June 13, 2023 • 42 mins
EPISODE 226: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN
A-Block (1:42) SPECIAL COMMENT: In a normal world the criticisms were so milquetoast and so covered in caveats that they'd barely be noticed. In the context of the perpetual darkness of Donald Trump and the Coalition of Hatreds, they are bursts of sunlight. They inspired absolutely nobody, and it could all go away tomorrow as it has so many times before, but graded on degree of difficulty Nikki Haley and Tim Scott each gave The Gettysburg Address yesterday.
SOMETHING has happened in the calculations of other Republicans regarding today’s indictment of Donald Trump. As it ridiculous as it might be Haley and Scott are running for the Republican nomination and that there have been calls on the right for them and everybody but Trump to drop out and endorse Trump as a way to show they believe in Trump. And instead, at an event where he announced the endorsement of 140 Republicans, Tim Scott instead said “This case is a serious case with serious allegations.”
And while that squeak heard round the Trump-World was reverberating, Nikki Haley went on Fox and said if the indictment is “true...President Trump was incredibly reckless with our national security. More than that, I’m a military spouse, my husband’s about to deploy this weekend. This puts all of our military men and women in danger, if you talk about what our military is capable of, or how we would go about invading or doing something with one of our enemies. If that’s the case, it’s reckless, it’s frustrating and it causes problems.”
In the time of terrified subservience, as if Trump were Shtalin with hemorrhoids, Nikki Haley accused Trump of being reckless with the national security and endangering the lives of military men and women and talking about our military plans to invade – or defend against – other countries. In other words, she said everything I said on this podcast yesterday. And all the things DEMOCRATS WON’T SAY. And she said them on Fox.
Tim Scott and Nikki Haley would be the LAST two I would’ve expected this from, and they did it on the same day, and they did it in what was for them very high profile venues and it means that they have completely re-calculated the equations. Each had slammed the indictments, unequivocally, last week.
Haley and Scott didn’t grow consciences over the weekend. The scales did not fall from their eyes. Neither is smart enough to have figured this all out by themselves. They HAVE to seen internal polling, or heard dire assessments of what is behind the indictment, or gotten advice from people THEY know and people they think know, that this is the moment to turn on Trump. It could be something we don’t know about or it could be something The Wall Street Journal put up at noon yesterday. Headline: “Trump Needs White Suburban Women. His Indictment Splits Them. Key swing group could help decide who takes White House in 2024.”
SOMETHING has HAPPENED.
B-Block (20:43) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Fox sues Tucker Carlson for damages. Damages? Have you SEEN his Twitter videos? And the Saudi purchase of the PGA Tour now has to get past a Senate investigation (24:44) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Josh Blackman, would-be Maureen Dowd replacement; The Guardian has bad news for Harmeet Dhillon; And the guy who nearly killed The Washington Post, Fred Ryan, quits to become the boss at the Center For Civility at The Ronald Reagan Foundation (that's a job that comes with 52 weeks of vacation a year).
29:32 THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: I played a clip of him a few weeks back, from a New York radio newscast we did together in 1980. He was the most talented person I ever worked with, and in the 40 years since nobody's come close. He was also the most mean-spirited, the most screwed up, and he met a tragic end. Will Spens, remembered.
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 iHeartRadio Happy
Mugshot Day. Maybe as we await the defendant and we
(00:28):
pray snap snap grin, grin wink wink, say no mo.
As Trump starts his journey to the White House or
the Big House, something has happened in the calculations of
other Republicans regarding today's indictment of Trump. It could all
vanish by tonight. But yesterday Nikki Haley and Tim Scott
both clearly and loudly raised the possibility that Trump is guilty,
(00:54):
and Haley suggested he may have jeopardized national security and
risk the lives of US service personnel. And yes, it
is just the slightest sliver of daylight over in the
land of perpetual darkness that is Donald Trump and the
coalition of hatreds. We have all experienced those slivers before,
(01:14):
and we have all then watched the fascist inclined portion
of this nation come down upon the transgressors like all
the tons of bricks ever produced, and they have slinked
back to deny, retract, emend, and beg forgiveness of that
disorganized crime boss who heads their cult. But for now
Trumpists must be looking at Tim Scott and Nicky Haley
(01:37):
like they were Martians who just ripped off their human masks.
So get your popcorn. For however long this lasts, it's
gonna be great because something has happened. Quote, this case
is a serious case, Senator Scott said at Spartanburg, South Carolina, yesterday,
(01:59):
with serious allegations. That does not sound like much if
you're normal, And it was accompanied with the usual blather
about double standards and hunting Republicans. But remember the context here.
Nobody to the left of Mitt Romney or Chris Christy
had even said anything that strong. Tim Scott's use of
(02:23):
the word serious is closer to him saying something like
Trump is a traitor than it is to what ninety
nine percent of Republican politicians have said so far. And
remember that ridiculous as it might be, Tim Scott is
running for the Republican presidential nomination, and that there have
(02:44):
been calls on the right for him and everybody but
Trump to drop out and endorse Trump as a way
to show they believe in Trump. And that after Trump
said Thursday he had been indicted, Scott said the scales
of justice were waited and he gave the indictment no legitimacy.
And Scott said this yesterday at a campaign event in
(03:04):
which the Senator was rolling out the endorsement of his
presidential candidacy by one hundred and forty South Carolina politicians,
none of whom walked off the stage when he said it.
And while the squeak heard round the Trump world was
still reverberating, Nikki Haley went on Fox and said, if
(03:27):
the indictment is true, quote, President Trump was incredibly reckless
with our national security. That's Trump and reckless in the
same sentence uttered by another Republican on the eve of
his arraignment. And she is running for the nomination and
(03:47):
running against Trump. And wait, there's more quote more than that.
She said. I'm a military spouse. My husband's about to
deploy this weekend. This puts all of our military men
and women in danger. If you talk about what our
military is capable of, or how we would go about
(04:08):
invading or doing something with one of our enemies in
a time of terrified subservience, as if Trump were stalin
with a case of hemorrhoids. Nikki Haley saying that even
mixed in with her own caveats that she still thinks
the Department of Justice has lost all CREDI milin huh,
(04:29):
this resounds like the freaking Gettysburg address. She accused Trump
of being reckless with the national security and with endangering
the lives of military men and women, and talking about
our military plans to invade or defend against other countries.
In other words, she said everything I said on this
(04:52):
podcast yesterday. She said all the things democrats won't say,
and she said them on Fox and just in case
Trump did not know that she had actually had the
nerve to hit him, to call him out as a
danger to the national security and a danger to the
(05:14):
troops and reckless. She went back in and she hit
him again. Quote. If that's the case, it's reckless, it's frustrating,
and it causes problems. She did not finish up strong.
But still the Bible says the meek shall inherit the earth,
and in this life. They do not come any meeker
(05:35):
than an African American man who is a Republican and
has been an acolyte of Trump's and a woman who
was born Nimurata Ranjawa to immigrants from the Punjab, who
was actually Trump's ambassador to the United Nations. That is
as meek as you get. Of all the challengers to Trump,
announced or unannounced, Tim Scott and Nikki Haley would be
(05:57):
the last two I would have expected this from. And
they did it on the same day, and they did
it in what was for them high profile venues. And
it means that they have somehow, for some reason, completely
recalculated this equation. Scott had slammed the indictments unequivocally on Thursday.
(06:19):
On Friday, Friday, Haley had tweeted, this is not how
justice should be pursued in our country. Seventy two hours later,
and Trump is quote reckless with our national security. And
I know I left out the ifs, and I did
that because it will be heard among Republicans without the ifs.
(06:39):
Something has happened. Haley and Scott did not grow consciences
over the weekend. The scales did not fall from their eyes.
Neither is smart enough to have figured this all out
by themselves. They have to have seen internal polling or
(07:00):
heard dire assessments of what is behind the indictment, or
gotten advice people they know and people they think know
that this is the moment too, however tentatively, however, redolent
of leaving a trail of breadcrumbs behind you, So maybe
you can still find your way out of the forest.
This is the moment to turn on Trump. It could
(07:26):
be something anything that we don't know about, or it
could be something as simple as what the Wall Street
Journal put up at noon yesterday, a headline, Trump needs
white suburban women. His indictment splits them, key swing group
could help decide who takes White House in twenty twenty four.
