December 5, 2022 • 38 mins
EPISODE 88: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN
A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: A man whose words have previously unleashed an attempted coup now calls for the 'termination' of the Constitution, and 48 hours later he has not been arrested, apprehended, or detained? Like we've done it to everybody else who has launched a seditious conspiracy, TWICE? (2:55) Ohio Congressman Dave Joyce speaks for a complacent nation and media with this rationalization: "He says a lot of things. But that doesn't mean it's ever going to happen." (5:30) This was also unleashed by Elon Musk, Matt Taibbi and what even right wingers confess was no "smoking gun" in the saga of Hunter Biden's Lap (as opposed to laptop) yet it in turn inspired still more Fascist Angertainment: an ex-GOP candidate for congress responded "we can no longer get rid of tyranny by the ballots. It's only by the bullets now," and two attempted domestic terrorist attacks over the weekend may have been connected (9:11) There is an irony here: hours before Trump went ANTI-Constitution he had positioned himself as PRO-Constitution (11:00) But the real danger of ignoring these latest words of madness is best processed by asking yourself: What if somebody else had said these exact things?
B-Block (15:00) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: AMA Animal Rescue urgently needs fosters (15:55) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Have the Morality Police been abolished in Iran, or not? Sesame Street's icon has passed away. And here come antisemites like Steven Crowder to defend the antisemite Kanye West (19:27) IN SPORTS: For once a baseball Hall of Fame voting committee gets it right: Fred McGriff is in, Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens aren't. Which permits me to reveal for the first time the mind-boggling story the former General Manager of the Yankees told me of how they gave away McGriff: a Yankee player insisted to owner George Steinbrenner that he had to make the deal! Plus did the Texas Rangers overpay for Jacob deGrom by $185,000,000, and a really cheap joke about the U.S. at the World Cup (24:24) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Points Bet "Lightning" Commercial competes with Chris Christie's niece against Rudy "Protect Democracy By Cancelling The Elections After 9/11" Giuliani for the honors.
C-Block (28:15) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Not only did I work for Ted Turner but at the 1982 NFL Strike Talks I covered Ted Turner and I nearly decked Ted Turner. The saga of why my camera crew was wearing CBS baseball caps, what Ted said when he saw them, and why I responded to the humiliation by quick thinking as opposed to horse-collaring him.
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,
Terminate the Constitution. A man whose words have previously deliberately
(00:29):
unleashed an attempted coup against the democratically elected government of
the United States, now calls for the termination of the
Constitution of the United States, and forty eight hours later,
he has not been arrested by the FBI, nor apprehended
by the Secret Service, nor detained by the military in
a brig or a stockade. The way this country, throughout
(00:50):
its history has responded to those who have begun a
seditious conspiracy to overthrow the government twice, this is madness.
If you or I simply had, for this second time
threatened the life of a president, or of almost any
elected official, or indeed of almost anybody in this country,
(01:13):
when the first time you or I did that, a
mob showed up and tried to kill that president, or
officer or citizen. By now we would have been in custody,
and neither of us would have had the added history
of loudly and defiantly demanding the right to yell fire
in every crowded theater we have ever passed. Well Answers
(01:36):
Ohio Congressman Dave Joyce, chairman of a group of supposed
moderates within the GOP whose campaign website is nonetheless dominated
by an upshot of Trump's comb over. Well, he says
a lot of things, but that doesn't mean it's ever
going to happen. As ludicrous and stupid as that sounds,
(01:58):
I would argue that David Joyce is closer to expressing
the preferred response in almost every order of this government.
And seven eighths of the media is supposedly there to
watch dog government when it gets this amazingly stupid. It's
not like it's going to happen. I mean, how is
that guy actually gonna kill anybody with that gun? He's
(02:18):
a terrible shot. How is that terrorists really going to
destroy Dave Joyce's home of Ashtonbula County, Ohio. We don't
even know if he knows how to detonate it. Why
should we The New York Times even covered this? He says,
crap like this all the time. We don't want this
story obscuring our big feature on Anderson Cooper's pain. He
(02:41):
says a lot of things. That doesn't mean it's ever
going to happen. The way January six never happened. Oh sorry,
bad example. I know, as you know, that none of
Trump's latest new high in low holds together logically. We
all know that he calls to terminate the rule of
(03:04):
the Constitution literally hours after putting out a video claiming
his January six stochastic terrorist mob is being treated unconstitutionally,
while he himself is again seeking an office where the
first thing you do upon assuming it is to swear
to uphold the Constitution, while the leader of his party
in Congress scornfully announces that the first thing he will
(03:27):
do in the new Congress is to have Republicans stand
up and proudly read a loud, word for word on
the record for the first time in years, the entirety
of the Constitution which Trump wants terminated. But if we
have learned one thing in the last seven years of hell,
it is that logic has nothing to do with it,
(03:49):
certainly not for the idiots who constitute Trump's base and
his set of potential terrorists as well. Their word is angertainment.
For some, the umbridge itself suffices. For others, like Trump himself,
it must always esc late from there. Trump himself was
responding to the elon Musk Matt Taiebee quote revelations about
(04:12):
Hunter Biden's laptop, which turned out to prove a tiebe
found no evidence of government involvement in Twitter's decisions. Be
As a New York Post reporter said, uh, this was
not the smoking gun we were hoping for. C. Musk
has no idea of time, specifically what the word tomorrow means.
(04:32):
D The entire takeaway is that Musk and other fascists
are trying to make the world safe for dick picks
and e I owe you an apology for having put
Matt Tayebee on MSNBC all those years ago. But the
Biden laptop Festival of me, when escalated by Trump's call
(04:53):
to overthrow the Constitution, has been enough to then on
leash a profound threat of political violence and maybe at
least two attempted domestic terror attacks, one of which may
have succeeded. Hours after Trump did what he did, a
Minnesota Republican named Shukri Abdi Rahman, who once tried to
(05:13):
get the nomination to run against Congresswoman Ilan Omar in
the fifth District in Minnesota, posted quote, we can no
longer get rid of tyranny by the ballots. It's only
by the bullets now. When Twitter twenty four hours later
removed that this, Abdi Rahman responded, quote, it's no secret
(05:33):
that our founders would have taken up arms and put
to use the real purpose of the Second Amendment to
take out this tyrannical government unquote. As of this recording,
Shukri Abdi Rahman has not yet been arrested again. Why not? Here?
In New York Saturday morning, there was an attempt to
(05:54):
break up a drag story our event in or near
Lincoln Center in what might be a lesson for all
the homophobes, or is at minimum simply hilarious. Three the
quote protesters, including a woman, were attacked supposedly by six
people who threw eggs at them and then stole the
(06:14):
woman's purse. And then as the quote protesters ran away,
somebody threw a brick in their direction. But it wasn't
so funny. In Moore County, North Carolina, which remained under
a curfew last night because two power substations were shot
up on Saturday, and nearly forty thousand residents remained without electricity,
(06:34):
and it could remain that way until Thursday, a woman
named Emily Rainey posted on social media quote, the power
is out in Moore County and I know why. And
she showed a picture of the Sunrise Theater in Southern Pines,
North Carolina, where an eighteen and older drag event was
scheduled and went on anyway by flashlight. Quote. God will
(06:58):
not be mocked, she added. North Carolina police last night
seemed to indicate they had interviewed her. She was lying
or delusional, or both. But the through line here is this,
Emily Rainey is an ex Army side ops officer who
in tried to circumvent COVID restrictions in Southern Pines and
who then led a group of people to here Trump
(07:22):
speak on January. Can you draw a truly straight line
specific cause and effect between Trump's madness about the Constitution
and the call for political assassination in Minnesota or the
attack that went so hilariously wrong in New York, or
whatever has happened in North Carolina. The answer is at
(07:42):
this point I no longer care. I am satisfied that
the guilt has been painted in broad strokes only because
the day before that Trump was anti constitution. Trump positioned
himself as pro constitution and in doing so, once again
publicly and loudly hinted that he will pardon people who
(08:04):
commit at crimes on his behalf. We have been treated unconstitutionally,
in my opinion, and very very unfairly, and we're going
to get to the bottom of it. Our country is
going communists. This is what happens, and we can't let
it happen. We have to stop it. So I want
to thank everybody for working so hard. I know how
hard you're working to get justice for people that are
(08:27):
imprisoned right now and people that are being tormented. You
can let it happen. We're going to stop it. We're
going to win. Between that and the post. This is seditious, conspiracy,
encourage terrorism, specify a target or an aim, promise pardons.
