January 26, 2023 • 40 mins
EPISODE 120: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN
A-Block (1:42) SPECIAL COMMENT: We must act now against The New McCarthyism, or lose the Republic. With Trump restored to Facebook, dispatching Coke Jr and recording a video sending KEVIN McCarthy instructions for this insidious "Weaponization Subcommittee," the Democrats must literally counter-program. The Senate must crowd the Jim Jordan Star Chamber off the public stage by holding its own hearings (the suppression of the Mueller Report; the actions of just-arrested FBI agent and now Russian oligarch advisor Charles McGonigal in the infamous Comey Letter of October 2016; anything will do). Trump smells the opportunity to turn truth into falsehood, and falsehood into truth. We must stop him and The New McCarthyism - and damn fast.
B-Block (15:25) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Huggin, in New York (16:21) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Sapphire's successor is finally on the way; the man behind audience participation at "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" has passed; and a bad day for Joe Rogan and Fred Roggin (20:14)THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: HOW many people watched baseball's Hall of Fame announcement on the network it owns? Marge can see her reflection in a mirror. And the RWNJ who thinks Damar Hamlin didn't recover from his cardiac arrest and is actually dead and the vaccine killed him - because some people are just insensitive morons.
C-Block (25:50) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: With the Republicans now offering to place one of their presidential primary debates on CNN or MSNBC, time to recall the day they starkly told Tom Brokaw what HE had to do if they really expected John McCain to show up to the debate Brokaw would moderate in his swan song for NBC News: get me fired.
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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.
We must act now against the new McCarthy ism or
(00:25):
lose the Republic. We need something, almost anything that will
pick up where the January six Committee left off. Hearings, television, witnesses, subpoenas, admissions, admonitions.
The Senate would be the best venue. The focus can
nominally be on the gas lighting of the Mueller Report
and the true story of Trump's conspiracy with Russia. The focus,
(00:48):
in fact, must be to kill the new McCarthy ism
in its nest, the new McCarthy ism. Literally that the
new Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy, who had already promised, warned, hinted, signaled, announced,
and now confirmed he is forming a subcommittee dedicating it
(01:09):
to gas lighting on behalf of Trump and whitewashing his
sedition and treason, and aiming that subcommittee at those who
have fought back in government and outside of it, particularly
at the January six Committee, at the good people in
the FBI, at the good people in the Department of Justice,
the Select Subcommittee on Weaponization of the Federal Government. It
(01:34):
is idiocy and slander in car load lots naturally Kevin
McCarthy is a slanderous political whore and an idiot. Then again,
so was Joe McCarthy. You do not have to be
a genius to do what the first McCarthy did, just
a scheming crook. And if they want a scheming crook
(01:55):
who is not a genius, they have found their man
in the second McCarthy. The urgency to act now against
new McCarthy ism has doubled just since Monday of this
week because of three developments largely buried under the blissfully
stupid amusements provided by George Santos, the Biden documents de
(02:16):
pense documents that Jimmy Carter documents, to say nothing, of course,
of the Eminem's. The first development obviously nobody being able
to talk the fascists out of trying to commander political
discourse in this country till further notice with their version
of the House on American Activities Committee and the Blacklist
and the Reign of Terror of the early fifties and
(02:38):
populating this rogues gallery with Jim Jordan's, darryl Isa Thomas Massey,
Chris Stewart, Mike Johnson, Chip Roy, Kelly Armstrong, Greg Steuby,
Dan Bishop, Catchmick Harriet Hageman, and worst of all, the
(02:59):
scum of the earth Elise Stephanic. The second development necessitating
urgency of action Monday's arrestive Charles McGonagall, the former head
of FBI Counterintelligence in New York, to whom I devoted
the entirety of yesterday's countdown, the former head of the
earliest investigation into Trump and Russia, one of those near
(03:21):
the top of the New York Field Office when it
went rogue and led to the infamous Combe announcement the
October Surprise of two thousand sixteen, and the follow up
anonymous quote clearing unquote of Trump just three days after that,
the re smearing of Hillary Clinton over nothing, the specific
and targeted and criminal and successful attempt to throw the
(03:45):
election to Trump. McGonagall faces seventy five years in jail,
mostly for working illicitly for the very Russian oligarchy was
supposed to be investigating just seven years ago. If ever
a defendant was suitable for breaking, for giving up the
whole corrupt mess on the twenty third floor of Federal Plaza,
(04:07):
for putting those who tampered with our elections on behalf
of Trump and maybe on behalf of much worse. If
anybody is ready to flip, it is Charles flipping McGonagall.
And now the third development was Trump's revenge porn video
and his reinstatement to Facebook, both yesterday. Usually there is
(04:30):
very little reason to bother to listen to what he says.
It is always the same sing song self pity, the
same bleatings of the kind of psychotic narcissist who is
the stupid person's idea of a smart person. But in
the new McCarthy is m of the weaponization subcommittee. Trump
smells blood, sees perhaps his best chance since the appointment
(04:52):
of William Barr, to turn truth into falsehood and falsehood
into truth, to point at the FBI and shout unclean,
that those who are in fact noble, and to raise
up those who have sold their souls. Because, of course,
the bitterest irony of Joe McCarthy and the Blacklist was
that freedom was in peril because of the government of
(05:16):
nineteen fifty. It was imperil because of Joe McCarthy. He
was the peril. And thus the bitterest irony of the
new McCarthy ism is that government of today has been weaponized,
and it was weaponized by and for Trump, And the
very act of forming this subcommittee full of the most
antidemocracy members of Congress is the new weaponization is the
(05:38):
new danger is what needs investigation and purging. And so
the chip Roys and Jim Jordan's and Donald Trump's and
the new McCarthy ism will brand good evil and evil good,
and we must stop them. And the easiest way to
stop them is merely two compete with them, crowd them
(06:00):
off the bandstand. The goal of a Senate committee to
investigate anything does not have to be convictions, nor legislation,
nor existential truth. It just needs to neutralize, to offset,
to cancel out the show trials of the new McCarthy
is m There is usually little value in listening to
(06:24):
Trump's verbal diarrhea and his astonishing imbecility. There is something, though,
in this clip from his video. This is what we
must for want of a more sober term counter program.
Here's just a few of the questions the committee hopefully
(06:44):
will be asking who in the Maller team was in
charge of leaking secret information and fake news stories to
dishonest journalists, of which you are many to perpetrate the
Russia hooks, and that's what it was turned out. It
was the total hooks. It was all misinformation, It was
all horrible thing. Doug was given to the people of
(07:06):
our country illegally. A great story, scumbag. Wait, that was
the best take what an illiterate monkey Trump really is.
But these are his orders to Kevin McCarthy. And as
we heard the night, McCarthy sold whatever that is that
he has instead of a soul to get the Speaker's gavel,
(07:29):
McCarthy has horde himself anew fully and without remorse to Trump.
He will do the devil's bidding and pretend it is
God's work. It is not coincidental. Trump issued this video
yesterday telling McCarthy what to do on the new subcommittee.
Trump also sent Trump Junior to Washington yesterday to meet
with McCarthy and do a podcast with him, a Donald
(07:52):
Cokey Trump Junior Kevin McCarthy podcast, or the Irresistible Farce
meets the Immovable Objectionable. All right back to the point
in that video. Trump also publicly designated a new target,
not for him, but new for this subcommittee, his cherished
(08:12):
dream of punishing the media that does not applaud him
of censoring and controlling what America reads and sees, of
avenging those who told the truth and rewarding those who
poisoned the nation with conspiracy theories. Now stands outlined and
tangible in front of him, and it is the new
(08:33):
McCarthy is a fake press and a corrupt press, and
by corrupt politicians today. The fake Seale dossier was first
published because they knew it was fake, and they knew
that sometimes there'd be a guy like Trump that wants
to go after them. How many fake news journalists been
paid or compensated by US government agencies directly or indirectly
(08:57):
for their all and spreading domestic disinformation like the FBI
did with Twitter in that was the best take. These
are the facts Donald Trump conspired with Russia to tamper
with the two thousand sixteen presidential election. Elements of the
FBI and other parts of the government of that year
(09:20):
were indeed weaponized on his behalf to distort and thwart
the same vote. And when the nation rejected Trump and
recommitted itself to democracy on January, Trump attempted a full
scale coup deata. And we Trump haters do we hate Trump?
