September 28, 2022 • 48 mins
OATH KEEPERS COULD SCREW TRUMP
A-Block (1:45) SPECIAL COMMENT: Keep your eye on the trial of Stewart Rhodes and the Oath Keepers as jury selection continues today. Rhodes' defense is: he and his terrorists were acting on what were to be legal orders from Trump as President. So...they just guessed that would be the case? They assumed? THEY HAD TO HAVE BEEN TOLD. Told? By whom? What will they say in their own defense and who will testify to what communications or meetings or conspiracies? They are on trial for Seditious Conspiracy and perhaps decades in jail and who they blame could be close to Trump - or Trump himself. (5:07) Other Oath Keepers have already flipped and implicated Roger Stone, Stop The Steal, and The Proud Boys (7:05) And ex-Trump physician, Congressman Ronny Jackson, who supposedly reached out to Stewart Rhodes for protection during the attempted coup.
B-Block (15:16) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Jinxie in Brooklyn (16:39) IN SPORTS: Sure they clinched their division, but what about Aaron Judge's home run drought? And now that the NFL has cancelled its All-Star Game will the other leagues follow suit? (20:32) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: The book banners of Bucks County PA taking it an extra yard, the University of Idaho, and the DeSantis appointee who just quit after a KKK photo surfaced, compete for honors (24:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: In the world of the movie "Network" it was 47 years ago this week that things began to go off the rails for Howard Beale, Max Schumacher, Diana Christensen, and the UBS Evening News. For my money, it's the greatest movie of all time - and especially the most prophetic.
C-Block (37:03) More on "Network" and the 23 separate prophecies of auteur Paddy Chayefsky, who saw in 1976 what the rest of us could not imagine: what television news would look like in 2022.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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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 I Heart Radio.
Donald Trump may shortly be thrown under the bus by
(00:27):
the oath Keepers. Jury selection continues in Washington today for
the trial of Stuart Rhodes and four of his oath
Keeper's co conspirators, and there are two things to remember
at all times as you watch this trial proceed, and
watch it carefully. Firstly, remember that the judge has now
permitted Rhodes and the others to offer as their defense
(00:49):
that when they rushed towards the Capitol with guns on
January six, they believed they would be acting on lawful
orders from Trump as president. Secondly, remember that the real
first name of Stuart Rhodes, the I Patch guy, is
Elmer Elmer Stewart Rhodes. It will remind you at all
(01:11):
times of the stupidity of these pretend patriots and the
fact that democracy survives not from our efforts to preserve
it as much as from the idiocy of those who
would destroy it. Simply put, the roads Oathkeeper defense will
have to include sworn testimony from themselves and maybe from
others to back up this idea that Trump was going
(01:34):
to invoke the Insurrection Act and assume its powers to
declare emergencies and to deploy the military to quell protests
and unrest. And that they the oath keepers that pretend soldiers,
thought they were going to somehow be deputized to use
their guns as weapons and or threats to make sure
Joe Biden was not certified as the forty six president
(01:58):
of the United States. And there is one question where
did they get that idea. These creatures are on trial
for seditious conspiracy Elmer over there could get twenty years.
What is their plan? Are they going to actually testify
that The way they figured out Trump was going to
(02:19):
invoke the Insurrection Act was they guessed that they stockpiled
long guns and made plans to occupy federal buildings on
Trump's behalf because they assumed the oath keepers were willing
to pit themselves against the peaceful transfer of power in
the United States of America. Because it came to Rhods
(02:42):
in a dream. They have to have something, some conversations,
some intimations, some instructions, something that implicates Trump or somebody
near him as comical and moronic as Elmer Stewart, Rhodes
and the others. Look, they are not complete idiots. Yes,
(03:02):
Rhodes did shoot his eye out while he was a
firearms instructor by some accounts a firearms safety instructor. But
Rhodes was a staffer for Congressman Ron Paul who managed
to get himself into and through Yale Law and to
win a prize there for the best paper about the
Bill of Rights. He may have been disbarred in Montana later,
(03:24):
but Rhodes ain't making this up as he goes along,
And if he can make anything stick to Trump, that
could be the ball game in trying to save his
own ass. Even if he does not personally nailed Trump,
Roads can still do extraordinary damage to Trump world and
put pressure on a lot of Trump underlings two in
turn turn on Trump. A lot of the oath keepers
(03:47):
have already flipped. One of them spilled so much information
that his profer of evidence, a checklist of what and
who he's willing to testify about and against, was so
long that it had fifty one different items in a
fifty one Another oath keeper turned state's evidence, and in
his plea deal he told us that he had served
as Roger Stones chauffeur. On January six, another one texted Stone.
(04:12):
A third spoke to Stone. Yet another oath Keeper had
tried to reach the head of the Proud Boys group
after he was arrested for weapons possession two days earlier,
on New Year's Day, Rhodes Elmer Stewart. Rhodes had added
somebody he described as quote an event producer for Stop
the Steel to the oath Keepers group text chain quote
(04:36):
he can sort who is doing what in the creative
chaos that will be January five slash six. Rhodes wrote
that and added he's a good egg. So various oath
Keepers have valuable evidence against Roger Stone, against the Stop
the Steel crowd, against the Proud Boys, and Rhodes defense
(04:59):
at the trial just starting in DC clearly implies he's
also got something to connect Trump to this, even if
it is only their own testimony about what they heard. Plus,
there is one final easter egg, one other name, one
(05:19):
other Trump underling who may be more fascinating and at
more risk than all the others combined in that pile
of flipped oath keeper testimony. Is this On the afternoon
of January six itself, as the coup was attempted and
the capital stormed, yet another oath keeper texts the entire
(05:42):
group quote Ronnie Jackson, Texas office inside capital. He needs
oath keeper help unquote both keeper help Congressman Jackson. Less
than ten minutes later, the same oath keeper sends another text,
(06:03):
quote Dr Ronnie jack And on the move needs protection
if anyone inside cover him. He has critical data to
protect unquote. And immediately after that comes the answer, quote,
give him my cell That text is from Stewart Rhodes,
head of the oath Keepers, the man at the center
(06:23):
of our story today. Give Dr Ronnie Jackson, House of Representatives,
Texas former White House position, alleged former doctor feel good,
who has seen Trump naked, who is in the Capitol
during the coup, give him my cell phone. Hey, I
just met you and this is crazy, but here's my number,
(06:46):
so call me maybe. What do you mean, Congressman Ronnie
Jackson Trump butt kisser is quote on the move needs
protection because quote he has critical data to protect. What
kind of critical data? Actually, it doesn't matter. It could
be critical data or it could be just the mcguffin
(07:07):
that Alfred Hitchcock always talked about the plot point that
means life or death to the characters in the movie.
That means nothing to the audience in the theater. The
critical data could be nuclear material, could be Jackson's bottle
of Scotchy Scotch, could be malted milkballs. But like the
Rhodes Defense, we believed we were acting on what would
(07:28):
be orders from the president. The questions for Ronnie Jackson
are all deeply disturbing. Why, how, and for how long
did you, a sitting United States congressman, a sniveling Trump Tody,
the former physician to the President, Why, how and for
how long did you know that if there was trouble
inside the Capitol on January six, that the way for
(07:51):
you to protect both your critical data and your own
ass was to contact the founder of a bunch of
white nationalists, thugs like the oath Keepers. Ask for Elmer
when you call, who planned that? Who told Jackson that? When? Because, however,
(08:12):
and whenever Ronnie Jackson found out that this was the
glass he was supposed to break in the event of emergency,
it would be at that point, assuming they didn't just
make this up, it would be at that point that meeting,
that phone, called, that text change, whatever kind of communication
it was. It's at that point that the oath Keepers
(08:32):
and the Proud Boys and stop the Steel, and Roger
Stone and Moe Brooks and Paul goes On and Matt
Gates and Trump Junior and Crazy Trump and everybody else
who knew the January six plot in hole or in part.
This is where they all come together in one giant
seditious conspiracy. Seditious conspiracy, which is what so many oath
(08:54):
Keepers have already pleaded guilty to, which is what Rhodes
and the other four are on trial for right now
in Washington, which is what they could yet charge Trump with.
There might be a hundred moments in which these scum
conspirators got together to try to destroy this country. But
this moment when Ronnie Jackson was told, if indeed he
(09:17):
was told, if there's trouble in the capital on the six,
you get ahold of the oath Keepers. Their leader will
get you through our crowd, this moment happens to be
sitting right there, right in front of us, ready to burst,
burst all over Ronnie Jackson's critical data. Seditious conspiracy. So
(09:38):
the reason to pay attention to the please and the
convictions and the sleazy stories of the human flotsam and
Jetsam of January six, like Elmer Stewart Rhodes and the
four other oath keepers whose trial is just starting in Washington,
is that whatever they did, if there was a meeting, legally,
that means there was a plan. And if there was
(10:01):
a plan, legally, that means there was a conspiracy. And
if there was a conspiracy that involved Crazy Trump's former
presidential physician, we are at worst within shouting distance of
Trump himself. We might even be close, because we can
rest assured of one thing. When Ronnie Jackson phoned or
texted or whimpered for help, if he did when he sent,
(10:25):
if he did his s O S from inside the
belly of January six, it had to have been no
accident that he knew that the lyrics to his song
went who you Gonna call? Oh? Keepers? All right? Enough?
