May 3, 2023 • 37 mins
EPISODE 192: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN
A-Block (1:43) SPECIAL COMMENT: "A group of Trump guys surrounded an Antifa kid and started pounding the living shit out of him," Tucker Carlson texted to his producer on January 6, 2021. "It was three against one, at least. Jumping a guy like that is dishonorable obviously. It's not how white men fight."
THAT is the thing Fox found, at the last moment, just as its trial with Dominion was about to begin, that it could not afford to let out publicly; not, at least, while Tucker Carlson was still its employee. I raised the likelihood that there was something just like this, something even worse than everything that had already come out. Got that one right.
That's not only why Murdoch settled - it's a major reason that Murdoch fired Carlson. It also suggests Fox is the source of the text (Exhibit 276 to be precise) because it serves a purpose for Murdoch now. It dirties up his EX-employee on his way out and makes him a huge risk for anybody else to hire.
Unfortunately it also segues into CNN's disastrous decision to double-down on its live Town Hall next week with Trump. Not only was its moderator, Kaitlan Collins, still working FOR Tucker Carlson at The Daily Caller seven years ago, but a cache of her articles there shows grotesque indifference to human suffering to say nothing of Islamophobia. Her "ICE BUCKET CHALLENGE HIPSTERS: THESE GUANTANAMO DETAINEES DID IT FIRST" not only says Khalid Sheik Mohammed "took the challenge a record 183 times" but mocks the 'challenge' itself - which was to raise money for ALS Research and Treatment. She also mocked Syrian refugees in another article, and authored a pair of homophobic tweets in college.
Yet it is Kaitlan Collins that CNN's political director thinks can stand up to Trump lying in real time. She can "prod, ask questions, follow up, and try to get as revealing answers as possible." It is this David Chalian quoted in a Vanity Fair piece explaining "we obviously can't control what Trump says - that's up to him" and how Trump's sedition and crimes "does not make our approach any different" to him.
CNN is standing on a precipice. If it does not cancel the Town Hall, fire Licht and Chalian, and fire or demote Collins, both its remaining journalistic credibility and any possible re-sale value it still has, will be erased. Because its last line of defense against Trump was getting a pay check as recently as seven years ago from Tucker "It's not how white men fight" Carlson to mock ALS, torture, and refugees.
B-Block (18:30) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: When Kevin McCarthy goes to the White House Tuesday to dictate terms on the debt ceiling, Biden may have a surprise for him: defaulting on US debt may be literally unconstitutional. And Chuck Schumer supposedly talked to Dianne Feinstein on Monday, except he didn't actually TELL anybody that. Politico merely read it of a photograph of the talking points he was carrying in his hand! (22:28) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: A woman who slammed her car into BLM protestors gets a deal for FIVE HOURS OF COMMUNITY SERVICE. Texas wants its Republican Secretary of State to be able to overturn Democratic election victories in Houston just...cuz. And Disney's unexpected witness against Ron DeSantis... Ron DeSantis!
C-Block (28:41) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Joe, not only hit by a car, but needing two surgeries and a Rescue desperate to pay for them (30:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: I was reminded on a dog walk why one of the best pieces of advice I ever got came from a man I worked with for only five months: the late Boston star newscaster Chet Curtis. Hear the harrowing tale of the day he walked into "his" restaurant ready to be recognized only to find nobody there knew who the hell he was. I ain't modest much, but when I am, it's because of Chet.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio. Quote
It's not how White Men fight, text by Tucker Carlson
(00:30):
to one of his producers, January sixth, twenty twenty one.
That text is why Fox settled the Dominion defamation case.
That text is why, in part, Fox fired Tucker Carlson
nine days ago. It is racist and worse than racist.
It is the language of white supremacists. And yet to me,
one thing it is not is shocking. I believe that
(00:56):
the morning the Fox Dominion voting trial was delayed, somebody
around here suggested that either Dominion or more likely Fox
had discovered something new in those Fox emails and texts,
something that was worse even than what had been previously disclosed. Correct,
and last night we found out what it was. The
(01:16):
New York Times was given access to the redacted portion
of Exhibit two seven six. Yes they even have the
exhibit number. Carlson was writing to one of his producers
right after January sixth closed. He had recently seen video
of a street fight in Washington. Quote a group of
Trump guys surrounded an Antifa kid and started pounding the
(01:37):
living s out of him. It was three against one,
at least, jumping a guy like that is dishonorable. Obviously,
it's not how white men fight. Unquote quote, it's not
how white men fight. It is racist. It summarizes Tucker
Carlson's white supremacist nature. I understand why Rupert Murdoch settled
(02:01):
rather than have that come out at trial out of
the mouth of his employee. And I understand why Murdock
then fired Carlson. And further, I understand why Murdoch would
have had somebody at Fox give that to The New
York Times yesterday in order to dirty up there now
ex employee Tucker Carlson. But as I said, one thing
(02:22):
I am not is shocked because I worked with Tucker
Carlson for nearly three years, and that that quote it's
not how white men fight, that's who he is, and sadly,
who he is and who he has employed in the
(02:44):
past dovetails with the reality that rather than racing to
the only unblocked fire escape, CNN has doubled down on
surrendering an hour or more of its prime time, uncontrolled,
unvetted live to Donald Trump next Wednesday, and it is
hiding behind the idea that its moderator can push back
against Trump flies, and unfortunately, six years ago today, CNN's
(03:09):
Trump moderator was working for Tucker Carlson and had on
her resume horrific articles published on Carlson's website, The Daily Caller,
one of which mocked American torture of detainees at GITMO
and another of which mocked the nightmare of the refugees
of Syria. And five years ago today, CNN's moderator had
(03:29):
yet to apologize for a series of homophobic slurs she
tweeted while a college student. And I think the rediscovery
of those articles and those tweets is going to ignite
a second scandal about this CNN Trump town hall next
week that is going to cost CNN any remaining journalistic credibility.
It has biographies of Caitlin Collins, the moderator, that appear
(03:56):
on CNN venues and elsewhere, emphasized her reputation for tough questions.
Even Vanity Fair's skeptical story about the town hall, which
I'm about to so freely quote, says this, But it
should be noted that nearly all of those tough questions
have taken place during the Biden presidency. And that she
was banned by the Trump Press Office for asking questions
(04:17):
during a photo op in twenty eighteen and got a
lot of anti Trump mileage out of that, but has
done little else to earn it. But given less emphasis
is her origin story. Caitlin Collins was the White House
correspondent for CNN. Prior to that, she was the White
House correspondent for The Daily Caller, a right wing propaganda
(04:39):
site founded by Tucker Carlson. Erased from most of her
biographies were tweets she wrote while a college student in
twenty eleven using homophobic slurs. Erased from most of her
biographies is an article she wrote while a Daily Caller contributor,
comparing a fundraiser done in twenty fourteen to find a
(04:59):
cure for als to the waterboarding of detainees at the
the US extra legal prison in Guantanamo Bay. The headline
of that article reads, It's still online. The headline reads
quote ice bucket challenge hipsters, these Guantanamo detainees did it first.
(05:20):
Then the article shows photos and brief Collins written biographies
of the likes of Ramsay Bin, alsheb Abu Zubaida, and
college sheik Muhammad KSM. Of the latter, Caitlyn Collins wrote, quote.
In two thousand and eight, CIA Director General Michael V.
Hayden publicly boasted that waterboarding had been used on KSM,
(05:41):
making him one of the first hipsters to partake in
the ice Bucket Challenge. He tops the list because KSM
took the challenge a record one hundred and eighty three times. Unquote.