And each day we do not act against Trump, we
(08:47):
increase the chances that he will regain power. And as
insane and as impossible as this sounds, he will destroy
whatever he can and as of now, this includes the
constitution of the United States of America. He will destroy
whatever he can because simply we have let him get
away with it so far. This must stop. And the
(09:12):
final component here The final metric of just how bad
this is and just how urgently it must be responded
to and how he must be thwarted is simple. It
is a thought experiment. Some of us might be the
New York Times waiting twenty four hours to write anything
about Trump and his desire to eliminate the Constitution. Some
(09:32):
of us might be this idiot from Ohio. Congressman Joyce
with the rationalization says a lot of things that don't
mean never gonna happen. But what if these precise Trumpian
comments had been made by somebody else where? Would we
be right now in this country? As this country if
the story was quote, a massive fraud of this type
(09:55):
and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations,
and articles, even those found in the Constitution, Florida Governor
ro De Santis said today, Or where would we be
right now if the story was quote? Elon Musk posted
a Twitter poll asking if the U. S should declare
the rightful winner, or do you have a new election?
(10:19):
Or where would we be right now if the story
was quote. Unprecedented fraud requires unprecedented cure, wrote President Joe Biden.
(10:45):
Still ahead, you knew it had to happen fascists defending
Kanye West's anti Semitism and pro Hitler stance. After nine eleven,
we all knew Rudy Giuliani tried to stay on as
co mayor of New York, But now the former governor
of the state claims it was way worse than that.
Rudy wanted to post pone the election. Baseball's dumbest free
(11:08):
agent signing the Texas Rangers just spent on an eight
five million dollars for the sixth best picture on the
New York Mets. And the day my boss Ted Turner
humiliated me in public, so I was gonna run up
behind him and horse collar and and then go back
into radio until I remember it about that pesky rent.
(11:29):
That's next. This is countdown. This is countdown with Keith
Open still ahead on countdown. What was the first thing
Rudy Giuliani thought of after the nine eleven attacks on
(11:50):
democracy canceled the election so he could stay in office.
And the day a New York Yankees outfielder convinced the
team owner, George Steinbrenner to trade away the man who
was just elected last night as Baseball's newest Hall of
Famer coming up first. In each addition of Countdown, we
feature a dog in need you can help. Every dog
has its day. This time it's not a dog, it
(12:12):
is an entire rescue. Our friends at a m A
Animal Rescue in Brooklyn, New York needs your help. If
you are in the area, they are remodeling their facility
and they have to close it entirely for two weeks.
Everybody out. All the animals at the rescue have been
fostered out for those two weeks, except for three small dogs,
including a very soulful gal named Angela, plus two kittens.
(12:35):
They still need temporary homes or permanent homes if you
are so inclined. If you're in the New York metropolitan
area and you can help out, email Foster at a
m A Animal Rescue dot org or just refer to
my tweets foster at a m A Animal Rescue dot org,
or check my tweets I Thank you and a m
A Animal Rescue and Angela Thank You. Postscripts to the
(13:07):
news some headlines, some updates, some snarks, some predictions. Dateline Tehran,
the Iranian Morality Police, Who's murder of a woman not
wearing her head covering to their liking set off protests
that have threatened to topple the theocracy. There have been
abolished by the government or they have not been abolished
by the government. Iran's Attorney General, Javad Montazeri is reported
(13:29):
to have said the police quote was abolished by the
same authorities who installed it, while other officials insist no
such decision has been made. Dateline Sesame Street the original
is gone. Bob McGrath, who played the neighbor on the
landmark PBS Kids show from its pilot in nineteen sixty
nine through the year two thousand seventeen, has died at
(13:49):
the age of ninety, according to his family. Before his
remarkable tenure on the program, Bob McGrath was one of
the singers on the sixties TV staple, sing along with
Mitch Miller and Dateline Fascist Ville it had to Happen Morons,
deff ending Kanye West defending him from what Oh You Remember.
I gotta watch my accounts because they've been frozen by
(14:13):
the Jewish banks, so I need to watch my Mills
instance why people are evil Nazis? So I mean, I
I disagree with both statements, but I get the I
don't like the word evil next to Nazis. I think
we need to look at Oh my goodness, just because
you don't like one group doesn't mean the other. Look,
I love Jewish people, but I also love Nazis. Oh Man, Well,
(14:37):
I have to disagree with that, but listen, we're gonna
go to break. We'll be right back. Kevin Sorbo, who
may or may not have retired as an actor. It's
hard to tell. Writing I may not agree with what
YA said, but he has the right to say it.
That's how free speech works. Yeah, and the society then
also has the right to bury him for saying it,
(14:58):
because that's also how free speech works. Going a little further,
fascist podcast host Stephen Crowder, please enjoy Mr Crowder's attempts
to twist himself into a pretzel in a failed effort
to not repeat the oldest, dumbest trope fallen back on
by every entertainment failure, such as Stephen Crowder. That it's
(15:18):
not a lack of talent on the part of you know,
Stephen Crowder, it is the fault of the you know
who's who run Hollywood. It's not wrong about everything. Look,
is there a conversation to be had about secular hum
humanists with Jewish last names in Hollywood exploiting people in
positions of you know, the performance arts talent. Yeah. Yeah.
(15:41):
And by the way, that happens in the conservative movement too,
behind the scenes, people sign contracts where they don't know
what they're signing. Yeah, that's true. Is there a disproportional,
disproportionate number of people with Jewish last names in higher banking?
That's that's an argument that can be made. Man, is
there a conversation, I mean, you had about that. You're
sure it's not in your demand septim. Is there a
conversation that we had about that? Yeah, yeah, yeah, there is.
(16:05):
Here's the conversation. Hey, Crowder, you're an anti Semite bastard.
Here endeth the conversation. This is Sports Center. Wait, check
(16:29):
that not anymore. This is countdown with Keith in sports.
There have been so many different committees responsible for electing
people to Baseball's Hall of Fame that there is not
even unanimous agreement as to exactly how many there have been.
But one of them at least got it partially right yesterday.
(16:51):
The sixteen member Contemporary Era Committee yesterday voted unanimously to
elect longtime slugger Fred McGriff to the Hall of Fame.
Twelve votes were required for election, and each committee member
could vote for only four of the eight nominees. The
next closest was Don Manningly with eight votes. Kurt Schilling
had seven, Dale Murphy had six. The other four nominees,
(17:13):
including Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, and Raphael Palmeiro, along with
Albert Bell, were dismissed with this announcement fewer than four votes. Well,
the man nicknamed the crime Dog, Fred McGriff slugged for
nine career homers and never had one whiff of steroids
about him. He played for six teams, he had at
least ninety nine homers for three of them, playing mostly
(17:35):
for the Blue Jay's Braves and Rays, all of which
serves to remind some of us that Friday is the
fort anniversary of one of the worst trades in baseball history,
and that that trade just got worse. On December ninth,
the Toronto Blue Jay's traded minor leaguer Tom Dodd and
relief pitcher Dale Murray to the Yankees for outfielder Dave
(17:57):
Collins pitcher Mike Morgan and a minor leaguer who had
to that point played exactly ninety one professional games, the
new Hall of Famer Fred McGriff. Years ago, I was
having dinner with my friend, the late Yankee shortstop and
then architect of their late nineties dynasty Jeans Stick Michael
Stick mentioned that trade. He laughed and said, Lou Pinella
(18:18):
made that deal, and I said, no, that's impossible. Lou
Pinella was still an active player when when they traded McGriff,
and Stick laughed again. He said, yep, and the Blue
Jays were willing to give us Dale Murray and take
Dave Collins is big contract off our hands. And somebody
called George Steinbrenner directly, and instead of calling me or
anybody else who knew, George called his buddy Lou Pinella,
(18:39):
and lu said, George Tail Murray, Tail Murray is one
of the greatest relievers in baseball. Stick laughed again. What
Lou meant, of course, was that Dale Murray always got
Lou out. Almost nobody else just Lou. So Loo told
George do whatever you have to do to get Dale Murray,
do it. So George did it, and at the last
(19:01):
moment that Jay said, we really liked this other kid.