(09:43):
You bet? Your ass as our ancestors hated and fought
and defeated Hitler. Do we have Trump derangement syndrome? Yes?
Trump is deranged. It is a syndrome he has spread
to the gullible and the hateful, and we must stop it,
reverse it, cure those who can be cured, and prevent
(10:06):
those who cannot from sabotaging freedom in this country. And
all we need here is a choice of viewing an
alternate feed to vy for the lead slots in the
daily newscasts and the places above the fold in the
newspapers and in the upper left hand corner and the
top of the feeds online, because we do not have
(10:29):
to defeat and erase and stop the new McCarthy is M.
You can't stop the new McCarthy is M. You can
only hope to contain it. Wait, why in the hell
does that sound so familiar? Hang on my phone's ringing
(11:00):
at Stan Patrick? Still ahead. Finally something good comes of
the wasted life of George Santos. That Navy veteran from
New Jersey will be getting a new service dog and
lifetime care for that dog. Worse persons, just when you
thought they couldn't get dumber or meaner. The newest conspiracy
theory is not that Damar Hamlet of the Buffalo Bills
(11:21):
collapsed because of the COVID vaccine, but that he actually
died from it. And this whole story of his recovery
is I don't know. Let's ask jfk Jr. When he
comes back from the dead. And I mentioned it the
other day, the Republicans willingness to put some of their
presidential primary debates on CNN or NBC if the price
is right, Let's explore what the price was at NBC
(11:45):
in two thousand and eight. The price was my head,
and how Tom Brokaw was willing to cut it off
for them just so he could moderate a debate one
more time. Things I promised not to tell. That's next
this discountdown see just countdown with Keith still ahead on countdown?
(12:11):
Is Damar Hamlin really alive? Are any of us really alive?
Is the guy asking if Damar Hamlin is alive? Really alive?
The worst persons coming up? Plus, if NBC is really
going to tell buys a Republican presidential primary debate, they
better get ready to fire somebody the Republicans don't like.
(12:32):
But first. In each edition of Countdown, we feature a
dog in need you can help. Every dog has its
day two hugging. Hugging is at the New York Pound
and there is another massacre going on. Their five dogs
killed this week alone. They will kill him as early
as today. He's got all the targets on him. He's
a sixty two pound dog. He's mixed breed, has a
(12:54):
black coat, and even though he was dumped by a
human who just showed up and left without saying a
word about him, he's gentle and respectful and okay with
other dogs. He's nervous. He has reason to be. When
you can pledge to help defray the costs of a
rescue to save him, you can find him on my
twitter feed. Your retweets can also help him. I thank
(13:16):
you and Hugging Thanks you. FOK. Scripts to the news
some headlines, some thoughts, some snarks, some predictions. Dateline, Port, Washington,
(13:36):
New York. You will recall the sad story of Sapphire,
the service dog of disabled and at that time homeless
Navy that Rich Austof When Sapphire needed surgery to remove
a tumor, Astov was introduced to Congressman George Santos. This
was in two thousand sixteen, and told that Santos was
somebody who could raise the money for the poor dog. Well,
(13:58):
he raised it all right by a go fund me,
and then he would not give aust Off the money
and Sapphire died. After the story, reported by the hyperlocal
Patch news site, got widespread attention, New York's North Shore
Animal League offered as off a new service dog and
lifetime veterinary care for him or her. On the other hand,
(14:21):
video is now serviced of Santos claiming he was mugged
in the middle of Fifth Avenue at some point last
year and they stole his shoes and also there was
an assassination attempt. Next, I'm expecting George Santos to explain
that he can travel through time Date Line, New York.
You and I may think we know the most popular
(14:41):
movie of all time, and we're wrong. The only answer
is the Rocky Horror Picture Show. It is still shown
weekly around the country around the world, and fans get
up and perform along with it in costume, saying the
dialogue acting out, the plot twists, and the man who
started all that has passed away. In al Piro went
(15:05):
to see the Tim Curry Susan Sarandon film, which was
a bomb at that point, at the Waverley Theater. Here
he started to talk back to the characters, and soon
people were showing up to hear him talk back to
the characters, and that evolved into fan participation in the film,
and that evolved into the Rocky Horror Picture Show Fan Club,
which he founded in nineteen seventy seven and of which
(15:28):
he remained president to look until his death. Last Saturday,
Salve Piro was seventy one and dateline Hollywood Oops, Bad
Week if You're named Rogan, the chief content officer of Spotify,
the one who brought Joe Rogan's podcast to that site
for tens of millions of dollars down Ostroff fired and
Fred Rogan different spelling sportscaster at KNBC Los Angeles since
(15:51):
night is leaving the television station. Rogan projected a nice
kid next door persona But when I was his rival
at k CBS TV there, I made a joke about
him on the air and he promptly called me at
my office and said he had tapes of everything I
had ever said about him, and he was going to
kill me. I used to work with his former fiance
(16:13):
and one day she took me aside and said she
needed to talk to somebody who understood what he was
really like. As she did, she said she had decided
to marry somebody else, and as I congratulated her on that,
she said she had wanted Fred to hear it from
her directly rather than from anybody else. She said he
seemed to take her call well, but that same evening
(16:34):
Fred had called her back from his car phone and
announced he had just gotten married. I'm also reminded that
when k CBS did not renew my contract at the
end of nine, the TV sports writer of the Los
Angeles Times wrote that two would be the year I
would sink into obscurity and the year that Fred Rogan
(16:55):
would gain national TV prominence because of his news syndicated
talk show Fred and Arthel for already three years doing
exactly the same thing. Wow, all the best on your retirement, Freddie.
(17:22):
Thank you, Nancy Faust. Now to the daily roundup of
the miscrants, morons, and Dunning Krueger effect specimens who constitute
today's worst persons in the world. Lebrons, Baseball's MLB Network,
(17:46):
there are bad TV ratings, and then there are impossible
to believe TV ratings. Baseball keeps its announcement of who
has been elected to its Hall of Fame to itself,
almost as if it is a secret. It televises these
announcements live on its own network, MLB Network, at like
sixty five PM on a weekday evening. Even with that
(18:10):
bad planning taken into account, this is mind boggling. When
the former All Star third Basement Scott Roland, became the
only player elected by the writers and it was announced
on Tuesday at like six the live announcement was seen
by for the TV ratings expert and executive VP at
Fox Sports, Mike mulbile Hill. It was seen by thirty
(18:32):
five thousand viewers nationwide. Thirty five thousand, or what we
on this Measly podcast would call a really bad day
for us. Here on the podcast five thousand, the runner
up Marjorie Trailer park Green, Steve Bannon is quoted as
(18:54):
saying Midge thinks she's going to be Trump's running mate
next year. That's why Bannon says, she's trying to rebrand
herself as acceptable to the main stream Republicans. Wait, why wait,
why would rebranding herself as acceptable to mainstream Republicans help
her get picked by Trump? When MTG looks in the mirror,
(19:15):
NBC quotes Bannon is saying, she sees a potential presidential
president smiling back. She sees a potential president smiling back. Well,
this is breaking news. Her image is visible in a mirror.