Caitlyn Collins wrote that on August eighteenth, twenty fourteen, not
even nine years ago. This is the quote moderator CNN
(06:04):
wants us to believe. Is there to question what Donald
Trump says? That was twenty fourteen. On November eighteen, twenty fifteen,
not even seven and a half years ago, Katelin Collins
wrote another article for The Daily Caller headlined thirteen Syrian
refugees we'd take immediately are opening paragraph read quote and
(06:27):
this is also still online. While a growing list of
governors are claiming they won't allow Syrian refugees to enter
their states, we think these women might make them change
their minds. They are Syria slye hot unquote Caitlyn Collins,
(06:47):
whom a CNN executive wants us to believe, we'll control
Trump's lies and quote prad ask questions, follow up, and
try to get as revealing answers as possible. Homophobic, islamophobic, mocking,
internationally condemned torture by Americans, reducing the plight of Syria
refugees to a tasteless online slide show of attractive women
(07:08):
six years only removed from taking paychecks from Tucker Carlson. Obviously,
America can trust Caitlin Collins to push back against Trump's
lies or at least make another joke about Syrian refugees
or waterboarding. Maybe she can ask Trump about her old
boss talking about how white men should and should not fight.
(07:32):
CNN's only way out of this now is to fire
its CEO, Chris Licht, and fire its political director David Shalian,
and fire or demote its compromise moderator, and cancel the
Trump town hall and apologize to the nation. Instead, CNN
is ratcheting up the rationalizations. Though CNN is surrendering editorial
(07:53):
control of its network next Wednesday to Trump, its political
director mister Shallian had the gall to tell Vanity Fair Magazine, quote,
we obviously can't control what Donald Trump says. That's up
to him. Unquote he says the network is going to
treat him like any other candidate, and his sedition and
criminality quote does not make our approach any different than
(08:17):
to any other candidate. Contained in those comments and the
resurfaced Collins history is why CNN's remaining credibility as a
news organization will be destroyed if it does not bail
out of the New Hampshire town Hall and do so immediately.
And it is why CNN's diminished value, even as a
subsequent script down resale asset, a television version of post
(08:41):
Musk Twitter would be reduced to almost nothing, which might
be the only thing Chris Licked and his masters might
vaguely understand now, although the Collins problem may be so
big that even a fool like Licked will sit up
and take notice. Trump, of course, is not like any
other candidate in the history of this country, nor of
(09:02):
any Western democracy. He is first of all, a deranged
authoritarian bent on destroying democracy. And the twenty sixteen and
twenty twenty elections should have proved to even the most
unqualified person in a job like David Shallian's, and that
most unqualified person would seem to be David Shalian, that
CNN's approach to Trump must be entirely different, because while
(09:27):
CNN cannot be expected to control what Trump or anybody
else says, it is completely ceding its responsibility to the
American people and to freedom. When Ashalian says they're leaving
those quote up to him. Trump has proven to be
unrestrained by fact, by reality, by whether or not his
(09:50):
words destroy the nation or kill Americans by the hundreds
of thousands. Leaving anything up to him is to invite chaos, deceit,
and death. To say that does not make our approach
any different is to sync to the role of accessory
before the fact. It is to reduce CNN to being
a conduit not merely to propaganda and lies, and division
(10:11):
and conspiracy theory and religious fanaticism, but to another Trump
attempt to destroy the United States of America. To say
that's up to him is to literally render CNN complicit
in another attempted coup against not just the government of
this country, but the very nature of the government of
this country. These are the stakes by letting Trump back
(10:37):
on its air, live with questions exclusively from his cult
and his new enabler, Caitlin Collins, David Shalian and Chris
Lickt and all the others at CNN involved in this
nightmare are co conspirators in domestic terrorism. And they add
to this a remarkable air of glibness and callousness and stupidity.
(10:58):
Yesterday's CNN began to run promos for the Trump town
hall pre recorded thing, run as blithely as if they
were telling you which oatmeal politician was to be the
guest on the Oatmeal Michael Smerconish show. Titlin Collins herself
read one of the promos live yesterday morning. One of
the other two surviving members of CNN's impossibly pedestrian Morning program,
(11:23):
Poppy Harlowe, actually then said, quote, so looking forward to
seeing that really important for him to take voter questions.
He is the front runner right now in the GOP meantime.
The political director Shalian also confirmed as fact a previously
reported sourced allegation that as if this somehow needed to
(11:46):
be worse for CNN, makes it worse for CNN, that
this was all CNN's idea. On Monday, Vanity Fair had
quoted a Trump plotter as saying, quote, CNN executives made
a compelling pitch Shalian confirmed that quote the heart of
the pitch is that the town hall has been a
central part of our campaign coverage. Quote he said there
(12:07):
would be follow up questions from the moderator. Quote, but
the primary focus of a presidential town hall is to
have the candidate interact with the voters, and that's why
we convene these things, because we think it's so important
to the process of voters making their choices. Political director
Shalian added, quote, what we can do is prod ask questions,
(12:30):
follow up, and try to get as revealing answers as possible.
This master of both sides ism would not say whether
there would be live fact checking of Trump nor any
other pushback against Trump's array of lies. But it's quote
not new for CNN journalists to question Donald Trump unquote
(12:51):
that is literally correct. It is also not new for
Trump to humiliate, demean, threaten, and lie to CNN journalists
and get away with it, as his invitation to be
on CNN air again next week proves, especially since the
interaction will be live on CNN, Especially since his complete
lack of conscience and morality makes Trump the ideal liar
(13:13):
and cult leader, and CNN has not once put anybody
on the air able to knock down Trump's lies as
quickly as he can spew them. But don't worry, Caitlin
Collins will defend democracy for us. The ice bucket challenge
(13:34):
she wrote has gone viral lately on Facebook and Instagram,
raising awareness for lou Garrig's disease, as people either dump
a bucket of ice water on their head or donate
one hundred dollars to the ALS Association. However, as with
every trend, there are the hipsters who did it before
everyone else. These Guantanamo Bay detainees were certainly first to
(13:58):
do the ice bucket challenge, and its high time they
got their due. Still ahead on this ediative countdown, Kevin
(14:20):
McCarthy will meet with the President next Tuesday to discuss
the debt limit. McCarthy may think he has all the cards,
Joe Biden may have a surprise for him. It appears
defaulting on American debt is literally unconstitutional and a president
may cover the bills no matter what the Republicans do. Surprise.
(14:40):
Speaking of surprise, Disney has sued Ron DeSantis because he
punished them for using their First Amendment rights to protest
his don't say gay laws in Florida. Disney may have
a surprise witness to use against him him. DeSantis's new
book is basically one long confession of how he punished
Disney and Disney alone for using the First Amendment and
(15:02):
that old phrase. He's a modest man with much to
be modest about. Even if you don't have that much
to be modest about, it pays to try to be
that way. Let me tell you the story of Chet
Curtis and dinner at Anthony's and the reminder to always
be surprised that anybody knows who the hell you are.
That's next. This is countdown. This is countdown with Keith Olberman.
(15:37):
Postscripts to the news, some headlines, some updates, some snarks,
some predictions. Dateline Washington Speaker of the House Kevin Tucker.
Tucker who McCarthy has agreed to meet with the President
next Tuesday to discuss the Republican's latest threat to destroy
the world economy if they can't cut the safety net
the debt ceiling. But McCarthy may get yet another surprise
(16:00):
in his surprise written painful speakership. The New York Times
reporting that Biden economic and legal officials believe that if
the House really did go ahead and kill its hostage
the debt sealing, the government would be constitutionally obligated to
keep paying its debt anyway, and would do so, leaving
the Republicans with their debts in their hands. There is
(16:25):
a cause in the Fourteenth Amendment stating quote, the validity
of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law,
including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for
services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned.