(07:48):
The article beneath is the standard formula thumbsucker, the journal's
equivalent of the New York Times, and it's dozens of
correspondents reporting from that diner in this Ohio town. There
are exactly two white suburban women and quoted in the piece,
and two Polsters. And there isn't even one sentence in
(08:10):
the whole thing worth reading to you. But imagine being
Nicky Haley or Tim Scott or somebody close to them,
and being just sentient enough to know that you are
not going to beat Donald Trump for the nomination. You're
either going to have to shive him, or you're going
to have to be well positioned when something forces him
to drop out. Imagine being either one of them and
(08:33):
seeing the headline Trump needs white suburban women. His indictment
splits them key swing group could help decide who takes
White House in twenty twenty four. I know white suburban women.
Of course, Haley and Scott have since been joined by nobody.
(08:54):
If that changes, especially today, especially on the day of
or tomorrow, in the immediate wake of the indictments, then
we've got something going. And it is still galling that
these statements are especially graded for their degree of difficulty
and degree of survivability. They are stronger than anything that
any Democrat has said since the news broke last Thursday night.
(09:17):
He's down kick him. If Nicky Haley can kick him,
Joe Biden can kick him. Now across the rest of
the fascist hellscape, the amount of Republican brown nosing of
Trump is still so severe that it would take the
(09:38):
jaws of life to extract the probosis in question. That
is unchanged and nearly unanimous. And every time somebody writes
something like in the Hill about a week ago, quote,
is Kevin McCarthy just really that good at his job?
And you think, you think, just for a second, that
Kevin McCarthy is not a flaming idiot. Kevin McCarthy makes
(10:02):
sure he circles back and fine a camera and finds
a microphone so he can prove to you, Oh, yes,
the hell I am got a good look for the
former president to have boxes in a bathroom. I don't know.
Is it a good picture to have boxes in a
garage that opens up all the time? A bathroom door locks.
Kevin is willing to assume Trump locks the bathroom door.
(10:27):
What did I say yesterday? What did I say yesterday? Larry?
Let me quote the script. The only thing missing from
this string of illogic with which he keeps his suckers
hypnotized like cats jumping at feathers is the argument that
the documents were secure at marri Lago, because who would
ever be willing to go inside Trump's bathroom? Kevin McCarthy
(10:53):
fulfilling my prophecies, and Nikki Haley echoing my argument's almost
word for word, Jesus suffering f stop room door locks.
Kevin has never seen a lock on a garage door, evidently,
and that one last electrical impulse in his brain that
(11:14):
would have reminded him that the bathroom was within yards
of a public ballroom and a cheap golf course favored
by neighborhood spies. And that the garage, you know, wasn't
that impulse died trying to jump from Kevin's neuron number
one of two and his neuron number two of two
(11:35):
a bathroom door locks. Why It's like speaker Henry Clay
has been reincarnated and circulates among us baller Cronk CBS
now to today, a mug shot would be all we
would see of the defendant today at the first ever
arraignment of an ex president, but only because Ford pardoned Nixon.
(11:59):
Maybe not even a mug shot. Magga Haberman reported late
last night that quote a person familiar with the planning
for mister Trump's appearance in Miami, I wonder who that is.
Maggie said the expectation was that there would be no
handcuffs or a mug shot. But of course this ignores
the fact that there wasn't a mug shot after his
arrest in New York either, so his campaign just fabricated one. Anyway,
(12:21):
we know, Trump will enter the Wilkie D. Ferguson Courthouse
in Miami through an underground crypt garage where the marshals
and the Probation Office will then put him through his
pre trial services, booking, processing, fingerprinting, but only electronically, and
then maybe photografts. He asked him knowingly. There is no
(12:44):
expectation that he will be handcuffed, and as a result,
I think we should all get two dollars off our
twenty twenty three Federal income tax. The defendant will be
accompanied throughout by his secret service detail, presuming they are
not too busy scrolling on their phones. Then he will
be held until three PM when he goes to the
courtroom at his first appearance before a judge, at which
(13:04):
it looks like he'll meet at least one of his
lawyers for the first or second time. And I'm still
holding out hope that it's going to be Larry l Archie,
whose billboards read just because you did it doesn't mean
you're guilty. He was still interviewing new lawyers last night.
(13:25):
Better call. So no TV cameras, no live coverage, no
expectation the defendant will be seen publicly, unless he decides
to put on a little parade for his own purposes.
They will identify lawyers and introduce them. They will begin
the process of getting his cleared to be able to
handle the level of classification of the documents he stole,
(13:46):
and then unfortunately they will grant him bail and he
will be loosed once more upon the unready world, and
what rough beast its hour come round at last slouches
towards marri Lago to be born, but mugshot maybe seventy
days from now, so no, no earlier than Monday, August
(14:09):
twenty first they could start the trial, probably not unless
Trump tries to delay or something, or unless Carrie Lake's
prediction that three hundred million Americans, all of them armed,
will rise up in Miami today to intervene on the
defendant's behalf, in which case expect delays up to three
hundred and twenty five hours on ninety five and three
(14:31):
ninety five and basically everything between Flagler near the publics
and roughly Albuquerque, New Mexico. Carrie thinks three hundred million
Americans will rise up in Miami because the ex newscaster
is still reading off a teleprompter that only she can see.
To treat the mega hallucinations of the MAGA crowd a
(14:53):
little more seriously, there were few indications last night that
there would be as many as three hundred Trumpists in
the vicinity of the courthouse today, let alone three hundred million.
The city says it is ready for anything for five
thousand to fifty thousand. They would, of course, be at
a significant disadvantage compared to January sixth, since Trump would
not be able to demand that the magnetometers be turned off,
(15:15):
nor would he be present to give a speech in
which he adds just that last little touch of stochastic
terrorism to the mix. Also to be blunt. These would
be the Florida Trump crowd, And if any geographic group
of the white trash Party could be depended upon to
(15:36):
get the day wrong or to oversleep, it is the
Florida Trump crowd. I give you audio courtesy of Freedom
News TV and the Twitter must follow Iliyah Scootercaster Pat
outside Trump's Durrell golf course near Miami yesterday. Oh Pat, A.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
Lot of my family blood spilled for this country. I'm
not gonna let it go to waste. I'm not if
he gets indoctrinated. January sixth is gonna look like a
play It's gonna look like a playground from the inside.
Voices that I hear from all the militias and everything else.
It's gonna be a playground. I watch Kamala Harrison, Orlando.
I watched Antifa throw bottles, spit on my child, throw
(16:19):
stuff at us. They told us to refrain ourselves.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
Really okay, nope, nope, nope, No, you're not hearing things.
Pat warns of dire consequences if Trump is indoctrinated. And
you may have missed this part. Pat complained in there
that at some events somewhere his group, they were the
ones who were warned to be fraying ourselves. You over there,
(16:45):
be fraying yourself, or you're gonna be indoctrinated. See Pat
is what the political professionals call a nit wit. Also
of interest today, Fox has sued Tucker Carlson, and Tucker
(17:06):
Carlson has claimed his First Amendment rights are being infringed,
even though Fox is not the government, not yet, so
it can't infringe on his First Amendment rights. And I
don't know what Fox could possibly be suing Carlson about
damages for what? For those Twitter videos? Those Twitter videos
are not as good as my Twitter videos promoting this podcast,
(17:28):
and my Twitter videos promoting this podcast pretty much suck damages.
Who's Tucker Carlson damaging besides the country? That's next? This
discountdown A bathroom door locks. This is countdown with Keith Olberman.
(17:52):
Postscripts to the news, some headlines, some updates, some snarks,
some prediction s dateline the Unibomber Memorial TV cabin studio
at Tucker Carlson's house, Woodstock, Maine. The letter has been sent.
Fox has now dropped off its cease and desist love
No to Tucker Carlson and his lawyers after they tried
to eat their cake and keep it too, namely to
(18:15):
keep drawing the rest of his salary from Rupert Murdoch
through the end of next year, while also producing a
video commentary series on Twitter that is at least theoretically
in competition with the News Corp propaganda outlet. Carlson asserts
breach of contract and infringement of the First Amendment. And
maybe the first is true, but what does the First
Amendment have to do with the dispute between a private
(18:36):
corporation and a schmuck with a high pitched voice. Axios
broke this story evidently as a trade, which made them
print this behind the scenes Carlson's first to Twitter episodes
were straight to camera monologues. He plans to keep iterating
with longer, more varied episodes and the addition of guests.