But our winner. There are fascist morons, and there are
fascist conspiracy addicts, but it takes a special one to
(19:36):
be a fascist moron conspiracy addict. Such a man is
Stu Peter's is one of those died suddenly clowns who
claims everybody who has died in the last couple of
years who's killed by the COVID vaccine everybody, because apparently
the plan is for people who believe in science and
reality and liberals to kill all the people who believe
(19:59):
in science and reality and liberalism were something nobody's explained.
End game here anyway. Peters has now topped himself two
tweets yesterday about the Buffalo Bills player tomar Hamlin, who collapse,
got immediate CPR and recovered from cardiac arrest, quoting Peters,
I still have not seen proof Tomorrow Hamlin is alive
(20:21):
since he collapsed. What kind of proof? Ah, that's what
tweet number two is about. All Tamar Hamlin has to
do is get on social media, cut a video and
put an end to the speculation. What speculation? I want
to see video of Damar Hamlin holding today's newspaper with
the date visible. Then this guy Peters, who should check
(20:43):
he may actually be brain dead, insults Tomorrow Hamlin, who
he says is dead. Quote what a great opportunity to
thank his supporters for the ten million they gave his charity.
Now here's my demand, Mr Peters. All you have to
do is get on social media, cut a video holding
today's newspaper with the date visible, alongside a copy of
(21:04):
your scan, and then I'll believe you have a functioning brain.
Stuve Peters, who has a website with his name printed
as just one word, so it also reads stupid ers
two Day's worst person and w Finally, our number one
(21:35):
story on the countdown in my favorite topic me I
missed the exact anniversary by day, but it's close enough.
The demand for spots in the Shay Stadium press box
that night was so great that there was a signed seating.
I had no real reason to be there, but as usual,
the New York Mets took care of me, and so
on Friday, the fifth of September, two thight, I was
(21:56):
shoulder to shoulder with reporter friends watching the Mets begin
to blow their three game Pennant race lead against the
Philadelphia Philly Sorry, that's fans were bringing this up again.
Brett Myers had just struck out New York's David Wright
looking when my phone rang. It was my agent, Jane Sage.
They just called. She said, flatly, you and Matthews have
(22:17):
been fired from anchoring the presidential debates because of what
you said. What I had said had been said. Three
nights previously, Chris Matthews and I were co anchoring the
Republican Convention on MSNBC. I was in the studios in
New York, ostensibly so I could also anchor hurricane coverage,
although it was pretty clear that at least half the
(22:37):
reason I was not in Minneapolis was because the Republicans
had threatened NBC or said they couldn't guarantee my safety
or something like that, and NBC folded. So I was
the one during MSNBC's coverage of the two thousand eight
Republican Convention. Who had to throw it to a video
they were introducing that we had been told by the
(22:58):
Republicans was a quote tribute to the dead of nine eleven.
It was, in fact a enough film. All of the
images that all of the networks had stopped showing within
weeks or even days of the attacks. All of those
images were in this video. People jumping and falling to
their deaths from the World Trade Center on nine eleven,
(23:20):
endless replays of the planes hitting the towers, dismembered bodies
in the plaza, the building collapses, the equally terrifying scenes
at the Pentagon, and all with a grotesque Robert Davy
voiceover emphasizing that this was all the Democrats fault. The
message was simple, elect Obama and you will die like this.
(23:44):
I was angry just on that base level, or the
five and a half years I had been back at MSNBC.
We had been rigorous about not showing any of that video.
There were rules that if we had to for some reason,
we should show only the skill images, and even then
only with extensive warnings to the viewers. But I knew
from my conversations with the president of msnb C, Phil Griffin,
(24:05):
who had only known for twenty eight years at that point,
that he would insist that on the scene in Minneapolis,
Matthews and Tom Brokaw, whose career at NBC I had
resurrected after Brian Williams had buried him alive two years earlier,
that one or both of them would rebuke the GOP
for showing not a nine eleven tribute, but, as I
just said, a nine eleven snuff film. The video ended,
(24:28):
and we came out to Brokaw with Matthews and Brokaw
kind of coughed, and Matthews said wow. And he turned
to Brokaw and said, in that loose fire hose delivery
of his Tom, the kind of underscoring terrorism big thing
Republican says they triestop Obama. Brokaw droned on approvingly the
(24:50):
Republicans sneaking a snuff film a band video onto MSNBC
and by the way, also onto CNN, onto NBC, onto CBS,
onto ABC without any warning. That was not mentioned by
Brokaw or Matthews. Back to New York and Keith I
was supposed to add Liberties about what we were expecting
from the Republican convention for the rest of the night,
(25:12):
and then throw to a commercial instead, I said, and
this is a paraphrase. The original tape disappeared that night
that before we moved on, I felt I needed to
apologize that we at MSNBC and for that matter, NBC News,
had extremely strict rules about not showing that video. The
Republicans had just shown you without any warning, without any context,
(25:33):
and we certainly would not have shown the horror and
death and blamed it on the Democrats, or for that matter,
blamed it on the Republicans. I said, if we had
done such a thing ourselves, there would have been people
fired at NBC News. The public program the GOP provided
said that was going to be a nine eleven tribute film,
I said, and so did the private conversations with the network,
(25:53):
which included the reminder from NBC and MSNBC that we
had rules against showing the scenes of the horrible death
and mutilation and destruction. So I apologized on behalf of
whoever trusted the Republicans to live up to their word,
that MSNBC viewers were forced to see the video. Our
network had long before vowed never to show again. So
(26:14):
three nights later, without as much as an email, this
Griffin guy had called my agent and told her I
was fired Matthews two from our further coverage of the
upcoming McGain Obama debates. She related these details to me
as I walked down the many ramps in the back
of Shasee Stadium towards the subway. I told her to
(26:35):
call Griffin back and tell him I had quit on
the spot right then and he could work his way
out of the ensuing disaster. Liberal network MSNBC fires liberal
host l Werman for criticizing conservatives for sneaking nine eleven
snuff film onto MSNBC. He could figure that out any
way he wanted, and he could hear my response on
I don't know, Good Morning America, CBS, This Morning, the
(26:56):
PBS News Hour, and any other news program that bothered
to ask me to stop by and talk. I phoned
my of in girlfriend, Katie turn told her I was
on my way home, and I made a few phone
calls to friendly voices within the NBC management structure and
got from them a clear picture of what had happened.
And despite the spotty cell service along the elevated line.
(27:17):
Heading back to Manhattan. I got a message from a
newspaper reporter friend who neatly tied together all that I
was hearing elsewhere. Tom Brokaw is going around NBC saying
he got you fired from the debates because the Republicans
told him to. Nine maybe ten months earlier, Phil Griffin
had come to me and asked me if I would
(27:38):
be okay with this guy who had been kind of
disappeared by the network. Tom Brokeaw was his name appearing
during our weekly coverage of the Democratic and Republican primaries.
Just a couple of minutes, like from a perspective desk,
that's all he wants to do. He's really Tom's really unhappy.
Brian has frozen amount of everything Brian Williams. Of course,
(28:01):
I was appalled, but not surprised. The hour had gone
to Brian's head, and of course there it had not
met much resistance. Plus, as I said to Griffin, you're
asking me if I'd like to add Tom Broke cause
experience and Tom Broke caused gravitas two stuff I'm anchoring
when I'm not sure I know as much as I
really need to know to do this right, you're asking
(28:23):
me this. Tom fit in beautifully, and twice after those
long Tuesday evenings in the primary season, he sent me
brief emails awarding me what he called the game ball,
because he was so impressed by my ability to balance
the roles at political anchor and political commentator, having tried
this myself. One of them read, I know what a perilous, tight,
(28:45):
ruthless is. Game ball to Caro, I'm mocking him now,
but these meant so much to me. I printed the
emails out and carried them in my wallet. And now
he was claiming he had gotten me fired because, as
my newspaper friends said, the Republicans told him to. That
was not hard to unpack either. Tim Russers had died
(29:08):
on June three of that year. I anchored that night
until two in the morning. It was still an open wound,
there were still tears. We didn't know it then, but
the structure of NBC News and the perilous tight group
balancing NBC and MSNBC had died with Tim Russers. So
did the role of moderator of the second debate between
John McCain and Barack Obama, scheduled for about a month
(29:31):
after my subway ride on October seven in Nashville. Tim
had not even been buried yet when Brokaw began to
angle to get that assignment, along with brushing away the
dirt of his petty anti role on the MSNBC Prospective Desk.