The administration officials have been debating for months if that
means what it sounds like it means. The Times quotes
(16:47):
the University of Oregon constitutional scholar Garrett Epps, who writes
the Constitution's text bars the federal government from defaulting on
the debt even a little, even for a short while.
There's a case to be made that if Congress decides
to default on the debt, the President has the power
and the obligation to pay it without Congressional permission, even
(17:08):
if that requires borrowing more money to do so. As
we used to say on the playground, Congressman McCarthy snag,
(17:30):
thank you, Nancy Faust dateline California. Boy, oh boy, If
the senior senator from that state really is alive and
well and ready to return to Washington, she has a
damn funny and damn desperate way of saying so. Politico
has put out a story saying that Senate Majority Leader
Chuck Schumer claims to have spoken to Senator Dianne Feinstein
(17:50):
on Monday of this week, and he quotes her as
saying she is hopeful she will return to the job
next week, not that Schumer actually said any of that,
but Politico zoomed in on a photo taken of the
notes Chuck Schumer was carrying at his press briefing yesterday,
and item six of his talking points was an anticipated
(18:12):
question about the debt limit and whether or not it
was now time to tell Feinstein to quit or get
off the pot. But nobody asked Schumer that question, so
he didn't give that answer. But there it is in
his talking points in the photo that he and Feinstein
spoke Monday and both are hopeful she can return, even
though he never said it. CNN then asked to feinstein
(18:35):
spokesperson about this. That person replied, quote, Senator Feinstein continues
to make progress in her recovery. We don't have a
timeline yet for her return to Washington, which is dependent
on her medical team saying it is safe to travel. Unquote,
the Senator is supposedly recovering from shingles. I've had shingles.
It is the worst illness you can have that cannot
(18:58):
kill you or cause them to cut something off. I
had it in twenty fourteen. I'll let you know when
I'm fully recovered. But at its worst, you could travel
a little bit each day and still be in Washington
by week after next at the latest, even if you
were traveling by Pony Express ahead the day. I learned
(19:33):
never to assume anybody knew who the hell I was.
First time for the daily round up with the miss Grants,
morons and Dunning Kruger effects specimens who constitute today's worst
persons in the world. The Bronze the Manhattan District Attorney's Office. Yes,
that one. You can't please everyone, especially not me. On
(19:56):
December eleventh, twenty twenty, a woman named Kathleen Cassillo was
driving her BMW at thirty ninth Street and Third Avenue
in Manhattan when she plowed into a group of Black
Lives Matter protesters, sending several of them flying into the
air six injuries. Fortunately none of them were life threatening.
The DA here has just cut a deal with miss Cassillo,
(20:18):
who claimed she feared for her safety and her daughters.
Her daughter's twenty nine, by the way, and she panicked
and stepped on the gas. The deal they made with her,
she was facing seven years in jail if convicted. She
has instead pleaded guilty to reckless endangerment and has been
forced to do community service five hours of community service.
(20:43):
If I got up from this studio right now and
went out on the street and waited for a cop
to come by, and stood in front of him and
emptied out a city garbage can as he watched, the
best deal I could get would be like twenty hours
of community service. And by the way, if she stays
out of trouble for six months, Miss Cassillo's conviction would
(21:03):
be reduced to disorderly conduct. Christ I'm surprised they didn't
give her a gift coupon to Bloomingdale's the runner up
third time on the list this week, Greg Abbott, no'm
on only listed as the governor of Texas when actually
he wants to be the dictator of Texas. This authoritarian
weasel has just gotten the state Senate there to pass
a bill that orders the Secretary of State to overturn
(21:27):
any election in Houston or in all of Harris County.
If the Secretary of State merely says they believe the
election has issues, that's it. And who appoints the secretary
of State in Texas? Why the governor does Greg Gabbott
a Republican, a Texas Republican, therefore a fascist, and who's
usually the winner in Harris County a Democrat? So it
(21:49):
could become law in Texas that a Republican governor can
nullify a Democratic win just because it is time for
US as a country to stop spending federal funds on Texas.
If Texas does not want to be part of a democracy,
go on out there without the money from the self
sufficient states, the Blue States, and see how many days
(22:10):
you'll last as the Kingdom of Texas. But the winner,
that small man in the high heeled shoes, Ron de Santis.
Disney is suing him on the state of Florida over
DeSantis's attempts to punish the company by changing the laws
governing Disney World. Because Disney exercised its First Amendment rights,
the ones that Republicans like Ronda fought so hard for
(22:33):
in Citizens United, exercising its First Amendment rights by opposing
Ron de Santis's homophobic don't say gay laws. As Greg's
sergeant in The Washington Post noted, Disney has an unusual
ally in its fight against Ron de Santis Ron DeSantis.
Much of Disney's legal filings are simply direct quotations from
(22:54):
DeSantis's new book, which is ironically titled The Courage to
Be fee DeSantis repeatedly not only admits in the book
that he targeted Disney and Disney alone for retribution for
disagreeing with him politically, but he boasts about it. Ron
Two months ago, people thought DeSantis might challenge for the
Republican presidential nomination. Now they're wondering if he will be
(23:17):
permitted to finish out his term as governor. DeSantis two
days worst person in the world still ahead on countdown.
(23:38):
One of my pups and I were stopped on a
walk the other day by another guy with another dog,
and a couple of minutes into the all dog conversation
that is, the guy and I were talking about dogs.
The dogs were not talking to each other, at least
not that we heard. In the middle of this, the
guy abruptly stops and recognizes me. Why didn't you say something,
he asked, and I said, you wanted me to tell
(23:58):
you my name. I then told him the additional story
of why I never assume anybody had has any idea
who the F I am. I will tell you that
story next. First, in each tradition of Countdown, we feature
a dog. Indeed, you can help. Every dog has its
day to New York and this is a special and
sad case. This is about Joe and the good folks
(24:21):
at AMA Animal Rescue who saved him. First. Joe, who
looks like a Maltese mix, maybe a Havines mix, kind
of big for Maltese. He was hit by a car.
They took him to the New York Pound and of
course the New York Pound put him on death row.
We highlighted him on my dog Rescue Twitter account at
Tom Jumbo Grumbo and AMA Rescue pulled him out and
(24:44):
saved Joe. And that's when it turned out Joe wasn't
just hurt. He had a severe fracture of his pelvis
that had all kinds of complications he would need surgery.
And then AMA Rescue found out Joe will need in
fact two surgeries and he has a blood infection and
this will cost thousands of dollars, and the rescue is
(25:05):
not going to give up on him and say now
just kill him. So if you can help Joe, and
you can help AMA Rescue with any kind of donation,
you can find Joe on Cudley or on both of
my Twitter feeds. I thank you and Joe thanks you.
(25:31):
Now our number one story in the countdown on my
favorite topic, me and the lesson of humility and anonymity
I learned one fine summer day from one fine Boston
TV newscaster in the long ago year of nineteen eighty four.
I did not last long there. The station got mad
(25:51):
at me for making jokes during the sportscast, which raised
the question why did they hire a guy known for
making jokes during the sportscast? So I left ten days
shy of six months. Last day, right after I got
back from covering the nineteen eight twenty four World Series,
sitting next to another young Boston TV sports reporter named
Carl Yustremsky, and the last day was Friday, October nineteenth,
(26:14):
nineteen eighty four. It was short, but it was not sweet.