You have McGriff down in a ball, we can you
throw him in? And George said sure, and that stick
Michael told me is how we lost Fred McGriff for
absolutely nothing. You want to pass the roles. Thank you,
(19:37):
Nancy Faust. Speaking of which, in today's game, one of
the best pictures of the last decade, Jacob de Graham
left the New York Mets for a five year, five
million dollar contract with the Texas Rangers. I think they
overpaid by hundred and eighty five million dollars. The problem
is de Gram won back to back Cy Young Awards
in two thousand eighteen and two thousand nineteen and since
(19:59):
has pitched barely half the time. By modern metrics, he
was only the sixth best picture on the Mets last season.
In fact, he was only tied for six on the
Mets last season. But the decision to invest that much
money in de Gram is actually a little worse than
it sounds, or may have occurred to you. Lots of
pictures get hurt, lots of pictures come back, lots of
(20:21):
pictures get better. Even at the age of thirty five,
the age to Graham will reach in June. But almost
all of them who do that do it after they
have had whatever was wrong with them corrected surgically. Each
time de Gram couldn't pitch, the treatment was rest This
may not be a question of how much de Gram
is a health risk ine and beyond maybe a question
(20:44):
of how much Degram is a surgery risk. Texas Rangers
go to New York next August to play the Mets.
As a friend of the podcast joked, wow, just in
time for de Gram's first start of the season. And
a soccer note, the US was knocked out of the
World Cup in Qatar by the Dutch Saturday, three to one.
As one Carl Sharrow roach, this is the first time
(21:08):
in history the US has left the Middle Eastern countries
so quickly. Head Not only did I work for Ted Turner,
but I covered Ted Turner and at the football strike.
While covering Ted Turner and working for Ted Turner, I
nearly decked Ted Turner things I promised not to tell.
(21:31):
Coming up first, the daily roundup of the miscreants, morons
and Donning Kruger effects specimens who constitute today's worst persons
in the The Ron's Points Bet, one of the sports
wagering firms. It started a new thing called Lightning Bets,
so put out a story that went viral that it's spokesman,
former NFL quarterback Drew Brees, had by been hit by
(21:52):
lightning in Venezuela. Then it released a commercial in which
Breeze is seen getting hit by lighting. A group called
Lightning Strike and Electric Shock Survivors International has responded with
justifiable anger. A spokesman said, this is a deadly injury
and it is disappointing to see the continual ridicule of
lightning and electrical Injury Survivors and comical lights in which
(22:14):
it is presented for commercial gain and profit. About twenty
eight Americans a year die from lightning strikes, way more
than say die from terrorism. Imagine a commercial on TV
in which they make a joke about somebody dying in
a terrorist attack while gambling. Runner up Sharon Shannon Epstein,
a passenger on a Spirit Airlines flight from New Orleans
(22:36):
to New Jersey last month. It has now been revealed
that seeing a couple of passengers she perceived to be Latino,
Miss Epstein asked them if they were quote smuggling cocaine.
When the flight crew decided she should not be on board.
She had to be removed, and she was, shall we say, reluctant,
quoting the website nola dot com. In the scuffle, she
(22:57):
injured six deputies, biting one on the arm and breaking
the skin and kicking another in the groin, all the
while telling everybody involved that they would lose their jobs
because her uncle was friends with Trump. Who's your uncle,
former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. And you'd think, if
you're going to throw his name around like that, niece, Karen,
you'd be up to date enough to know that Trump
(23:19):
is no friend of Chris Christie's, but our winner. Speaking
of Rudy Giuliani, you may recall that after the nine
eleven attacks, the arrogant Giuliani we knew before then disappeared briefly,
and the hair painting sputtering conspiracy nuts had yet to appear.
But by September two thousand one, Giuliani was hinting that
(23:42):
it would be dangerous for New York City if he
left office as scheduled on December thirty one, and so
he proposed to the governor of New York State that
he should stay on for a year. As co mayor
with his successor. Turns out it was way worse than that.
Governor George Pataki has a new book coming out, and
he says Giuliani first asked Pataki to overrule the city's
(24:04):
lee Egal term limits so Giuliani could run again for
mayor for a third term six weeks later, and when
he would not do that, Giuliani simply said that Pataki
should just cancel the election. Better than all this, Giuliani
does not deny he wanted one of those outcomes, because,
of course, the first thing you want to do after
the worst terrorist attack in America's history, which your own
(24:26):
political party has already billed as the attack on democracy,
is to, you know, cancel an election. Rudy Uh, I
had two good weeks, Giuliani Today's worst person and to
(24:58):
the number one story on the countdown and my favorite topic,
me and things I promised not to tell then before
the anniversary of this event recedes into the forgotten past,
I have one more story to tell you about covering
the nine eight two National Football League players strike, and
this is less about the strike itself and more about
the man for whom I covered it, Ted Turner. Ted
(25:21):
Turner had put CNN on the air just two years earlier,
and his sports guy Bill McPhail had interviewed me for
a job as their New York sports reporter even earlier
than that May of nineteen eighty, And when I did
not get it, I was genuinely relieved, because I was
convinced there was no way they would ever get CNN
on the air, no chance. Ever. Obviously I did not
(25:42):
account for Ted Turner's stubbornness. Anyway, I wound up going
their freelance. In one is I have related in some
detail here when Lou Dobbs and his girlfriend, the New
York Sports reporter had to get out of town fast
at the existence of Mrs Lou Dobbs. Eight months later,
as the two NFL strike loomed, they had made me
(26:02):
staff and given me a contract, first offering me a
thousand dollars less a year than they were paying me
freelance even c an end of nineteen eighty to acknowledge
the absurdity of that mathematical proposition. So I was infested
already whining about Ted Turner, employee of CNN, when the
football players walked out in strike in September two and
that strike was my beat every day from March to November.
(26:26):
A day or so after the strike began, we sent
up an interview with the president of CBS Sports, Neil Pilson,
about the effect that the strike would have on TV
Sports in general and CBS Sports in particular, And as
the camera crew and I filed into his office, Pilson
wearily said, nothing against you, guys, but I've done so
many interviews already about this strike that if you actually
(26:48):
come up with a question I haven't been asked already,
I'll give you. Well. We all leaned in towards him.