Axios Is told we hear some big names have been
(18:59):
lined up. His lawyer says, quote, Tucker will not be
silenced by anyone. And I don't know if you saw
the Twitter videos, but based on them, the biggest threat
to silence Tucker Carlson is Tucker Carlson. I mean, honest
to God, if Murdoch does sue him, I don't know,
they're going to possibly prove that these gloomy, boring, dark
(19:20):
videos could possibly in any way, shape or form damage Fox.
Thank you, Nancy Faust. And there's no way Tucker has
(19:42):
been blinded by the light. In his studio Dateline, Washington
told you the Saudi's purchase of Golf's PGA Tour so
it could be folded into the live, Blood, Money and
Bone Saw Golf League was not a done deal, apart
from protests from players inside the PGA itself that may
yet bear fruit. The chairman of the Senate Investigative Subcommittee
(20:02):
on Homeland Security has sworn at the Saudis as they
teed off on the first hole. Senator Richard Blumenthal has
launched an investigation of the deal. He's demanding all records
from the PGA and live about the takeover that he's
broadly hinted at at minimum going after the PGA's belief
that it can still somehow maintain its tax exempt status
(20:24):
after it becomes owned by a foreign nation, and an
abhorrent foreign nation at that. He wants those documents. By
June twenty sixth, the Justice Department was already investigating the
PGA over possible antitrust violations. The next targets are likely
to be PGA Commissioner Jay Monaghan and board member Jimmy Dunn,
(20:44):
who brokeered the sellout to the Saudis even though he
lost friends on nine to eleven and has been involved
in countless nine to eleven charities. Quoting him, I am
quite certain and have had conversations with a lot of
knowledgeable people that the people that I'm dealing with from
Saudi Arabia had nothing to do with nine to eleven
done of course there with one of the no spit
statements of all time. Good work, Jimmy. None of the
(21:06):
Saudi's you're dealing with about golf is one of the
dead terrorists. Well done, detective done by the way. Golf's
US Open, which maybe it's last under control of you know, Americans.
Starts Thursday in Los Angeles. Stell ahead on countdown. Not
(21:36):
sure what brought him to mind today. Maybe those radio
clips I ran from the early eighties, the ones I
ran from two weeks ago. But he was the most
talented person I've ever worked with, and in forty years,
nobody has come close his story and his tragic ending
coming up in things I promised not to tell. First
the daily round Up, but the miscreants, morons and Dunning
(21:56):
Kruger effects specimens who constitute today's worse persons in the world,
The brons. Josh Blackman, a lawyer who writes for the
ironically named commentary spot Reason. We know what his career
goal is now. After a piece yesterday complaining about the
recent non fascist vote by Chief Justice John Roberts, the
headline Chief Justice Roberts is not a weather vain, He's
(22:21):
just so vain. With the subheadline he probably thinks the
court is about him. Ooh, lookout, pop culture, politics, music, lyrics,
Punster Maureen Dowd of The New York Times. This guy
blackman is out for your job. But is he more
dude than Dowd? Runner up Harme, Dylan, Tucker, Carlson, Telsey Gabbard,
(22:46):
James o'keef lawyer failed candidate to take the chairmanship of
the RNC away from Ronald McDaniel. The newspaper of The
Guardian now reports a bigger oops. It's about quoting them.
The nonprofit she helms, the Center for American Liberty Penthesies
col the paper continues, aimed at right wing bugbears like
COVID restrictions, leftist street protesters, and gender affirming healthcare. The
(23:11):
Guardian has found that at least one million, three hundred
and twenty thousand dollars has been transferred from the cow
to her law firm, Dylan Law Group, in a move
one charity expert described as quote problematic. Additionally, state and
federal filing show Dylan takes a one hundred and twenty
thousand dollars salary from cal for a two hour workweek.
(23:32):
Dylan's position, the paper continues, as CEO and a nonprofit
whose biggest contractor is Dylan Law Group, is a quote
conflict of interest un quote, according to Joan Harrington, a
fellow at the Marcula Center for Applied Ethics at the
Santa Clara University at an expert on nonprofit law and
ethics end quote. But our winner, Fred Ryan, the publisher
(23:55):
and chief executive of The Washington Post, who will leave
that position after dedicating nine years of his life to
shrinking the Post from a national tight to the best
newspaper located between Baltimore and Richmond. Probably what mister Ryan
did there is probably best explained by the job he
is now leaving the Post go to. He will become
(24:18):
executive director of the Center for Public Civility at the
Ronald Reagan Foundation. No, seriously, holy cow, the Center for
Public Civility at the Ronald Reagan Foundation. Why Fred, Because
the President Donald J. Trump Memorial Center for the Treatment
(24:39):
of Kleptomania hasn't opened yet. Fred Ryan, executive Director of
the Center for Public Civility at the Ronald Reagan Foundation,
which will consist of mister Ryan's office and nothing else.
Today's worst person in the civility world. Howser will have
(25:08):
more to say, and we'll answer the question, how hot
was it at Yankee Stadium. Yesterday on the Sports reported
about a thirty five and that man's name is Keith Olberman.
Now how hot was it at Yankee Stadium. Bob Harris
got a figure about. I once worked with a newscaster,
the most talented person I have ever worked with, and
he not only made an unbelievable blooper and one of
(25:29):
the big radio stations in New York, but after he
did that, they warned him that if he ever did
something like that again, they would fire him. And he
did it again and they fired him. His name was
will Spence, and by the time he was eighteen years old,
he was the news director of a radio station in Connecticut,
and he was a substitute anchor at the age of
eighteen on the top all news radio station in the
(25:51):
COUNTRYCBS in New York eighteen. Not long after that, he
went to NBC and was the original newsman on Don
Imus's radio show. He jumped right from that to being
a TV reporter on the NBC station in New York
age five four twenty five. And the sky was the
limit and he was simply a genius and fitting the
best definition of that word, someone who could do something
(26:14):
with ease that nobody else would even attempt. Will Spence
was reporting for the NBC station Channel four in New
York on New York's fiscal crisis of the late seventies,
and he had scooped the competition and gotten details of
a complicated rescue plan with debt transference and algorithms and
adjusted interest rates, and not one moment of his important
(26:38):
scoop was on camera. The people who gave him that
story would not permit themselves to be recorded or even quoted.
So Will simply had his cameraman set up at the
foot of the steps of New York City Hall and
said to him, follow me, stop at Park Row and
then three to two one, and then Will began to walk.
The cameraman was next to him, and he began to walk,
(27:00):
and for two and a half minutes, with impeccable sentence,
structure and diction and complete accuracy, Will Spence took this
extraordinarily complicated rescue plan for New York's hemorrhaging finances with
algorithms and explained it calmly, succinctly, expertly, simply a little
touch of snark in his voice, and he kept walking
(27:21):
and kept walking, and kept walking and kept looking to
the cameraman by his side, and then away into the ground,
and then back to the cameraman, and then he stopped
on the sidewalk of Park Row, where he was perfectly
framed by the Brooklyn Bridge Will Spence News Center for
at City Hall. I couldn't do that in a million years,
(27:42):
and I'm okay with doing stuff like that, to be fair.
That was take two. On take one, Will had misstimed
what he wanted to say and where he wanted to walk,
and instead of he and the cameraman stopping on the
sidewalk of the street Park Row, the cameraman stopped, but
Will had not yet finished, so Will kept walking into
(28:03):
the street itself. In the video then showed him diving
out of the way as a garbage truck barreled toward
him on Park Row at about forty five miles an hour.
And that was the other side of will Spence. For
every act of genius, there was a garbage truck heading
towards him with his name on it. I don't know
(28:23):
what happened at Channel four, but I do know he
got fired. I know that when I met him in
nineteen eighty when I was twenty one and he was thirty.
I was convinced he was closer to forty. And on
the morning shift of the New York radio station where
we both worked, Will had a little trouble with his
own schedule. He was supposed to be there at three
point fifteen am and on the air for his first
(28:43):
newscast at five am. The station was WNAW, and it's
decades old news sound was the bongabongas that sound, bangabanga, bogabonga,
repeating endlessly. I saw Will Spence walk in one morning,
pale as a sheet in his raincoat, gesticulating wildly with
his left hand for a news dawns assistant to hand
(29:06):
him a script, any script, at exactly five am, No,
actually a few seconds after five am, so late that
the dish jockey was already playing the WAW news sound.
And we were at about the eighth or ninth Bonga bonga.
