overdoses just before you're supposed to go

429
00:30:28,555 --> 00:30:31,675
Speaker 1: on stage and speak at the Republican National Convention. I

430
00:30:31,795 --> 00:30:41,275
Speaker 1: owah oh, I'm uh gret uh Clara any day now

431
00:30:41,515 --> 00:30:45,875
Speaker 1: talk about starting a show with a random cough. My god,

432
00:30:46,555 --> 00:30:51,035
Speaker 1: runner up once again Florida would be Congresswoman Laura Lumer

433
00:30:51,355 --> 00:30:55,355
Speaker 1: Trump's favorite crazy person from Florida, and god knows, there's

434
00:30:55,395 --> 00:30:58,595
Speaker 1: only about a thousand in the competition for it. She

435
00:30:58,795 --> 00:31:02,075
Speaker 1: put out on Twitter, scoop, I hear that a black

436
00:31:02,275 --> 00:31:06,395
Speaker 1: trans doctor will be performing an abortion on a white

437
00:31:06,435 --> 00:31:11,675
Speaker 1: woman live on stage at the DNC convention in Chicago

438
00:31:11,875 --> 00:31:16,675
Speaker 1: this August. Now. Lumer has in the past posted a

439
00:31:16,755 --> 00:31:21,995
Speaker 1: series of conspiracy theories, mostly about mash shootings. She said

440
00:31:21,995 --> 00:31:25,595
Speaker 1: that the school shooting at Parkland, Florida, in twenty eighteen,

441
00:31:25,915 --> 00:31:27,995
Speaker 1: and the one a few months later in Texas at

442
00:31:28,035 --> 00:31:32,515
Speaker 1: Santa Fe were staged. That the twenty seventeen Las Vegas

443
00:31:32,555 --> 00:31:36,435
Speaker 1: shootings at the music concert was an ISIS guy, she

444
00:31:36,515 --> 00:31:39,435
Speaker 1: claimed on Twitter, that there were crisis actors used at

445
00:31:39,435 --> 00:31:43,315
Speaker 1: the Santa Fe, Texas school shooting. She said that the

446
00:31:43,355 --> 00:31:47,075
Speaker 1: man arrested in South Dakota with bomb making equipment was

447
00:31:47,115 --> 00:31:51,355
Speaker 1: a Antifa terrorist. In fact, he was a conservative who

448
00:31:51,435 --> 00:31:55,315
Speaker 1: despised Antifa and liberals. Laura luma are also reported there

449
00:31:55,395 --> 00:31:59,235
Speaker 1: the nineteen or the twenty eighteen male bombing attempts, the

450
00:31:59,315 --> 00:32:05,555
Speaker 1: magabomber Sezar Sayak was a false flag operation orchestrated by Democrats.

451
00:32:05,715 --> 00:32:08,235
Speaker 1: You remember, Saysar Sayak. He was the guy who had

452
00:32:08,275 --> 00:32:10,995
Speaker 1: a van, every inch of which was covered with a

453
00:32:11,035 --> 00:32:14,315
Speaker 1: Trump sticker of some kind, and he mailed pipe bombs

454
00:32:14,355 --> 00:32:18,195
Speaker 1: to various Trump critics. And about a year later, when

455
00:32:18,195 --> 00:32:20,955
Speaker 1: they opened up his computer and finished processing it and

456
00:32:20,995 --> 00:32:22,755
Speaker 1: seeing if there were more things to send him to

457
00:32:22,755 --> 00:32:26,235
Speaker 1: prison to life for, they found his second wave list

458
00:32:26,275 --> 00:32:29,515
Speaker 1: of targets and I was on the second wave of targets.

459
00:32:30,235 --> 00:32:33,275
Speaker 1: So this is what she's done before. She also accused

460
00:32:33,835 --> 00:32:37,795
Speaker 1: Casey DeSantis, when Ron Desantris was running against Trump for

461
00:32:37,835 --> 00:32:42,315
Speaker 1: the Republican nomination, of exaggerating her breast cancer in hopes

462
00:32:42,515 --> 00:32:47,475
Speaker 1: that that would somehow get her husband more votes somehow.

463
00:32:48,195 --> 00:32:51,595
Speaker 1: So that's who Laura Lumer has been and she posted

464
00:32:51,635 --> 00:32:54,955
Speaker 1: that the black trans doctor would have performed an abortion

465
00:32:55,035 --> 00:32:57,115
Speaker 1: on a white woman live on stage at the DNC

466
00:32:57,595 --> 00:33:02,835
Speaker 1: in Chicago scoop with the little red sirens attached to

467
00:33:02,875 --> 00:33:05,515
Speaker 1: it an hour and a half after that. It's very

468
00:33:05,595 --> 00:33:07,955
Speaker 1: telling as well as scary, that a joke can be

469
00:33:07,995 --> 00:33:13,115
Speaker 1: confused as an actual possibility for what the Democrats would do. No,

470
00:33:13,395 --> 00:33:16,995
Speaker 1: that's not what happened. It's what's scary and telling here

471
00:33:17,155 --> 00:33:19,755
Speaker 1: is that Laura Lumer could say something that she thought

472
00:33:20,195 --> 00:33:23,715
Speaker 1: would be too ridiculous to be taken seriously, and everybody

473
00:33:23,715 --> 00:33:26,955
Speaker 1: else said, well, that ranks about b B minus on

474
00:33:26,995 --> 00:33:30,875
Speaker 1: her list of insane things and conspiracies that she's attempted