Give us what the job, a job interview at least
fifty dollars, I'll give you CBS Sports caps man, not
exactly a job at better than HM. So we rolled
tape and I said, so, Mr Pilson, in light of
(27:08):
the strike, do you wish CBS Sports did not have
the Super Bowl this year? As it does? And he laughed,
and he took off his mic and he went over
to his office phone. He buzzed his assistant, bring in
three caps, will you? And he sat back down. He said,
you guys, did it. Nobody asked me that yet. And
it's like the only question that really interests me, You're
still rolling. Neil Pilson then proceeded to give a lengthy
(27:31):
and thoughtful answer about how as long as the season
was not canceled, it was probably better to have the
next Super Bowl because people would be so grateful that
after the strike they wound up playing it anyway. So
now a week goes by after that interview, and the
bargaining sessions between the players and the owners are taking
place in a Manhattan hotel, the Lows on Lexington Avenue,
(27:54):
a dump with a nice lobby. All that matters to
me is the Lows with the dump and the nice
lobby is literally three blocks from my apartment. The players
and the owner has just marched through a long hallway
into private rooms. That's all we see of them. It
is not heavy lifting. There are nice seats at least
in that lobby. But it is enlivened one day by
(28:15):
news that our boss, Ted Turner has asked the union
if he can come in and meet with their twenty
odd player negotiating team because he wants to pitch them
on something. He was in fact do there yesterday but
was unavoidably detained. The rumor the players told me. Never
confirmed was that while changing planes in Chicago, Turner and
(28:36):
an air hostess had ensconced themselves in a dumpster or
the other version was in a janitor's closet for twelve
hours of whoopee, and that's why he was a day late. Anyway,
I'll walk into the Lows that morning and if somehow
I had not been able to recognize my camera crew,
sure enough, it is the same two guys who have
(28:58):
been with me at Neil Pilson's office at CBS when
I asked him the question. He had not been asked before.
Earning us free CBS for its caps, and the cameraman
and the deck operator are, of course wearing their CBS
sports caps. And understand in two CNN was not an upstart.
It was not the feisty outsider, It was not the
future of news. We were called pretend TV. It was
(29:23):
said that CNN stood for Chicken Noodle News. One day,
I called somebody up and asked for press credentials for
Cable News Network and the guy said, Cable News Network
are either people own the news stands downtown. I had
no idea what he was talking about, so I went
to one of the news stands, and I asked the
guy who owns this place? And he pointed to a
(29:43):
plaque and it said owned by Cabell News Company. The
Cabell News Company, owner of downtown news stands, was better
known than Cable News Network. We got scoffed at in
some arenas and venues like Madison Square Garden in New York.
Our crews were not admitted because they were not in
the Union. So the CBS sports camps were an important,
(30:06):
albeit borrowed touch of legitimacy and dignity, especially for my
cameraman and my deck guy. So the three of us
position ourselves in that long haul in the lobby waiting
for my boss, Ted Turner, me holding the mic with
the big red CNN logo on the mic flag, and
the crew wearing their gaudy CBS sports caps and in
(30:27):
Ted walks emerging from the brilliant early autumn sunshine, filtering
in from behind him from the street like this was
a perfectly lit movie scene. And he sees me and
recognized me and smiles and comes over and beams hot, damn,
it's the CNN crew. And he shakes my hand and
we roll tape and I start to asking my first question,
(30:47):
and suddenly the joy drains from his face and he
stops me. What they wearing on their heads? He gestures
at the cameraman and the deck guy, and I explained
the BACKSTA. I don't give a damn who gave him them.
This is the CNN crew. They wait in CBS sports caps.
Get them off, they damn, and he pushes me, I
mean really shoves me and sprides past us. Now, even then,
(31:12):
I'm five six inches taller than Ted Turner and twenty
pounds heavier at least, and maybe I can live with
my employer embarrassing me in public, but I do not
have to let him shove me in front of all
the other reporters. So for a second, I think I'm
just gonna run down the hall and catch him and
horse collar the bastard from behind. About a year into
(31:34):
my TV career, I have already accepted that there are
positives to television, but I've also already learned nearly all
the negatives. And not three months earlier, I had gone
over to ABC to interview with them about going back
to do radio. Sports. Seems to me, given what I
know about Ted Turner, dragging him to the ground, and
then quitting TV forever would be a pretty appropriate farewell.
(31:56):
And then one word popped in my head, rent all right,
right right, And so quickly I go to Plan B
to be fair in thought, if not an action, Ted
Turner was right, look pretty silly to have the CNN
camera crew wearing CBS sports caps while interviewing the founder
(32:19):
and owner of CNN, who by the way, was in
the newspaper constantly because he kept saying he was gonna
buy CBS. Plus, I still had a story to do
that day, and that crew was gonna have to go
back into the room where Turner would be meeting with
the players about an hour later for the proverbial spray
shot that would give us some video to use of
their meeting. And simply having my guys take their caps
(32:41):
off was not going to suffice. So I ran the
three blocks back to my apartment to grab the only
bit of merch or swag produced in the first two
years of CNN, something they had and apparently inexhaustible supply
of CNN bumper stickers. I must have had a hundred
of them in my place alone, and there were boxes
and cartons and boxes and cartons of them in the
(33:03):
New York Bureau, which was funny enough as it was,
since I don't think all the people who worked at
CNN in New York in two owned six cars among them. Anyway,
I trimmed a couple of the stickers down to just
the CNN logos and raced back to the Crappy Lows Hotel,
and just as they were calling for the cruise to
come in to get the spray shots of Ted meeting
(33:25):
with the players, I put those CNN logo stickers over
the CBS logos on my guys caps, and to my delight,
they stuck in place a little large, but it worked.
Minutes later, the boys came out of the meeting room
and the cameraman was in hysterics. He wound the video
back and had me watch it through the viewfinder of
the camera. As soon as they had walked in, Turner
(33:48):
started to give them dirty looks, and then suddenly one
of the NFL players said, Hey, Ted, there's your crew.
There's your CNN crew. Hey see it n over here.
Everybody was laughing, and now Ted was beaming that them.
That's my crew, all right, good work. Boys. When his
meeting with the players broke up. An hour later, I
got a message from Ted's assistant to wait for him
(34:11):
around a corner from the main lobby so he could
give me give CNN exclusive details about what he was
trying to sell the players on. It was a series
of exhibition games so the striking players could make a
little money on the side that he could televise and
there would be a pitch to the National Labor Relations
Board that the strike had been forced on the players
(34:31):
by the owners, which would have meant the players would
have all become free agents. Ted wanted them, all of them,
every player in the National Football League, to sign instead
with him. He would create a twenty four team league.
He would give the Union half ownership of every team,
he would find backers for the other half, and all
he wanted was the TV rights. It didn't happen, obviously,
(34:55):
but what a breathtaking scheme. Anyway. Turner was all smiles
when he came out of the meeting to tell me
before he met with the rest of the press, and
he said, great with the a good work, but I
have to get you guys some real you'll see it
ed sports aspect Christmas. Ted stayed another fifteen or twenty
minutes doing god knows what with God knows whom. I
didn't see any dumpsters in the hotel, and then he
(35:17):
left by the main exit as the rest of the
camera crews and reporters trailed him. I went along just
to see if there was anything he hadn't told me.
And as he went out the doors to his car,
he said, seem and I said, don't forget the hats,
and Ted Turner gave me one of the dirtiest looks
I have ever gotten in my life. Sure enough, a
(35:39):
couple of days before Christmas, I get a call from
my boss in Atlanta. Just got in a box of
a hundred CNN Sports Truckers caps from Ted Turner's office.
I don't know what the hell this is all about,
but his assistant says, if we wanted to know, we
should call you. I was very proud of making the
correct choice between correcting mistake and getting us all hats
(36:01):
and assaulting him. There is one PostScript. Ted talked the
players into the exhibition games. I mentioned only two of them,
one at RFK Stadium in Washington, which I went to
on assignment. Seated next to Ted Turner, he had two
flasks with him. Anyway. The crowd was so small at
(36:22):
RFK Stadium in Washington that at one point they got
on the p A system and ask all the fans
to go sit down behind the player benches so the
TV shots of the game wouldn't show all those empty seats.
The other game was in the Los Angeles Coliseum. They
drew even less, maybe a thousand fans, probably more like
five hundred, five hundred fans in the l A Colosseum.
(36:45):
Five hundred fans looks like the raisins and rice pudding.
But it was the name of his ad hoc league
with these games in Washington and l A that still
sticks with me forty years later. Ted named it himself.
I'm pretty sure he did this deliberately. I know nobody
else noticed it until I may a big deal about it.
(37:06):
Ted Turner called his ill fated venture his ursat's National
Football League the quote all Star Season, and I said, perfect.