We never saw him again in order that he could
take Tim's spot as Brian Williams sidekick on Big NBC.
(29:52):
The month before August, there was a story coming out
of the east end of the third floor at thirty Rock,
where NBC News management sat around not doing much of
anything that a Republican goon named Ed Gillespie had been
in there with Griffin and the NBC News president, Steve Cappus,
trying to get me silenced or fired or off the
convention coverage or something, and that somebody prominent within NBC
(30:15):
News was in there with Gillespie or was invoked by Gillespie.
The rumor mill wasn't certain. As I switched from the
elevated seven train to the underground f train. The whole
thing came together before my comments about the GOP Convention
nine eleven snuff film, Ed Gillespie had come in and
had somehow vaguely threatened Cappus and Griffin about me using
(30:38):
as leverage the debate which Tom Brokaw was now supposed
to moderate, and when I apologized for their video on
our air, Gillespie must have turned it into an either
or get rid of me or McCain would refuse to
participate in any debate moderated by Brokaw or anybody from
NBC News. And Brokaw had already come back from the
(31:01):
dead once in two thousand eight, and he would be
damn him if he would be forced to do it
a second time. But as the train took me home
to an apartment, I was now going to have to
sell since I had just quit MSNBC on the spot
for folding to such obvious Republican blackmail, something else now
occurred to me. Why would MSNBC or NBC or our
(31:23):
parent corporation at the time, ge actually think that they
could remove me from the debate coverage on MSNBC, where
the Rachel Meadows Show had yet to be born, and
the three times a night my show ran accounted for
something like six of the entire day's network audience, and
do that without getting a really bad reaction from our audience. Plus,
(31:46):
if a newspaperman already knew the Brokaw part. How could
this story be avoided? MSNBC announced it had removed its
liberal star Keith all Reman from coverage of the McCain
Obama presidential debates. Sources confirmed former NBC News anchorman Tom Brokaw,
now an MSNBC commentator on Alderman's coverage, had helped a
(32:08):
Republican party to blackmail NBC into the decision. Alderman immediately resigned, saying,
quote in succumbing to this coercion on behalf of John McCain,
NBC has now forfeited any right to further be called
a news organization. And I'm sad to say MSNBC, which
I built, is now dead. My god, MSNBC and NBC
(32:29):
News for that matter, would have committed corporate suicide before
the weekend was over. At that point, it dawned on
me that the only thing that could save the credibility
of the whole news division and the careers of Griffin
and Cappus and NBC Network President Jeff Zucker, and especially
the career of Tom Brokaw was for me to publicly
(32:49):
state that I had asked to be removed from anchoring
the debates because the whatever was just too much blah
blah blah for me, and I felt I should stick
to the post debate analysis and commentary. NBC would now
I'm a choice. They could fire me from the debates
and destroy everything, including the hundred million dollars a year
(33:10):
or so in profit that NBC made off MSNBC, or
I could you know why and claim it was my
idea and save everybody's ass, including my own. I got
out of the subway and raced home. Katie met me
at the door with a big hug. She had been crying. Relax,
I said, I'm not quitting. In fact, I'm going to
(33:31):
get a huge raise. Now listen carefully. I called my
agent and I explained the idea that had lit over
my head on the subway like a lightbulb to both
of them. I said, you call Phil Griffin back and
explained to him that I will personally save his job
and Steve Campuses and Jeff Suckers and Tom broke Aus
and everybody else's. I'll take the fall instead of letting
(33:55):
them all get fired by the MSNBC audience. I'll say
this was my idea, and all it will cost phil
Is twelve million in dollars, and he has to leak
the term so everybody knows it costs him twelve million dollars.
And she paused for a second and said, it's genius.
It might not quite be twelve million, but I bet,
(34:16):
I bet they'll pay you at least nine. On Sunday,
several news organizations reported I had asked to be taken
off the anchor desk two months and one week later,
The New York Times wrote, quote, Keith Alderman, the anchor
of Countdown on MSNBC, has extended his contract through the
next presidential election season. The network announced Mr Alderman and
(34:38):
MSNBC essentially tore up the four year, four million dollar
year contract they signed last year and replaced it with
one worth about seven and a half million a year.
On That was a three and a half million dollar
raise for four years for a total of fourteen million dollars,
(34:59):
Except the new contract added two years to my old deal,
so the race was actually twenty two million dollars. All
stories have a punchline. This punch line is about Tom Brokaw.
We would have gotten away with this cleanly. NBC would
have gotten its money's worth for the twenty two million
in hush money, which is what it was, that it
(35:20):
had to pay me because I had agreed with them
rolling over for the Republican Party blackmail. Except Brokaw could
not keep his mouth shut. So proud was he of
preserving his role as the moderator of the October seven
NBC debate that he had to explain in explicit detail
in public how he went to his bosses at NBC
(35:42):
News and threatened them on behalf of the GOP. On
September twenty nine, two eight, a lengthy and glowing broke
Off profile appeared in The New York Times. Quote Mr
Brokaw said that over the summer he had quote advocated
within the executive suite of NBC News to modify the
anchor duties of the MSNBC host Keith all Woman and
(36:04):
Chris Matthew was on election night and on nights when
there were presidential debates. Mr Brocas said he had also
conducted some shuttle diplomacy in recent weeks between NBC and
the McCain campaign. His mission, he said, was to assure
the candidates aids that despite some negative on air commentary
by Mr Olberman, in particular, Mr McCain could still get
(36:25):
a fair shake from NBC news unquote. Oh that was
his mission. The hell it was happily brocat just could
not resist boasting even further. The next sentence actually reads quote.
Mr Brokaw said he had been told by a senior
(36:45):
McCain aide whom he did not name, that the campaign
had been reluctant to accept an NBC representative as one
of the moderators of the three presidential debates until his
name was invoked. Quote. One of the things I was
told by this person was that they were so irritated.
They said, if it's an NBC moderator for any of
(37:08):
these debates, we won't go, Mr Brokaw said, quoting him again.
My name came up, and they said, oh, hell, we
have to do it because it's going to be Brokaw.
There is a second punchline after all this, when the
new format came out and I was sitting there counting
(37:29):
my money, MSNBC had David Gregory quote anchor unquote the
debate coverage. David was terrific during this. Practically all this meant, anyway,
was that I was on the er until literally nine
seconds before each debate began, which is when I said,
now here's David Gregory. And he was then on for
four or five minutes after the debate ended, which is
(37:50):
when he said, now here's Keith Olberman. And on election
night itself, with David again formally anchoring per the Republican
blackmail at ten PM, to his great credit and to
my eternal gratitude, David Gregory said, with the last voting
booth closing at eleven PM, NBC News can now project
the winner of the two thousand eight presidential election, Keith
(38:13):
bless him. Plus I still have all the money your
Republican Party. Then and now, John Towne has come to
(38:35):
you from the world headquarters of the Old Woman Broadcasting
Empire in the Sports Capsule Building in New York. Thank
you for listening. Here are the credits. I don't know
why I use that voice. Most of the music, including
our theme from Beethoven's Ninth, was arranged, produced and performed
by Brian Ray and John Philip Chanelle. They are the
(38:56):
Countdown musical directors. All orchestration and keyboards by John Philip Chanelle, guitars,
bass and drums by Brian Ray, produced by I. T.