475
00:33:30,875 --> 00:33:34,195
Speaker 1: to foist on the American public. Either because she hates

476
00:33:34,275 --> 00:33:37,475
Speaker 1: the truth, she hates reality, she's willing to sell out

477
00:33:37,555 --> 00:33:41,435
Speaker 1: reality to try to gain cash or whatever it is

478
00:33:41,515 --> 00:33:45,115
Speaker 1: she does this for, or she's so crazy that she

479
00:33:45,275 --> 00:33:48,755
Speaker 1: believes all of this crap, particularly about places like Parkland

480
00:33:48,915 --> 00:33:52,115
Speaker 1: and Las Vegas, that when she said this about an

481
00:33:52,115 --> 00:33:54,995
Speaker 1: a live abortion, that the DNC people went, now, that's

482
00:33:55,035 --> 00:33:58,635
Speaker 1: that Lumer, all right, that's what's wrong here. That's what's

483
00:33:58,675 --> 00:34:04,515
Speaker 1: telling and scary Laura Lumer go to hell, but our winners. NABJ,

484
00:34:04,795 --> 00:34:08,475
Speaker 1: the National Association of Black Journalists, which as I record this,

485
00:34:09,275 --> 00:34:14,275
Speaker 1: is still planning to host Trump in a live interview

486
00:34:14,355 --> 00:34:21,475
Speaker 1: format event at its annual conference in Chicago today. I

487
00:34:21,675 --> 00:34:25,955
Speaker 1: honor the NABJ and its history. It has done great

488
00:34:25,995 --> 00:34:29,475
Speaker 1: work in a business and when I started in it.

489
00:34:29,555 --> 00:34:32,235
Speaker 1: Referring back to what I said earlier about what it

490
00:34:32,275 --> 00:34:36,475
Speaker 1: was like forty five years ago this Friday, there were

491
00:34:36,595 --> 00:34:39,835
Speaker 1: no black people at that radio network that I worked at,

492
00:34:39,875 --> 00:34:43,395
Speaker 1: Not in New York anyway. I'm not sure about the

493
00:34:43,475 --> 00:34:46,555
Speaker 1: other places. I used to point this out to people

494
00:34:46,595 --> 00:34:50,275
Speaker 1: and they would say, what's the difference. It's a telling

495
00:34:50,675 --> 00:34:54,275
Speaker 1: truth about the business at its most successful stages, that

496
00:34:54,475 --> 00:34:59,675
Speaker 1: it was widely known that your employer was probably prejudiced

497
00:34:59,755 --> 00:35:03,315
Speaker 1: and happily for you you were a white guy. So

498
00:35:03,475 --> 00:35:06,795
Speaker 1: I honor the nab and what it did then and

499
00:35:06,835 --> 00:35:09,715
Speaker 1: what it does now. It has done great work. It

500
00:35:09,795 --> 00:35:13,715
Speaker 1: should be supported. My old colleague Jamel Hill from ESPN

501
00:35:13,835 --> 00:35:17,675
Speaker 1: is right. Being questioned by journalists is part of the job,

502
00:35:17,995 --> 00:35:21,955
Speaker 1: at especially important in the company of black journalists. She

503
00:35:22,075 --> 00:35:25,715
Speaker 1: notes other presidents and presidential candidates who have gone inside

504
00:35:25,755 --> 00:35:30,115
Speaker 1: this very same form with NABJ panels at its conventions

505
00:35:30,235 --> 00:35:34,715
Speaker 1: during election years. But there is a detail that Jammel

506
00:35:34,795 --> 00:35:39,275
Speaker 1: has left out. The NABJ is committing suicide. Because Karen

507
00:35:39,315 --> 00:35:41,755
Speaker 1: Attia is also right. She is a columnist for the

508
00:35:41,795 --> 00:35:45,915
Speaker 1: Washington Post. She was co chair of the convention until

509
00:35:46,235 --> 00:35:49,395
Speaker 1: this happened. They only announced it Monday night. I have

510
00:35:49,515 --> 00:35:52,075
Speaker 1: decided to step down as co chair from this year's

511
00:35:52,195 --> 00:35:56,875
Speaker 1: NABJ twenty four convention in Chicago. To the journalists interviewing Trump,

512
00:35:56,915 --> 00:35:59,635
Speaker 1: I wish them the best of luck. While my decision

513
00:35:59,675 --> 00:36:02,355
Speaker 1: was influenced by a variety of factors, she says, I

514
00:36:02,475 --> 00:36:05,355
Speaker 1: was not involved or consulted with in any way with

515
00:36:05,435 --> 00:36:08,955
Speaker 1: the decision to platform Trump in such a format. Well

516
00:36:09,035 --> 00:36:11,555
Speaker 1: there's your problem right there. If you have to keep

517
00:36:11,595 --> 00:36:15,115
Speaker 1: this a secret from the co chair of your annual convention,

518
00:36:15,635 --> 00:36:20,955
Speaker 1: you may be doing something really, really stupid. Because Arion

519
00:36:21,155 --> 00:36:24,035
Speaker 1: Nettles is also right. She's the author of We Are

520
00:36:24,115 --> 00:36:28,515
Speaker 1: the Culture Black Chicago's influence on everything. She wrote, Not

521
00:36:28,915 --> 00:36:33,755
Speaker 1: a single black media organization is represented in the panel

522
00:36:33,795 --> 00:36:36,355
Speaker 1: of the moderators for this event. There are going to