The acronym you have built for it is a s S.
(37:36):
I've done all the damage I can do here. Thank
you for listening. If you're not following or subscribed to
the podcast, please do so. If you can stop somebody
on the Street get them to subscribe to I'd appreciate it.
Here are the credits. Most of the music, including our
theme from Beethoven's Ninth, was arranged, produced, and performed by
Brian Ray and John Philip Schanelle. They are the Countdown
musical directors. All orchestration and keyboards by John Philip Chanelle, guitars,
(37:58):
bass and drums by Brian Ray, produced by T K
O Brothers. Other Beethoven selections have been arranged down performed
by No Horns allowed. The sports music is the Olderman
theme from me ESPN two and it was written by
Mitch Warren Davis courtesy of ESPN, Inc. Musical comments by
Nancy Faust. The best baseball stadium organist ever. Our announcer
today was Stevie van Zant, and everything else is pretty
(38:21):
much my fault. So that's countdown for this the six
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 addition tomorrow Until then on
Keith Alderman. Good Morning, good afternoon, goodnight, and good luck.
(38:49):
Countdown with Keith Olderman 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,
Terminate the Constitution. A man whose words have previously deliberately
(00:29):
unleashed an attempted coup against the democratically elected government of
the United States, now calls for the termination of the
Constitution of the United States, and forty eight hours later,
he has not been arrested by the FBI, nor apprehended
by the Secret Service, nor detained by the military in
a brig or a stockade. The way this country, throughout
(00:50):
its history has responded to those who have begun a
seditious conspiracy to overthrow the government twice, this is madness.
If you or I simply had, for this second time
threatened the life of a president, or of almost any
elected official, or indeed of almost anybody in this country,
(01:13):
when the first time you or I did that, a
mob showed up and tried to kill that president, or
officer or citizen. By now we would have been in custody,
and neither of us would have had the added history
of loudly and defiantly demanding the right to yell fire
in every crowded theater we have ever passed. Well Answers
(01:36):
Ohio Congressman Dave Joyce, chairman of a group of supposed
moderates within the GOP whose campaign website is nonetheless dominated
by an upshot of Trump's comb over. Well, he says
a lot of things, but that doesn't mean it's ever
going to happen. As ludicrous and stupid as that sounds,
(01:58):
I would argue that David Joyce is closer to expressing
the preferred response in almost every order of this government.
And seven eighths of the media is supposedly there to
watch dog government when it gets this amazingly stupid. It's
not like it's going to happen. I mean, how is
that guy actually gonna kill anybody with that gun? He's
(02:18):
a terrible shot. How is that terrorists really going to
destroy Dave Joyce's home of Ashtonbula County, Ohio. We don't
even know if he knows how to detonate it. Why
should we The New York Times even covered this? He says,
crap like this all the time. We don't want this
story obscuring our big feature on Anderson Cooper's pain. He
(02:41):
says a lot of things. That doesn't mean it's ever
going to happen. The way January six never happened. Oh sorry,
bad example. I know, as you know, that none of
Trump's latest new high in low holds together logically. We
all know that he calls to terminate the rule of
(03:04):
the Constitution literally hours after putting out a video claiming
his January six stochastic terrorist mob is being treated unconstitutionally,
while he himself is again seeking an office where the
first thing you do upon assuming it is to swear
to uphold the Constitution, while the leader of his party
in Congress scornfully announces that the first thing he will
(03:27):
do in the new Congress is to have Republicans stand
up and proudly read a loud, word for word on
the record for the first time in years, the entirety
of the Constitution which Trump wants terminated. But if we
have learned one thing in the last seven years of hell,
it is that logic has nothing to do with it,
(03:49):
certainly not for the idiots who constitute Trump's base and
his set of potential terrorists as well. Their word is angertainment.
For some, the umbridge itself suffices. For others, like Trump himself,
it must always esc late from there. Trump himself was
responding to the elon Musk Matt Taiebee quote revelations about
(04:12):
Hunter Biden's laptop, which turned out to prove a tiebe
found no evidence of government involvement in Twitter's decisions. Be
As a New York Post reporter said, uh, this was
not the smoking gun we were hoping for. C. Musk
has no idea of time, specifically what the word tomorrow means.
(04:32):
D The entire takeaway is that Musk and other fascists
are trying to make the world safe for dick picks
and e I owe you an apology for having put
Matt Tayebee on MSNBC all those years ago. But the
Biden laptop Festival of me, when escalated by Trump's call
(04:53):
to overthrow the Constitution, has been enough to then on
leash a profound threat of political violence and maybe at
least two attempted domestic terror attacks, one of which may
have succeeded. Hours after Trump did what he did, a
Minnesota Republican named Shukri Abdi Rahman, who once tried to
(05:13):
get the nomination to run against Congresswoman Ilan Omar in
the fifth District in Minnesota, posted quote, we can no
longer get rid of tyranny by the ballots. It's only
by the bullets now. When Twitter twenty four hours later
removed that this, Abdi Rahman responded, quote, it's no secret
(05:33):
that our founders would have taken up arms and put
to use the real purpose of the Second Amendment to
take out this tyrannical government unquote. As of this recording,
Shukri Abdi Rahman has not yet been arrested again. Why not? Here?
In New York Saturday morning, there was an attempt to
(05:54):
break up a drag story our event in or near
Lincoln Center in what might be a lesson for all
the homophobes, or is at minimum simply hilarious. Three the
quote protesters, including a woman, were attacked supposedly by six
people who threw eggs at them and then stole the
(06:14):
woman's purse. And then as the quote protesters ran away,
somebody threw a brick in their direction. But it wasn't
so funny. In Moore County, North Carolina, which remained under
a curfew last night because two power substations were shot
up on Saturday, and nearly forty thousand residents remained without electricity,
(06:34):
and it could remain that way until Thursday, a woman
named Emily Rainey posted on social media quote, the power
is out in Moore County and I know why. And
she showed a picture of the Sunrise Theater in Southern Pines,
North Carolina, where an eighteen and older drag event was
scheduled and went on anyway by flashlight. Quote. God will
(06:58):
not be mocked, she added. North Carolina police last night
seemed to indicate they had interviewed her. She was lying
or delusional, or both. But the through line here is this,
Emily Rainey is an ex Army side ops officer who
in tried to circumvent COVID restrictions in Southern Pines and
who then led a group of people to here Trump
(07:22):
speak on January. Can you draw a truly straight line
specific cause and effect between Trump's madness about the Constitution
and the call for political assassination in Minnesota or the
attack that went so hilariously wrong in New York, or
whatever has happened in North Carolina. The answer is at
(07:42):
this point I no longer care. I am satisfied that
the guilt has been painted in broad strokes only because
the day before that Trump was anti constitution. Trump positioned
himself as pro constitution and in doing so, once again
publicly and loudly hinted that he will pardon people who
(08:04):
commit at crimes on his behalf. We have been treated unconstitutionally,
in my opinion, and very very unfairly, and we're going
to get to the bottom of it. Our country is
going communists. This is what happens, and we can't let
it happen. We have to stop it. So I want
to thank everybody for working so hard. I know how
hard you're working to get justice for people that are
(08:27):
imprisoned right now and people that are being tormented. You
can let it happen. We're going to stop it. We're
going to win. Between that and the post. This is seditious, conspiracy,
encourage terrorism, specify a target or an aim, promise pardons.