But I did meet some extraordinary people, and I learned
one extraordinary lesson that applies to a lot more of
life than might be suggested at first blush. On the
night of Friday, July sixth, nineteen eighty four, Chet Curtis,
who with his wife Natalie Jacobson, were the mandarins of
Boston Television News, asked me if I wanted to go
(26:36):
with him to dinner after our six PM newscast. The
following Monday, I would move from sports reporter and fill
in at the sports desk to anchoring the sports report
every night on our eleven PM newscast. The year before,
our station, Channel five, had interviewed me for the job
of sports director, but I made a terrible mistake. In
the interview with the general manager, Jim Coppersmith. I mentioned
(26:58):
to him that we had met before when he was
general manager of Channel five in New York and I
was an intern in their newsroom. This peaked Coppersmith's curiosity
since it had happened only five years later. That's when
he found out I was not twenty eight years old.
As his news director had told him, but I was
only twenty four. So instead he hired this guy from
(27:20):
Florida named Lee Webb. And all you really need to
know about Lee was that after he left the station,
he became the quote newscaster unquote on the Pat Robertson
TV network, and he started talking about what the Bible
said about Ronald Reagan. And he often used the phrases
Republicans and Democrats and fire and brimstone in the same sentence.
(27:41):
So a year later they had decided Webb was too
dull and I was the coming thing, and they were
splitting the sportscasting job in half. Lee would stay on
the six and I would do the eleven. And Chad Curtis,
who had been on Boston TV since nineteen sixty eight,
wanted to give me an idea of what was coming
for me. So he said, Let's go to Anthony's Peer four.
(28:01):
Kind of touristy fish place, but beautiful, great food, but
I have to stop on my way to get a
quick SoundBite for the eleven. Sure enough, Chet drove to
a downtown office building spied the Channel five cameraman waiting
for us on the sidewalk. Parked and hopped out. Now,
on any summer's Friday night then and now, Boston's downtown
is deserted. But this was a Friday night, two days
(28:25):
after July fourth. It was so empty you could hear
the stoplights change from red to green. Yet within a
minute of check Curtis's appearance there formed a crowd of
somewhere between fifty and one hundred people. Where they came from.
I have no idea to this day. If you told
me they had emerged from the sewers, I would have
(28:47):
and would believe you. Without being asked. They formed a
neat semi circle out of the range of the camera.
Whoever the guy was that Chet was supposed to interview,
answered his questions quickly. The cameraman repositioned himself to get
the obligatory. Chet listens intently and intelligently cutaway shots. Then
he said okay, were done, and the semi circle of
civilians burst into applause. A few came over for autographs
(29:12):
and pictures. One said to me you are the new
Spots guy. I like you. Then they all left as
stealthily as they appeared. We got back into Chet's truck.
I was laughing nervously. How do you get used to that?
I mean, when I've gone to the ballpark, I get
a few hellos and one or two autograph requests. But
(29:35):
does this happen all the time? And how do you
get used to it? Chat had a wonderful laugh. It
does not happen all the time. It'll happen a lot
more to you once you start on the eleven. But
don't get used to it. That's one of the reasons
I want to have dinner with you. And the place
we're going is where I learned the lesson I wanted
to offer to you. So we go to Anthony's. The
(29:56):
valet was saying good to see you, mister Curtis before
Chet was fully out of the truck. His boss appeared
good evening, Chet. People dining outside on the pier stared,
several waved the major d beat us to the front
door and held it open for us. And this is
your new sportscaster, Welcome to Anthony's. Chet was more than gracious.
He managed to simultaneously convey deep appreciation. Low Key surprised
(30:20):
at all the attention and the sense that nobody was
bothering him in the slightest as we entered the dining room,
there was polite applause. Chet waved almost but not quite sheepishly.
We were seated at the best table at the best
angle to see the harbor. The reserved sign the manager
of Anthony's removed was comically large. After the drinks arrived,
(30:44):
Chent began to preach. Unless you're an athlete, nobody, he said,
gets loved on as much in this city as people
on TV, especially people on Channel five. Now it's a
little quieter than usual because of the holiday. But when
they first put me on the eleven o'clock news eight
years ago next to my beautiful bride, if I came
in here, there would be people stamp and applauding. Natalie
(31:07):
doesn't really like that stuff, so she sends not to
go with me to the big restaurants. But me, I'm
just Chester from Amsterdam, New York, and I worked damn
hard to get here, and I loved it. I loved
every second of it. If there was an opportunity to
come here before the late newscast or after it, or
on the weekends, I was here. I said, I loved
the fish. I really loved the applause. He laughed again.
(31:30):
I mean, we're still number one, but maybe five years
ago we had higher ratings than the other two stations combined.
There were months at a time when I didn't pay
for a drink here, not one, and I came to
depend upon that. And that's what I wanted to tell you.
Don't don't get used to it, don't expect it. Don't
(31:51):
fail to be surprised by it, or at least, don't
fail to fake being surprised by it. Because one day
it happened. It happened right here, and I thought my
career was over at the age of twenty five. I
know this will surprise you. I did not listen to
a lot of advice, but check Curtis was bearing his
soul here, and I felt a mixture of terror and
(32:12):
rapt anticipation about what had happened to him. I think
this was fairly early on, he said, mid seventies. And
I drove up, just like we did just now, and
I straightened my tie and it brushed my hair and
made myself ready for my adoring public. I'm ready for
my close up, mister de mill. And I opened that door,
and I went to that major d stand and I
(32:33):
smiled and there was a guy there I had never
seen before, and he said, can I help you? And
I smiled and looked to that bar where Danny always is,
see him right now? No, Danny, the bartender that day
didn't even look back at me. So, just as the
sense of anxiety began to creep up on me, I said,
rather defensively, I'm check Curtis. And the Major D looked
(32:55):
at me with annoyance and said, you have a reservation,
And I thought a reservation. I have an adoring public.
I said, well, no, Usually Tony holds a table for
me and says, I don't have to call in advance,
and the Mayor D says, well, I'm sorry, we're full.
Without a reservation, the wait will be ninety minutes. And
now I am sweating, and then there's a tap on
(33:17):
my shoulder, Chat says, and I think, thank god, it's
a fan of News Center five, And instead it's somebody
who just says, excuse me, fella, can we get through
Jones party of two seven point thirty? And now I'm
standing there and I look around the bar, and I
look around the dining room and nobody recognizes me. Not
a waitress, not a customer, nobody, and it starts in
(33:39):
my head. Chat. I say to myself, what have you done?
What did you say on the air? Nobody knows you.
At Anthony's, nobody wants to know you. Your career is over?
What did you do? And now, Keith, I am beginning
to feel faint and panicky, and I run out the
door to get back in my car, and I drive
away as fast as possible, all the while thinking what
(34:01):
did you do to end your career? And just as
I get to my car, another car drives out, and
outsteps in shorts and a T shirt, Anthony himself, Anthony
of Anthony's Restaurant, the founder, the owner, and he says, Chat,
what the hell's wrong with you? You're pale as a ghost.
And I stammer about my career ending and nobody inside
(34:21):
recognizing me anymore. And here Chet Curtis burst into laughter.
I'm almost in tears, telling him that the may or
d said I'd have to wait ninety minutes because I
didn't have a reservation. And now Anthony laughs and he says,
of course nobody recognizes you. The whole staff is at
our summer picnic. I only came in now to give
them a chance to talk about me behind my back.
(34:43):
Those guys in there are all per diems, freelancers. Everybody
you know is at Nantasket Beach getting drunk. Chent finally
stopped his own laughter, sipped from his beer, and very
dramatically said, so, how do you get used to being recognized?
Do not get used to being recognized, because because one
(35:05):
day everybody you expect is going to recognize you will
be out at a picnic at Nantasket Beach getting drunk
that you don't know about, and all you will be
able to figure out is that your career is over
and you should go home and jump off your roof.