523
00:36:36,395 --> 00:36:41,035
Speaker 1: be three reporters or three two reporters and somebody else

524
00:36:41,155 --> 00:36:45,395
Speaker 1: on stage with Trump. The conversation is to be moderated

525
00:36:45,435 --> 00:36:48,795
Speaker 1: by Rachel Scott, a very fine reporter for ABC News,

526
00:36:49,195 --> 00:36:52,635
Speaker 1: Kadia Gooba of Semaphore, who I do not know, and

527
00:36:53,635 --> 00:36:58,675
Speaker 1: Harris Faulkner of Fox News. I guess because they could

528
00:36:58,675 --> 00:37:03,635
Speaker 1: not get Judge Piro there. Judge Janine Piro could not

529
00:37:03,755 --> 00:37:06,315
Speaker 1: make it to the nab BJ fast enough, so they

530
00:37:06,355 --> 00:37:11,075
Speaker 1: took her back up Harris Faulkner, as ms Nettles writes,

531
00:37:11,195 --> 00:37:15,115
Speaker 1: not even any black orgs on top of everything, So

532
00:37:15,115 --> 00:37:18,475
Speaker 1: please don't claim to give opportunities to anyone but those

533
00:37:18,515 --> 00:37:23,115
Speaker 1: who would already have them. And most importantly, the NABJ

534
00:37:23,715 --> 00:37:27,675
Speaker 1: is on this list because Harris Faulkner is involved in this.

535
00:37:28,155 --> 00:37:33,075
Speaker 1: She is not a journalist. She appears on a Trump

536
00:37:33,275 --> 00:37:40,035
Speaker 1: propaganda channel, a Rupert Murdoch run white supremacist propagandist channel.

537
00:37:40,355 --> 00:37:44,675
Speaker 1: It is there only to support Trump and to acquiesce

538
00:37:44,755 --> 00:37:49,235
Speaker 1: to whatever kind of world Trump chooses for everybody, but

539
00:37:49,395 --> 00:37:54,915
Speaker 1: particularly for members of minority groups. And everything contained in

540
00:37:54,955 --> 00:37:59,555
Speaker 1: the NABJ, black and journalists, especially the B and the

541
00:37:59,675 --> 00:38:03,195
Speaker 1: J in its initials in its acronym, are things Trump

542
00:38:03,195 --> 00:38:07,475
Speaker 1: would like to see in prisoned. So do not tell

543
00:38:07,515 --> 00:38:12,435
Speaker 1: me that Harris Faulkner, who is a sycophant an echo

544
00:38:12,595 --> 00:38:17,275
Speaker 1: chamber for Donald Trump, is a journalist involved in interviewing

545
00:38:17,355 --> 00:38:22,995
Speaker 1: Donald Trump, perhaps a stenographer, more likely, somebody to simply

546
00:38:23,435 --> 00:38:28,475
Speaker 1: stare at him earnestly and nod carefully and energetically. She

547
00:38:28,715 --> 00:38:32,195
Speaker 1: is a Trump apologist. She is a flunky. She is

548
00:38:32,675 --> 00:38:37,755
Speaker 1: the personification of a propaganda channel. D nabj I think

549
00:38:37,835 --> 00:38:41,995
Speaker 1: has two choices here. Cancel the event or do the

550
00:38:42,075 --> 00:38:46,195
Speaker 1: smart thing here. Don't get rid of Trump. Take Trump

551
00:38:46,235 --> 00:38:49,275
Speaker 1: out there and cut him to little Trump pieces, journalistically,

552
00:38:50,475 --> 00:38:54,675
Speaker 1: take him apart, Rachel Scott, take him apart, please, miss

553
00:38:54,715 --> 00:38:59,995
Speaker 1: Goba of Semaphore. But get Faulkner out of this. I'm suspecting,

554
00:39:00,075 --> 00:39:02,395
Speaker 1: and I know nothing of this, but I'm suspecting when

555
00:39:02,435 --> 00:39:05,275
Speaker 1: I see the name Trump and Harris Faulkner together, that

556
00:39:05,355 --> 00:39:08,115
Speaker 1: Harris Faulkner is the reason Trump is doing this. Get

557
00:39:08,155 --> 00:39:12,795
Speaker 1: her off the stage, put a real journalist out there

558
00:39:12,915 --> 00:39:16,115
Speaker 1: instead of her from as ms Nettle's. Put it a

559
00:39:16,155 --> 00:39:19,315
Speaker 1: black media organization, and I don't care if it's some

560
00:39:19,755 --> 00:39:22,715
Speaker 1: high school student from Chicago. They'd be much more credible

561
00:39:22,755 --> 00:39:27,195
Speaker 1: as a journalist than Harris goddamned Faulkner. It's like having

562
00:39:27,275 --> 00:39:30,755
Speaker 1: Sean Hannity out there. You've got to do one of

563
00:39:30,795 --> 00:39:35,675
Speaker 1: these two things here. Cancel the event or cancel Harris Faulkner,

564
00:39:35,915 --> 00:39:39,915
Speaker 1: because your third option is to destroy all of your

565
00:39:39,955 --> 00:39:47,155
Speaker 1: own credibility for the sake of Donald Trump, a racist

566
00:39:47,715 --> 00:39:54,355
Speaker 1: and Harris Faulkner, an apologist for a racist National Association

567
00:39:54,395 --> 00:39:57,075
Speaker 1: of Black Journalists. It's not too late to steer out