And I saw him a small stack of copy jammed
into his left hand by the desk assistant, a stack
(29:29):
of copy he had not even looked at, with his
raincoat still on, Sit down, throw his microphone toggle open
and say, falllessly, retly run at w news. It's eighty
three degrees in reigning at five o'clock. I'm Will Spence,
mayor Cutch. We'll meet this morning with representatives of the
United Editions to discuss Like he had been there for
hours and written the copy himself and practiced it aloud
(29:51):
for three or four times from the standpoint of the
viewer or the listener, Will could sound perfect when he
had crafted a thing of genius, like the walking stand
up on the fiscal crisis. But he could also sound
perfect when he had just staggered into the booth having
successfully found the location of the radio station on the
eighth or ninth Bonga, And unfortunately that skill was his undoing.
(30:17):
On the night of Wednesday, July sixteenth, nineteen eighty, Republican
presidential nominee Ronald Reagan was in deep discussions with former
president former Vice President Gerald Ford about Ford running with
him as Reagan's vice president. It was unprecedented in American history.
It led all the newscasts that night. It was the
featured story on all the wire services. Books have been
(30:39):
written about this evening and those discussions, and they all
fell apart about eleven PM because Ford made it clear
to Reagan that whoever was president, whoever was vice president,
Ford expected them to be more or less co presidents.
Before the calendar had turned to Thursday July seventeenth, nineteen eighty,
the deal was dead. Reagan had selected George H. W.
(31:01):
Bush as his running mate, and our time line was
irrevocably altered. How dare you, sir? At about five hours later,
and about twelve bongas into the five o'clock newscast on
Thursday July seventeenth, in walked Will Spence, this time simply
grabbing the first stack of copy he saw, falling into
the announced booth, opening up his mic, and starting to read. Unfortunately,
(31:25):
what he had grabbed was the previous night's nine pm
newscast script news. It's eighty three degrees in reigning at
five o'clock. I'm Will Spence. It seems certain that American
history being made. A man will run for president. Donne's
running mate will be a former president the Republican nineteen
eighty ticket. Regan and Ford, those who were there in
(31:48):
the newsroom told me they were startled by how many
people were actually listening to the five am news and
were willing to call in and complain and call Will
Spence an idiot. Upper management wanted to call him something
else fired, but he had a guardian angel at WNAW
in the news director Sam Hall, who had also been
(32:10):
his boss in the IMUS days, and Sam gave him
another chance, but said do it again and you're gone.
I really don't know what was wrong with Will. He
told me he smoked a lot of weed. He said
he was hypoglycemic. Somebody at WNBC said he used to
sit at his desk, pressing his hands to his skull
(32:30):
and mumbling tumors. I can feel them growing tumors. He
was sometimes charming. He gave extraordinarily good career advice, sometimes constructively,
and sometimes advice that was designed to leave you bleeding.
During a commercial break preceding one of my short sportscasts,
I sat down in the booth with him, and as
(32:51):
an aggressively cheerful ad for a bank played in the background,
Will let loose on me. So I heard him and
this commercial for the bank mixed together juxtaposed like this.
You have potential, overman, but you have to change your
entire delivery. We're the friendly bank. You can go up
to Yankee Stadium, interview every player and every fan, and
(33:13):
play all the little cuts you want on the radio.
But you got nowhere. If you can't read the script
like a man. We're the bank that cares about you.
Your nasal, you sound constipated. You get nowhere in this business.
On the other hand, I could read the phone book
on the air and make it sound like the Bible.
Come in and see our friendly tellers today. Shape up
(33:34):
or you're fired. And by the way, fix your damned eyebrows.
Manhattan Bank member FDI see now with sports. Good morning,
Keith Oberman. I said nothing For a second, maybe more.
I contemplated using a falsetto, and I finally stammered through
(33:54):
my thirty seconds, got up to leave, and as Spence
through to the weather man. Spence said, and that sucked too.
I was the only person left at WNW who liked him,
and I was beginning to hate him. He would take
me aside sometimes and tell me that his first wife
and her divorce lawyer were up in the blimp following
(34:17):
him around the city. Sometimes he claimed they were working
in cahoots with the news director Sam Hall to destroy him,
when in fact Hall was the only thing standing between
him and unemployment. Somebody once made a mild joke about
him and his age in the newsroom, and he threw
a stapler at them. He complained one of the women
(34:38):
there was stalking him. In fact, he was stalking her,
and inevitably, on October third, nineteen eighty, he either made
an impossibly unlucky grab for an old script during the
seventeenth Bonga or something, or more likely, somebody in the
newsroom set him up. W news, It's fifty five degrees
in raining at five o'clock. I'm Will Spence. The whoop.
(34:59):
John Paul the Second made history arriving in our city
yesterday and today it took her tape parade, and then
we will address the faithful at Madison Square Garden. Coverage
of the pope all day and to know your news
that had happened on October third, nineteen seventy nine. This
was now October third, nineteen eighty. Will Spence was reading
(35:22):
literally year old news. As I recall, they fired him
before his shift ended, maybe before the next newscast year
old news. Months later, I was working at the RKO
Radio network for my boss, Charlie Steiner, one of the
voices of the Dodgers Now. When RKO expanded and started
(35:45):
a second network, and they brought in to run it,
Sam Hall. Sam Hall hired a bunch of guys with
great pipes, and he hired Will Spence. Ohr man, I
say it took my advice. Look at this. Something whizzed
past me and stuck in a box of wire copy.
It's a Brazilian throwing dagger. I have a collection at RKO.
(36:06):
On the night of the Grammys, Will interweaved a clip
of every winning song into his script live on the air,
throwing cartridges left and right. As he did it. The
next hour he updated it with the latest winner. The
next hour he updated it with the latest winter. After
that it was utter unqualified genius. And he also told
me at RKO there was a woman stalking him who
(36:28):
in fact he was stalking, and he addressed everybody by
their job title tape editor. Come here. And once they
postponed a nine am staff meeting until three pm and
didn't tell him before he drove in from his house
in Connecticut. So he simply went to his Manhattan studio
apartment and, as he told me, smoked pot for six hours.
(36:49):
And then he came back and insulted literally every member
of the forty person staff went from one to the
other to the other, saying as nasty a thing as
he could think of about them. When our nicest, sweetest
news editor stood up on her desk and screamed, Spence,
get the f out of here before I kill you,
before we all kill you. He was genuinely shocked ashen.
(37:14):
He came over to me. A lot of the bravada
was gone, Olderman, for God's sakes, help me, help me.
Keith Well, I heard his life story. It took two hours.
We went into Steiner's office. We stole two of Charlie's
cigars and smoked them. It was the living embodiment of
the phrase just because you're paranoid, it does not mean
(37:37):
they are not out to get you. I was trying
to think how to help him when days later news
came that he had been hired as a TV reporter
by another New York TV station, WABC. I witnessed news
and then over there. On his first day, he was
bitten by a dog and he wanted to go to
the hospital to get checked out. They made him go
(37:57):
out on another story instead. Dogs garbage trucks. They all
had will name on them. A decade later, Will wound
up in LA where I had made my mark by
then as a local TV sportscaster. He had been hired
by a rival station and still did those incredible intricate
walking stand ups now live every night, usually from a
(38:20):
crime scene, on the eleven o'clock news. One night, his
own crew managed to not just sabotage him, but knock
him down with a slow moving car, live on the
air while he was declaiming into the camera. His last
job at yet another LA station, he got because the
aging woman anchor there fifteen years his senior, had taken
(38:41):
a fancy to him. She got fired. He got fired,
And one day the phone rang at MSNBC maybe two
thousand and six. It was Will Spence. The Pope had
sent a hit squad to kill him. He said the
whole Catholic Church was involved. Did I have the number
(39:02):
of the woman who used to stalk him? It was
far more awful than it sounds. I think somebody sent
me an email early in April two thousand and eight.
I'm pretty sure that's how I found out Will Spence
had driven his car at high speed into a bridge
abutment in Ventura County, outside La. There was a story
(39:23):
that he had had heart problems and had just seen
his doctor and gotten bad news. But we'll never know
for sure. I went to put together a little tribute
to him that night on Countdown, and online I could
not find a single photo of him, nor any form
of biography. Even now, there is one photo accompanying a
(39:44):
sad tribute to him, published a couple weeks later in
one of the newspapers in Ventura County. It was a
tribute not unlike this one. What a wasted life, how
much you wanted to hate him and couldn't. And on
YouTube there is a tape of one Will Spence TV
report from November eighteenth, nineteen eighty one Channel seven in
(40:08):
New York. This talent who could decipher the plan to
save New York City from bankruptcy and recite it as
he walked, exists forever for two minutes and forty six
seconds of his report on the marriage of Luke and
Laura from ABC's General Hospital. And by the way, even
(40:30):
it is brilliant. I've done all the damage I can
do here. Countdown has come to you from the Vin
Scully Studio at the world headquarters of the Alderman Broadcasting
(40:51):
Empire here in New York. Here are the credits. Most
of the music arranged, produced and performed by Brian Ray
and John Phillips Shanel, who are the countdown musical directors.