And each day we do not act against Trump, we
(08:47):
increase the chances that he will regain power. And as
insane and as impossible as this sounds, he will destroy
whatever he can and as of now, this includes the
constitution of the United States of America. He will destroy
whatever he can because simply we have let him get
away with it so far. This must stop. And the
(09:12):
final component here The final metric of just how bad
this is and just how urgently it must be responded
to and how he must be thwarted is simple. It
is a thought experiment. Some of us might be the
New York Times waiting twenty four hours to write anything
about Trump and his desire to eliminate the Constitution. Some
(09:32):
of us might be this idiot from Ohio. Congressman Joyce
with the rationalization says a lot of things that don't
mean never gonna happen. But what if these precise Trumpian
comments had been made by somebody else where? Would we
be right now in this country? As this country if
the story was quote, a massive fraud of this type
(09:55):
and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations,
and articles, even those found in the Constitution, Florida Governor
ro De Santis said today, Or where would we be
right now if the story was quote? Elon Musk posted
a Twitter poll asking if the U. S should declare
the rightful winner, or do you have a new election?
(10:19):
Or where would we be right now if the story
was quote. Unprecedented fraud requires unprecedented cure, wrote President Joe Biden.
(10:45):
Still ahead, you knew it had to happen fascists defending
Kanye West's anti Semitism and pro Hitler stance. After nine eleven,
we all knew Rudy Giuliani tried to stay on as
co mayor of New York, But now the former governor
of the state claims it was way worse than that.
Rudy wanted to post pone the election. Baseball's dumbest free
(11:08):
agent signing the Texas Rangers just spent on an eight
five million dollars for the sixth best picture on the
New York Mets. And the day my boss Ted Turner
humiliated me in public, so I was gonna run up
behind him and horse collar and and then go back
into radio until I remember it about that pesky rent.
(11:29):
That's next. This is countdown. This is countdown with Keith
Open still ahead on countdown. What was the first thing
Rudy Giuliani thought of after the nine eleven attacks on
(11:50):
democracy canceled the election so he could stay in office.
And the day a New York Yankees outfielder convinced the
team owner, George Steinbrenner to trade away the man who
was just elected last night as Baseball's newest Hall of
Famer coming up first. In each addition of Countdown, we
feature a dog in need you can help. Every dog
has its day. This time it's not a dog, it
(12:12):
is an entire rescue. Our friends at a m A
Animal Rescue in Brooklyn, New York needs your help. If
you are in the area, they are remodeling their facility
and they have to close it entirely for two weeks.
Everybody out. All the animals at the rescue have been
fostered out for those two weeks, except for three small dogs,
including a very soulful gal named Angela, plus two kittens.
(12:35):
They still need temporary homes or permanent homes if you
are so inclined. If you're in the New York metropolitan
area and you can help out, email Foster at a
m A Animal Rescue dot org or just refer to
my tweets foster at a m A Animal Rescue dot org,
or check my tweets I Thank you and a m
A Animal Rescue and Angela Thank You. Postscripts to the
(13:07):
news some headlines, some updates, some snarks, some predictions. Dateline Tehran,
the Iranian Morality Police, Who's murder of a woman not
wearing her head covering to their liking set off protests
that have threatened to topple the theocracy. There have been
abolished by the government or they have not been abolished
by the government. Iran's Attorney General, Javad Montazeri is reported
(13:29):
to have said the police quote was abolished by the
same authorities who installed it, while other officials insist no
such decision has been made. Dateline Sesame Street the original
is gone. Bob McGrath, who played the neighbor on the
landmark PBS Kids show from its pilot in nineteen sixty
nine through the year two thousand seventeen, has died at
(13:49):
the age of ninety, according to his family. Before his
remarkable tenure on the program, Bob McGrath was one of
the singers on the sixties TV staple, sing along with
Mitch Miller and Dateline Fascist Ville it had to Happen Morons,
deff ending Kanye West defending him from what Oh You Remember.
I gotta watch my accounts because they've been frozen by
(14:13):
the Jewish banks, so I need to watch my Mills
instance why people are evil Nazis? So I mean, I
I disagree with both statements, but I get the I
don't like the word evil next to Nazis. I think
we need to look at Oh my goodness, just because
you don't like one group doesn't mean the other. Look,
I love Jewish people, but I also love Nazis. Oh Man, Well,
(14:37):
I have to disagree with that, but listen, we're gonna
go to break. We'll be right back. Kevin Sorbo, who
may or may not have retired as an actor. It's
hard to tell. Writing I may not agree with what
YA said, but he has the right to say it.
That's how free speech works. Yeah, and the society then
also has the right to bury him for saying it,
(14:58):
because that's also how free speech works. Going a little further,
fascist podcast host Stephen Crowder, please enjoy Mr Crowder's attempts
to twist himself into a pretzel in a failed effort
to not repeat the oldest, dumbest trope fallen back on
by every entertainment failure, such as Stephen Crowder. That it's
(15:18):
not a lack of talent on the part of you know,
Stephen Crowder, it is the fault of the you know
who's who run Hollywood. It's not wrong about everything. Look,
is there a conversation to be had about secular hum
humanists with Jewish last names in Hollywood exploiting people in
positions of you know, the performance arts talent. Yeah. Yeah.
(15:41):
And by the way, that happens in the conservative movement too,
behind the scenes, people sign contracts where they don't know
what they're signing. Yeah, that's true. Is there a disproportional,
disproportionate number of people with Jewish last names in higher banking?
That's that's an argument that can be made. Man, is
there a conversation, I mean, you had about that. You're
sure it's not in your demand septim. Is there a
conversation that we had about that? Yeah, yeah, yeah, there is.
(16:05):
Here's the conversation. Hey, Crowder, you're an anti Semite bastard.
Here endeth the conversation. This is Sports Center. Wait, check
(16:29):
that not anymore. This is countdown with Keith in sports.
There have been so many different committees responsible for electing
people to Baseball's Hall of Fame that there is not
even unanimous agreement as to exactly how many there have been.
But one of them at least got it partially right yesterday.
(16:51):
The sixteen member Contemporary Era Committee yesterday voted unanimously to
elect longtime slugger Fred McGriff to the Hall of Fame.
Twelve votes were required for election, and each committee member
could vote for only four of the eight nominees. The
next closest was Don Manningly with eight votes. Kurt Schilling
had seven, Dale Murphy had six. The other four nominees,
(17:13):
including Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, and Raphael Palmeiro, along with
Albert Bell, were dismissed with this announcement fewer than four votes. Well,
the man nicknamed the crime Dog, Fred McGriff slugged for
nine career homers and never had one whiff of steroids
about him. He played for six teams, he had at
least ninety nine homers for three of them, playing mostly
(17:35):
for the Blue Jay's Braves and Rays, all of which
serves to remind some of us that Friday is the
fort anniversary of one of the worst trades in baseball history,
and that that trade just got worse. On December ninth,
the Toronto Blue Jay's traded minor leaguer Tom Dodd and
relief pitcher Dale Murray to the Yankees for outfielder Dave
(17:57):
Collins pitcher Mike Morgan and a minor leaguer who had
to that point played exactly ninety one professional games, the
new Hall of Famer Fred McGriff. Years ago, I was
having dinner with my friend, the late Yankee shortstop and
then architect of their late nineties dynasty Jeans Stick Michael
Stick mentioned that trade. He laughed and said, Lou Pinella
(18:18):
made that deal, and I said, no, that's impossible. Lou
Pinella was still an active player when when they traded McGriff,
and Stick laughed again. He said, yep, and the Blue
Jays were willing to give us Dale Murray and take
Dave Collins is big contract off our hands. And somebody
called George Steinbrenner directly, and instead of calling me or
anybody else who knew, George called his buddy Lou Pinella,
(18:39):
and lu said, George Tail Murray, Tail Murray is one
of the greatest relievers in baseball. Stick laughed again. What
Lou meant, of course, was that Dale Murray always got
Lou out. Almost nobody else just Lou. So Loo told
George do whatever you have to do to get Dale Murray,
do it. So George did it, and at the last
(19:01):
moment that Jay said, we really liked this other kid.