568
00:39:57,115 --> 00:40:09,675
Speaker 1: of this skid today's worst persons in the world. August second,

569
00:40:09,795 --> 00:40:14,315
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy nine is now forty three years ago. And

570
00:40:14,355 --> 00:40:18,435
Speaker 1: if I sound incredulous about that, it's because I'm incredulous

571
00:40:18,435 --> 00:40:21,675
Speaker 1: about that. A certain part of me is always living

572
00:40:21,755 --> 00:40:25,515
Speaker 1: back there on August second, nineteen seventy nine, and the

573
00:40:25,555 --> 00:40:28,315
Speaker 1: rest of that day is seared into my memory like

574
00:40:28,395 --> 00:40:31,875
Speaker 1: my name and address. One month earlier to the day,

575
00:40:31,955 --> 00:40:34,195
Speaker 1: July second, nineteen seventy nine, I had been in the

576
00:40:34,235 --> 00:40:37,515
Speaker 1: stands in my family seats back of first base at

577
00:40:37,595 --> 00:40:40,995
Speaker 1: Yankee Stadium in New York, a twenty year old Yankees fan,

578
00:40:41,435 --> 00:40:44,955
Speaker 1: applauding Thurman Munson's RBI double and Lou Panelo's two for

579
00:40:45,035 --> 00:40:48,355
Speaker 1: four day and Roy White's appearance. Since Roy White was

580
00:40:48,355 --> 00:40:53,395
Speaker 1: my mother's favorite Yankee player, but months in particularly. He

581
00:40:53,475 --> 00:40:55,715
Speaker 1: had been playing for the Yankees since I was nine.

582
00:40:55,955 --> 00:41:01,315
Speaker 1: I was now twenty, thus more than half my life now.

583
00:41:01,435 --> 00:41:03,955
Speaker 1: On August second, nineteen seventy nine, I was finishing the

584
00:41:03,995 --> 00:41:07,515
Speaker 1: first month of my professional broadcasting career. It was my

585
00:41:07,675 --> 00:41:12,995
Speaker 1: seventh or eighth solo shift anywhere for money. I was

586
00:41:13,035 --> 00:41:17,435
Speaker 1: the nighttime sportscaster of United Press Internationals Radio Network one

587
00:41:17,515 --> 00:41:21,995
Speaker 1: thousand stations worldwide known as UPI Audio. For my first

588
00:41:22,035 --> 00:41:25,195
Speaker 1: sportscast of the night due to go at five forty

589
00:41:25,235 --> 00:41:28,275
Speaker 1: five PM, I had long since finished my script. Tom

590
00:41:28,315 --> 00:41:31,475
Speaker 1: Watson was leading Round one of the PGA golf in Michigan.

591
00:41:31,795 --> 00:41:35,475
Speaker 1: The lawyer who owned Washington of the NFL, Edward Bennett Williams.

592
00:41:35,555 --> 00:41:38,235
Speaker 1: He had just bought the Baltimore Orioles. There was an

593
00:41:38,315 --> 00:41:42,995
Speaker 1: exposed Cubs matinee a baseball game in Montreal that prevailed

594
00:41:42,995 --> 00:41:47,075
Speaker 1: through three rain delays. It was just about five forty

595
00:41:47,115 --> 00:41:49,555
Speaker 1: three pm Eastern time, and I was making the short

596
00:41:49,555 --> 00:41:53,115
Speaker 1: walk from the little sports cubby hole to the little

597
00:41:53,195 --> 00:41:57,035
Speaker 1: main on air studio in UPI world headquarters in the

598
00:41:57,115 --> 00:41:59,635
Speaker 1: Daily News Building, or if you saw the movie the

599
00:41:59,715 --> 00:42:03,475
Speaker 1: Superman building on forty second Street in Manhattan. I was

600
00:42:03,675 --> 00:42:07,275
Speaker 1: just walking past the bank of thermal printers, each making

601
00:42:07,315 --> 00:42:13,915
Speaker 1: their sluggish, muted honking sound as they slowly printed stories

602
00:42:14,275 --> 00:42:17,955
Speaker 1: out onto what wasn't really paper. There was the main

603
00:42:18,075 --> 00:42:21,195
Speaker 1: UPI wire, the UPI Sportswire, the UPI Business Wire, the

604
00:42:21,275 --> 00:42:25,955
Speaker 1: UPI International Wire, the UPI Radio wire, several internal message

605
00:42:25,955 --> 00:42:29,115
Speaker 1: wires via which the UPI bureaus around the world could

606
00:42:29,115 --> 00:42:31,955
Speaker 1: communicate with headquarters in New York, or as it was

607
00:42:31,995 --> 00:42:36,355
Speaker 1: abbreviated NX. Those message wires were the nineteen seventy nine

608
00:42:36,395 --> 00:42:39,955
Speaker 1: equivalent of texting. As I got within a foot of

609
00:42:40,035 --> 00:42:43,195
Speaker 1: these machines, one of them made a noise I had

610
00:42:43,235 --> 00:42:47,715
Speaker 1: never heard before, a series of ten really loud bells.

611
00:42:48,355 --> 00:42:50,195
Speaker 1: As I moved over to see what the hell they

612
00:42:50,235 --> 00:42:53,115
Speaker 1: could mean, the news editor, Frank Rayfield, came over to

613
00:42:53,195 --> 00:42:59,235
Speaker 1: check as well. We saw the words simultaneously. We gasped simultaneously.