K O Brothers. Other Beethoven selections have been arranged and
performed by No Horns Allowed. The sports music is the
Old Woman theme from ESPN two, and it was written
by Mitch Warren Davis courtesy of ESPN, Inc. Musical comments
(39:19):
from Nancy Faust. The best baseball stadium organist ever. Our
announcer today was Richard Lewis, and everything else is pretty
much my fault. So that's countdown for this, the seven
hundred and fifty first day since Donald Trump's first attempted
coup against the democratically elected government of the United States.
Arrest him now while we still can. The next scheduled
(39:41):
countdown is tomorrow. I'm Keith Alderman. Until then, good morning,
good afternoon, goodnight, and good luck. Countdown with Keith Old
Woman is a production of I heart Radio. For more
podcasts from I heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app,
(40:03):
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of I Heart Radio.
We must act now against the new McCarthy ism or
(00:25):
lose the Republic. We need something, almost anything that will
pick up where the January six Committee left off. Hearings, television, witnesses, subpoenas, admissions, admonitions.
The Senate would be the best venue. The focus can
nominally be on the gas lighting of the Mueller Report
and the true story of Trump's conspiracy with Russia. The focus,
(00:48):
in fact, must be to kill the new McCarthy ism
in its nest, the new McCarthy ism. Literally that the
new Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy, who had already promised, warned, hinted, signaled, announced,
and now confirmed he is forming a subcommittee dedicating it
(01:09):
to gas lighting on behalf of Trump and whitewashing his
sedition and treason, and aiming that subcommittee at those who
have fought back in government and outside of it, particularly
at the January six Committee, at the good people in
the FBI, at the good people in the Department of Justice,
the Select Subcommittee on Weaponization of the Federal Government. It
(01:34):
is idiocy and slander in car load lots naturally Kevin
McCarthy is a slanderous political whore and an idiot. Then again,
so was Joe McCarthy. You do not have to be
a genius to do what the first McCarthy did, just
a scheming crook. And if they want a scheming crook
(01:55):
who is not a genius, they have found their man
in the second McCarthy. The urgency to act now against
new McCarthy ism has doubled just since Monday of this
week because of three developments largely buried under the blissfully
stupid amusements provided by George Santos, the Biden documents de
(02:16):
pense documents that Jimmy Carter documents, to say nothing, of course,
of the Eminem's. The first development obviously nobody being able
to talk the fascists out of trying to commander political
discourse in this country till further notice with their version
of the House on American Activities Committee and the Blacklist
and the Reign of Terror of the early fifties and
(02:38):
populating this rogues gallery with Jim Jordan's, darryl Isa Thomas Massey,
Chris Stewart, Mike Johnson, Chip Roy, Kelly Armstrong, Greg Steuby,
Dan Bishop, Catchmick Harriet Hageman, and worst of all, the
(02:59):
scum of the earth Elise Stephanic. The second development necessitating
urgency of action Monday's arrestive Charles McGonagall, the former head
of FBI Counterintelligence in New York, to whom I devoted
the entirety of yesterday's countdown, the former head of the
earliest investigation into Trump and Russia, one of those near
(03:21):
the top of the New York Field Office when it
went rogue and led to the infamous Combe announcement the
October Surprise of two thousand sixteen, and the follow up
anonymous quote clearing unquote of Trump just three days after that,
the re smearing of Hillary Clinton over nothing, the specific
and targeted and criminal and successful attempt to throw the
(03:45):
election to Trump. McGonagall faces seventy five years in jail,
mostly for working illicitly for the very Russian oligarchy was
supposed to be investigating just seven years ago. If ever
a defendant was suitable for breaking, for giving up the
whole corrupt mess on the twenty third floor of Federal Plaza,
(04:07):
for putting those who tampered with our elections on behalf
of Trump and maybe on behalf of much worse. If
anybody is ready to flip, it is Charles flipping McGonagall.
And now the third development was Trump's revenge porn video
and his reinstatement to Facebook, both yesterday. Usually there is
(04:30):
very little reason to bother to listen to what he says.
It is always the same sing song self pity, the
same bleatings of the kind of psychotic narcissist who is
the stupid person's idea of a smart person. But in
the new McCarthy is m of the weaponization subcommittee. Trump
smells blood, sees perhaps his best chance since the appointment
(04:52):
of William Barr, to turn truth into falsehood and falsehood
into truth, to point at the FBI and shout unclean,
that those who are in fact noble, and to raise
up those who have sold their souls. Because, of course,
the bitterest irony of Joe McCarthy and the Blacklist was
that freedom was in peril because of the government of
(05:16):
nineteen fifty. It was imperil because of Joe McCarthy. He
was the peril. And thus the bitterest irony of the
new McCarthy ism is that government of today has been weaponized,
and it was weaponized by and for Trump, And the
very act of forming this subcommittee full of the most
antidemocracy members of Congress is the new weaponization is the
(05:38):
new danger is what needs investigation and purging. And so
the chip Roys and Jim Jordan's and Donald Trump's and
the new McCarthy ism will brand good evil and evil good,
and we must stop them. And the easiest way to
stop them is merely two compete with them, crowd them
(06:00):
off the bandstand. The goal of a Senate committee to
investigate anything does not have to be convictions, nor legislation,
nor existential truth. It just needs to neutralize, to offset,
to cancel out the show trials of the new McCarthy
is m There is usually little value in listening to
(06:24):
Trump's verbal diarrhea and his astonishing imbecility. There is something, though,
in this clip from his video. This is what we
must for want of a more sober term counter program.
Here's just a few of the questions the committee hopefully
(06:44):
will be asking who in the Maller team was in
charge of leaking secret information and fake news stories to
dishonest journalists, of which you are many to perpetrate the
Russia hooks, and that's what it was turned out. It
was the total hooks. It was all misinformation, It was
all horrible thing. Doug was given to the people of
(07:06):
our country illegally. A great story, scumbag. Wait, that was
the best take what an illiterate monkey Trump really is.
But these are his orders to Kevin McCarthy. And as
we heard the night, McCarthy sold whatever that is that
he has instead of a soul to get the Speaker's gavel,
(07:29):
McCarthy has horde himself anew fully and without remorse to Trump.
He will do the devil's bidding and pretend it is
God's work. It is not coincidental. Trump issued this video
yesterday telling McCarthy what to do on the new subcommittee.
Trump also sent Trump Junior to Washington yesterday to meet
with McCarthy and do a podcast with him, a Donald
(07:52):
Cokey Trump Junior Kevin McCarthy podcast, or the Irresistible Farce
meets the Immovable Objectionable. All right back to the point
in that video. Trump also publicly designated a new target,
not for him, but new for this subcommittee, his cherished
(08:12):
dream of punishing the media that does not applaud him
of censoring and controlling what America reads and sees, of
avenging those who told the truth and rewarding those who
poisoned the nation with conspiracy theories. Now stands outlined and
tangible in front of him, and it is the new
(08:33):
McCarthy is a fake press and a corrupt press, and
by corrupt politicians today. The fake Seale dossier was first
published because they knew it was fake, and they knew
that sometimes there'd be a guy like Trump that wants
to go after them. How many fake news journalists been
paid or compensated by US government agencies directly or indirectly
(08:57):
for their all and spreading domestic disinformation like the FBI
did with Twitter in that was the best take. These
are the facts Donald Trump conspired with Russia to tamper
with the two thousand sixteen presidential election. Elements of the
FBI and other parts of the government of that year
(09:20):
were indeed weaponized on his behalf to distort and thwart
the same vote. And when the nation rejected Trump and
recommitted itself to democracy on January, Trump attempted a full
scale coup deata. And we Trump haters do we hate Trump?
(09:43):
You bet? Your ass as our ancestors hated and fought
and defeated Hitler. Do we have Trump derangement syndrome? Yes?