(10:52):
Pop references still ahead on countdown, say whatever happened to that?
Aaron Judge guy? And speaking of whatever happened to whatever
happened to sports all Star games? One league has just
canceled it's all Star game. I don't think they're gonna
be the last. In worse persons, what do you do
after you ban all the books in this Pennsylvania high school.
(11:12):
You then ban any commemorations of the banning of the books.
And for my money, it is the greatest movie ever made.
It forecasts everything in American news, media and television, and today,
forty six years after it was released, it is more
meaningful than ever because that is the natural order of
things today, that is the atomic and subatomic and galactic
(11:36):
structure of things today. And you have meddled with the
primal forces of nature and you will atone am I
getting through to you? That's next. This is countdown, you know,
(12:00):
this is countdown with you know Keith Alberman still ahead
on Countdown Richard the prophecies of the movie network, the
end of the All Star Game, and could have state
prosecute you for discussing birth control. Coming up first in
(12:20):
each edition of Countdown, we feature a dog in need
whom you can help. Every dog has its day to Brooklyn,
New York and Jinxy. Jinx is a senior Golden Little
Yorky mix of some kinds, struggling with chronic pneumonia and
antibiotics and going back and forth to a breath specialist
and finally getting a bronchoscope to try to figure out
why his left lung continues to threaten his life. It
(12:42):
costs a ton, But if you can save a sweet
dog who clearly wants to go on living and save
him discomfort and fear, why wouldn't you. A m A
Animal Rescue is doing a fundraiser for Jenks on go
fund me. If you can donate a dollar, it will
help defray their expenses. Whatever you can. You can look
for Jinxy j I n x I E or a
(13:04):
m A Rescue on go fund me, or just go
to my tweet about him on my account for Dogs
in Trouble at Tom Jumbo Grumbo on Twitter. Just to
retweet will help and thank you very much for doing so.
(13:37):
This is Sports Center. Wait, check that not anymore. This
is Countdown with Keith in Sports Aaron Judge has now
gone seven games without a home run, staying at sixty
after his New York Yankees beat Toronto five to two
to quench the American League East last night. And to
(13:59):
add to this madness, Judge has now walked in each
of his last four at back in that game, and
that's twelve walks in seven games and twenty seven walks
in the month of September. Could he really not get
to sixty homers or sixty two well? In two thousand seventeen,
his now teammate gian Carlos Stanton had fifty seven homers
for Miami with eight games left. He went four games
(14:22):
without a homer, then he hit two in one game
to reach fifty nine, and then none in his last
three games in his own ballpark. We do get a
record of some kind. Last night, Richard Blier, seven year
veteran pitcher of the Miami Marlins, charged with three box
as he faced just one batter, Pete Alonso of the
Mets in three d and four big league games. Richard
(14:43):
Blier had never been called for a ball before. Meanwhile,
the National Football League may have admitted something the other
leagues did not want them to. The All Star Game
in every sport is basically meaningless now except as the
centerpiece for the stuff the fans actually want to watch
and the players actually want to do, the slam dunk contest,
(15:04):
the whole run derby the skills competitions. The NFL has
eliminated it's all star game, the Pro Bowl, which it
has been playing in various forms since nine. It has
never developed its own Slam dunk contest or home run derby.
But it is the first to admit that those tales
now wag. The All Star Dog Football will instead have
(15:25):
a week long Pro Bowl games. The week before the
Super Bowl in Las Vegas, they'll have a flag football game,
and uh, whatever else they can dream up between now
and the last week of January. Guest Tom Brady's actual
age competition comes to mind. One imagines the other sports
will eventually follow suit. All Star games used to have
(15:46):
built in attractions except in the World Series. You never
saw National League Baseball players play against American League as
You never saw the stars in small markets at all,
even on television, And there they were all in one
place at the All Star Game, one place which you
can create every night merely by watching all the highlights
(16:06):
on the Baseball website. Hockey has staved off the elimination
of its All Star Game by making it into a
four team tournament with cash on the line, which motivates
hockey players like nothing you've ever seen before, and basketball
has shifted it's focused to its contests. If you don't
think the various All Star Games are meaningless, though, this
(16:26):
simple question who won this year's baseball All Star Game.
It was just two months and nine days ago. No
huh answer, American League score now three to two. Anything
interesting happen in it? National LEA led to zip, then
Gen Carlos Stanton hit a two run homer to tie it,
(16:49):
and Byron Buxton hit a solo homer, and the last
five innings were scoreless, and no, I confess I didn't
remember any of it either. Still ahead on countdown. I
(17:12):
think it is the most prophetic motion picture of all time,
as relevant today as it was when the fictional newscasts
and crazy fictional newscaster and crazy executives it portrayed all
did their thing forty seven years ago. This week it
is network and why it matters intensely today. Coming up first,
(17:32):
the daily round up of the miscrants, morons and Dunning
Krueger effect specimens who constitute today's worst persons in the world.
You've got to get mad the Bronze Jeffrey Moore. He
quit abruptly last Friday as the Commissioner of Gangsden County, Florida,
appointed by Governor Ron Dessantis. Who else in July? And
nobody's saying why Mr Moore quit officially anyway, but local
(17:56):
leaders in the predominantly black county think they know why
a photo made the rounds of the county showing a
man in ku klux klan robe and hood. It may
have been taken in a costume party, or maybe it
was not a costume or a party, but those local
leaders are pretty sure one thing. They say, it shows,
or at least it looks like Jeffrey Moore, the guy
(18:18):
to sant disappointed, the guy who just quit without explanation.
Those proverbial local leaders would like an explanation. Runners up
the University of Idaho, the old abortion law that came
back into effect there after the Supreme Court gutted Roe v.
Wade is so draconian that an email went out to
all staffers at the university which warns them bluntly that
(18:39):
they could not only be immediately fired, but they could
be banned from ever again working for the state of Idaho,
and they could be prosecuted for a felony if they
are caught discussing abortion on campus. Oh In the University
of Idaho also says the same firing, banning prosecution deal
(18:59):
could occur if they discuss birth control on campus. But
the gold goes to in the same bain Joan Cullen,
school board president for Penridge High in Bucks County, and
Trump fan. That's kind of the DMZ between the Philadelphia
suburbs and the Pennsylvania rust belt. This remarkable story was
reported for The Philadelphia Inquirer by my friend of nearly
(19:23):
half a century half a century, God help us, the
impeccable Will Bunch, formerly of the Hackwey Dial Hackeck School, Terrytown,
New York, where I was his editor for at least
fifteen years. Will reports Penridge had an annual Banned Book
Week every September, complete with a display in the school
library that included George Orwell's Animal Farm and The Hate
(19:45):
You Give by Angie Thomas books the school actually tried
to ban Circuit two thousand six. Banned Book Week began
as scheduled last Monday, and then on Wednesday, students discovered
that the Banned Book Week display had vanished. It had
been banned and by school higher ups. Nobody knows for
(20:07):
certain exactly who, but at Penridge High in Pennsylvania, the
fascists have actually banned Banned Book Week, said the pen
Ridge senior Robin Reid, who wrote about the banning. How
or William is that? Well, Robin, the correct answer is
a whole lot. Whoever actually did it? We have to
give the award to somebody. So since Joan Cullen is
(20:28):
the school board president and she did rally for Trump
in DC just before the coup attempt January six, Joan,
soon we get to celebrate band Band Book Week week.
Colin Today's worst person in the world. You're bad to
(21:04):
the number one story on the countdown on my favorite topic.
Me and I was thinking about the hardcore definition the
other day of one's favorite motion picture. I think the
hardcore definition is this, if you could watch only one
movie for the rest of your life, but whether there's
life after death or there isn't, you could watch it
then too, and you could watch it with anybody now
(21:26):
or later. Which movie would it be under those circumstances.
And by the way, if you say, well, I've got
two choices, you forfeit and you can't watch any movies
the rest of your life or after it, Well, then
I'm taking the film that began in its alternate universe
forty seven years ago this week, that was a day
or two away from its eternal signature line, I'm as
(21:48):
mad as hell and I'm not gonna take it anymore.
Network the Patty Chayevski film about the network anchor man
who announces he has been fired for low ratings and
so he has decided to kill himself on the air,
and his ratings promptly go up, and then he begins
to give voice to what our extra worldly prophecies and warnings. Well,
(22:10):
maybe they're that, or maybe they're they're pure ravings of
unadulterated insanity. Network starred Peter Finch as the newscaster, William
Holden as his best friend, the network news boss, Faye
Dunaway as the network programmer who sees in this newscast
a gold mine, and Robert Duval as the ambitious new
network chief who sees in the newscast his ticket to
(22:31):
the corporate boardroom. When I first saw Network as a
seventeen year old aspiring TV broadcaster, my jaw dropped and
it stayed dropped, and in the last forty six years,
my but jaw has barely moved from that position. The
world of TV news that Network predicted was not unthinkable
(22:52):
in nineteen seventy six, but it was a nightmare today,
virtually everything Chayavsky saw in the future has come true
and is accepted as conservative broadcast thing. The movie was
so prophetic that younger viewers sometimes see the quality of
the film and its artistry and its genius, but they
can't imagine what the big deal was about its content.