614
00:43:00,435 --> 00:43:04,595
Speaker 1: Cleveland Bureau to NX, Sturman Munson Catcher, Captain New York Game,

615
00:43:04,795 --> 00:43:12,395
Speaker 1: He's dead piloting private plane Canton Akron Airport, thirty still

616
00:43:12,635 --> 00:43:16,075
Speaker 1: it stuns me to read those words aloud. As soon

617
00:43:16,115 --> 00:43:19,035
Speaker 1: as they finished printing, Cleveland sent it again. The bells

618
00:43:19,075 --> 00:43:21,555
Speaker 1: went off again. I could see I now had about

619
00:43:21,555 --> 00:43:23,915
Speaker 1: a minute until I went on the air. The editor

620
00:43:23,995 --> 00:43:26,595
Speaker 1: pointed this out to me, you'll have to add lib

621
00:43:26,635 --> 00:43:28,275
Speaker 1: the sports cast. Then come out here and do a

622
00:43:28,355 --> 00:43:30,475
Speaker 1: voicer just talk about his career, keep repeating that it's

623
00:43:30,475 --> 00:43:32,675
Speaker 1: a bulletin, that he's dead, and that he was piloting

624
00:43:32,715 --> 00:43:35,395
Speaker 1: a private plane. You know anything about him and planes?

625
00:43:36,195 --> 00:43:39,755
Speaker 1: And I remember saying, oh God, I do. And he said,

626
00:43:39,755 --> 00:43:42,835
Speaker 1: we'll use whatever you think fits. If more details come in,

627
00:43:42,875 --> 00:43:44,875
Speaker 1: I'll bring them into you. I'll try to get somebody

628
00:43:44,915 --> 00:43:49,115
Speaker 1: at the airport for some sound. I don't remember anything

629
00:43:49,155 --> 00:43:51,635
Speaker 1: of what I said on the air that night, nor

630
00:43:51,675 --> 00:43:54,635
Speaker 1: in the special report the voicer the editor had had

631
00:43:54,675 --> 00:43:57,195
Speaker 1: me record. As soon as I finished that live sportscast,

632
00:43:57,755 --> 00:44:01,435
Speaker 1: it was all recorded. I never wanted to hear any

633
00:44:01,475 --> 00:44:04,435
Speaker 1: of it. I never wanted to keep any of it.

634
00:44:04,915 --> 00:44:07,515
Speaker 1: I have basically the rest of my career on tape.

635
00:44:08,035 --> 00:44:12,275
Speaker 1: But I knew my youth was over right then. Thurman

636
00:44:12,395 --> 00:44:15,395
Speaker 1: Munson had joined the Yankees when I was nine years old.

637
00:44:15,515 --> 00:44:19,275
Speaker 1: Literally more than half my life ago. He was the

638
00:44:19,315 --> 00:44:23,115
Speaker 1: first good rookie I ever saw added to my team.

639
00:44:23,515 --> 00:44:26,675
Speaker 1: My family was convinced he looked like my mother's cousin Billy.

640
00:44:27,315 --> 00:44:29,955
Speaker 1: I met him a couple of times, had photographed him once,

641
00:44:30,115 --> 00:44:33,515
Speaker 1: interviewed him once. He was gruff and forbidding, but I

642
00:44:33,675 --> 00:44:36,715
Speaker 1: had never had a problem with him. What I knew

643
00:44:36,755 --> 00:44:39,955
Speaker 1: about him and his plane I spoke of as generically

644
00:44:40,075 --> 00:44:43,635
Speaker 1: as possible. In my mind. I flashed back to lunch

645
00:44:43,715 --> 00:44:46,315
Speaker 1: in the press room at Yankee Stadium four months earlier,

646
00:44:46,315 --> 00:44:49,475
Speaker 1: when I was still in college with my friend Rick Sarone,

647
00:44:49,915 --> 00:44:54,675
Speaker 1: the editor, not the catcher Munson, Rick said, almost surreptitiously,

648
00:44:54,795 --> 00:44:58,595
Speaker 1: leaning in toward me over the little table. Munson is

649
00:44:58,675 --> 00:45:03,275
Speaker 1: flying his own plane back home to Ohio on like

650
00:45:03,515 --> 00:45:08,395
Speaker 1: every day off. If the Yankees are terrified he's not

651
00:45:08,755 --> 00:45:11,795
Speaker 1: as good a pilot as he thinks he is, honest

652
00:45:11,915 --> 00:45:15,555
Speaker 1: to God, one of the executives is trying to get George,

653
00:45:15,995 --> 00:45:19,155
Speaker 1: that would be George Steinbrenner, the owner, to trade him

654
00:45:19,195 --> 00:45:23,075
Speaker 1: to Cleveland, just so he'll get out of the damn plane.

655
00:45:23,155 --> 00:45:29,355
Speaker 1: They're all terrified he might wind up killing himself. I

656
00:45:29,395 --> 00:45:32,235
Speaker 1: don't know how many special reports I did forty three

657
00:45:32,275 --> 00:45:35,195
Speaker 1: years ago today, in addition to a new sports cast

658
00:45:35,275 --> 00:45:38,195
Speaker 1: every hour. Later, a friend of mine from college who

659
00:45:38,195 --> 00:45:40,755
Speaker 1: didn't even know I'd gotten the job as a sportscaster.