Trump is deranged. It is a syndrome he has spread
to the gullible and the hateful, and we must stop it,
reverse it, cure those who can be cured, and prevent
(10:06):
those who cannot from sabotaging freedom in this country. And
all we need here is a choice of viewing an
alternate feed to vy for the lead slots in the
daily newscasts and the places above the fold in the
newspapers and in the upper left hand corner and the
top of the feeds online, because we do not have
(10:29):
to defeat and erase and stop the new McCarthy is M.
You can't stop the new McCarthy is M. You can
only hope to contain it. Wait, why in the hell
does that sound so familiar? Hang on my phone's ringing
(11:00):
at Stan Patrick? Still ahead. Finally something good comes of
the wasted life of George Santos. That Navy veteran from
New Jersey will be getting a new service dog and
lifetime care for that dog. Worse persons, just when you
thought they couldn't get dumber or meaner. The newest conspiracy
theory is not that Damar Hamlet of the Buffalo Bills
(11:21):
collapsed because of the COVID vaccine, but that he actually
died from it. And this whole story of his recovery
is I don't know. Let's ask jfk Jr. When he
comes back from the dead. And I mentioned it the
other day, the Republicans willingness to put some of their
presidential primary debates on CNN or NBC if the price
is right, Let's explore what the price was at NBC
(11:45):
in two thousand and eight. The price was my head,
and how Tom Brokaw was willing to cut it off
for them just so he could moderate a debate one
more time. Things I promised not to tell. That's next
this discountdown see just countdown with Keith still ahead on countdown?
(12:11):
Is Damar Hamlin really alive? Are any of us really alive?
Is the guy asking if Damar Hamlin is alive? Really alive?
The worst persons coming up? Plus, if NBC is really
going to tell buys a Republican presidential primary debate, they
better get ready to fire somebody the Republicans don't like.
(12:32):
But first. In each edition of Countdown, we feature a
dog in need you can help. Every dog has its
day two hugging. Hugging is at the New York Pound
and there is another massacre going on. Their five dogs
killed this week alone. They will kill him as early
as today. He's got all the targets on him. He's
a sixty two pound dog. He's mixed breed, has a
(12:54):
black coat, and even though he was dumped by a
human who just showed up and left without saying a
word about him, he's gentle and respectful and okay with
other dogs. He's nervous. He has reason to be. When
you can pledge to help defray the costs of a
rescue to save him, you can find him on my
twitter feed. Your retweets can also help him. I thank
(13:16):
you and Hugging Thanks you. FOK. Scripts to the news
some headlines, some thoughts, some snarks, some predictions. Dateline, Port, Washington,
(13:36):
New York. You will recall the sad story of Sapphire,
the service dog of disabled and at that time homeless
Navy that Rich Austof When Sapphire needed surgery to remove
a tumor, Astov was introduced to Congressman George Santos. This
was in two thousand sixteen, and told that Santos was
somebody who could raise the money for the poor dog. Well,
(13:58):
he raised it all right by a go fund me,
and then he would not give aust Off the money
and Sapphire died. After the story, reported by the hyperlocal
Patch news site, got widespread attention, New York's North Shore
Animal League offered as off a new service dog and
lifetime veterinary care for him or her. On the other hand,
(14:21):
video is now serviced of Santos claiming he was mugged
in the middle of Fifth Avenue at some point last
year and they stole his shoes and also there was
an assassination attempt. Next, I'm expecting George Santos to explain
that he can travel through time Date Line, New York.
You and I may think we know the most popular
(14:41):
movie of all time, and we're wrong. The only answer
is the Rocky Horror Picture Show. It is still shown
weekly around the country around the world, and fans get
up and perform along with it in costume, saying the
dialogue acting out, the plot twists, and the man who
started all that has passed away. In al Piro went
(15:05):
to see the Tim Curry Susan Sarandon film, which was
a bomb at that point, at the Waverley Theater. Here
he started to talk back to the characters, and soon
people were showing up to hear him talk back to
the characters, and that evolved into fan participation in the film,
and that evolved into the Rocky Horror Picture Show Fan Club,
which he founded in nineteen seventy seven and of which
(15:28):
he remained president to look until his death. Last Saturday,
Salve Piro was seventy one and dateline Hollywood Oops, Bad
Week if You're named Rogan, the chief content officer of Spotify,
the one who brought Joe Rogan's podcast to that site
for tens of millions of dollars down Ostroff fired and
Fred Rogan different spelling sportscaster at KNBC Los Angeles since
(15:51):
night is leaving the television station. Rogan projected a nice
kid next door persona But when I was his rival
at k CBS TV there, I made a joke about
him on the air and he promptly called me at
my office and said he had tapes of everything I
had ever said about him, and he was going to
kill me. I used to work with his former fiance
(16:13):
and one day she took me aside and said she
needed to talk to somebody who understood what he was
really like. As she did, she said she had decided
to marry somebody else, and as I congratulated her on that,
she said she had wanted Fred to hear it from
her directly rather than from anybody else. She said he
seemed to take her call well, but that same evening
(16:34):
Fred had called her back from his car phone and
announced he had just gotten married. I'm also reminded that
when k CBS did not renew my contract at the
end of nine, the TV sports writer of the Los
Angeles Times wrote that two would be the year I
would sink into obscurity and the year that Fred Rogan
(16:55):
would gain national TV prominence because of his news syndicated
talk show Fred and Arthel for already three years doing
exactly the same thing. Wow, all the best on your retirement, Freddie.
(17:22):
Thank you, Nancy Faust. Now to the daily roundup of
the miscrants, morons, and Dunning Krueger effect specimens who constitute
today's worst persons in the world. Lebrons, Baseball's MLB Network,
(17:46):
there are bad TV ratings, and then there are impossible
to believe TV ratings. Baseball keeps its announcement of who
has been elected to its Hall of Fame to itself,
almost as if it is a secret. It televises these
announcements live on its own network, MLB Network, at like
sixty five PM on a weekday evening. Even with that
(18:10):
bad planning taken into account, this is mind boggling. When
the former All Star third Basement Scott Roland, became the
only player elected by the writers and it was announced
on Tuesday at like six the live announcement was seen
by for the TV ratings expert and executive VP at
Fox Sports, Mike mulbile Hill. It was seen by thirty
(18:32):
five thousand viewers nationwide. Thirty five thousand, or what we
on this Measly podcast would call a really bad day
for us. Here on the podcast five thousand, the runner
up Marjorie Trailer park Green, Steve Bannon is quoted as
(18:54):
saying Midge thinks she's going to be Trump's running mate
next year. That's why Bannon says, she's trying to rebrand
herself as acceptable to the main stream Republicans. Wait, why wait,
why would rebranding herself as acceptable to mainstream Republicans help
her get picked by Trump? When MTG looks in the mirror,
(19:15):
NBC quotes Bannon is saying, she sees a potential presidential
president smiling back. She sees a potential president smiling back. Well,
this is breaking news. Her image is visible in a mirror.
But our winner. There are fascist morons, and there are
fascist conspiracy addicts, but it takes a special one to
(19:36):
be a fascist moron conspiracy addict. Such a man is
Stu Peter's is one of those died suddenly clowns who
claims everybody who has died in the last couple of
years who's killed by the COVID vaccine everybody, because apparently
the plan is for people who believe in science and
reality and liberals to kill all the people who believe
(19:59):
in science and reality and liberalism were something nobody's explained.
End game here anyway. Peters has now topped himself two
tweets yesterday about the Buffalo Bills player tomar Hamlin, who collapse,
got immediate CPR and recovered from cardiac arrest, quoting Peters,
I still have not seen proof Tomorrow Hamlin is alive
(20:21):
since he collapsed. What kind of proof? Ah, that's what
tweet number two is about. All Tamar Hamlin has to
do is get on social media, cut a video and
put an end to the speculation. What speculation? I want
to see video of Damar Hamlin holding today's newspaper with
the date visible. Then this guy Peters, who should check
(20:43):
he may actually be brain dead, insults Tomorrow Hamlin, who
he says is dead. Quote what a great opportunity to
thank his supporters for the ten million they gave his charity.