(23:14):
It's just showing TV news the way it's always been.
So a while ago, I sat down and watched Network,
and I took notes. I counted twenty three major things
about TV news that we're not true when Network came out,
but are true now, and they cover basically everything in
the business. First of these the on air breakdown of
(23:37):
a newscaster, Peter Finch's Howard Beal announces he's going to
shoot himself on the air. In one week, there was
a local news anchor named Christine Chubbuck who had already
shot herself during a newscast in Sarah sot In, but
she did not give advance warning nor show any indication
of emotional distress. Sadly, tragically, she just did it. But
(23:59):
after Network, things began to come apart at the seams
in local news and network news. In after reporter Bree
Walker of New York's Channel two News had concluded a
story on birth defects. Veteran anchor Jim Jensen questioned her
at length about a hand and foot deformity which she
herself suffered from, and whether or not her parents would
(24:22):
have aborted her had they known in advance she had
the condition. Shortly afterwards, Jensen, who had been on the
air in New York forever, entered a rehab center for
treatment of alcohol, prescription drug and cocaine abuse and depression.
Later in two thousand four, Dan Harris had a live
panic attack on ABC's Good Morning America, losing his breath
(24:42):
and cutting his news cash short. Second of the Prophecies
Network posited that such a breakdown would lead not to
treatment nor removal from a broadcast, but to greater success.
Fifteen years ago, Glenn Beck began to regularly weep on
the air. If that was not an indication of emotional trouble,
(25:02):
it might have been the attempt to convey that feeling
legitimate or contrived. Beck was rewarded and the ABC newscaster
I just mentioned. Dan Harris would go on to do
a World News Tonight feature on his own on air breakdown.
Third Prophecy when Howard Beale first tells his boss, Max
Schumacher played by William Holden, that he will kill himself
(25:25):
on the air. Schumacher goes off on a drunken flight
of fancy about a new Sunday night news show he
called in his mind the Death Hour, Suicides, assassinations, mad bombers,
mafia hitman, automobile smash ups, he says, and a terrorist
of the Week. Schumacher's utterly dystopian forecast has not made
(25:45):
air yet, but the terrorism of nine eleven did play
out live on all networks, and parts of that terrorism
are repeated minimally annually. Much of a network like True
TV consisted of programs that were merely edited highlights of disasters, centering,
in fact, largely on as Max Schumacher phrased that automobile
(26:07):
smash ups, the fourth network Prophecy Beale swears repeatedly during
his newscasts. In the last few years, CNN in particular,
has made the decision to quote words that would have
been bleeped less than a decade ago, and at least
one broadcast television program, The Late Late Show with Craig
Ferguson on CBS, produced its show live to tape with
(26:29):
an audience and in real time let the host swear
copiously and then would bleep him just as copiously for
the broadcast itself. Maybe the scripted swear in the newscast
is not far away. Fifth of the network prophecies. Newscasts
did not do stories about other newscasts before network premiered.
(26:52):
When Beale announces his intention to kill himself, all of
New York's local ten and eleven PM newscasts made it
their lead story at this point, and in ensuing years,
even monumental hirements such as Chet Huntley's retirement in NBC
in nineteen seventy or Walter cronkites retirement from CBS in
n had only merited the briefest of footnotes on rival
(27:15):
network programs. But by the time of Peter Jennings lung
cancer announcement in two thousand five, a newscast or newscaster
could become the lead story on another newscast. Indeed, when
I left MSNBC in January two thousand and eleven, announcing
it mid show, CNN's Anderson Cooper three sixty not only
(27:36):
led its live broadcast at ten pm ET with it,
it devoted a dumbfounding twenty two minutes to something that
would have been ignored even a decade before. Understand how
long twenty two minutes is on CNN. I retired from
the broadcast countdown on MSNBC and was able to get
(27:57):
home before he was done covering the story of my
retiring from the broadcast six and this was the key
to everything in network. And since network, Patty Hievsky and
his script forecast a moment in which newscasts would be
required to make money. It had not been that way
(28:20):
before news divisions were considered public service. The price the
networks paid to make billions off entertainment shows. Robert duval
As Frank Hackett, the executive, attacks UBS is quote credit
News division and its annual thirty three million dollar deficit.
As Hackett later tells UBS stockholders, in effect, the news
(28:40):
division would be reduced from an independent division to a
department accountable to network. After CBS was sold in, the
news budget was cut in half, and the moment arrived
newscast from there on in had to be profitable. In
two thousand twelve, NBC took it to a new level
by appointing a programming executive with no news experience to
(29:01):
oversee all news on all of its at works stations
and even local cable systems. The reason Padai Chavsky could
see this when others could not was that he had
worked in live television drama in the nineteen fifties, particularly
on one show called You Are There, in which CBS
News reporters and actors re enacted great moments from history.
(29:24):
The newscasters could make extra cash on the side, and
the network made huge profits. The host of You Are There,
half News, half entertainment was Walter Cronkite. The seventh network
prophecy criminals videotaping their own crimes. A series in network
is created after a terrorist group called the Ecumenical Liberation
(29:47):
Army shoots film of its own members robbing a bank.
This was inconceivable in yet is today a facet of
every act, from the simplest self taped vandalism uploaded to YouTube,
to actual terrorist attacks, recordings of which are made by
and then disseminated to news organizations by the perpetrators. The
(30:09):
eighth prophecy of network television news as rage quote. The
American people want somebody to articulate their rage for them,
says Fay Dunaway's character Diana Christensen relative to cable news
in particular, does this even require me to elaborate at all?
Ninth Christiansen, not a news executive, is then given control
(30:32):
over and permission to program Beel's newscast, the UBS Evening News.
Although there was a history of news personnel being involved
in entertainment programming, Edward R. Murrow also did an interview
show called Person to Person. Evening newscast were sacro sancd
Today the fiction may be maintained that they're still sacro sancd,
But since the advent of the consultant on the local
(30:54):
news level in the late nineteen seventies and early eighties,
more and more decisions about not just who does the news,
but what goes on the news have been made by
non news executives. The tenth prophecy, Diana Christensen also foretells
the various genres of five nights a week network programming
that didn't happen before network She sees a profit center
(31:16):
in a chiefly produced, low budget program that can run
Monday through Friday and which happens to be about the news.
The other networks then try to find their own outlandish
newscasts and run them five nights a week. Padavsky is
now anticipating every genre of craze that followed in news,
from nightline to dateline Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
(31:38):
To American Idol to the NBC two thousand nine experiment
in which they put Jay Leno on for a comedy
show every night at ten pm. The eleventh Prophecy Network
anticipates government deregulation and what it would do to TV.
When the UVS President objects to a pornographic network news
(31:59):
show and Warren's the FCC and kill us Robert duval
as Hackett dismisses him and the f c C and
for tells the declawing of the commission. The f c
C can't do anything, so that wrap our knuckles again.
Does anything the FCC has not done in post network television?
Need any detail from me? Twelve News commentary devolving into
(32:23):
rants and takes? Wait? What did I write here? News
commentary devolves into rants and takes. I've never heard any
news commentator ranting what the hell is this? The rest
of this rant about the relevance of the movie network.
Right after this, before the break, I was about halfway
(32:48):
through my look at the remarkably prescient nineteen seventy six
film network, which foresaw things we thought impossible then, ranging
from TV news covering TV news as news two terrorists
videotaping their own terror and giving it to newscasts, to
the wealth thing that network fore told, the evolution or
devolution of news commentary into takes and rants. What in
(33:14):
substance are we proposing? New network chief Hackett asks his
horrified colleagues. Then he answers his own question, merely to
add editorial comment to our news show, Brinkley several reasoner
all have their comments. Now, Howard beat will have his.
Hackett's erasure of a line between nuanced, thoughtful scripts of
commentary agonized over by commentators, producers, and executives and add
(33:38):
libbed madness foresaw the similar real life change. Not merely
were comments added to newscasts, but the standards for what
constituted useful public commentary dropped from an ages old tradition
of newspaper editorials and columnists to verbal graffiti spontaneously letting
out his anger the thirteenth network prophecy. Newscasters and commentators
(34:03):
never used to claim that God told them what to say.
The Beale specifically quotes the voice who tells him to
tell the people the truth as also saying that that
voice is not God. Beale still says he feels quote
imbued and connected to all living things. The leap for
a commentator from hearing your inner voice to hearing somebody
(34:28):
else's inner voice was preposterous enough as it was, but
reality took it further. While Glenn Beck may not have
claimed God was writing his commentaries for him, in April
two thousand twelve, according to the U T. San Diego News,
he told an audience in Rancho, San Diego that God
did tell him to quit his job at Fox News Channel.