All orchestration and keyboards by John Phillip Shanel, Guitar, bass
and drums by Brian Ray, produced by Tko Brothers. Another
Beethoven selections have been arranged and performed by the group
No Horns Allowed. The sports music is the Olberman theme
(41:14):
from ESPN two. It was written by Mitch Warren Davis
and it appears courtesy of ESPN Inc. Musical comments by
Nancy Fauss. The best baseball stadium organist ever. Our announcer
today was my friend Larry David, and everything else was
pretty much my fault. So that's countdown for this, the
eight hundred and eighty ninth day since Donald Trump's first
attempted coup against the democratically elected government of the United States.
(41:36):
Arrest him now while we still cat all right, it's
much shot day. The next scheduled countdown is tomorrow, although
I am on bulletin alert today till then, I'm Keith Oldramman.
Good morning, good afternoon, good night, and good luck.
Speaker 2 (41:55):
Oh if he gets indoctrinated, January sixth is gonna look
like a playground.
Speaker 1 (41:59):
Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio. For
more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts.
Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio Happy
Mugshot Day. Maybe as we await the defendant and we
(00:28):
pray snap snap grin, grin wink wink, say no mo.
As Trump starts his journey to the White House or
the Big House, something has happened in the calculations of
other Republicans regarding today's indictment of Trump. It could all
vanish by tonight. But yesterday Nikki Haley and Tim Scott
both clearly and loudly raised the possibility that Trump is guilty,
(00:54):
and Haley suggested he may have jeopardized national security and
risk the lives of US service personnel. And yes, it
is just the slightest sliver of daylight over in the
land of perpetual darkness that is Donald Trump and the
coalition of hatreds. We have all experienced those slivers before,
(01:14):
and we have all then watched the fascist inclined portion
of this nation come down upon the transgressors like all
the tons of bricks ever produced, and they have slinked
back to deny, retract, emend, and beg forgiveness of that
disorganized crime boss who heads their cult. But for now
Trumpists must be looking at Tim Scott and Nicky Haley
(01:37):
like they were Martians who just ripped off their human masks.
So get your popcorn. For however long this lasts, it's
gonna be great because something has happened. Quote, this case
is a serious case, Senator Scott said at Spartanburg, South Carolina, yesterday,
(01:59):
with serious allegations. That does not sound like much if
you're normal, And it was accompanied with the usual blather
about double standards and hunting Republicans. But remember the context here.
Nobody to the left of Mitt Romney or Chris Christy
had even said anything that strong. Tim Scott's use of
(02:23):
the word serious is closer to him saying something like
Trump is a traitor than it is to what ninety
nine percent of Republican politicians have said so far. And
remember that ridiculous as it might be, Tim Scott is
running for the Republican presidential nomination, and that there have
(02:44):
been calls on the right for him and everybody but
Trump to drop out and endorse Trump as a way
to show they believe in Trump. And that after Trump
said Thursday he had been indicted, Scott said the scales
of justice were waited and he gave the indictment no legitimacy.
And Scott said this yesterday at a campaign event in
(03:04):
which the Senator was rolling out the endorsement of his
presidential candidacy by one hundred and forty South Carolina politicians,
none of whom walked off the stage when he said it.
And while the squeak heard round the Trump world was
still reverberating, Nikki Haley went on Fox and said, if
(03:27):
the indictment is true, quote, President Trump was incredibly reckless
with our national security. That's Trump and reckless in the
same sentence uttered by another Republican on the eve of
his arraignment. And she is running for the nomination and
(03:47):
running against Trump. And wait, there's more quote more than that.
She said. I'm a military spouse. My husband's about to
deploy this weekend. This puts all of our military men
and women in danger. If you talk about what our
military is capable of, or how we would go about
(04:08):
invading or doing something with one of our enemies in
a time of terrified subservience, as if Trump were stalin
with a case of hemorrhoids. Nikki Haley saying that even
mixed in with her own caveats that she still thinks
the Department of Justice has lost all CREDI milin huh,
(04:29):
this resounds like the freaking Gettysburg address. She accused Trump
of being reckless with the national security and with endangering
the lives of military men and women, and talking about
our military plans to invade or defend against other countries.
In other words, she said everything I said on this
(04:52):
podcast yesterday. She said all the things democrats won't say,
and she said them on Fox and just in case
Trump did not know that she had actually had the
nerve to hit him, to call him out as a
danger to the national security and a danger to the
(05:14):
troops and reckless. She went back in and she hit
him again. Quote. If that's the case, it's reckless, it's frustrating,
and it causes problems. She did not finish up strong.
But still the Bible says the meek shall inherit the earth,
and in this life. They do not come any meeker
(05:35):
than an African American man who is a Republican and
has been an acolyte of Trump's and a woman who
was born Nimurata Ranjawa to immigrants from the Punjab, who
was actually Trump's ambassador to the United Nations. That is
as meek as you get. Of all the challengers to Trump,
announced or unannounced, Tim Scott and Nikki Haley would be
(05:57):
the last two I would have expected this from. And
they did it on the same day, and they did
it in what was for them high profile venues. And
it means that they have somehow, for some reason, completely
recalculated this equation. Scott had slammed the indictments unequivocally on Thursday.
(06:19):
On Friday, Friday, Haley had tweeted, this is not how
justice should be pursued in our country. Seventy two hours later,
and Trump is quote reckless with our national security. And
I know I left out the ifs, and I did
that because it will be heard among Republicans without the ifs.
(06:39):
Something has happened. Haley and Scott did not grow consciences
over the weekend. The scales did not fall from their eyes.
Neither is smart enough to have figured this all out
by themselves. They have to have seen internal polling or
(07:00):
heard dire assessments of what is behind the indictment, or
gotten advice people they know and people they think know
that this is the moment too, however tentatively, however, redolent
of leaving a trail of breadcrumbs behind you, So maybe
you can still find your way out of the forest.
This is the moment to turn on Trump. It could
(07:26):
be something anything that we don't know about, or it
could be something as simple as what the Wall Street
Journal put up at noon yesterday, a headline, Trump needs
white suburban women. His indictment splits them, key swing group
could help decide who takes White House in twenty twenty four.
(07:48):
The article beneath is the standard formula thumbsucker, the journal's
equivalent of the New York Times, and it's dozens of
correspondents reporting from that diner in this Ohio town. There
are exactly two white suburban women and quoted in the piece,
and two Polsters. And there isn't even one sentence in
(08:10):
the whole thing worth reading to you. But imagine being
Nicky Haley or Tim Scott or somebody close to them,
and being just sentient enough to know that you are
not going to beat Donald Trump for the nomination. You're
either going to have to shive him, or you're going
to have to be well positioned when something forces him
to drop out. Imagine being either one of them and
(08:33):
seeing the headline Trump needs white suburban women. His indictment
splits them key swing group could help decide who takes
White House in twenty twenty four. I know white suburban women.
Of course, Haley and Scott have since been joined by nobody.
(08:54):
If that changes, especially today, especially on the day of
or tomorrow, in the immediate wake of the indictments, then
we've got something going. And it is still galling that
these statements are especially graded for their degree of difficulty
and degree of survivability. They are stronger than anything that
any Democrat has said since the news broke last Thursday night.
(09:17):
He's down kick him. If Nicky Haley can kick him,
Joe Biden can kick him. Now across the rest of
the fascist hellscape, the amount of Republican brown nosing of
Trump is still so severe that it would take the
(09:38):
jaws of life to extract the probosis in question. That
is unchanged and nearly unanimous. And every time somebody writes
something like in the Hill about a week ago, quote,
is Kevin McCarthy just really that good at his job?
And you think, you think, just for a second, that
Kevin McCarthy is not a flaming idiot. Kevin McCarthy makes
(10:02):
sure he circles back and fine a camera and finds
a microphone so he can prove to you, Oh, yes,
the hell I am got a good look for the
former president to have boxes in a bathroom. I don't know.