Now here's my demand, Mr Peters. All you have to
do is get on social media, cut a video holding
today's newspaper with the date visible, alongside a copy of
(21:04):
your scan, and then I'll believe you have a functioning brain.
Stuve Peters, who has a website with his name printed
as just one word, so it also reads stupid ers
two Day's worst person and w Finally, our number one
(21:35):
story on the countdown in my favorite topic me I
missed the exact anniversary by day, but it's close enough.
The demand for spots in the Shay Stadium press box
that night was so great that there was a signed seating.
I had no real reason to be there, but as usual,
the New York Mets took care of me, and so
on Friday, the fifth of September, two thight, I was
(21:56):
shoulder to shoulder with reporter friends watching the Mets begin
to blow their three game Pennant race lead against the
Philadelphia Philly Sorry, that's fans were bringing this up again.
Brett Myers had just struck out New York's David Wright
looking when my phone rang. It was my agent, Jane Sage.
They just called. She said, flatly, you and Matthews have
(22:17):
been fired from anchoring the presidential debates because of what
you said. What I had said had been said. Three
nights previously, Chris Matthews and I were co anchoring the
Republican Convention on MSNBC. I was in the studios in
New York, ostensibly so I could also anchor hurricane coverage,
although it was pretty clear that at least half the
(22:37):
reason I was not in Minneapolis was because the Republicans
had threatened NBC or said they couldn't guarantee my safety
or something like that, and NBC folded. So I was
the one during MSNBC's coverage of the two thousand eight
Republican Convention. Who had to throw it to a video
they were introducing that we had been told by the
(22:58):
Republicans was a quote tribute to the dead of nine eleven.
It was, in fact a enough film. All of the
images that all of the networks had stopped showing within
weeks or even days of the attacks. All of those
images were in this video. People jumping and falling to
their deaths from the World Trade Center on nine eleven,
(23:20):
endless replays of the planes hitting the towers, dismembered bodies
in the plaza, the building collapses, the equally terrifying scenes
at the Pentagon, and all with a grotesque Robert Davy
voiceover emphasizing that this was all the Democrats fault. The
message was simple, elect Obama and you will die like this.
(23:44):
I was angry just on that base level, or the
five and a half years I had been back at MSNBC.
We had been rigorous about not showing any of that video.
There were rules that if we had to for some reason,
we should show only the skill images, and even then
only with extensive warnings to the viewers. But I knew
from my conversations with the president of msnb C, Phil Griffin,
(24:05):
who had only known for twenty eight years at that point,
that he would insist that on the scene in Minneapolis,
Matthews and Tom Brokaw, whose career at NBC I had
resurrected after Brian Williams had buried him alive two years earlier,
that one or both of them would rebuke the GOP
for showing not a nine eleven tribute, but, as I
just said, a nine eleven snuff film. The video ended,
(24:28):
and we came out to Brokaw with Matthews and Brokaw
kind of coughed, and Matthews said wow. And he turned
to Brokaw and said, in that loose fire hose delivery
of his Tom, the kind of underscoring terrorism big thing
Republican says they triestop Obama. Brokaw droned on approvingly the
(24:50):
Republicans sneaking a snuff film a band video onto MSNBC
and by the way, also onto CNN, onto NBC, onto CBS,
onto ABC without any warning. That was not mentioned by
Brokaw or Matthews. Back to New York and Keith I
was supposed to add Liberties about what we were expecting
from the Republican convention for the rest of the night,
(25:12):
and then throw to a commercial instead, I said, and
this is a paraphrase. The original tape disappeared that night
that before we moved on, I felt I needed to
apologize that we at MSNBC and for that matter, NBC News,
had extremely strict rules about not showing that video. The
Republicans had just shown you without any warning, without any context,
(25:33):
and we certainly would not have shown the horror and
death and blamed it on the Democrats, or for that matter,
blamed it on the Republicans. I said, if we had
done such a thing ourselves, there would have been people
fired at NBC News. The public program the GOP provided
said that was going to be a nine eleven tribute film,
I said, and so did the private conversations with the network,
(25:53):
which included the reminder from NBC and MSNBC that we
had rules against showing the scenes of the horrible death
and mutilation and destruction. So I apologized on behalf of
whoever trusted the Republicans to live up to their word,
that MSNBC viewers were forced to see the video. Our
network had long before vowed never to show again. So
(26:14):
three nights later, without as much as an email, this
Griffin guy had called my agent and told her I
was fired Matthews two from our further coverage of the
upcoming McGain Obama debates. She related these details to me
as I walked down the many ramps in the back
of Shasee Stadium towards the subway. I told her to
(26:35):
call Griffin back and tell him I had quit on
the spot right then and he could work his way
out of the ensuing disaster. Liberal network MSNBC fires liberal
host l Werman for criticizing conservatives for sneaking nine eleven
snuff film onto MSNBC. He could figure that out any
way he wanted, and he could hear my response on
I don't know, Good Morning America, CBS, This Morning, the
(26:56):
PBS News Hour, and any other news program that bothered
to ask me to stop by and talk. I phoned
my of in girlfriend, Katie turn told her I was
on my way home, and I made a few phone
calls to friendly voices within the NBC management structure and
got from them a clear picture of what had happened.
And despite the spotty cell service along the elevated line.
(27:17):
Heading back to Manhattan. I got a message from a
newspaper reporter friend who neatly tied together all that I
was hearing elsewhere. Tom Brokaw is going around NBC saying
he got you fired from the debates because the Republicans
told him to. Nine maybe ten months earlier, Phil Griffin
had come to me and asked me if I would
(27:38):
be okay with this guy who had been kind of
disappeared by the network. Tom Brokeaw was his name appearing
during our weekly coverage of the Democratic and Republican primaries.
Just a couple of minutes, like from a perspective desk,
that's all he wants to do. He's really Tom's really unhappy.
Brian has frozen amount of everything Brian Williams. Of course,
(28:01):
I was appalled, but not surprised. The hour had gone
to Brian's head, and of course there it had not
met much resistance. Plus, as I said to Griffin, you're
asking me if I'd like to add Tom Broke cause
experience and Tom Broke caused gravitas two stuff I'm anchoring
when I'm not sure I know as much as I
really need to know to do this right, you're asking
(28:23):
me this. Tom fit in beautifully, and twice after those
long Tuesday evenings in the primary season, he sent me
brief emails awarding me what he called the game ball,
because he was so impressed by my ability to balance
the roles at political anchor and political commentator, having tried
this myself. One of them read, I know what a perilous, tight,
(28:45):
ruthless is. Game ball to Caro, I'm mocking him now,
but these meant so much to me. I printed the
emails out and carried them in my wallet. And now
he was claiming he had gotten me fired because, as
my newspaper friends said, the Republicans told him to. That
was not hard to unpack either. Tim Russers had died
(29:08):
on June three of that year. I anchored that night
until two in the morning. It was still an open wound,
there were still tears. We didn't know it then, but
the structure of NBC News and the perilous tight group
balancing NBC and MSNBC had died with Tim Russers. So
did the role of moderator of the second debate between
John McCain and Barack Obama, scheduled for about a month
(29:31):
after my subway ride on October seven in Nashville. Tim
had not even been buried yet when Brokaw began to
angle to get that assignment, along with brushing away the
dirt of his petty anti role on the MSNBC Prospective Desk.
We never saw him again in order that he could
take Tim's spot as Brian Williams sidekick on Big NBC.