(34:51):
On the day he decided to leave, they wrote, Beck
said he walked up to a floor to ceiling window
in his New York apartment and asked his wife, how
could this possibly be God's plan? As I stood there,
the Lord whispered to me. If you do not leave now,
you will lose your soul. Beck said it was the
easiest decision I've ever made. Beck also later announced that
(35:13):
God not only Wantedmit Romney to be president, but had
put him behind in the polls so that when Romney won,
everyone would see a modern miracle. Had that one turn
out for you, Glenn four Network Prophecy Network accurately predicted
that journalists would stop throwing themselves in front of professional
train wrex. The same year that network was released, a
(35:36):
House committee wanted correspond at Daniel Shore of CBS News
to testify about where he got a copy of a
secret report. He refused. CBS pressured him to testify, so
he quit. He quit his job, but Network for told
that Shore would be among the last to do something
like that. William Holden's Max Schumacher tries to derail the
(35:59):
Howard Beal Prophecy and Rage newscast by telling Robert Duval's
Frank Hackett, you want me out of hear your and
have to drag me out of here, kicking and screaming
in the whole news division kicking and screaming with me.
Hackett dismisses him. You think they're gonna quit their jobs
for you. Not. In this recession, buddy, the premise of
the integrity of news people was as widely held as
(36:21):
the integrity and inviolability of a news division, and yet
in each downsizing, redesigning, and bobalterization, of the old standard
concept of news again. Patty Chayevski foresaw correctly the number
of public protests, let alone public exits, has been negligible
in the last thirty years. Dan rather railed against the
(36:44):
gutting of CBS. That's been about it, and for all
the other good things Dan has done, he didn't quit
his job. Network Force saw reality television and the staging
of news. When Christiansen meets with the activist Lorraine Hobbs
and her attorneys to program their terrorism show them out,
(37:04):
say flung Our, She's not merely reflecting the coming amorality
of reality television, nor just amplifying the already extant if
it bleeds it leads mantra of local news. Through her,
Patty Chayaski is also for telling a time when television
would begin not to cover the news, but to orchestrate it.
(37:24):
If the networks have yet to actually be guilty of
misprision of a penalty regarding terrorists, we hope surely on
a lesser scale. The NBC scandal over faked video of
Chevy trucks exploding after collisions confirms the basic premise of
adding programming helper to the actual news somewhat more remotely.
(37:44):
Event recreations were once absolutely impermissible in news, they are
now one of its staples. There are eight more prophecies,
and they all fall into one category. Howard Beal's revised newscast,
The Network News Hour, has components in it, eight of
them that would have been thought absurd in any Who's
(38:04):
cast anywhere the day that the Film Network premiered. In
Number one, it has a studio audience. Countless newscasts, particularly
on cable, have now used studio audiences. MSNBC's Donahue did
it nightly in two thousand to two thousand three. Others
(38:25):
like Anderson Cooper and Chris Matthews and Chris Hayes have
experimented with it. Number two. Predicting the news on the
Beal Show, Sybil the Soothsayer actually predicts the news. Well,
nobody has done that yet, not literally. But what does
every specialty newscast, especially political ones, do in its last
(38:47):
broadcast before Monday? Almost invariably there is some kind of
prediction or forecast for the week ahead what to look for,
and if it is not institutionalized in that distinct manner,
the show still contains pundits who do nothing but forecast
tomorrow's news as long ago as would try on Thursday
(39:08):
night to guess where the Clinton Lewinsky story was going
and what we could give them to put in the
prerecorded promos that would run on Monday, three days later.
Number three Trial Obsessed TV News. There is a Howard
Beale segment called Jim Webbing and His It's the Emmis
(39:30):
Truth Department. The script is a little vague. We don't know.
Is the Emis Truth a series of hard to believe
news stories. Does that giant logo behind Jim Webbing of
Justice carrying her scales suggests it's a regular report on
trials and the law? Or is the emphasis on emmis
as in, you've been lied to? Here's the real truth,
(39:51):
not the cover up? Which is it? Well? Does it matter? Which?
Do we not have all of them? Concurrently every hour
fourth public sexual scandal coverage. Another Beal segment stars Miss
Matta Harry and her skeletons in the closet and she
stands in front of a giant keyhole. This is something
(40:13):
beyond just gossip, and it has become the sustaining joy
of all newscasts, from the cheesiest local station to PBS,
the public sex scandal, Ask Bill Clinton, Ask Madison Cawthorne.
Fifth opinion polls. As News, Bill has a regular segment
called Vox Populi, the Calculation and Reporting of public opinion.
(40:37):
This one is the hardest to explain to younger viewers
of the film network, But the idea of running polls,
especially polls conducted by the news organization that would then
televise the results of those polls, was laughable when Tayavsky
saw it coming. Now, TV news organizations like MSNBC will
not only employ somewhat reliable polling morning, noon, and night,
(41:01):
but they'll also employ text polls in which views are
asked if a particular Republican is a evil or be
just stupid. Moreover, every newscast believes in relies on and
most of them commission their own polling for everything and
treats the results as breaking news. Guilty is charged here,
(41:23):
I did it, then I do it. In this podcast six,
The Corporate Influence Bill opens the first edition of The
Network News Hour with the death of network president Ed
Ruddy and the ascent of Frank Hackett and the full
control of UBS by the company c C. A. Bill
asks when the twelfth largest company in the world controls
(41:45):
the most awesome, goddamn propaganda forces in the whole godless world.
Who knows what blank will be pedaled for truth on
this network. The cross promotion between g E and NBC
and its various networks and channels, or Universal Studios when
the former owned the ladder, or between Disney Networks and
(42:07):
Disney products, ABC, ESPN, the cross quotation of one news
corps print entity by a news corps broadcast entity, or
Fox News and the like. That was only the start.
But what is Fox News? What is O A N?
What is news Max? What is the serious coverage of
the entire big lie about the presidential election? You think
(42:32):
those are the newscasters thinking all that up? It is
exactly what Chayefsky had Beal Warren of, What if the
corporations own all the television networks and tell you what
they the corporations want you to hear? Seven direct involvement
of corporate CEOs in news content. Well, I know of
(42:53):
no meeting in which a real life equivalent to the
Ned Baity character, one of the great characters in motion
picture history, Arthur Jensen preaches fire and Brimstone to Howard
Beale to at him to do what he Jentsen wants.
But I can tell you without fear of contradiction, as
a witness to this, that corporate CEOs will tell individual
(43:17):
newscasters what they want personally, directly and with the threat
of retribution spoken or otherwise. Just yesterday here I mentioned
Jeff Immelt, the head of g E in the summer
of two thousand nine, during the well publicized g E
swoon over MSNBC's criticism of m l's friends at Fox News.
(43:38):
Eventually it was all resolved when Immelt had me come
up to the private g E NBC dining room a
top thirty Rock in New York City along with NBC
President Jeff Zucker to hash it all out. This thing
lasted two hours. When I finally asked Immelt, is this
a question of never criticizing Fox again? Or how much
(44:01):
we criticize Fox? He said how my much? And I said,
well I can do less, and he said, well great, Really,
then it's resolved. Let's eat. And that's when m L
confirmed that he had met on this topic with Rupert Murdoch,
the CEO of News Corps, and that Jeff Zucker had
met with Roger Ales, who ran Fox News, to discuss
(44:23):
what the Fox Corporation and the NBC Corporation would and
would not allow their television networks to report about each other.
Eight lastly, assassination spoiler alert about the movie Network. I
don't think anybody has actually been killed by his own
bosses for having lousy ratings, but the moral equivalent character
(44:48):
assassination of a network's own newscasters. That is a regular
technique to undermine them, to discipline them, to make them
more malleable, to get away with firing them. In Aaron
Sorkin's newsroom, his employers were themselves leaking gossip about their newscaster,
played by Jeff Daniels, to the tabloid newspaper they also owned.
(45:12):
But I know for a fact that past bosses of
mine at NBC leaked to The New York Post in
hopes of making me fear from my job. When Current
TV tried to fire me to get out of having
to pay me roughly fifty million dollars, it still owed me.
It actually hired a former White House spin doctor to
make up and spread stories with his contacts about me
(45:35):
in hopes of getting themselves off the financial hook. If
you have never seen the movie Network, all that I've
been through in the last twenty minutes probably makes it
sound like some sort of drab, almost academic treatise on
declining journalistic values and personal moral decay. Well, it's anything
but that. It is exciting, hilarious, surprising, terrifying, and it's
(45:57):
virtually perfect, with brilliant acting and a subtle but perceptible
sense that everybody in the film and everybody watching the
film is detaching slowly and slowly and more slowly, detaching
from reality and the reliable world they thought they knew
with every passing minute of the film. But mostly it's
(46:20):
just a great flick. If you have not seen it,
see it now. To paraphrise for Finch as so, turn
off this podcast and go watch Network. Turn it off now,
turn it off right now, turn it off and leave
it off. Turn it off right in the middle of
the sentence I'm speaking to you now, I've done all
(46:45):
the damage I can do here. Seriously, if you've never
seen Network, seriously help me out here about the podcast.
Give this thing a good review or rating, or a
heart or a smiley emoji or I don't know whatever.
The countdown theme from Beethoven's Ninth It was arranged, produced,
and performed by Countdown musical directors Brian Ray and John Philips.