Is it a good picture to have boxes in a
garage that opens up all the time? A bathroom door locks.
Kevin is willing to assume Trump locks the bathroom door.
(10:27):
What did I say yesterday? What did I say yesterday? Larry?
Let me quote the script. The only thing missing from
this string of illogic with which he keeps his suckers
hypnotized like cats jumping at feathers is the argument that
the documents were secure at marri Lago, because who would
ever be willing to go inside Trump's bathroom? Kevin McCarthy
(10:53):
fulfilling my prophecies, and Nikki Haley echoing my argument's almost
word for word, Jesus suffering f stop room door locks.
Kevin has never seen a lock on a garage door, evidently,
and that one last electrical impulse in his brain that
(11:14):
would have reminded him that the bathroom was within yards
of a public ballroom and a cheap golf course favored
by neighborhood spies. And that the garage, you know, wasn't
that impulse died trying to jump from Kevin's neuron number
one of two and his neuron number two of two
(11:35):
a bathroom door locks. Why It's like speaker Henry Clay
has been reincarnated and circulates among us baller Cronk CBS
now to today, a mug shot would be all we
would see of the defendant today at the first ever
arraignment of an ex president, but only because Ford pardoned Nixon.
(11:59):
Maybe not even a mug shot. Magga Haberman reported late
last night that quote a person familiar with the planning
for mister Trump's appearance in Miami, I wonder who that is.
Maggie said the expectation was that there would be no
handcuffs or a mug shot. But of course this ignores
the fact that there wasn't a mug shot after his
arrest in New York either, so his campaign just fabricated one. Anyway,
(12:21):
we know, Trump will enter the Wilkie D. Ferguson Courthouse
in Miami through an underground crypt garage where the marshals
and the Probation Office will then put him through his
pre trial services, booking, processing, fingerprinting, but only electronically, and
then maybe photografts. He asked him knowingly. There is no
(12:44):
expectation that he will be handcuffed, and as a result,
I think we should all get two dollars off our
twenty twenty three Federal income tax. The defendant will be
accompanied throughout by his secret service detail, presuming they are
not too busy scrolling on their phones. Then he will
be held until three PM when he goes to the
courtroom at his first appearance before a judge, at which
(13:04):
it looks like he'll meet at least one of his
lawyers for the first or second time. And I'm still
holding out hope that it's going to be Larry l Archie,
whose billboards read just because you did it doesn't mean
you're guilty. He was still interviewing new lawyers last night.
(13:25):
Better call. So no TV cameras, no live coverage, no
expectation the defendant will be seen publicly, unless he decides
to put on a little parade for his own purposes.
They will identify lawyers and introduce them. They will begin
the process of getting his cleared to be able to
handle the level of classification of the documents he stole,
(13:46):
and then unfortunately they will grant him bail and he
will be loosed once more upon the unready world, and
what rough beast its hour come round at last slouches
towards marri Lago to be born, but mugshot maybe seventy
days from now, so no, no earlier than Monday, August
(14:09):
twenty first they could start the trial, probably not unless
Trump tries to delay or something, or unless Carrie Lake's
prediction that three hundred million Americans, all of them armed,
will rise up in Miami today to intervene on the
defendant's behalf, in which case expect delays up to three
hundred and twenty five hours on ninety five and three
(14:31):
ninety five and basically everything between Flagler near the publics
and roughly Albuquerque, New Mexico. Carrie thinks three hundred million
Americans will rise up in Miami because the ex newscaster
is still reading off a teleprompter that only she can see.
To treat the mega hallucinations of the MAGA crowd a
(14:53):
little more seriously, there were few indications last night that
there would be as many as three hundred Trumpists in
the vicinity of the courthouse today, let alone three hundred million.
The city says it is ready for anything for five
thousand to fifty thousand. They would, of course, be at
a significant disadvantage compared to January sixth, since Trump would
not be able to demand that the magnetometers be turned off,
(15:15):
nor would he be present to give a speech in
which he adds just that last little touch of stochastic
terrorism to the mix. Also to be blunt. These would
be the Florida Trump crowd, And if any geographic group
of the white trash Party could be depended upon to
(15:36):
get the day wrong or to oversleep, it is the
Florida Trump crowd. I give you audio courtesy of Freedom
News TV and the Twitter must follow Iliyah Scootercaster Pat
outside Trump's Durrell golf course near Miami yesterday. Oh Pat, A.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
Lot of my family blood spilled for this country. I'm
not gonna let it go to waste. I'm not if
he gets indoctrinated. January sixth is gonna look like a
play It's gonna look like a playground from the inside.
Voices that I hear from all the militias and everything else.
It's gonna be a playground. I watch Kamala Harrison, Orlando.
I watched Antifa throw bottles, spit on my child, throw
(16:19):
stuff at us. They told us to refrain ourselves.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
Really okay, nope, nope, nope, No, you're not hearing things.
Pat warns of dire consequences if Trump is indoctrinated. And
you may have missed this part. Pat complained in there
that at some events somewhere his group, they were the
ones who were warned to be fraying ourselves. You over there,
(16:45):
be fraying yourself, or you're gonna be indoctrinated. See Pat
is what the political professionals call a nit wit. Also
of interest today, Fox has sued Tucker Carlson, and Tucker
(17:06):
Carlson has claimed his First Amendment rights are being infringed,
even though Fox is not the government, not yet, so
it can't infringe on his First Amendment rights. And I
don't know what Fox could possibly be suing Carlson about
damages for what? For those Twitter videos? Those Twitter videos
are not as good as my Twitter videos promoting this podcast,
(17:28):
and my Twitter videos promoting this podcast pretty much suck damages.
Who's Tucker Carlson damaging besides the country? That's next? This
discountdown A bathroom door locks. This is countdown with Keith Olberman.
(17:52):
Postscripts to the news, some headlines, some updates, some snarks,
some prediction s dateline the Unibomber Memorial TV cabin studio
at Tucker Carlson's house, Woodstock, Maine. The letter has been sent.
Fox has now dropped off its cease and desist love
No to Tucker Carlson and his lawyers after they tried
to eat their cake and keep it too, namely to
(18:15):
keep drawing the rest of his salary from Rupert Murdoch
through the end of next year, while also producing a
video commentary series on Twitter that is at least theoretically
in competition with the News Corp propaganda outlet. Carlson asserts
breach of contract and infringement of the First Amendment. And
maybe the first is true, but what does the First
Amendment have to do with the dispute between a private
(18:36):
corporation and a schmuck with a high pitched voice. Axios
broke this story evidently as a trade, which made them
print this behind the scenes Carlson's first to Twitter episodes
were straight to camera monologues. He plans to keep iterating
with longer, more varied episodes and the addition of guests.
Axios Is told we hear some big names have been
(18:59):
lined up. His lawyer says, quote, Tucker will not be
silenced by anyone. And I don't know if you saw
the Twitter videos, but based on them, the biggest threat
to silence Tucker Carlson is Tucker Carlson. I mean, honest
to God, if Murdoch does sue him, I don't know,
they're going to possibly prove that these gloomy, boring, dark
(19:20):
videos could possibly in any way, shape or form damage Fox.
Thank you, Nancy Faust. And there's no way Tucker has
(19:42):
been blinded by the light. In his studio Dateline, Washington
told you the Saudi's purchase of Golf's PGA Tour so
it could be folded into the live, Blood, Money and
Bone Saw Golf League was not a done deal, apart
from protests from players inside the PGA itself that may
yet bear fruit. The chairman of the Senate Investigative Subcommittee
(20:02):
on Homeland Security has sworn at the Saudis as they
teed off on the first hole. Senator Richard Blumenthal has
launched an investigation of the deal. He's demanding all records
from the PGA and live about the takeover that he's
broadly hinted at at minimum going after the PGA's belief
that it can still somehow maintain its tax exempt status
(20:24):
after it becomes owned by a foreign nation, and an
abhorrent foreign nation at that. He wants those documents. By
June twenty sixth, the Justice Department was already investigating the
PGA over possible antitrust violations. The next targets are likely
to be PGA Commissioner Jay Monaghan and board member Jimmy Dunn,
(20:44):
who brokeered the sellout to the Saudis even though he
lost friends on nine to eleven and has been involved
in countless nine to eleven charities. Quoting him, I am
quite certain and have had conversations with a lot of
knowledgeable people that the people that I'm dealing with from
Saudi Arabia had nothing to do with nine to eleven
done of course there with one of the no spit
statements of all time. Good work, Jimmy. None of the
(21:06):
Saudi's you're dealing with about golf is one of the
dead terrorists. Well done, detective done by the way. Golf's
US Open, which maybe it's last under control of you know, Americans.