You have McGriff down in a ball, we can you
throw him in? And George said sure, and that stick
Michael told me is how we lost Fred McGriff for
absolutely nothing. You want to pass the roles. Thank you,
(19:37):
Nancy Faust. Speaking of which, in today's game, one of
the best pictures of the last decade, Jacob de Graham
left the New York Mets for a five year, five
million dollar contract with the Texas Rangers. I think they
overpaid by hundred and eighty five million dollars. The problem
is de Gram won back to back Cy Young Awards
in two thousand eighteen and two thousand nineteen and since
(19:59):
has pitched barely half the time. By modern metrics, he
was only the sixth best picture on the Mets last season.
In fact, he was only tied for six on the
Mets last season. But the decision to invest that much
money in de Gram is actually a little worse than
it sounds, or may have occurred to you. Lots of
pictures get hurt, lots of pictures come back, lots of
(20:21):
pictures get better. Even at the age of thirty five,
the age to Graham will reach in June. But almost
all of them who do that do it after they
have had whatever was wrong with them corrected surgically. Each
time de Gram couldn't pitch, the treatment was rest This
may not be a question of how much de Gram
is a health risk ine and beyond maybe a question
(20:44):
of how much Degram is a surgery risk. Texas Rangers
go to New York next August to play the Mets.
As a friend of the podcast joked, wow, just in
time for de Gram's first start of the season. And
a soccer note, the US was knocked out of the
World Cup in Qatar by the Dutch Saturday, three to one.
As one Carl Sharrow roach, this is the first time
(21:08):
in history the US has left the Middle Eastern countries
so quickly. Head Not only did I work for Ted Turner,
but I covered Ted Turner and at the football strike.
While covering Ted Turner and working for Ted Turner, I
nearly decked Ted Turner things I promised not to tell.
(21:31):
Coming up first, the daily roundup of the miscreants, morons
and Donning Kruger effects specimens who constitute today's worst persons
in the The Ron's Points Bet, one of the sports
wagering firms. It started a new thing called Lightning Bets,
so put out a story that went viral that it's spokesman,
former NFL quarterback Drew Brees, had by been hit by
(21:52):
lightning in Venezuela. Then it released a commercial in which
Breeze is seen getting hit by lighting. A group called
Lightning Strike and Electric Shock Survivors International has responded with
justifiable anger. A spokesman said, this is a deadly injury
and it is disappointing to see the continual ridicule of
lightning and electrical Injury Survivors and comical lights in which
(22:14):
it is presented for commercial gain and profit. About twenty
eight Americans a year die from lightning strikes, way more
than say die from terrorism. Imagine a commercial on TV
in which they make a joke about somebody dying in
a terrorist attack while gambling. Runner up Sharon Shannon Epstein,
a passenger on a Spirit Airlines flight from New Orleans
(22:36):
to New Jersey last month. It has now been revealed
that seeing a couple of passengers she perceived to be Latino,
Miss Epstein asked them if they were quote smuggling cocaine.
When the flight crew decided she should not be on board.
She had to be removed, and she was, shall we say, reluctant,
quoting the website nola dot com. In the scuffle, she
(22:57):
injured six deputies, biting one on the arm and breaking
the skin and kicking another in the groin, all the
while telling everybody involved that they would lose their jobs
because her uncle was friends with Trump. Who's your uncle,
former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. And you'd think, if
you're going to throw his name around like that, niece, Karen,
you'd be up to date enough to know that Trump
(23:19):
is no friend of Chris Christie's, but our winner. Speaking
of Rudy Giuliani, you may recall that after the nine
eleven attacks, the arrogant Giuliani we knew before then disappeared briefly,
and the hair painting sputtering conspiracy nuts had yet to appear.
But by September two thousand one, Giuliani was hinting that
(23:42):
it would be dangerous for New York City if he
left office as scheduled on December thirty one, and so
he proposed to the governor of New York State that
he should stay on for a year. As co mayor
with his successor. Turns out it was way worse than that.
Governor George Pataki has a new book coming out, and
he says Giuliani first asked Pataki to overrule the city's
(24:04):
lee Egal term limits so Giuliani could run again for
mayor for a third term six weeks later, and when
he would not do that, Giuliani simply said that Pataki
should just cancel the election. Better than all this, Giuliani
does not deny he wanted one of those outcomes, because,
of course, the first thing you want to do after
the worst terrorist attack in America's history, which your own
(24:26):
political party has already billed as the attack on democracy,
is to, you know, cancel an election. Rudy Uh, I
had two good weeks, Giuliani Today's worst person and to
(24:58):
the number one story on the countdown and my favorite topic,
me and things I promised not to tell then before
the anniversary of this event recedes into the forgotten past,
I have one more story to tell you about covering
the nine eight two National Football League players strike, and
this is less about the strike itself and more about
the man for whom I covered it, Ted Turner. Ted
(25:21):
Turner had put CNN on the air just two years earlier,
and his sports guy Bill McPhail had interviewed me for
a job as their New York sports reporter even earlier
than that May of nineteen eighty, And when I did
not get it, I was genuinely relieved, because I was
convinced there was no way they would ever get CNN
on the air, no chance. Ever. Obviously I did not
(25:42):
account for Ted Turner's stubbornness. Anyway, I wound up going
their freelance. In one is I have related in some
detail here when Lou Dobbs and his girlfriend, the New
York Sports reporter had to get out of town fast
at the existence of Mrs Lou Dobbs. Eight months later,
as the two NFL strike loomed, they had made me
(26:02):
staff and given me a contract, first offering me a
thousand dollars less a year than they were paying me
freelance even c an end of nineteen eighty to acknowledge
the absurdity of that mathematical proposition. So I was infested
already whining about Ted Turner, employee of CNN, when the
football players walked out in strike in September two and
that strike was my beat every day from March to November.
(26:26):
A day or so after the strike began, we sent
up an interview with the president of CBS Sports, Neil Pilson,
about the effect that the strike would have on TV
Sports in general and CBS Sports in particular, And as
the camera crew and I filed into his office, Pilson
wearily said, nothing against you, guys, but I've done so
many interviews already about this strike that if you actually
(26:48):
come up with a question I haven't been asked already,
I'll give you. Well. We all leaned in towards him.
Give us what the job, a job interview at least
fifty dollars, I'll give you CBS Sports caps man, not
exactly a job at better than HM. So we rolled
tape and I said, so, Mr Pilson, in light of
(27:08):
the strike, do you wish CBS Sports did not have
the Super Bowl this year? As it does? And he laughed,
and he took off his mic and he went over
to his office phone. He buzzed his assistant, bring in
three caps, will you? And he sat back down. He said,
you guys, did it. Nobody asked me that yet. And
it's like the only question that really interests me, You're
still rolling. Neil Pilson then proceeded to give a lengthy
(27:31):
and thoughtful answer about how as long as the season
was not canceled, it was probably better to have the
next Super Bowl because people would be so grateful that
after the strike they wound up playing it anyway. So
now a week goes by after that interview, and the
bargaining sessions between the players and the owners are taking
place in a Manhattan hotel, the Lows on Lexington Avenue,
(27:54):
a dump with a nice lobby. All that matters to
me is the Lows with the dump and the nice
lobby is literally three blocks from my apartment. The players
and the owner has just marched through a long hallway
into private rooms. That's all we see of them. It
is not heavy lifting. There are nice seats at least
in that lobby. But it is enlivened one day by
(28:15):
news that our boss, Ted Turner has asked the union
if he can come in and meet with their twenty
odd player negotiating team because he wants to pitch them
on something. He was in fact do there yesterday but
was unavoidably detained. The rumor the players told me. Never
confirmed was that while changing planes in Chicago, Turner and
(28:36):
an air hostess had ensconced themselves in a dumpster or
the other version was in a janitor's closet for twelve
hours of whoopee, and that's why he was a day late. Anyway,
I'll walk into the Lows that morning and if somehow
I had not been able to recognize my camera crew,
sure enough, it is the same two guys who have
(28:58):
been with me at Neil Pilson's office at CBS when
I asked him the question. He had not been asked before.
Earning us free CBS for its caps, and the cameraman
and the deck operator are, of course wearing their CBS
sports caps. And understand in two CNN was not an upstart.