Channel guitars, bass and drums by Brian Ray, All orchestration
(47:07):
and keyboards by John Philip. Channel produced by T k
O Brothers. Other Beethoven selections have been arranged and performed
by No horns allowed our sports music. The Alderman theme
from ESPN two was written by Mitch Warren Davis courtesy
of ESPN, Inc. Musical comments by Nancy Faust. The best
baseball stadium organist ever at our announcer today was Richard Lewis.
(47:29):
Everything else is pretty much my fault. And that's countdown
for this the six and thirty first day since Donald
Trump's first attempted coup against the democratically elected government of
the United States. Arrest him now while we still can
a new episode tomorrow. Until then, I'm Keith Olberman. Good morning,
good afternoon, goodnight, and good luck. Countdown with Keith Olderman
(47:58):
is a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts
from I heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of I Heart Radio.
Donald Trump may shortly be thrown under the bus by
(00:27):
the oath Keepers. Jury selection continues in Washington today for
the trial of Stuart Rhodes and four of his oath
Keeper's co conspirators, and there are two things to remember
at all times as you watch this trial proceed, and
watch it carefully. Firstly, remember that the judge has now
permitted Rhodes and the others to offer as their defense
(00:49):
that when they rushed towards the Capitol with guns on
January six, they believed they would be acting on lawful
orders from Trump as president. Secondly, remember that the real
first name of Stuart Rhodes, the I Patch guy, is
Elmer Elmer Stewart Rhodes. It will remind you at all
(01:11):
times of the stupidity of these pretend patriots and the
fact that democracy survives not from our efforts to preserve
it as much as from the idiocy of those who
would destroy it. Simply put, the roads Oathkeeper defense will
have to include sworn testimony from themselves and maybe from
others to back up this idea that Trump was going
(01:34):
to invoke the Insurrection Act and assume its powers to
declare emergencies and to deploy the military to quell protests
and unrest. And that they the oath keepers that pretend soldiers,
thought they were going to somehow be deputized to use
their guns as weapons and or threats to make sure
Joe Biden was not certified as the forty six president
(01:58):
of the United States. And there is one question where
did they get that idea. These creatures are on trial
for seditious conspiracy Elmer over there could get twenty years.
What is their plan? Are they going to actually testify
that The way they figured out Trump was going to
(02:19):
invoke the Insurrection Act was they guessed that they stockpiled
long guns and made plans to occupy federal buildings on
Trump's behalf because they assumed the oath keepers were willing
to pit themselves against the peaceful transfer of power in
the United States of America. Because it came to Rhods
(02:42):
in a dream. They have to have something, some conversations,
some intimations, some instructions, something that implicates Trump or somebody
near him as comical and moronic as Elmer Stewart, Rhodes
and the others. Look, they are not complete idiots. Yes,
(03:02):
Rhodes did shoot his eye out while he was a
firearms instructor by some accounts a firearms safety instructor. But
Rhodes was a staffer for Congressman Ron Paul who managed
to get himself into and through Yale Law and to
win a prize there for the best paper about the
Bill of Rights. He may have been disbarred in Montana later,
(03:24):
but Rhodes ain't making this up as he goes along,
And if he can make anything stick to Trump, that
could be the ball game in trying to save his
own ass. Even if he does not personally nailed Trump,
Roads can still do extraordinary damage to Trump world and
put pressure on a lot of Trump underlings two in
turn turn on Trump. A lot of the oath keepers
(03:47):
have already flipped. One of them spilled so much information
that his profer of evidence, a checklist of what and
who he's willing to testify about and against, was so
long that it had fifty one different items in a
fifty one Another oath keeper turned state's evidence, and in
his plea deal he told us that he had served
as Roger Stones chauffeur. On January six, another one texted Stone.
(04:12):
A third spoke to Stone. Yet another oath Keeper had
tried to reach the head of the Proud Boys group
after he was arrested for weapons possession two days earlier,
on New Year's Day, Rhodes Elmer Stewart. Rhodes had added
somebody he described as quote an event producer for Stop
the Steel to the oath Keepers group text chain quote
(04:36):
he can sort who is doing what in the creative
chaos that will be January five slash six. Rhodes wrote
that and added he's a good egg. So various oath
Keepers have valuable evidence against Roger Stone, against the Stop
the Steel crowd, against the Proud Boys, and Rhodes defense
(04:59):
at the trial just starting in DC clearly implies he's
also got something to connect Trump to this, even if
it is only their own testimony about what they heard. Plus,
there is one final easter egg, one other name, one
(05:19):
other Trump underling who may be more fascinating and at
more risk than all the others combined in that pile
of flipped oath keeper testimony. Is this On the afternoon
of January six itself, as the coup was attempted and
the capital stormed, yet another oath keeper texts the entire
(05:42):
group quote Ronnie Jackson, Texas office inside capital. He needs
oath keeper help unquote both keeper help Congressman Jackson. Less
than ten minutes later, the same oath keeper sends another text,
(06:03):
quote Dr Ronnie jack And on the move needs protection
if anyone inside cover him. He has critical data to
protect unquote. And immediately after that comes the answer, quote,
give him my cell That text is from Stewart Rhodes,
head of the oath Keepers, the man at the center
(06:23):
of our story today. Give Dr Ronnie Jackson, House of Representatives,
Texas former White House position, alleged former doctor feel good,
who has seen Trump naked, who is in the Capitol
during the coup, give him my cell phone. Hey, I
just met you and this is crazy, but here's my number,
(06:46):
so call me maybe. What do you mean, Congressman Ronnie
Jackson Trump butt kisser is quote on the move needs
protection because quote he has critical data to protect. What
kind of critical data? Actually, it doesn't matter. It could
be critical data or it could be just the mcguffin
(07:07):
that Alfred Hitchcock always talked about the plot point that
means life or death to the characters in the movie.
That means nothing to the audience in the theater. The
critical data could be nuclear material, could be Jackson's bottle
of Scotchy Scotch, could be malted milkballs. But like the
Rhodes Defense, we believed we were acting on what would
(07:28):
be orders from the president. The questions for Ronnie Jackson
are all deeply disturbing. Why, how, and for how long
did you, a sitting United States congressman, a sniveling Trump Tody,
the former physician to the President, Why, how and for
how long did you know that if there was trouble
inside the Capitol on January six, that the way for
(07:51):
you to protect both your critical data and your own
ass was to contact the founder of a bunch of
white nationalists, thugs like the oath Keepers. Ask for Elmer
when you call, who planned that? Who told Jackson that? When? Because, however,
(08:12):
and whenever Ronnie Jackson found out that this was the
glass he was supposed to break in the event of emergency,
it would be at that point, assuming they didn't just
make this up, it would be at that point that meeting,
that phone, called, that text change, whatever kind of communication
it was. It's at that point that the oath Keepers
(08:32):
and the Proud Boys and stop the Steel, and Roger
Stone and Moe Brooks and Paul goes On and Matt
Gates and Trump Junior and Crazy Trump and everybody else
who knew the January six plot in hole or in part.
This is where they all come together in one giant
seditious conspiracy. Seditious conspiracy, which is what so many oath
(08:54):
Keepers have already pleaded guilty to, which is what Rhodes
and the other four are on trial for right now
in Washington, which is what they could yet charge Trump with.
There might be a hundred moments in which these scum
conspirators got together to try to destroy this country. But
this moment when Ronnie Jackson was told, if indeed he
(09:17):
was told, if there's trouble in the capital on the six,
you get ahold of the oath Keepers. Their leader will
get you through our crowd, this moment happens to be
sitting right there, right in front of us, ready to burst,
burst all over Ronnie Jackson's critical data. Seditious conspiracy. So
(09:38):
the reason to pay attention to the please and the
convictions and the sleazy stories of the human flotsam and
Jetsam of January six, like Elmer Stewart Rhodes and the
four other oath keepers whose trial is just starting in Washington,
is that whatever they did, if there was a meeting, legally,
that means there was a plan. And if there was
(10:01):
a plan, legally, that means there was a conspiracy. And
if there was a conspiracy that involved Crazy Trump's former
presidential physician, we are at worst within shouting distance of
Trump himself. We might even be close, because we can
rest assured of one thing. When Ronnie Jackson phoned or
texted or whimpered for help, if he did when he sent,
(10:25):
if he did his s O S from inside the
belly of January six, it had to have been no
accident that he knew that the lyrics to his song
went who you Gonna call? Oh? Keepers? All right? Enough?
(10:52):
Pop references still ahead on countdown, say whatever happened to that?
Aaron Judge guy? And speaking of whatever happened to whatever
happened to sports all Star games? One league has just
canceled it's all Star game. I don't think they're gonna
be the last. In worse persons, what do you do
after you ban all the books in this Pennsylvania high school.
(11:12):
You then ban any commemorations of the banning of the books.
And for my money, it is the greatest movie ever made.