Starts Thursday in Los Angeles. Stell ahead on countdown. Not
(21:36):
sure what brought him to mind today. Maybe those radio
clips I ran from the early eighties, the ones I
ran from two weeks ago. But he was the most
talented person I've ever worked with, and in forty years,
nobody has come close his story and his tragic ending
coming up in things I promised not to tell. First
the daily round Up, but the miscreants, morons and Dunning
(21:56):
Kruger effects specimens who constitute today's worse persons in the world,
The brons. Josh Blackman, a lawyer who writes for the
ironically named commentary spot Reason. We know what his career
goal is now. After a piece yesterday complaining about the
recent non fascist vote by Chief Justice John Roberts, the
headline Chief Justice Roberts is not a weather vain, He's
(22:21):
just so vain. With the subheadline he probably thinks the
court is about him. Ooh, lookout, pop culture, politics, music, lyrics,
Punster Maureen Dowd of The New York Times. This guy
blackman is out for your job. But is he more
dude than Dowd? Runner up Harme, Dylan, Tucker, Carlson, Telsey Gabbard,
(22:46):
James o'keef lawyer failed candidate to take the chairmanship of
the RNC away from Ronald McDaniel. The newspaper of The
Guardian now reports a bigger oops. It's about quoting them.
The nonprofit she helms, the Center for American Liberty Penthesies
col the paper continues, aimed at right wing bugbears like
COVID restrictions, leftist street protesters, and gender affirming healthcare. The
(23:11):
Guardian has found that at least one million, three hundred
and twenty thousand dollars has been transferred from the cow
to her law firm, Dylan Law Group, in a move
one charity expert described as quote problematic. Additionally, state and
federal filing show Dylan takes a one hundred and twenty
thousand dollars salary from cal for a two hour workweek.
(23:32):
Dylan's position, the paper continues, as CEO and a nonprofit
whose biggest contractor is Dylan Law Group, is a quote
conflict of interest un quote, according to Joan Harrington, a
fellow at the Marcula Center for Applied Ethics at the
Santa Clara University at an expert on nonprofit law and
ethics end quote. But our winner, Fred Ryan, the publisher
(23:55):
and chief executive of The Washington Post, who will leave
that position after dedicating nine years of his life to
shrinking the Post from a national tight to the best
newspaper located between Baltimore and Richmond. Probably what mister Ryan
did there is probably best explained by the job he
is now leaving the Post go to. He will become
(24:18):
executive director of the Center for Public Civility at the
Ronald Reagan Foundation. No, seriously, holy cow, the Center for
Public Civility at the Ronald Reagan Foundation. Why Fred, Because
the President Donald J. Trump Memorial Center for the Treatment
(24:39):
of Kleptomania hasn't opened yet. Fred Ryan, executive Director of
the Center for Public Civility at the Ronald Reagan Foundation,
which will consist of mister Ryan's office and nothing else.
Today's worst person in the civility world. Howser will have
(25:08):
more to say, and we'll answer the question, how hot
was it at Yankee Stadium. Yesterday on the Sports reported
about a thirty five and that man's name is Keith Olberman.
Now how hot was it at Yankee Stadium. Bob Harris
got a figure about. I once worked with a newscaster,
the most talented person I have ever worked with, and
he not only made an unbelievable blooper and one of
(25:29):
the big radio stations in New York, but after he
did that, they warned him that if he ever did
something like that again, they would fire him. And he
did it again and they fired him. His name was
will Spence, and by the time he was eighteen years old,
he was the news director of a radio station in Connecticut,
and he was a substitute anchor at the age of
eighteen on the top all news radio station in the
(25:51):
COUNTRYCBS in New York eighteen. Not long after that, he
went to NBC and was the original newsman on Don
Imus's radio show. He jumped right from that to being
a TV reporter on the NBC station in New York
age five four twenty five. And the sky was the
limit and he was simply a genius and fitting the
best definition of that word, someone who could do something
(26:14):
with ease that nobody else would even attempt. Will Spence
was reporting for the NBC station Channel four in New
York on New York's fiscal crisis of the late seventies,
and he had scooped the competition and gotten details of
a complicated rescue plan with debt transference and algorithms and
adjusted interest rates, and not one moment of his important
(26:38):
scoop was on camera. The people who gave him that
story would not permit themselves to be recorded or even quoted.
So Will simply had his cameraman set up at the
foot of the steps of New York City Hall and
said to him, follow me, stop at Park Row and
then three to two one, and then Will began to walk.
The cameraman was next to him, and he began to walk,
(27:00):
and for two and a half minutes, with impeccable sentence,
structure and diction and complete accuracy, Will Spence took this
extraordinarily complicated rescue plan for New York's hemorrhaging finances with
algorithms and explained it calmly, succinctly, expertly, simply a little
touch of snark in his voice, and he kept walking
(27:21):
and kept walking, and kept walking and kept looking to
the cameraman by his side, and then away into the ground,
and then back to the cameraman, and then he stopped
on the sidewalk of Park Row, where he was perfectly
framed by the Brooklyn Bridge Will Spence News Center for
at City Hall. I couldn't do that in a million years,
(27:42):
and I'm okay with doing stuff like that, to be fair.
That was take two. On take one, Will had misstimed
what he wanted to say and where he wanted to walk,
and instead of he and the cameraman stopping on the
sidewalk of the street Park Row, the cameraman stopped, but
Will had not yet finished, so Will kept walking into
(28:03):
the street itself. In the video then showed him diving
out of the way as a garbage truck barreled toward
him on Park Row at about forty five miles an hour.
And that was the other side of will Spence. For
every act of genius, there was a garbage truck heading
towards him with his name on it. I don't know
(28:23):
what happened at Channel four, but I do know he
got fired. I know that when I met him in
nineteen eighty when I was twenty one and he was thirty.
I was convinced he was closer to forty. And on
the morning shift of the New York radio station where
we both worked, Will had a little trouble with his
own schedule. He was supposed to be there at three
point fifteen am and on the air for his first
(28:43):
newscast at five am. The station was WNAW, and it's
decades old news sound was the bongabongas that sound, bangabanga, bogabonga,
repeating endlessly. I saw Will Spence walk in one morning,
pale as a sheet in his raincoat, gesticulating wildly with
his left hand for a news dawns assistant to hand
(29:06):
him a script, any script, at exactly five am, No,
actually a few seconds after five am, so late that
the dish jockey was already playing the WAW news sound.
And we were at about the eighth or ninth Bonga bonga.
And I saw him a small stack of copy jammed
into his left hand by the desk assistant, a stack
(29:29):
of copy he had not even looked at, with his
raincoat still on, Sit down, throw his microphone toggle open
and say, falllessly, retly run at w news. It's eighty
three degrees in reigning at five o'clock. I'm Will Spence,
mayor Cutch. We'll meet this morning with representatives of the
United Editions to discuss Like he had been there for
hours and written the copy himself and practiced it aloud
(29:51):
for three or four times from the standpoint of the
viewer or the listener, Will could sound perfect when he
had crafted a thing of genius, like the walking stand
up on the fiscal crisis. But he could also sound
perfect when he had just staggered into the booth having
successfully found the location of the radio station on the
eighth or ninth Bonga, And unfortunately that skill was his undoing.
(30:17):
On the night of Wednesday, July sixteenth, nineteen eighty, Republican
presidential nominee Ronald Reagan was in deep discussions with former
president former Vice President Gerald Ford about Ford running with
him as Reagan's vice president. It was unprecedented in American history.
It led all the newscasts that night. It was the
featured story on all the wire services. Books have been
(30:39):
written about this evening and those discussions, and they all
fell apart about eleven PM because Ford made it clear
to Reagan that whoever was president, whoever was vice president,
Ford expected them to be more or less co presidents.
Before the calendar had turned to Thursday July seventeenth, nineteen eighty,
the deal was dead. Reagan had selected George H. W.