So this is my advice to you as you start
the eleven o'clock news in Boston. Never get used to it.
(35:40):
I've done all the damage I can do. Here here
are our credits. Most of the music was arranged, produced
and performed by Brian Ray and John Phillip Shanelle, who
are the Countdown musical directors. All orchestration and keyboards by
John Phillip Shanel. Guitars, bass and drums by Brian Ray,
produced by Tko Brothers. Other Beethoven selections have been arranged
and performed by the group No Horns Allowed. The sports
(36:03):
music is the Olderman theme from ESPN two, and it
was written by Mitch Warren Davis at appears courtesy of ESPN, Inc.
Musical comments by Nancy Fauss. The best baseball stadium organist ever.
At our announcer today was my friend Kenny Mayne. Everything
else is pretty much my fault. So that's countdown for this,
the eight hundred and forty eighth day since Donald Trump's
first attempted coup against the democratically elected government of the
(36:25):
United States. Don't forget to keep arresting him while we
still can. A quick promo Friday, I've got something I
think is special. On Saturday of this week, as on
every May sixth since nineteen fifty four, the world has
celebrated runner Roger Banister breaking the four minute mile barrier,
(36:48):
the first man ever to run a four minute mile.
Except he was not the first man ever to do that,
and his is probably the greatest, most undeserved record or
accomplishment in sports history. It is a long and amazing story,
and I will tell it to you on Friday. The
next scheduled countdown is tomorrow. Until then, I'm Keith Oldraman
(37:10):
good morning, good afternoon, good night, and good luck. Countdown
with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio. For more
podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
(37:34):
wherever you get your podcasts.
Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio. Quote
It's not how White Men fight, text by Tucker Carlson
(00:30):
to one of his producers, January sixth, twenty twenty one.
That text is why Fox settled the Dominion defamation case.
That text is why, in part, Fox fired Tucker Carlson
nine days ago. It is racist and worse than racist.
It is the language of white supremacists. And yet to me,
one thing it is not is shocking. I believe that
(00:56):
the morning the Fox Dominion voting trial was delayed, somebody
around here suggested that either Dominion or more likely Fox
had discovered something new in those Fox emails and texts,
something that was worse even than what had been previously disclosed. Correct,
and last night we found out what it was. The
(01:16):
New York Times was given access to the redacted portion
of Exhibit two seven six. Yes they even have the
exhibit number. Carlson was writing to one of his producers
right after January sixth closed. He had recently seen video
of a street fight in Washington. Quote a group of
Trump guys surrounded an Antifa kid and started pounding the
(01:37):
living s out of him. It was three against one,
at least, jumping a guy like that is dishonorable. Obviously,
it's not how white men fight. Unquote quote, it's not
how white men fight. It is racist. It summarizes Tucker
Carlson's white supremacist nature. I understand why Rupert Murdoch settled
(02:01):
rather than have that come out at trial out of
the mouth of his employee. And I understand why Murdock
then fired Carlson. And further, I understand why Murdoch would
have had somebody at Fox give that to The New
York Times yesterday in order to dirty up there now
ex employee Tucker Carlson. But as I said, one thing
(02:22):
I am not is shocked because I worked with Tucker
Carlson for nearly three years, and that that quote it's
not how white men fight, that's who he is, and sadly,
who he is and who he has employed in the
(02:44):
past dovetails with the reality that rather than racing to
the only unblocked fire escape, CNN has doubled down on
surrendering an hour or more of its prime time, uncontrolled,
unvetted live to Donald Trump next Wednesday, and it is
hiding behind the idea that its moderator can push back
against Trump flies, and unfortunately, six years ago today, CNN's
(03:09):
Trump moderator was working for Tucker Carlson and had on
her resume horrific articles published on Carlson's website, The Daily Caller,
one of which mocked American torture of detainees at GITMO
and another of which mocked the nightmare of the refugees
of Syria. And five years ago today, CNN's moderator had
(03:29):
yet to apologize for a series of homophobic slurs she
tweeted while a college student. And I think the rediscovery
of those articles and those tweets is going to ignite
a second scandal about this CNN Trump town hall next
week that is going to cost CNN any remaining journalistic credibility.
It has biographies of Caitlin Collins, the moderator, that appear
(03:56):
on CNN venues and elsewhere, emphasized her reputation for tough questions.
Even Vanity Fair's skeptical story about the town hall, which
I'm about to so freely quote, says this, But it
should be noted that nearly all of those tough questions
have taken place during the Biden presidency. And that she
was banned by the Trump Press Office for asking questions
(04:17):
during a photo op in twenty eighteen and got a
lot of anti Trump mileage out of that, but has
done little else to earn it. But given less emphasis
is her origin story. Caitlin Collins was the White House
correspondent for CNN. Prior to that, she was the White
House correspondent for The Daily Caller, a right wing propaganda
(04:39):
site founded by Tucker Carlson. Erased from most of her
biographies were tweets she wrote while a college student in
twenty eleven using homophobic slurs. Erased from most of her
biographies is an article she wrote while a Daily Caller contributor,
comparing a fundraiser done in twenty fourteen to find a
(04:59):
cure for als to the waterboarding of detainees at the
the US extra legal prison in Guantanamo Bay. The headline
of that article reads, It's still online. The headline reads
quote ice bucket challenge hipsters, these Guantanamo detainees did it first.
(05:20):
Then the article shows photos and brief Collins written biographies
of the likes of Ramsay Bin, alsheb Abu Zubaida, and
college sheik Muhammad KSM. Of the latter, Caitlyn Collins wrote, quote.
In two thousand and eight, CIA Director General Michael V.
Hayden publicly boasted that waterboarding had been used on KSM,
(05:41):
making him one of the first hipsters to partake in
the ice Bucket Challenge. He tops the list because KSM
took the challenge a record one hundred and eighty three times. Unquote.
Caitlyn Collins wrote that on August eighteenth, twenty fourteen, not
even nine years ago. This is the quote moderator CNN
(06:04):
wants us to believe. Is there to question what Donald
Trump says? That was twenty fourteen. On November eighteen, twenty fifteen,
not even seven and a half years ago, Katelin Collins
wrote another article for The Daily Caller headlined thirteen Syrian
refugees we'd take immediately are opening paragraph read quote and
(06:27):
this is also still online. While a growing list of
governors are claiming they won't allow Syrian refugees to enter
their states, we think these women might make them change
their minds. They are Syria slye hot unquote Caitlyn Collins,
(06:47):
whom a CNN executive wants us to believe, we'll control
Trump's lies and quote prad ask questions, follow up, and
try to get as revealing answers as possible. Homophobic, islamophobic, mocking,
internationally condemned torture by Americans, reducing the plight of Syria
refugees to a tasteless online slide show of attractive women
(07:08):
six years only removed from taking paychecks from Tucker Carlson. Obviously,
America can trust Caitlin Collins to push back against Trump's
lies or at least make another joke about Syrian refugees
or waterboarding. Maybe she can ask Trump about her old
boss talking about how white men should and should not fight.
(07:32):
CNN's only way out of this now is to fire
its CEO, Chris Licht, and fire its political director David Shalian,
and fire or demote its compromise moderator, and cancel the
Trump town hall and apologize to the nation. Instead, CNN
is ratcheting up the rationalizations. Though CNN is surrendering editorial
(07:53):
control of its network next Wednesday to Trump, its political
director mister Shallian had the gall to tell Vanity Fair Magazine, quote,
we obviously can't control what Donald Trump says. That's up
to him. Unquote he says the network is going to
treat him like any other candidate, and his sedition and
criminality quote does not make our approach any different than
(08:17):
to any other candidate. Contained in those comments and the
resurfaced Collins history is why CNN's remaining credibility as a
news organization will be destroyed if it does not bail
out of the New Hampshire town Hall and do so immediately.