It forecasts everything in American news, media and television, and today,
forty six years after it was released, it is more
meaningful than ever because that is the natural order of
things today, that is the atomic and subatomic and galactic
(11:36):
structure of things today. And you have meddled with the
primal forces of nature and you will atone am I
getting through to you? That's next. This is countdown, you know,
(12:00):
this is countdown with you know Keith Alberman still ahead
on Countdown Richard the prophecies of the movie network, the
end of the All Star Game, and could have state
prosecute you for discussing birth control. Coming up first in
(12:20):
each edition of Countdown, we feature a dog in need
whom you can help. Every dog has its day to Brooklyn,
New York and Jinxy. Jinx is a senior Golden Little
Yorky mix of some kinds, struggling with chronic pneumonia and
antibiotics and going back and forth to a breath specialist
and finally getting a bronchoscope to try to figure out
why his left lung continues to threaten his life. It
(12:42):
costs a ton, But if you can save a sweet
dog who clearly wants to go on living and save
him discomfort and fear, why wouldn't you. A m A
Animal Rescue is doing a fundraiser for Jenks on go
fund me. If you can donate a dollar, it will
help defray their expenses. Whatever you can. You can look
for Jinxy j I n x I E or a
(13:04):
m A Rescue on go fund me, or just go
to my tweet about him on my account for Dogs
in Trouble at Tom Jumbo Grumbo on Twitter. Just to
retweet will help and thank you very much for doing so.
(13:37):
This is Sports Center. Wait, check that not anymore. This
is Countdown with Keith in Sports Aaron Judge has now
gone seven games without a home run, staying at sixty
after his New York Yankees beat Toronto five to two
to quench the American League East last night. And to
(13:59):
add to this madness, Judge has now walked in each
of his last four at back in that game, and
that's twelve walks in seven games and twenty seven walks
in the month of September. Could he really not get
to sixty homers or sixty two well? In two thousand seventeen,
his now teammate gian Carlos Stanton had fifty seven homers
for Miami with eight games left. He went four games
(14:22):
without a homer, then he hit two in one game
to reach fifty nine, and then none in his last
three games in his own ballpark. We do get a
record of some kind. Last night, Richard Blier, seven year
veteran pitcher of the Miami Marlins, charged with three box
as he faced just one batter, Pete Alonso of the
Mets in three d and four big league games. Richard
(14:43):
Blier had never been called for a ball before. Meanwhile,
the National Football League may have admitted something the other
leagues did not want them to. The All Star Game
in every sport is basically meaningless now except as the
centerpiece for the stuff the fans actually want to watch
and the players actually want to do, the slam dunk contest,
(15:04):
the whole run derby the skills competitions. The NFL has
eliminated it's all star game, the Pro Bowl, which it
has been playing in various forms since nine. It has
never developed its own Slam dunk contest or home run derby.
But it is the first to admit that those tales
now wag. The All Star Dog Football will instead have
(15:25):
a week long Pro Bowl games. The week before the
Super Bowl in Las Vegas, they'll have a flag football game,
and uh, whatever else they can dream up between now
and the last week of January. Guest Tom Brady's actual
age competition comes to mind. One imagines the other sports
will eventually follow suit. All Star games used to have
(15:46):
built in attractions except in the World Series. You never
saw National League Baseball players play against American League as
You never saw the stars in small markets at all,
even on television, And there they were all in one
place at the All Star Game, one place which you
can create every night merely by watching all the highlights
(16:06):
on the Baseball website. Hockey has staved off the elimination
of its All Star Game by making it into a
four team tournament with cash on the line, which motivates
hockey players like nothing you've ever seen before, and basketball
has shifted it's focused to its contests. If you don't
think the various All Star Games are meaningless, though, this
(16:26):
simple question who won this year's baseball All Star Game.
It was just two months and nine days ago. No
huh answer, American League score now three to two. Anything
interesting happen in it? National LEA led to zip, then
Gen Carlos Stanton hit a two run homer to tie it,
(16:49):
and Byron Buxton hit a solo homer, and the last
five innings were scoreless, and no, I confess I didn't
remember any of it either. Still ahead on countdown. I
(17:12):
think it is the most prophetic motion picture of all time,
as relevant today as it was when the fictional newscasts
and crazy fictional newscaster and crazy executives it portrayed all
did their thing forty seven years ago. This week it
is network and why it matters intensely today. Coming up first,
(17:32):
the daily round up of the miscrants, morons and Dunning
Krueger effect specimens who constitute today's worst persons in the world.
You've got to get mad the Bronze Jeffrey Moore. He
quit abruptly last Friday as the Commissioner of Gangsden County, Florida,
appointed by Governor Ron Dessantis. Who else in July? And
nobody's saying why Mr Moore quit officially anyway, but local
(17:56):
leaders in the predominantly black county think they know why
a photo made the rounds of the county showing a
man in ku klux klan robe and hood. It may
have been taken in a costume party, or maybe it
was not a costume or a party, but those local
leaders are pretty sure one thing. They say, it shows,
or at least it looks like Jeffrey Moore, the guy
(18:18):
to sant disappointed, the guy who just quit without explanation.
Those proverbial local leaders would like an explanation. Runners up
the University of Idaho, the old abortion law that came
back into effect there after the Supreme Court gutted Roe v.
Wade is so draconian that an email went out to
all staffers at the university which warns them bluntly that
(18:39):
they could not only be immediately fired, but they could
be banned from ever again working for the state of Idaho,
and they could be prosecuted for a felony if they
are caught discussing abortion on campus. Oh In the University
of Idaho also says the same firing, banning prosecution deal
(18:59):
could occur if they discuss birth control on campus. But
the gold goes to in the same bain Joan Cullen,
school board president for Penridge High in Bucks County, and
Trump fan. That's kind of the DMZ between the Philadelphia
suburbs and the Pennsylvania rust belt. This remarkable story was
reported for The Philadelphia Inquirer by my friend of nearly
(19:23):
half a century half a century, God help us, the
impeccable Will Bunch, formerly of the Hackwey Dial Hackeck School, Terrytown,
New York, where I was his editor for at least
fifteen years. Will reports Penridge had an annual Banned Book
Week every September, complete with a display in the school
library that included George Orwell's Animal Farm and The Hate
(19:45):
You Give by Angie Thomas books the school actually tried
to ban Circuit two thousand six. Banned Book Week began
as scheduled last Monday, and then on Wednesday, students discovered
that the Banned Book Week display had vanished. It had
been banned and by school higher ups. Nobody knows for
(20:07):
certain exactly who, but at Penridge High in Pennsylvania, the
fascists have actually banned Banned Book Week, said the pen
Ridge senior Robin Reid, who wrote about the banning. How
or William is that? Well, Robin, the correct answer is
a whole lot. Whoever actually did it? We have to
give the award to somebody. So since Joan Cullen is
(20:28):
the school board president and she did rally for Trump
in DC just before the coup attempt January six, Joan,
soon we get to celebrate band Band Book Week week.
Colin Today's worst person in the world. You're bad to
(21:04):
the number one story on the countdown on my favorite topic.
Me and I was thinking about the hardcore definition the
other day of one's favorite motion picture. I think the
hardcore definition is this, if you could watch only one
movie for the rest of your life, but whether there's
life after death or there isn't, you could watch it
then too, and you could watch it with anybody now
(21:26):
or later. Which movie would it be under those circumstances.
And by the way, if you say, well, I've got
two choices, you forfeit and you can't watch any movies
the rest of your life or after it, Well, then
I'm taking the film that began in its alternate universe
forty seven years ago this week, that was a day
or two away from its eternal signature line, I'm as
(21:48):
mad as hell and I'm not gonna take it anymore.
Network the Patty Chayevski film about the network anchor man
who announces he has been fired for low ratings and
so he has decided to kill himself on the air,
and his ratings promptly go up, and then he begins
to give voice to what our extra worldly prophecies and warnings. Well,
(22:10):
maybe they're that, or maybe they're they're pure ravings of
unadulterated insanity. Network starred Peter Finch as the newscaster, William
Holden as his best friend, the network news boss, Faye
Dunaway as the network programmer who sees in this newscast
a gold mine, and Robert Duval as the ambitious new
network chief who sees in the newscast his ticket to
(22:31):
the corporate boardroom. When I first saw Network as a
seventeen year old aspiring TV broadcaster, my jaw dropped and
it stayed dropped, and in the last forty six years,
my but jaw has barely moved from that position. The
world of TV news that Network predicted was not unthinkable
(22:52):
in nineteen seventy six, but it was a nightmare today,
virtually everything Chayavsky saw in the future has come true
and is accepted as conservative broadcast thing. The movie was
so prophetic that younger viewers sometimes see the quality of
the film and its artistry and its genius, but they
can't imagine what the big deal was about its content.
(23:14):
It's just showing TV news the way it's always been.
So a while ago, I sat down and watched Network,
and I took notes. I counted twenty three major things
about TV news that we're not true when Network came out,
but are true now, and they cover basically everything in
the business. First of these the on air breakdown of
(23:37):
a newscaster, Peter Finch's Howard Beal announces he's going to
shoot himself on the air. In one week, there was
a local news anchor named Christine Chubbuck who had already
shot herself during a newscast in Sarah sot In, but
she did not give advance warning nor show any indication
of emotional distress. Sadly, tragically, she just did it. But
(23:59):
after Network, things began to come apart at the seams
in local news and network news. In after reporter Bree
Walker of New York's Channel two News had concluded a
story on birth defects. Veteran anchor Jim Jensen questioned her
at length about a hand and foot deformity which she
herself suffered from, and whether or not her parents would
(24:22):
have aborted her had they known in advance she had
the condition. Shortly afterwards, Jensen, who had been on the
air in New York forever, entered a rehab center for
treatment of alcohol, prescription drug and cocaine abuse and depression.