It was not the feisty outsider, It was not the
future of news. We were called pretend TV. It was
(29:23):
said that CNN stood for Chicken Noodle News. One day,
I called somebody up and asked for press credentials for
Cable News Network and the guy said, Cable News Network
are either people own the news stands downtown. I had
no idea what he was talking about, so I went
to one of the news stands, and I asked the
guy who owns this place? And he pointed to a
(29:43):
plaque and it said owned by Cabell News Company. The
Cabell News Company, owner of downtown news stands, was better
known than Cable News Network. We got scoffed at in
some arenas and venues like Madison Square Garden in New York.
Our crews were not admitted because they were not in
the Union. So the CBS sports camps were an important,
(30:06):
albeit borrowed touch of legitimacy and dignity, especially for my
cameraman and my deck guy. So the three of us
position ourselves in that long haul in the lobby waiting
for my boss, Ted Turner, me holding the mic with
the big red CNN logo on the mic flag, and
the crew wearing their gaudy CBS sports caps and in
(30:27):
Ted walks emerging from the brilliant early autumn sunshine, filtering
in from behind him from the street like this was
a perfectly lit movie scene. And he sees me and
recognized me and smiles and comes over and beams hot, damn,
it's the CNN crew. And he shakes my hand and
we roll tape and I start to asking my first question,
(30:47):
and suddenly the joy drains from his face and he
stops me. What they wearing on their heads? He gestures
at the cameraman and the deck guy, and I explained
the BACKSTA. I don't give a damn who gave him them.
This is the CNN crew. They wait in CBS sports caps.
Get them off, they damn, and he pushes me, I
mean really shoves me and sprides past us. Now, even then,
(31:12):
I'm five six inches taller than Ted Turner and twenty
pounds heavier at least, and maybe I can live with
my employer embarrassing me in public, but I do not
have to let him shove me in front of all
the other reporters. So for a second, I think I'm
just gonna run down the hall and catch him and
horse collar the bastard from behind. About a year into
(31:34):
my TV career, I have already accepted that there are
positives to television, but I've also already learned nearly all
the negatives. And not three months earlier, I had gone
over to ABC to interview with them about going back
to do radio. Sports. Seems to me, given what I
know about Ted Turner, dragging him to the ground, and
then quitting TV forever would be a pretty appropriate farewell.
(31:56):
And then one word popped in my head, rent all right,
right right, And so quickly I go to Plan B
to be fair in thought, if not an action, Ted
Turner was right, look pretty silly to have the CNN
camera crew wearing CBS sports caps while interviewing the founder
(32:19):
and owner of CNN, who by the way, was in
the newspaper constantly because he kept saying he was gonna
buy CBS. Plus, I still had a story to do
that day, and that crew was gonna have to go
back into the room where Turner would be meeting with
the players about an hour later for the proverbial spray
shot that would give us some video to use of
their meeting. And simply having my guys take their caps
(32:41):
off was not going to suffice. So I ran the
three blocks back to my apartment to grab the only
bit of merch or swag produced in the first two
years of CNN, something they had and apparently inexhaustible supply
of CNN bumper stickers. I must have had a hundred
of them in my place alone, and there were boxes
and cartons and boxes and cartons of them in the
(33:03):
New York Bureau, which was funny enough as it was,
since I don't think all the people who worked at
CNN in New York in two owned six cars among them. Anyway,
I trimmed a couple of the stickers down to just
the CNN logos and raced back to the Crappy Lows Hotel,
and just as they were calling for the cruise to
come in to get the spray shots of Ted meeting
(33:25):
with the players, I put those CNN logo stickers over
the CBS logos on my guys caps, and to my delight,
they stuck in place a little large, but it worked.
Minutes later, the boys came out of the meeting room
and the cameraman was in hysterics. He wound the video
back and had me watch it through the viewfinder of
the camera. As soon as they had walked in, Turner
(33:48):
started to give them dirty looks, and then suddenly one
of the NFL players said, Hey, Ted, there's your crew.
There's your CNN crew. Hey see it n over here.
Everybody was laughing, and now Ted was beaming that them.
That's my crew, all right, good work. Boys. When his
meeting with the players broke up. An hour later, I
got a message from Ted's assistant to wait for him
(34:11):
around a corner from the main lobby so he could
give me give CNN exclusive details about what he was
trying to sell the players on. It was a series
of exhibition games so the striking players could make a
little money on the side that he could televise and
there would be a pitch to the National Labor Relations
Board that the strike had been forced on the players
(34:31):
by the owners, which would have meant the players would
have all become free agents. Ted wanted them, all of them,
every player in the National Football League, to sign instead
with him. He would create a twenty four team league.
He would give the Union half ownership of every team,
he would find backers for the other half, and all
he wanted was the TV rights. It didn't happen, obviously,
(34:55):
but what a breathtaking scheme. Anyway. Turner was all smiles
when he came out of the meeting to tell me
before he met with the rest of the press, and
he said, great with the a good work, but I
have to get you guys some real you'll see it
ed sports aspect Christmas. Ted stayed another fifteen or twenty
minutes doing god knows what with God knows whom. I
didn't see any dumpsters in the hotel, and then he
(35:17):
left by the main exit as the rest of the
camera crews and reporters trailed him. I went along just
to see if there was anything he hadn't told me.
And as he went out the doors to his car,
he said, seem and I said, don't forget the hats,
and Ted Turner gave me one of the dirtiest looks
I have ever gotten in my life. Sure enough, a
(35:39):
couple of days before Christmas, I get a call from
my boss in Atlanta. Just got in a box of
a hundred CNN Sports Truckers caps from Ted Turner's office.
I don't know what the hell this is all about,
but his assistant says, if we wanted to know, we
should call you. I was very proud of making the
correct choice between correcting mistake and getting us all hats
(36:01):
and assaulting him. There is one PostScript. Ted talked the
players into the exhibition games. I mentioned only two of them,
one at RFK Stadium in Washington, which I went to
on assignment. Seated next to Ted Turner, he had two
flasks with him. Anyway. The crowd was so small at
(36:22):
RFK Stadium in Washington that at one point they got
on the p A system and ask all the fans
to go sit down behind the player benches so the
TV shots of the game wouldn't show all those empty seats.
The other game was in the Los Angeles Coliseum. They
drew even less, maybe a thousand fans, probably more like
five hundred, five hundred fans in the l A Colosseum.
(36:45):
Five hundred fans looks like the raisins and rice pudding.
But it was the name of his ad hoc league
with these games in Washington and l A that still
sticks with me forty years later. Ted named it himself.
I'm pretty sure he did this deliberately. I know nobody
else noticed it until I may a big deal about it.
(37:06):
Ted Turner called his ill fated venture his ursat's National
Football League the quote all Star Season, and I said, perfect.
The acronym you have built for it is a s S.
(37:36):
I've done all the damage I can do here. Thank
you for listening. If you're not following or subscribed to
the podcast, please do so. If you can stop somebody
on the Street get them to subscribe to I'd appreciate it.
Here are the credits. Most of the music, including our
theme from Beethoven's Ninth, was arranged, produced, and performed by
Brian Ray and John Philip Schanelle. They are the Countdown
musical directors. All orchestration and keyboards by John Philip Chanelle, guitars,
(37:58):
bass and drums by Brian Ray, produced by T K
O Brothers. Other Beethoven selections have been arranged down performed
by No Horns allowed. The sports music is the Olderman
theme from me ESPN two and it was written by
Mitch Warren Davis courtesy of ESPN, Inc. Musical comments by
Nancy Faust. The best baseball stadium organist ever. Our announcer
today was Stevie van Zant, and everything else is pretty
(38:21):
much my fault. So that's countdown for this the six
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 addition tomorrow Until then on
Keith Alderman. Good Morning, good afternoon, goodnight, and good luck.
(38:49):
Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of I Heart
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Keith Olbermann
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