And it is why CNN's diminished value, even as a
subsequent script down resale asset, a television version of post
(08:41):
Musk Twitter would be reduced to almost nothing, which might
be the only thing Chris Licked and his masters might
vaguely understand now, although the Collins problem may be so
big that even a fool like Licked will sit up
and take notice. Trump, of course, is not like any
other candidate in the history of this country, nor of
(09:02):
any Western democracy. He is first of all, a deranged
authoritarian bent on destroying democracy. And the twenty sixteen and
twenty twenty elections should have proved to even the most
unqualified person in a job like David Shallian's, and that
most unqualified person would seem to be David Shalian, that
CNN's approach to Trump must be entirely different, because while
(09:27):
CNN cannot be expected to control what Trump or anybody
else says, it is completely ceding its responsibility to the
American people and to freedom. When Ashalian says they're leaving
those quote up to him. Trump has proven to be
unrestrained by fact, by reality, by whether or not his
(09:50):
words destroy the nation or kill Americans by the hundreds
of thousands. Leaving anything up to him is to invite chaos, deceit,
and death. To say that does not make our approach
any different is to sync to the role of accessory
before the fact. It is to reduce CNN to being
a conduit not merely to propaganda and lies, and division
(10:11):
and conspiracy theory and religious fanaticism, but to another Trump
attempt to destroy the United States of America. To say
that's up to him is to literally render CNN complicit
in another attempted coup against not just the government of
this country, but the very nature of the government of
this country. These are the stakes by letting Trump back
(10:37):
on its air, live with questions exclusively from his cult
and his new enabler, Caitlin Collins, David Shalian and Chris
Lickt and all the others at CNN involved in this
nightmare are co conspirators in domestic terrorism. And they add
to this a remarkable air of glibness and callousness and stupidity.
(10:58):
Yesterday's CNN began to run promos for the Trump town
hall pre recorded thing, run as blithely as if they
were telling you which oatmeal politician was to be the
guest on the Oatmeal Michael Smerconish show. Titlin Collins herself
read one of the promos live yesterday morning. One of
the other two surviving members of CNN's impossibly pedestrian Morning program,
(11:23):
Poppy Harlowe, actually then said, quote, so looking forward to
seeing that really important for him to take voter questions.
He is the front runner right now in the GOP meantime.
The political director Shalian also confirmed as fact a previously
reported sourced allegation that as if this somehow needed to
(11:46):
be worse for CNN, makes it worse for CNN, that
this was all CNN's idea. On Monday, Vanity Fair had
quoted a Trump plotter as saying, quote, CNN executives made
a compelling pitch Shalian confirmed that quote the heart of
the pitch is that the town hall has been a
central part of our campaign coverage. Quote he said there
(12:07):
would be follow up questions from the moderator. Quote, but
the primary focus of a presidential town hall is to
have the candidate interact with the voters, and that's why
we convene these things, because we think it's so important
to the process of voters making their choices. Political director
Shalian added, quote, what we can do is prod ask questions,
(12:30):
follow up, and try to get as revealing answers as possible.
This master of both sides ism would not say whether
there would be live fact checking of Trump nor any
other pushback against Trump's array of lies. But it's quote
not new for CNN journalists to question Donald Trump unquote
(12:51):
that is literally correct. It is also not new for
Trump to humiliate, demean, threaten, and lie to CNN journalists
and get away with it, as his invitation to be
on CNN air again next week proves, especially since the
interaction will be live on CNN, Especially since his complete
lack of conscience and morality makes Trump the ideal liar
(13:13):
and cult leader, and CNN has not once put anybody
on the air able to knock down Trump's lies as
quickly as he can spew them. But don't worry, Caitlin
Collins will defend democracy for us. The ice bucket challenge
(13:34):
she wrote has gone viral lately on Facebook and Instagram,
raising awareness for lou Garrig's disease, as people either dump
a bucket of ice water on their head or donate
one hundred dollars to the ALS Association. However, as with
every trend, there are the hipsters who did it before
everyone else. These Guantanamo Bay detainees were certainly first to
(13:58):
do the ice bucket challenge, and its high time they
got their due. Still ahead on this ediative countdown, Kevin
(14:20):
McCarthy will meet with the President next Tuesday to discuss
the debt limit. McCarthy may think he has all the cards,
Joe Biden may have a surprise for him. It appears
defaulting on American debt is literally unconstitutional and a president
may cover the bills no matter what the Republicans do. Surprise.
(14:40):
Speaking of surprise, Disney has sued Ron DeSantis because he
punished them for using their First Amendment rights to protest
his don't say gay laws in Florida. Disney may have
a surprise witness to use against him him. DeSantis's new
book is basically one long confession of how he punished
Disney and Disney alone for using the First Amendment and
(15:02):
that old phrase. He's a modest man with much to
be modest about. Even if you don't have that much
to be modest about, it pays to try to be
that way. Let me tell you the story of Chet
Curtis and dinner at Anthony's and the reminder to always
be surprised that anybody knows who the hell you are.
That's next. This is countdown. This is countdown with Keith Olberman.
(15:37):
Postscripts to the news, some headlines, some updates, some snarks,
some predictions. Dateline Washington Speaker of the House Kevin Tucker.
Tucker who McCarthy has agreed to meet with the President
next Tuesday to discuss the Republican's latest threat to destroy
the world economy if they can't cut the safety net
the debt ceiling. But McCarthy may get yet another surprise
(16:00):
in his surprise written painful speakership. The New York Times
reporting that Biden economic and legal officials believe that if
the House really did go ahead and kill its hostage
the debt sealing, the government would be constitutionally obligated to
keep paying its debt anyway, and would do so, leaving
the Republicans with their debts in their hands. There is
(16:25):
a cause in the Fourteenth Amendment stating quote, the validity
of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law,
including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for
services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned.
The administration officials have been debating for months if that
means what it sounds like it means. The Times quotes
(16:47):
the University of Oregon constitutional scholar Garrett Epps, who writes
the Constitution's text bars the federal government from defaulting on
the debt even a little, even for a short while.
There's a case to be made that if Congress decides
to default on the debt, the President has the power
and the obligation to pay it without Congressional permission, even
(17:08):
if that requires borrowing more money to do so. As
we used to say on the playground, Congressman McCarthy snag,
(17:30):
thank you, Nancy Faust dateline California. Boy, oh boy, If
the senior senator from that state really is alive and
well and ready to return to Washington, she has a
damn funny and damn desperate way of saying so. Politico
has put out a story saying that Senate Majority Leader
Chuck Schumer claims to have spoken to Senator Dianne Feinstein
(17:50):
on Monday of this week, and he quotes her as
saying she is hopeful she will return to the job
next week, not that Schumer actually said any of that,
but Politico zoomed in on a photo taken of the
notes Chuck Schumer was carrying at his press briefing yesterday,
and item six of his talking points was an anticipated
(18:12):
question about the debt limit and whether or not it
was now time to tell Feinstein to quit or get
off the pot. But nobody asked Schumer that question, so
he didn't give that answer. But there it is in
his talking points in the photo that he and Feinstein
spoke Monday and both are hopeful she can return, even
though he never said it. CNN then asked to feinstein
(18:35):
spokesperson about this. That person replied, quote, Senator Feinstein continues
to make progress in her recovery. We don't have a
timeline yet for her return to Washington, which is dependent
on her medical team saying it is safe to travel. Unquote,
the Senator is supposedly recovering from shingles. I've had shingles.