(31:01):
Bush as his running mate, and our time line was
irrevocably altered. How dare you, sir? At about five hours later,
and about twelve bongas into the five o'clock newscast on
Thursday July seventeenth, in walked Will Spence, this time simply
grabbing the first stack of copy he saw, falling into
the announced booth, opening up his mic, and starting to read. Unfortunately,
(31:25):
what he had grabbed was the previous night's nine pm
newscast script news. It's eighty three degrees in reigning at
five o'clock. I'm Will Spence. It seems certain that American
history being made. A man will run for president. Donne's
running mate will be a former president the Republican nineteen
eighty ticket. Regan and Ford, those who were there in
(31:48):
the newsroom told me they were startled by how many
people were actually listening to the five am news and
were willing to call in and complain and call Will
Spence an idiot. Upper management wanted to call him something
else fired, but he had a guardian angel at WNAW
in the news director Sam Hall, who had also been
(32:10):
his boss in the IMUS days, and Sam gave him
another chance, but said do it again and you're gone.
I really don't know what was wrong with Will. He
told me he smoked a lot of weed. He said
he was hypoglycemic. Somebody at WNBC said he used to
sit at his desk, pressing his hands to his skull
(32:30):
and mumbling tumors. I can feel them growing tumors. He
was sometimes charming. He gave extraordinarily good career advice, sometimes constructively,
and sometimes advice that was designed to leave you bleeding.
During a commercial break preceding one of my short sportscasts,
I sat down in the booth with him, and as
(32:51):
an aggressively cheerful ad for a bank played in the background,
Will let loose on me. So I heard him and
this commercial for the bank mixed together juxtaposed like this.
You have potential, overman, but you have to change your
entire delivery. We're the friendly bank. You can go up
to Yankee Stadium, interview every player and every fan, and
(33:13):
play all the little cuts you want on the radio.
But you got nowhere. If you can't read the script
like a man. We're the bank that cares about you.
Your nasal, you sound constipated. You get nowhere in this business.
On the other hand, I could read the phone book
on the air and make it sound like the Bible.
Come in and see our friendly tellers today. Shape up
(33:34):
or you're fired. And by the way, fix your damned eyebrows.
Manhattan Bank member FDI see now with sports. Good morning,
Keith Oberman. I said nothing For a second, maybe more.
I contemplated using a falsetto, and I finally stammered through
(33:54):
my thirty seconds, got up to leave, and as Spence
through to the weather man. Spence said, and that sucked too.
I was the only person left at WNW who liked him,
and I was beginning to hate him. He would take
me aside sometimes and tell me that his first wife
and her divorce lawyer were up in the blimp following
(34:17):
him around the city. Sometimes he claimed they were working
in cahoots with the news director Sam Hall to destroy him,
when in fact Hall was the only thing standing between
him and unemployment. Somebody once made a mild joke about
him and his age in the newsroom, and he threw
a stapler at them. He complained one of the women
(34:38):
there was stalking him. In fact, he was stalking her,
and inevitably, on October third, nineteen eighty, he either made
an impossibly unlucky grab for an old script during the
seventeenth Bonga or something, or more likely, somebody in the
newsroom set him up. W news, It's fifty five degrees
in raining at five o'clock. I'm Will Spence. The whoop.
(34:59):
John Paul the Second made history arriving in our city
yesterday and today it took her tape parade, and then
we will address the faithful at Madison Square Garden. Coverage
of the pope all day and to know your news
that had happened on October third, nineteen seventy nine. This
was now October third, nineteen eighty. Will Spence was reading
(35:22):
literally year old news. As I recall, they fired him
before his shift ended, maybe before the next newscast year
old news. Months later, I was working at the RKO
Radio network for my boss, Charlie Steiner, one of the
voices of the Dodgers Now. When RKO expanded and started
(35:45):
a second network, and they brought in to run it,
Sam Hall. Sam Hall hired a bunch of guys with
great pipes, and he hired Will Spence. Ohr man, I
say it took my advice. Look at this. Something whizzed
past me and stuck in a box of wire copy.
It's a Brazilian throwing dagger. I have a collection at RKO.
(36:06):
On the night of the Grammys, Will interweaved a clip
of every winning song into his script live on the air,
throwing cartridges left and right. As he did it. The
next hour he updated it with the latest winner. The
next hour he updated it with the latest winter. After
that it was utter unqualified genius. And he also told
me at RKO there was a woman stalking him who
(36:28):
in fact he was stalking, and he addressed everybody by
their job title tape editor. Come here. And once they
postponed a nine am staff meeting until three pm and
didn't tell him before he drove in from his house
in Connecticut. So he simply went to his Manhattan studio
apartment and, as he told me, smoked pot for six hours.
(36:49):
And then he came back and insulted literally every member
of the forty person staff went from one to the
other to the other, saying as nasty a thing as
he could think of about them. When our nicest, sweetest
news editor stood up on her desk and screamed, Spence,
get the f out of here before I kill you,
before we all kill you. He was genuinely shocked ashen.
(37:14):
He came over to me. A lot of the bravada
was gone, Olderman, for God's sakes, help me, help me.
Keith Well, I heard his life story. It took two hours.
We went into Steiner's office. We stole two of Charlie's
cigars and smoked them. It was the living embodiment of
the phrase just because you're paranoid, it does not mean
(37:37):
they are not out to get you. I was trying
to think how to help him when days later news
came that he had been hired as a TV reporter
by another New York TV station, WABC. I witnessed news
and then over there. On his first day, he was
bitten by a dog and he wanted to go to
the hospital to get checked out. They made him go
(37:57):
out on another story instead. Dogs garbage trucks. They all
had will name on them. A decade later, Will wound
up in LA where I had made my mark by
then as a local TV sportscaster. He had been hired
by a rival station and still did those incredible intricate
walking stand ups now live every night, usually from a
(38:20):
crime scene, on the eleven o'clock news. One night, his
own crew managed to not just sabotage him, but knock
him down with a slow moving car, live on the
air while he was declaiming into the camera. His last
job at yet another LA station, he got because the
aging woman anchor there fifteen years his senior, had taken
(38:41):
a fancy to him. She got fired. He got fired,
And one day the phone rang at MSNBC maybe two
thousand and six. It was Will Spence. The Pope had
sent a hit squad to kill him. He said the
whole Catholic Church was involved. Did I have the number
(39:02):
of the woman who used to stalk him? It was
far more awful than it sounds. I think somebody sent
me an email early in April two thousand and eight.
I'm pretty sure that's how I found out Will Spence
had driven his car at high speed into a bridge
abutment in Ventura County, outside La. There was a story
(39:23):
that he had had heart problems and had just seen
his doctor and gotten bad news. But we'll never know
for sure. I went to put together a little tribute
to him that night on Countdown, and online I could
not find a single photo of him, nor any form
of biography. Even now, there is one photo accompanying a
(39:44):
sad tribute to him, published a couple weeks later in
one of the newspapers in Ventura County. It was a
tribute not unlike this one. What a wasted life, how
much you wanted to hate him and couldn't. And on
YouTube there is a tape of one Will Spence TV
report from November eighteenth, nineteen eighty one Channel seven in
(40:08):
New York. This talent who could decipher the plan to
save New York City from bankruptcy and recite it as
he walked, exists forever for two minutes and forty six
seconds of his report on the marriage of Luke and
Laura from ABC's General Hospital. And by the way, even
(40:30):
it is brilliant. I've done all the damage I can
do here. Countdown has come to you from the Vin
Scully Studio at the world headquarters of the Alderman Broadcasting
(40:51):
Empire here in New York. Here are the credits. Most
of the music arranged, produced and performed by Brian Ray
and John Phillips Shanel, who are the countdown musical directors.
All orchestration and keyboards by John Phillip Shanel, Guitar, bass
and drums by Brian Ray, produced by Tko Brothers. Another
Beethoven selections have been arranged and performed by the group
No Horns Allowed. The sports music is the Olberman theme
(41:14):
from ESPN two. It was written by Mitch Warren Davis
and it appears courtesy of ESPN Inc. Musical comments by
Nancy Fauss. The best baseball stadium organist ever. Our announcer
today was my friend Larry David, and everything else was
pretty much my fault. So that's countdown for this, the
eight hundred and eighty ninth day since Donald Trump's first
attempted coup against the democratically elected government of the United States.
(41:36):
Arrest him now while we still cat all right, it's
much shot day. The next scheduled countdown is tomorrow, although
I am on bulletin alert today till then, I'm Keith Oldramman.
Good morning, good afternoon, good night, and good luck.
Speaker 2 (41:55):
Oh if he gets indoctrinated, January sixth is gonna look
like a playground.
Speaker 1 (41:59):
Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio. For
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or wherever you get your podcasts.
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