660
00:45:40,875 --> 00:45:44,195
Speaker 1: I was so new there, told me he was driving

661
00:45:44,235 --> 00:45:47,595
Speaker 1: in Buffalo listening to the all news station on the radio.

662
00:45:47,675 --> 00:45:49,755
Speaker 1: He heard them say Munson had been killed, and with

663
00:45:49,835 --> 00:45:52,155
Speaker 1: more here's Keith Olderman in New York. And he said

664
00:45:52,195 --> 00:45:56,035
Speaker 1: he almost drove off the road because of the double shock.

665
00:45:56,995 --> 00:46:00,195
Speaker 1: And I do know my boss, Sam Rosen, who did

666
00:46:00,235 --> 00:46:02,635
Speaker 1: the morning shift and would have only gotten home from

667
00:46:02,715 --> 00:46:05,555
Speaker 1: it around one or two pm. He came back into

668
00:46:05,555 --> 00:46:08,835
Speaker 1: the office to supervise things and to put together a

669
00:46:08,995 --> 00:46:12,995
Speaker 1: long memorial special to feed that the thousand stations that

670
00:46:13,155 --> 00:46:16,715
Speaker 1: used our stuff would all use. I was so glad

671
00:46:16,755 --> 00:46:19,475
Speaker 1: to see Sam that day. And then he handed me

672
00:46:19,515 --> 00:46:24,355
Speaker 1: a piece of paper. Those are the home phone numbers

673
00:46:24,595 --> 00:46:29,595
Speaker 1: for Loop and Ella and Roy White. Call them, try

674
00:46:29,635 --> 00:46:36,875
Speaker 1: to do interviews. Be gentle record first, ask later like

675
00:46:36,995 --> 00:46:39,875
Speaker 1: Munson they had played in that game a month before.

676
00:46:40,395 --> 00:46:43,395
Speaker 1: Really was my last as a fan. Roy White had

677
00:46:43,435 --> 00:46:46,635
Speaker 1: been with the Yankees since I was six years old.

678
00:46:48,035 --> 00:46:50,275
Speaker 1: Lou p Andella answered his phone and somehow I asked

679
00:46:50,315 --> 00:46:51,995
Speaker 1: him if he would talk to me for two minutes,

680
00:46:52,035 --> 00:46:56,235
Speaker 1: and he did, and almost immediately he burst into tears.

681
00:46:56,995 --> 00:47:00,595
Speaker 1: There was such raw, immediate, brutal pain in his voice.

682
00:47:01,435 --> 00:47:04,195
Speaker 1: I did the only thing I could think of. I said, listen,

683
00:47:04,235 --> 00:47:06,915
Speaker 1: you shouldn't have to do this all night. I will

684
00:47:06,915 --> 00:47:09,555
Speaker 1: make copies of this interview and give it to the

685
00:47:09,595 --> 00:47:13,155
Speaker 1: other radio networks so they will leave you alone. And

686
00:47:13,235 --> 00:47:15,635
Speaker 1: only then did I think to ask my boss Sam,

687
00:47:15,675 --> 00:47:17,635
Speaker 1: who by the way, still does the New York Rangers

688
00:47:17,675 --> 00:47:22,275
Speaker 1: games on TV, if that was okay, and mercifully, Sam said,

689
00:47:22,275 --> 00:47:25,435
Speaker 1: it was a great idea. When I called Roy White,

690
00:47:25,475 --> 00:47:27,875
Speaker 1: and Roy White was literally on the Yankees the day

691
00:47:27,955 --> 00:47:31,555
Speaker 1: I became a Yankee fan, he begged me to tell

692
00:47:31,635 --> 00:47:34,995
Speaker 1: him that they had discovered some kind of a mistake

693
00:47:35,875 --> 00:47:40,315
Speaker 1: that Thurman Munson was not dead. Both he and Panela

694
00:47:40,435 --> 00:47:45,115
Speaker 1: were blunt, but gentle and courteous. And I did make

695
00:47:45,195 --> 00:47:47,915
Speaker 1: copies of the interviews, and I can see myself handing

696
00:47:47,995 --> 00:47:51,275
Speaker 1: a cassette to a guy from NBC Radio named Mike Lebenthal,

697
00:47:51,555 --> 00:47:54,435
Speaker 1: who ran a kind of cartel, almost a black market

698
00:47:54,635 --> 00:47:58,835
Speaker 1: among New York radio sports reporters. Those interviews the parts

699
00:47:58,875 --> 00:48:02,275
Speaker 1: with Panela and White, not me, were all over radio

700
00:48:02,515 --> 00:48:05,995
Speaker 1: that day. I also remember discovering, after three or four

701
00:48:06,035 --> 00:48:09,275
Speaker 1: hours of literally working non stop, that I had never

702
00:48:09,355 --> 00:48:12,475
Speaker 1: really known what that meant before. I remember I was

703
00:48:12,475 --> 00:48:14,475
Speaker 1: supposed to be done at eleven PM, that was the

704
00:48:14,555 --> 00:48:16,755
Speaker 1: end of the shift, but I stayed until one am,

705
00:48:16,795 --> 00:48:19,835
Speaker 1: and I just rarely made the train, the last one

706
00:48:19,835 --> 00:48:22,675
Speaker 1: of the night back to my house. I remember my

707
00:48:22,755 --> 00:48:25,515
Speaker 1: boss Sam Rosen talking to our stringer in San Francisco,

708
00:48:25,595 --> 00:48:28,995
Speaker 1: fellow named Rob Navius, and he said, they're killing my team.