It is the worst illness you can have that cannot
(18:58):
kill you or cause them to cut something off. I
had it in twenty fourteen. I'll let you know when
I'm fully recovered. But at its worst, you could travel
a little bit each day and still be in Washington
by week after next at the latest, even if you
were traveling by Pony Express ahead the day. I learned
(19:33):
never to assume anybody knew who the hell I was.
First time for the daily round up with the miss Grants,
morons and Dunning Kruger effects specimens who constitute today's worst
persons in the world. The Bronze the Manhattan District Attorney's Office. Yes,
that one. You can't please everyone, especially not me. On
(19:56):
December eleventh, twenty twenty, a woman named Kathleen Cassillo was
driving her BMW at thirty ninth Street and Third Avenue
in Manhattan when she plowed into a group of Black
Lives Matter protesters, sending several of them flying into the
air six injuries. Fortunately none of them were life threatening.
The DA here has just cut a deal with miss Cassillo,
(20:18):
who claimed she feared for her safety and her daughters.
Her daughter's twenty nine, by the way, and she panicked
and stepped on the gas. The deal they made with her,
she was facing seven years in jail if convicted. She
has instead pleaded guilty to reckless endangerment and has been
forced to do community service five hours of community service.
(20:43):
If I got up from this studio right now and
went out on the street and waited for a cop
to come by, and stood in front of him and
emptied out a city garbage can as he watched, the
best deal I could get would be like twenty hours
of community service. And by the way, if she stays
out of trouble for six months, Miss Cassillo's conviction would
(21:03):
be reduced to disorderly conduct. Christ I'm surprised they didn't
give her a gift coupon to Bloomingdale's the runner up
third time on the list this week, Greg Abbott, no'm
on only listed as the governor of Texas when actually
he wants to be the dictator of Texas. This authoritarian
weasel has just gotten the state Senate there to pass
a bill that orders the Secretary of State to overturn
(21:27):
any election in Houston or in all of Harris County.
If the Secretary of State merely says they believe the
election has issues, that's it. And who appoints the secretary
of State in Texas? Why the governor does Greg Gabbott
a Republican, a Texas Republican, therefore a fascist, and who's
usually the winner in Harris County a Democrat? So it
(21:49):
could become law in Texas that a Republican governor can
nullify a Democratic win just because it is time for
US as a country to stop spending federal funds on Texas.
If Texas does not want to be part of a democracy,
go on out there without the money from the self
sufficient states, the Blue States, and see how many days
(22:10):
you'll last as the Kingdom of Texas. But the winner,
that small man in the high heeled shoes, Ron de Santis.
Disney is suing him on the state of Florida over
DeSantis's attempts to punish the company by changing the laws
governing Disney World. Because Disney exercised its First Amendment rights,
the ones that Republicans like Ronda fought so hard for
(22:33):
in Citizens United, exercising its First Amendment rights by opposing
Ron de Santis's homophobic don't say gay laws. As Greg's
sergeant in The Washington Post noted, Disney has an unusual
ally in its fight against Ron de Santis Ron DeSantis.
Much of Disney's legal filings are simply direct quotations from
(22:54):
DeSantis's new book, which is ironically titled The Courage to
Be fee DeSantis repeatedly not only admits in the book
that he targeted Disney and Disney alone for retribution for
disagreeing with him politically, but he boasts about it. Ron
Two months ago, people thought DeSantis might challenge for the
Republican presidential nomination. Now they're wondering if he will be
(23:17):
permitted to finish out his term as governor. DeSantis two
days worst person in the world still ahead on countdown.
(23:38):
One of my pups and I were stopped on a
walk the other day by another guy with another dog,
and a couple of minutes into the all dog conversation
that is, the guy and I were talking about dogs.
The dogs were not talking to each other, at least
not that we heard. In the middle of this, the
guy abruptly stops and recognizes me. Why didn't you say something,
he asked, and I said, you wanted me to tell
(23:58):
you my name. I then told him the additional story
of why I never assume anybody had has any idea
who the F I am. I will tell you that
story next. First, in each tradition of Countdown, we feature
a dog. Indeed, you can help. Every dog has its
day to New York and this is a special and
sad case. This is about Joe and the good folks
(24:21):
at AMA Animal Rescue who saved him. First. Joe, who
looks like a Maltese mix, maybe a Havines mix, kind
of big for Maltese. He was hit by a car.
They took him to the New York Pound and of
course the New York Pound put him on death row.
We highlighted him on my dog Rescue Twitter account at
Tom Jumbo Grumbo and AMA Rescue pulled him out and
(24:44):
saved Joe. And that's when it turned out Joe wasn't
just hurt. He had a severe fracture of his pelvis
that had all kinds of complications he would need surgery.
And then AMA Rescue found out Joe will need in
fact two surgeries and he has a blood infection and
this will cost thousands of dollars, and the rescue is
(25:05):
not going to give up on him and say now
just kill him. So if you can help Joe, and
you can help AMA Rescue with any kind of donation,
you can find Joe on Cudley or on both of
my Twitter feeds. I thank you and Joe thanks you.
(25:31):
Now our number one story in the countdown on my
favorite topic, me and the lesson of humility and anonymity
I learned one fine summer day from one fine Boston
TV newscaster in the long ago year of nineteen eighty four.
I did not last long there. The station got mad
(25:51):
at me for making jokes during the sportscast, which raised
the question why did they hire a guy known for
making jokes during the sportscast? So I left ten days
shy of six months. Last day, right after I got
back from covering the nineteen eight twenty four World Series,
sitting next to another young Boston TV sports reporter named
Carl Yustremsky, and the last day was Friday, October nineteenth,
(26:14):
nineteen eighty four. It was short, but it was not sweet.
But I did meet some extraordinary people, and I learned
one extraordinary lesson that applies to a lot more of
life than might be suggested at first blush. On the
night of Friday, July sixth, nineteen eighty four, Chet Curtis,
who with his wife Natalie Jacobson, were the mandarins of
Boston Television News, asked me if I wanted to go
(26:36):
with him to dinner after our six PM newscast. The
following Monday, I would move from sports reporter and fill
in at the sports desk to anchoring the sports report
every night on our eleven PM newscast. The year before,
our station, Channel five, had interviewed me for the job
of sports director, but I made a terrible mistake. In
the interview with the general manager, Jim Coppersmith. I mentioned
(26:58):
to him that we had met before when he was
general manager of Channel five in New York and I
was an intern in their newsroom. This peaked Coppersmith's curiosity
since it had happened only five years later. That's when
he found out I was not twenty eight years old.
As his news director had told him, but I was
only twenty four. So instead he hired this guy from
(27:20):
Florida named Lee Webb. And all you really need to
know about Lee was that after he left the station,
he became the quote newscaster unquote on the Pat Robertson
TV network, and he started talking about what the Bible
said about Ronald Reagan. And he often used the phrases
Republicans and Democrats and fire and brimstone in the same sentence.
(27:41):
So a year later they had decided Webb was too
dull and I was the coming thing, and they were
splitting the sportscasting job in half. Lee would stay on
the six and I would do the eleven. And Chad Curtis,
who had been on Boston TV since nineteen sixty eight,
wanted to give me an idea of what was coming
for me. So he said, Let's go to Anthony's Peer four.