Later in two thousand four, Dan Harris had a live
panic attack on ABC's Good Morning America, losing his breath
(24:42):
and cutting his news cash short. Second of the Prophecies
Network posited that such a breakdown would lead not to
treatment nor removal from a broadcast, but to greater success.
Fifteen years ago, Glenn Beck began to regularly weep on
the air. If that was not an indication of emotional trouble,
(25:02):
it might have been the attempt to convey that feeling
legitimate or contrived. Beck was rewarded and the ABC newscaster
I just mentioned. Dan Harris would go on to do
a World News Tonight feature on his own on air breakdown.
Third Prophecy when Howard Beale first tells his boss, Max
Schumacher played by William Holden, that he will kill himself
(25:25):
on the air. Schumacher goes off on a drunken flight
of fancy about a new Sunday night news show he
called in his mind the Death Hour, Suicides, assassinations, mad bombers,
mafia hitman, automobile smash ups, he says, and a terrorist
of the Week. Schumacher's utterly dystopian forecast has not made
(25:45):
air yet, but the terrorism of nine eleven did play
out live on all networks, and parts of that terrorism
are repeated minimally annually. Much of a network like True
TV consisted of programs that were merely edited highlights of disasters, centering,
in fact, largely on as Max Schumacher phrased that automobile
(26:07):
smash ups, the fourth network Prophecy Beale swears repeatedly during
his newscasts. In the last few years, CNN in particular,
has made the decision to quote words that would have
been bleeped less than a decade ago, and at least
one broadcast television program, The Late Late Show with Craig
Ferguson on CBS, produced its show live to tape with
(26:29):
an audience and in real time let the host swear
copiously and then would bleep him just as copiously for
the broadcast itself. Maybe the scripted swear in the newscast
is not far away. Fifth of the network prophecies. Newscasts
did not do stories about other newscasts before network premiered.
(26:52):
When Beale announces his intention to kill himself, all of
New York's local ten and eleven PM newscasts made it
their lead story at this point, and in ensuing years,
even monumental hirements such as Chet Huntley's retirement in NBC
in nineteen seventy or Walter cronkites retirement from CBS in
n had only merited the briefest of footnotes on rival
(27:15):
network programs. But by the time of Peter Jennings lung
cancer announcement in two thousand five, a newscast or newscaster
could become the lead story on another newscast. Indeed, when
I left MSNBC in January two thousand and eleven, announcing
it mid show, CNN's Anderson Cooper three sixty not only
(27:36):
led its live broadcast at ten pm ET with it,
it devoted a dumbfounding twenty two minutes to something that
would have been ignored even a decade before. Understand how
long twenty two minutes is on CNN. I retired from
the broadcast countdown on MSNBC and was able to get
(27:57):
home before he was done covering the story of my
retiring from the broadcast six and this was the key
to everything in network. And since network, Patty Hievsky and
his script forecast a moment in which newscasts would be
required to make money. It had not been that way
(28:20):
before news divisions were considered public service. The price the
networks paid to make billions off entertainment shows. Robert duval
As Frank Hackett, the executive, attacks UBS is quote credit
News division and its annual thirty three million dollar deficit.
As Hackett later tells UBS stockholders, in effect, the news
(28:40):
division would be reduced from an independent division to a
department accountable to network. After CBS was sold in, the
news budget was cut in half, and the moment arrived
newscast from there on in had to be profitable. In
two thousand twelve, NBC took it to a new level
by appointing a programming executive with no news experience to
(29:01):
oversee all news on all of its at works stations
and even local cable systems. The reason Padai Chavsky could
see this when others could not was that he had
worked in live television drama in the nineteen fifties, particularly
on one show called You Are There, in which CBS
News reporters and actors re enacted great moments from history.
(29:24):
The newscasters could make extra cash on the side, and
the network made huge profits. The host of You Are There,
half News, half entertainment was Walter Cronkite. The seventh network
prophecy criminals videotaping their own crimes. A series in network
is created after a terrorist group called the Ecumenical Liberation
(29:47):
Army shoots film of its own members robbing a bank.
This was inconceivable in yet is today a facet of
every act, from the simplest self taped vandalism uploaded to YouTube,
to actual terrorist attacks, recordings of which are made by
and then disseminated to news organizations by the perpetrators. The
(30:09):
eighth prophecy of network television news as rage quote. The
American people want somebody to articulate their rage for them,
says Fay Dunaway's character Diana Christensen relative to cable news
in particular, does this even require me to elaborate at all?
Ninth Christiansen, not a news executive, is then given control
(30:32):
over and permission to program Beel's newscast, the UBS Evening News.
Although there was a history of news personnel being involved
in entertainment programming, Edward R. Murrow also did an interview
show called Person to Person. Evening newscast were sacro sancd
Today the fiction may be maintained that they're still sacro sancd,
But since the advent of the consultant on the local
(30:54):
news level in the late nineteen seventies and early eighties,
more and more decisions about not just who does the news,
but what goes on the news have been made by
non news executives. The tenth prophecy, Diana Christensen also foretells
the various genres of five nights a week network programming
that didn't happen before network She sees a profit center
(31:16):
in a chiefly produced, low budget program that can run
Monday through Friday and which happens to be about the news.
The other networks then try to find their own outlandish
newscasts and run them five nights a week. Padavsky is
now anticipating every genre of craze that followed in news,
from nightline to dateline Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
(31:38):
To American Idol to the NBC two thousand nine experiment
in which they put Jay Leno on for a comedy
show every night at ten pm. The eleventh Prophecy Network
anticipates government deregulation and what it would do to TV.
When the UVS President objects to a pornographic network news
(31:59):
show and Warren's the FCC and kill us Robert duval
as Hackett dismisses him and the f c C and
for tells the declawing of the commission. The f c
C can't do anything, so that wrap our knuckles again.
Does anything the FCC has not done in post network television?
Need any detail from me? Twelve News commentary devolving into
(32:23):
rants and takes? Wait? What did I write here? News
commentary devolves into rants and takes. I've never heard any
news commentator ranting what the hell is this? The rest
of this rant about the relevance of the movie network.
Right after this, before the break, I was about halfway
(32:48):
through my look at the remarkably prescient nineteen seventy six
film network, which foresaw things we thought impossible then, ranging
from TV news covering TV news as news two terrorists
videotaping their own terror and giving it to newscasts, to
the wealth thing that network fore told, the evolution or
devolution of news commentary into takes and rants. What in
(33:14):
substance are we proposing? New network chief Hackett asks his
horrified colleagues. Then he answers his own question, merely to
add editorial comment to our news show, Brinkley several reasoner
all have their comments. Now, Howard beat will have his.
Hackett's erasure of a line between nuanced, thoughtful scripts of
commentary agonized over by commentators, producers, and executives and add
(33:38):
libbed madness foresaw the similar real life change. Not merely
were comments added to newscasts, but the standards for what
constituted useful public commentary dropped from an ages old tradition
of newspaper editorials and columnists to verbal graffiti spontaneously letting
out his anger the thirteenth network prophecy. Newscasters and commentators
(34:03):
never used to claim that God told them what to say.
The Beale specifically quotes the voice who tells him to
tell the people the truth as also saying that that
voice is not God. Beale still says he feels quote
imbued and connected to all living things. The leap for
a commentator from hearing your inner voice to hearing somebody
(34:28):
else's inner voice was preposterous enough as it was, but
reality took it further. While Glenn Beck may not have
claimed God was writing his commentaries for him, in April
two thousand twelve, according to the U T. San Diego News,
he told an audience in Rancho, San Diego that God
did tell him to quit his job at Fox News Channel.
(34:51):
On the day he decided to leave, they wrote, Beck
said he walked up to a floor to ceiling window
in his New York apartment and asked his wife, how
could this possibly be God's plan? As I stood there,
the Lord whispered to me. If you do not leave now,
you will lose your soul. Beck said it was the
easiest decision I've ever made. Beck also later announced that
(35:13):
God not only Wantedmit Romney to be president, but had
put him behind in the polls so that when Romney won,
everyone would see a modern miracle. Had that one turn
out for you, Glenn four Network Prophecy Network accurately predicted
that journalists would stop throwing themselves in front of professional
train wrex. The same year that network was released, a
(35:36):
House committee wanted correspond at Daniel Shore of CBS News
to testify about where he got a copy of a
secret report. He refused. CBS pressured him to testify, so
he quit. He quit his job, but Network for told
that Shore would be among the last to do something
like that. William Holden's Max Schumacher tries to derail the
(35:59):
Howard Beal Prophecy and Rage newscast by telling Robert Duval's
Frank Hackett, you want me out of hear your and
have to drag me out of here, kicking and screaming
in the whole news division kicking and screaming with me.