709
00:48:29,555 --> 00:48:33,675
Speaker 1: I should go to Mexico and smoke myself blind. The

710
00:48:33,715 --> 00:48:36,795
Speaker 1: things you remember at a time of stress and tragedy.

711
00:48:37,595 --> 00:48:40,795
Speaker 1: In my youthful misunderstanding of how these things worked, I

712
00:48:40,835 --> 00:48:43,355
Speaker 1: found myself coming back to the thought that I had

713
00:48:43,395 --> 00:48:46,395
Speaker 1: somehow failed Thurman Monthson by not telling somebody about that

714
00:48:46,515 --> 00:48:49,555
Speaker 1: Yankee fear from April that he was not as good

715
00:48:49,595 --> 00:48:53,155
Speaker 1: a pilot as he thought he was, Although even then

716
00:48:53,435 --> 00:48:58,275
Speaker 1: I asked myself, who were you going to tell? There

717
00:48:58,275 --> 00:49:00,795
Speaker 1: are two postscripts to my story of the twenty year

718
00:49:00,835 --> 00:49:04,115
Speaker 1: old me covering the night Thurman months and died. Twenty

719
00:49:04,195 --> 00:49:06,475
Speaker 1: years later, I was hosting Baseball's Game of the Week

720
00:49:06,515 --> 00:49:08,475
Speaker 1: on Fox, and I asked by producer what we were

721
00:49:08,515 --> 00:49:14,075
Speaker 1: doing for the monthson anniversary. He asked what anniversary. He

722
00:49:14,195 --> 00:49:16,995
Speaker 1: was younger than I was. I had to explain it

723
00:49:16,995 --> 00:49:19,955
Speaker 1: to him. Even then, you want to write something we

724
00:49:19,995 --> 00:49:23,475
Speaker 1: can pre produce, like a minute and a half. Minute

725
00:49:23,475 --> 00:49:27,195
Speaker 1: and a half. I did it, didn't think much of it.

726
00:49:27,595 --> 00:49:28,955
Speaker 1: A couple of years later, I was one of the

727
00:49:28,955 --> 00:49:31,795
Speaker 1: public address announcers at Old Timers Day at Yankee Stadium,

728
00:49:31,795 --> 00:49:36,355
Speaker 1: invited by the PR director Rick Sarone Sam Rick Seron,

729
00:49:36,435 --> 00:49:39,395
Speaker 1: who in April nineteen seventy nine told me about Munson

730
00:49:39,435 --> 00:49:42,475
Speaker 1: and the private planes and the Yankees fears. It is

731
00:49:42,515 --> 00:49:46,915
Speaker 1: a small world. The twenty fifth anniversary of Thurman Munson's

732
00:49:46,955 --> 00:49:49,915
Speaker 1: death was just days away. His widow, Diane was there.

733
00:49:49,955 --> 00:49:52,115
Speaker 1: We had never met. Then she saw me on the

734
00:49:52,115 --> 00:49:54,515
Speaker 1: field and raced up to me and hugged me. That

735
00:49:54,595 --> 00:49:57,275
Speaker 1: piece you did on him on the Game of the Week,

736
00:49:57,595 --> 00:50:00,395
Speaker 1: when was it five years ago? That was the best

737
00:50:00,435 --> 00:50:04,995
Speaker 1: memorial I've ever seen to Thurman. We both cheered up.

738
00:50:05,875 --> 00:50:09,075
Speaker 1: I couldn't believe she said that. I told her about

739
00:50:09,075 --> 00:50:11,675
Speaker 1: that night in nineteen seventy nine, what had been like

740
00:50:11,715 --> 00:50:14,595
Speaker 1: for me, I said, I knew it was almost insulting

741
00:50:14,675 --> 00:50:17,115
Speaker 1: to tell her, but I thought it was important somehow

742
00:50:17,155 --> 00:50:20,995
Speaker 1: to share. She hugged me again. It was deeply moving,

743
00:50:21,755 --> 00:50:25,555
Speaker 1: and it is still The other PostScript I only learned

744
00:50:25,595 --> 00:50:29,875
Speaker 1: of last year. For forever, and the coincidence here with

745
00:50:29,915 --> 00:50:32,315
Speaker 1: my friend and former boss Sam Rosen being the Hall

746
00:50:32,355 --> 00:50:34,275
Speaker 1: of Fame announcer of the New York Rangers hockey team

747
00:50:34,355 --> 00:50:38,715
Speaker 1: is extraordinary. But for forever, the reporter covering that hockey team,

748
00:50:38,715 --> 00:50:40,555
Speaker 1: the Rangers, for the newspaper of the New York Post,

749
00:50:40,595 --> 00:50:45,355
Speaker 1: has been Larry Brooks. I had forgotten until last year

750
00:50:45,355 --> 00:50:47,515
Speaker 1: that the year that Thurman Munson was killed, Larry was

751
00:50:47,555 --> 00:50:51,315
Speaker 1: a very very young beat reporter covering not Rangers hockey,

752
00:50:51,835 --> 00:50:55,635
Speaker 1: but Yankees baseball. And somebody sent me a clipping from

753
00:50:55,675 --> 00:50:59,355
Speaker 1: the New York Post from Saturday, July twenty eighth, nineteen

754
00:50:59,435 --> 00:51:03,635
Speaker 1: seventy nine, five days before Munson's fatal plane crash. It

755
00:51:03,755 --> 00:51:12,035
Speaker 1: is almost beyond belief. Larry Brooks's story began quote reports

756
00:51:12,155 --> 00:51:18,915
Speaker 1: of Thurman Munson's death are exaggerated, at least slightly unquote.