(28:01):
Kind of touristy fish place, but beautiful, great food, but
I have to stop on my way to get a
quick SoundBite for the eleven. Sure enough, Chet drove to
a downtown office building spied the Channel five cameraman waiting
for us on the sidewalk. Parked and hopped out. Now,
on any summer's Friday night then and now, Boston's downtown
is deserted. But this was a Friday night, two days
(28:25):
after July fourth. It was so empty you could hear
the stoplights change from red to green. Yet within a
minute of check Curtis's appearance there formed a crowd of
somewhere between fifty and one hundred people. Where they came from.
I have no idea to this day. If you told
me they had emerged from the sewers, I would have
(28:47):
and would believe you. Without being asked. They formed a
neat semi circle out of the range of the camera.
Whoever the guy was that Chet was supposed to interview,
answered his questions quickly. The cameraman repositioned himself to get
the obligatory. Chet listens intently and intelligently cutaway shots. Then
he said okay, were done, and the semi circle of
civilians burst into applause. A few came over for autographs
(29:12):
and pictures. One said to me you are the new
Spots guy. I like you. Then they all left as
stealthily as they appeared. We got back into Chet's truck.
I was laughing nervously. How do you get used to that?
I mean, when I've gone to the ballpark, I get
a few hellos and one or two autograph requests. But
(29:35):
does this happen all the time? And how do you
get used to it? Chat had a wonderful laugh. It
does not happen all the time. It'll happen a lot
more to you once you start on the eleven. But
don't get used to it. That's one of the reasons
I want to have dinner with you. And the place
we're going is where I learned the lesson I wanted
to offer to you. So we go to Anthony's. The
(29:56):
valet was saying good to see you, mister Curtis before
Chet was fully out of the truck. His boss appeared
good evening, Chet. People dining outside on the pier stared,
several waved the major d beat us to the front
door and held it open for us. And this is
your new sportscaster, Welcome to Anthony's. Chet was more than gracious.
He managed to simultaneously convey deep appreciation. Low Key surprised
(30:20):
at all the attention and the sense that nobody was
bothering him in the slightest as we entered the dining room,
there was polite applause. Chet waved almost but not quite sheepishly.
We were seated at the best table at the best
angle to see the harbor. The reserved sign the manager
of Anthony's removed was comically large. After the drinks arrived,
(30:44):
Chent began to preach. Unless you're an athlete, nobody, he said,
gets loved on as much in this city as people
on TV, especially people on Channel five. Now it's a
little quieter than usual because of the holiday. But when
they first put me on the eleven o'clock news eight
years ago next to my beautiful bride, if I came
in here, there would be people stamp and applauding. Natalie
(31:07):
doesn't really like that stuff, so she sends not to
go with me to the big restaurants. But me, I'm
just Chester from Amsterdam, New York, and I worked damn
hard to get here, and I loved it. I loved
every second of it. If there was an opportunity to
come here before the late newscast or after it, or
on the weekends, I was here. I said, I loved
the fish. I really loved the applause. He laughed again.
(31:30):
I mean, we're still number one, but maybe five years
ago we had higher ratings than the other two stations combined.
There were months at a time when I didn't pay
for a drink here, not one, and I came to
depend upon that. And that's what I wanted to tell you.
Don't don't get used to it, don't expect it. Don't
(31:51):
fail to be surprised by it, or at least, don't
fail to fake being surprised by it. Because one day
it happened. It happened right here, and I thought my
career was over at the age of twenty five. I
know this will surprise you. I did not listen to
a lot of advice, but check Curtis was bearing his
soul here, and I felt a mixture of terror and
(32:12):
rapt anticipation about what had happened to him. I think
this was fairly early on, he said, mid seventies. And
I drove up, just like we did just now, and
I straightened my tie and it brushed my hair and
made myself ready for my adoring public. I'm ready for
my close up, mister de mill. And I opened that door,
and I went to that major d stand and I
(32:33):
smiled and there was a guy there I had never
seen before, and he said, can I help you? And
I smiled and looked to that bar where Danny always is,
see him right now? No, Danny, the bartender that day
didn't even look back at me. So, just as the
sense of anxiety began to creep up on me, I said,
rather defensively, I'm check Curtis. And the Major D looked
(32:55):
at me with annoyance and said, you have a reservation,
And I thought a reservation. I have an adoring public.
I said, well, no, Usually Tony holds a table for
me and says, I don't have to call in advance,
and the Mayor D says, well, I'm sorry, we're full.
Without a reservation, the wait will be ninety minutes. And
now I am sweating, and then there's a tap on
(33:17):
my shoulder, Chat says, and I think, thank god, it's
a fan of News Center five, And instead it's somebody
who just says, excuse me, fella, can we get through
Jones party of two seven point thirty? And now I'm
standing there and I look around the bar, and I
look around the dining room and nobody recognizes me. Not
a waitress, not a customer, nobody, and it starts in
(33:39):
my head. Chat. I say to myself, what have you done?
What did you say on the air? Nobody knows you.
At Anthony's, nobody wants to know you. Your career is over?
What did you do? And now, Keith, I am beginning
to feel faint and panicky, and I run out the
door to get back in my car, and I drive
away as fast as possible, all the while thinking what
(34:01):
did you do to end your career? And just as
I get to my car, another car drives out, and
outsteps in shorts and a T shirt, Anthony himself, Anthony
of Anthony's Restaurant, the founder, the owner, and he says, Chat,
what the hell's wrong with you? You're pale as a ghost.
And I stammer about my career ending and nobody inside
(34:21):
recognizing me anymore. And here Chet Curtis burst into laughter.
I'm almost in tears, telling him that the may or
d said I'd have to wait ninety minutes because I
didn't have a reservation. And now Anthony laughs and he says,
of course nobody recognizes you. The whole staff is at
our summer picnic. I only came in now to give
them a chance to talk about me behind my back.
(34:43):
Those guys in there are all per diems, freelancers. Everybody
you know is at Nantasket Beach getting drunk. Chent finally
stopped his own laughter, sipped from his beer, and very
dramatically said, so, how do you get used to being recognized?
Do not get used to being recognized, because because one
(35:05):
day everybody you expect is going to recognize you will
be out at a picnic at Nantasket Beach getting drunk
that you don't know about, and all you will be
able to figure out is that your career is over
and you should go home and jump off your roof.
So this is my advice to you as you start
the eleven o'clock news in Boston. Never get used to it.
(35:40):
I've done all the damage I can do. Here here
are our credits. Most of the music was arranged, produced
and performed by Brian Ray and John Phillip Shanelle, who
are the Countdown musical directors. All orchestration and keyboards by
John Phillip Shanel. Guitars, bass and drums by Brian Ray,
produced by Tko Brothers. Other Beethoven selections have been arranged
and performed by the group No Horns Allowed. The sports
(36:03):
music is the Olderman theme from ESPN two, and it
was written by Mitch Warren Davis at appears courtesy of ESPN, Inc.
Musical comments by Nancy Fauss. The best baseball stadium organist ever.
At our announcer today was my friend Kenny Mayne. Everything
else is pretty much my fault. So that's countdown for this,
the eight hundred and forty eighth day since Donald Trump's
first attempted coup against the democratically elected government of the
(36:25):
United States. Don't forget to keep arresting him while we
still can. A quick promo Friday, I've got something I
think is special. On Saturday of this week, as on
every May sixth since nineteen fifty four, the world has
celebrated runner Roger Banister breaking the four minute mile barrier,
(36:48):
the first man ever to run a four minute mile.
Except he was not the first man ever to do that,
and his is probably the greatest, most undeserved record or
accomplishment in sports history. It is a long and amazing story,
and I will tell it to you on Friday. The
next scheduled countdown is tomorrow. Until then, I'm Keith Oldraman
(37:10):
good morning, good afternoon, good night, and good luck. Countdown
with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio. For more
podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
(37:34):
wherever you get your podcasts.
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