Hackett dismisses him. You think they're gonna quit their jobs
for you. Not. In this recession, buddy, the premise of
the integrity of news people was as widely held as
(36:21):
the integrity and inviolability of a news division, and yet
in each downsizing, redesigning, and bobalterization, of the old standard
concept of news again. Patty Chayevski foresaw correctly the number
of public protests, let alone public exits, has been negligible
in the last thirty years. Dan rather railed against the
(36:44):
gutting of CBS. That's been about it, and for all
the other good things Dan has done, he didn't quit
his job. Network Force saw reality television and the staging
of news. When Christiansen meets with the activist Lorraine Hobbs
and her attorneys to program their terrorism show them out,
(37:04):
say flung Our, She's not merely reflecting the coming amorality
of reality television, nor just amplifying the already extant if
it bleeds it leads mantra of local news. Through her,
Patty Chayaski is also for telling a time when television
would begin not to cover the news, but to orchestrate it.
(37:24):
If the networks have yet to actually be guilty of
misprision of a penalty regarding terrorists, we hope surely on
a lesser scale. The NBC scandal over faked video of
Chevy trucks exploding after collisions confirms the basic premise of
adding programming helper to the actual news somewhat more remotely.
(37:44):
Event recreations were once absolutely impermissible in news, they are
now one of its staples. There are eight more prophecies,
and they all fall into one category. Howard Beal's revised newscast,
The Network News Hour, has components in it, eight of
them that would have been thought absurd in any Who's
(38:04):
cast anywhere the day that the Film Network premiered. In
Number one, it has a studio audience. Countless newscasts, particularly
on cable, have now used studio audiences. MSNBC's Donahue did
it nightly in two thousand to two thousand three. Others
(38:25):
like Anderson Cooper and Chris Matthews and Chris Hayes have
experimented with it. Number two. Predicting the news on the
Beal Show, Sybil the Soothsayer actually predicts the news. Well,
nobody has done that yet, not literally. But what does
every specialty newscast, especially political ones, do in its last
(38:47):
broadcast before Monday? Almost invariably there is some kind of
prediction or forecast for the week ahead what to look for,
and if it is not institutionalized in that distinct manner,
the show still contains pundits who do nothing but forecast
tomorrow's news as long ago as would try on Thursday
(39:08):
night to guess where the Clinton Lewinsky story was going
and what we could give them to put in the
prerecorded promos that would run on Monday, three days later.
Number three Trial Obsessed TV News. There is a Howard
Beale segment called Jim Webbing and His It's the Emmis
(39:30):
Truth Department. The script is a little vague. We don't know.
Is the Emis Truth a series of hard to believe
news stories. Does that giant logo behind Jim Webbing of
Justice carrying her scales suggests it's a regular report on
trials and the law? Or is the emphasis on emmis
as in, you've been lied to? Here's the real truth,
(39:51):
not the cover up? Which is it? Well? Does it matter? Which?
Do we not have all of them? Concurrently every hour
fourth public sexual scandal coverage. Another Beal segment stars Miss
Matta Harry and her skeletons in the closet and she
stands in front of a giant keyhole. This is something
(40:13):
beyond just gossip, and it has become the sustaining joy
of all newscasts, from the cheesiest local station to PBS,
the public sex scandal, Ask Bill Clinton, Ask Madison Cawthorne.
Fifth opinion polls. As News, Bill has a regular segment
called Vox Populi, the Calculation and Reporting of public opinion.
(40:37):
This one is the hardest to explain to younger viewers
of the film network, But the idea of running polls,
especially polls conducted by the news organization that would then
televise the results of those polls, was laughable when Tayavsky
saw it coming. Now, TV news organizations like MSNBC will
not only employ somewhat reliable polling morning, noon, and night,
(41:01):
but they'll also employ text polls in which views are
asked if a particular Republican is a evil or be
just stupid. Moreover, every newscast believes in relies on and
most of them commission their own polling for everything and
treats the results as breaking news. Guilty is charged here,
(41:23):
I did it, then I do it. In this podcast six,
The Corporate Influence Bill opens the first edition of The
Network News Hour with the death of network president Ed
Ruddy and the ascent of Frank Hackett and the full
control of UBS by the company c C. A. Bill
asks when the twelfth largest company in the world controls
(41:45):
the most awesome, goddamn propaganda forces in the whole godless world.
Who knows what blank will be pedaled for truth on
this network. The cross promotion between g E and NBC
and its various networks and channels, or Universal Studios when
the former owned the ladder, or between Disney Networks and
(42:07):
Disney products, ABC, ESPN, the cross quotation of one news
corps print entity by a news corps broadcast entity, or
Fox News and the like. That was only the start.
But what is Fox News? What is O A N?
What is news Max? What is the serious coverage of
the entire big lie about the presidential election? You think
(42:32):
those are the newscasters thinking all that up? It is
exactly what Chayefsky had Beal Warren of, What if the
corporations own all the television networks and tell you what
they the corporations want you to hear? Seven direct involvement
of corporate CEOs in news content. Well, I know of
(42:53):
no meeting in which a real life equivalent to the
Ned Baity character, one of the great characters in motion
picture history, Arthur Jensen preaches fire and Brimstone to Howard
Beale to at him to do what he Jentsen wants.
But I can tell you without fear of contradiction, as
a witness to this, that corporate CEOs will tell individual
(43:17):
newscasters what they want personally, directly and with the threat
of retribution spoken or otherwise. Just yesterday here I mentioned
Jeff Immelt, the head of g E in the summer
of two thousand nine, during the well publicized g E
swoon over MSNBC's criticism of m l's friends at Fox News.
(43:38):
Eventually it was all resolved when Immelt had me come
up to the private g E NBC dining room a
top thirty Rock in New York City along with NBC
President Jeff Zucker to hash it all out. This thing
lasted two hours. When I finally asked Immelt, is this
a question of never criticizing Fox again? Or how much
(44:01):
we criticize Fox? He said how my much? And I said,
well I can do less, and he said, well great, Really,
then it's resolved. Let's eat. And that's when m L
confirmed that he had met on this topic with Rupert Murdoch,
the CEO of News Corps, and that Jeff Zucker had
met with Roger Ales, who ran Fox News, to discuss
(44:23):
what the Fox Corporation and the NBC Corporation would and
would not allow their television networks to report about each other.
Eight lastly, assassination spoiler alert about the movie Network. I
don't think anybody has actually been killed by his own
bosses for having lousy ratings, but the moral equivalent character
(44:48):
assassination of a network's own newscasters. That is a regular
technique to undermine them, to discipline them, to make them
more malleable, to get away with firing them. In Aaron
Sorkin's newsroom, his employers were themselves leaking gossip about their newscaster,
played by Jeff Daniels, to the tabloid newspaper they also owned.
(45:12):
But I know for a fact that past bosses of
mine at NBC leaked to The New York Post in
hopes of making me fear from my job. When Current
TV tried to fire me to get out of having
to pay me roughly fifty million dollars, it still owed me.
It actually hired a former White House spin doctor to
make up and spread stories with his contacts about me
(45:35):
in hopes of getting themselves off the financial hook. If
you have never seen the movie Network, all that I've
been through in the last twenty minutes probably makes it
sound like some sort of drab, almost academic treatise on
declining journalistic values and personal moral decay. Well, it's anything
but that. It is exciting, hilarious, surprising, terrifying, and it's
(45:57):
virtually perfect, with brilliant acting and a subtle but perceptible
sense that everybody in the film and everybody watching the
film is detaching slowly and slowly and more slowly, detaching
from reality and the reliable world they thought they knew
with every passing minute of the film. But mostly it's
(46:20):
just a great flick. If you have not seen it,
see it now. To paraphrise for Finch as so, turn
off this podcast and go watch Network. Turn it off now,
turn it off right now, turn it off and leave
it off. Turn it off right in the middle of
the sentence I'm speaking to you now, I've done all
(46:45):
the damage I can do here. Seriously, if you've never
seen Network, seriously help me out here about the podcast.
Give this thing a good review or rating, or a
heart or a smiley emoji or I don't know whatever.
The countdown theme from Beethoven's Ninth It was arranged, produced,
and performed by Countdown musical directors Brian Ray and John Philips.
Channel guitars, bass and drums by Brian Ray, All orchestration
(47:07):
and keyboards by John Philip. Channel produced by T k
O Brothers. Other Beethoven selections have been arranged and performed
by No horns allowed our sports music. The Alderman theme
from ESPN two was written by Mitch Warren Davis courtesy
of ESPN, Inc. Musical comments by Nancy Faust. The best
baseball stadium organist ever at our announcer today was Richard Lewis.
(47:29):
Everything else is pretty much my fault. And that's countdown
for this the six and thirty first day since Donald
Trump's first attempted coup against the democratically elected government of
the United States. Arrest him now while we still can
a new episode tomorrow. Until then, I'm Keith Olberman. Good morning,
good afternoon, goodnight, and good luck. Countdown with Keith Olderman
(47:58):
is a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts
from I heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Host
Keith Olbermann
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