(29:52):
The month before August, there was a story coming out
of the east end of the third floor at thirty Rock,
where NBC News management sat around not doing much of
anything that a Republican goon named Ed Gillespie had been
in there with Griffin and the NBC News president, Steve Cappus,
trying to get me silenced or fired or off the
convention coverage or something, and that somebody prominent within NBC
(30:15):
News was in there with Gillespie or was invoked by Gillespie.
The rumor mill wasn't certain. As I switched from the
elevated seven train to the underground f train. The whole
thing came together before my comments about the GOP Convention
nine eleven snuff film, Ed Gillespie had come in and
had somehow vaguely threatened Cappus and Griffin about me using
(30:38):
as leverage the debate which Tom Brokaw was now supposed
to moderate, and when I apologized for their video on
our air, Gillespie must have turned it into an either
or get rid of me or McCain would refuse to
participate in any debate moderated by Brokaw or anybody from
NBC News. And Brokaw had already come back from the
(31:01):
dead once in two thousand eight, and he would be
damn him if he would be forced to do it
a second time. But as the train took me home
to an apartment, I was now going to have to
sell since I had just quit MSNBC on the spot
for folding to such obvious Republican blackmail, something else now
occurred to me. Why would MSNBC or NBC or our
(31:23):
parent corporation at the time, ge actually think that they
could remove me from the debate coverage on MSNBC, where
the Rachel Meadows Show had yet to be born, and
the three times a night my show ran accounted for
something like six of the entire day's network audience, and
do that without getting a really bad reaction from our audience. Plus,
(31:46):
if a newspaperman already knew the Brokaw part. How could
this story be avoided? MSNBC announced it had removed its
liberal star Keith all Reman from coverage of the McCain
Obama presidential debates. Sources confirmed former NBC News anchorman Tom Brokaw,
now an MSNBC commentator on Alderman's coverage, had helped a
(32:08):
Republican party to blackmail NBC into the decision. Alderman immediately resigned, saying,
quote in succumbing to this coercion on behalf of John McCain,
NBC has now forfeited any right to further be called
a news organization. And I'm sad to say MSNBC, which
I built, is now dead. My god, MSNBC and NBC
(32:29):
News for that matter, would have committed corporate suicide before
the weekend was over. At that point, it dawned on
me that the only thing that could save the credibility
of the whole news division and the careers of Griffin
and Cappus and NBC Network President Jeff Zucker, and especially
the career of Tom Brokaw was for me to publicly
(32:49):
state that I had asked to be removed from anchoring
the debates because the whatever was just too much blah
blah blah for me, and I felt I should stick
to the post debate analysis and commentary. NBC would now
I'm a choice. They could fire me from the debates
and destroy everything, including the hundred million dollars a year
(33:10):
or so in profit that NBC made off MSNBC, or
I could you know why and claim it was my
idea and save everybody's ass, including my own. I got
out of the subway and raced home. Katie met me
at the door with a big hug. She had been crying. Relax,
I said, I'm not quitting. In fact, I'm going to
(33:31):
get a huge raise. Now listen carefully. I called my
agent and I explained the idea that had lit over
my head on the subway like a lightbulb to both
of them. I said, you call Phil Griffin back and
explained to him that I will personally save his job
and Steve Campuses and Jeff Suckers and Tom broke Aus
and everybody else's. I'll take the fall instead of letting
(33:55):
them all get fired by the MSNBC audience. I'll say
this was my idea, and all it will cost phil
Is twelve million in dollars, and he has to leak
the term so everybody knows it costs him twelve million dollars.
And she paused for a second and said, it's genius.
It might not quite be twelve million, but I bet,
(34:16):
I bet they'll pay you at least nine. On Sunday,
several news organizations reported I had asked to be taken
off the anchor desk two months and one week later,
The New York Times wrote, quote, Keith Alderman, the anchor
of Countdown on MSNBC, has extended his contract through the
next presidential election season. The network announced Mr Alderman and
(34:38):
MSNBC essentially tore up the four year, four million dollar
year contract they signed last year and replaced it with
one worth about seven and a half million a year.
On That was a three and a half million dollar
raise for four years for a total of fourteen million dollars,
(34:59):
Except the new contract added two years to my old deal,
so the race was actually twenty two million dollars. All
stories have a punchline. This punch line is about Tom Brokaw.
We would have gotten away with this cleanly. NBC would
have gotten its money's worth for the twenty two million
in hush money, which is what it was, that it
(35:20):
had to pay me because I had agreed with them
rolling over for the Republican Party blackmail. Except Brokaw could
not keep his mouth shut. So proud was he of
preserving his role as the moderator of the October seven
NBC debate that he had to explain in explicit detail
in public how he went to his bosses at NBC
(35:42):
News and threatened them on behalf of the GOP. On
September twenty nine, two eight, a lengthy and glowing broke
Off profile appeared in The New York Times. Quote Mr
Brokaw said that over the summer he had quote advocated
within the executive suite of NBC News to modify the
anchor duties of the MSNBC host Keith all Woman and
(36:04):
Chris Matthew was on election night and on nights when
there were presidential debates. Mr Brocas said he had also
conducted some shuttle diplomacy in recent weeks between NBC and
the McCain campaign. His mission, he said, was to assure
the candidates aids that despite some negative on air commentary
by Mr Olberman, in particular, Mr McCain could still get
(36:25):
a fair shake from NBC news unquote. Oh that was
his mission. The hell it was happily brocat just could
not resist boasting even further. The next sentence actually reads quote.
Mr Brokaw said he had been told by a senior
(36:45):
McCain aide whom he did not name, that the campaign
had been reluctant to accept an NBC representative as one
of the moderators of the three presidential debates until his
name was invoked. Quote. One of the things I was
told by this person was that they were so irritated.
They said, if it's an NBC moderator for any of
(37:08):
these debates, we won't go, Mr Brokaw said, quoting him again.
My name came up, and they said, oh, hell, we
have to do it because it's going to be Brokaw.
There is a second punchline after all this, when the
new format came out and I was sitting there counting
(37:29):
my money, MSNBC had David Gregory quote anchor unquote the
debate coverage. David was terrific during this. Practically all this meant, anyway,
was that I was on the er until literally nine
seconds before each debate began, which is when I said,
now here's David Gregory. And he was then on for
four or five minutes after the debate ended, which is
(37:50):
when he said, now here's Keith Olberman. And on election
night itself, with David again formally anchoring per the Republican
blackmail at ten PM, to his great credit and to
my eternal gratitude, David Gregory said, with the last voting
booth closing at eleven PM, NBC News can now project
the winner of the two thousand eight presidential election, Keith
(38:13):
bless him. Plus I still have all the money your
Republican Party. Then and now, John Towne has come to
(38:35):
you from the world headquarters of the Old Woman Broadcasting
Empire in the Sports Capsule Building in New York. Thank
you for listening. Here are the credits. I don't know
why I use that voice. Most of the music, including
our theme from Beethoven's Ninth, was arranged, produced and performed
by Brian Ray and John Philip Chanelle. They are the
(38:56):
Countdown musical directors. All orchestration and keyboards by John Philip Chanelle, guitars,
bass and drums by Brian Ray, produced by I. T.
K O Brothers. Other Beethoven selections have been arranged and
performed by No Horns Allowed. The sports music is the
Old Woman theme from ESPN two, and it was written
by Mitch Warren Davis courtesy of ESPN, Inc. Musical comments
(39:19):
from Nancy Faust. The best baseball stadium organist ever. Our
announcer today was Richard Lewis, and everything else is pretty
much my fault. So that's countdown for this, the seven
hundred and fifty first day since Donald Trump's first attempted
coup against the democratically elected government of the United States.
Arrest him now while we still can. The next scheduled
(39:41):
countdown is tomorrow. I'm Keith Alderman. Until then, good morning,
good afternoon, goodnight, and good luck. Countdown with Keith Old
Woman is a production of I heart Radio. For more
podcasts from I heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app,
(40:03):
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Host
Keith Olbermann
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