757
00:51:18,995 --> 00:51:22,195
Speaker 1: Of course, he was using a metaphor, Munson's knees had

758
00:51:22,195 --> 00:51:24,715
Speaker 1: been giving him trouble, and the manager of the Yankees,

759
00:51:24,715 --> 00:51:27,075
Speaker 1: Billy Martin, was giving him more time off between catching

760
00:51:27,075 --> 00:51:31,115
Speaker 1: assignments than usual. But Larry's story also included an even

761
00:51:31,275 --> 00:51:35,915
Speaker 1: more jaw dropping quote. Asked about the rumors he might

762
00:51:36,035 --> 00:51:39,355
Speaker 1: not catch again this year, Munson said, I don't know

763
00:51:39,435 --> 00:51:43,355
Speaker 1: who started them. It was Martin. Asked after the game

764
00:51:43,435 --> 00:51:50,035
Speaker 1: how his knees felt, he said, quote sore, real sore. Hey,

765
00:51:50,115 --> 00:52:08,235
Speaker 1: you might be seeing my last hurrah forty five years

766
00:52:08,275 --> 00:52:14,475
Speaker 1: ago Friday. I'll never get over it. I've done all

767
00:52:14,515 --> 00:52:16,755
Speaker 1: the damage I can do here. Thank you for listening. Countdown.

768
00:52:16,835 --> 00:52:20,635
Speaker 1: Musical directors Brian Ray and John Phillip Schhanelle arranged, produced,

769
00:52:20,675 --> 00:52:23,395
Speaker 1: and performed most of our music. Mister Ray was on

770
00:52:23,435 --> 00:52:25,955
Speaker 1: the guitars, the bass end the drums, and mister Schanale

771
00:52:26,115 --> 00:52:29,515
Speaker 1: handled orchestration and keyboards, and it was produced by TK Overros.

772
00:52:29,875 --> 00:52:33,275
Speaker 1: Other music, including some of the Beethoven compositions, were arranged

773
00:52:33,315 --> 00:52:36,275
Speaker 1: and performed by the group No Horns Allowed. The sports

774
00:52:36,355 --> 00:52:39,795
Speaker 1: music the Alderman theme from ESPN two, written by Mitch

775
00:52:39,835 --> 00:52:43,715
Speaker 1: Warren Davis, courtesy of ESPN Inc. Our satirical and pithy

776
00:52:43,795 --> 00:52:47,715
Speaker 1: musical comments by Nancy Faust, the best baseball stadium organist ever.

777
00:52:48,075 --> 00:52:51,395
Speaker 1: My announcer today was my friend Jonathan Banks. Everything else

778
00:52:51,515 --> 00:52:54,955
Speaker 1: was pretty much my fault. And no, once again, I

779
00:52:55,035 --> 00:52:58,275
Speaker 1: do not have any of the tapes of the Thurman

780
00:52:58,355 --> 00:53:02,635
Speaker 1: Monthson coverage from the year nineteen seventy nine. It is

781
00:53:02,755 --> 00:53:06,075
Speaker 1: I believe the only I'm in my life that I

782
00:53:06,115 --> 00:53:10,555
Speaker 1: did not preserve or at least listen to my work

783
00:53:11,195 --> 00:53:14,355
Speaker 1: on a particular story, at least for a moment. I

784
00:53:14,555 --> 00:53:19,035
Speaker 1: just couldn't. And I'm not sure if the tapes were

785
00:53:19,075 --> 00:53:23,395
Speaker 1: suddenly presented from somebody's archives to me today, I'm not

786
00:53:23,675 --> 00:53:28,035
Speaker 1: sure I could listen to them. Now that's countdown for

787
00:53:28,035 --> 00:53:30,155
Speaker 1: this then ninety eighth day until the twenty twenty four

788
00:53:30,235 --> 00:53:35,155
Speaker 1: presidential election. They three hundred first day since convicted felon

789
00:53:35,195 --> 00:53:39,115
Speaker 1: Donald Trump's first attempted coup against the democratically elected government

790
00:53:39,115 --> 00:53:42,955
Speaker 1: of the United States. Use the September eighteenth sentencing hearing.

791
00:53:43,315 --> 00:53:46,475
Speaker 1: Use the mental health system. You've got it, President Biden,

792
00:53:46,995 --> 00:53:51,675
Speaker 1: US presidential immunity to stop Trump from doing it again

793
00:53:52,715 --> 00:54:01,355
Speaker 1: while we still can, While you still can, mister president

794
00:54:02,275 --> 00:54:08,515
Speaker 1: and anti Semitic, anti immigration Republicans, please stop shooting weapons

795
00:54:08,595 --> 00:54:12,915
Speaker 1: at Trump. The next scheduled countdown is tomorrow. Bulletins as

796
00:54:12,955 --> 00:54:15,955
Speaker 1: the news requires. Until the next one, I'm Keith Alderman.

797
00:54:15,995 --> 00:54:29,555
Speaker 1: Good morning, good afternoon, good night, and good luck. Countdown

798
00:54:29,635 --> 00:54:33,395
Speaker 1: with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio. For more

799
00:54:33,475 --> 00:54:38,395
Speaker 1: podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or

800
00:54:38,475 --> 00:54:40,275
Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts.