March 1, 2023 • 40 mins
EPISODE 144: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN
A-Block (1:42) SPECIAL COMMENT: Good news everyone! We don't have to worry about Kevin McCarthy turning over 44,000 hours of January 6 Video to Tucker Carlson. Because Tucker has promised Kevin that he won't use any of the sensitive stuff that could get congressmen or senators or Vice Presidents killed next time. And we know how we can trust Tucker Carlson! Just look at all those Carlson texts from the Dominion defamation suit! His word is the coin of the realm. Provided the realm in question is Russia.
Perhaps never before in American history has their been such a pairing of Political Scum with Media Scum as McCarthy and Carlson. And McCarthy's response to the criticism of his unprecedented and indefensible act: "It almost seems like the press is jealous...He'll have an exclusive. Then I'll give it out to the entire country." And McCarthy's henchman in this sleazy nightmare turns out to be Barry Loudermilk, the Georgia Congressman caught ON the January 5-6 video giving at least one January 6th defendant a tour of security checkpoints.
There are still steps the Biden Administration and the Democrats can do to stop this farce. It stops with ending access to all representatives of all NewsCorp employees, for the simple reason that Fox News and its cousins are NOT news organizations. I'm not holding my breath.
B-Block (21:03) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: The Fools on the Hill: Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene humiliate themselves during congressional hearings, while trying to play "gotcha" with people smarter than they are. (26:02) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Chris Licht again, this time for putting on an ex-Norfolk Southern lobbyist to comment on the Norfolk Southern disaster; How could you possibly misspell Jackie Robinson's name? And help us: NYC has elected a messianic theocrat as mayor. Eric Adams goes nuts - again.
C-Block (31:00) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Dora and Lee, starved puppies in Arkansas (32:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: The Fox News/NewsCorp perfidy is not limited to television. When the tv arm of the octopus is criticized and threatened, the Murdoch monster uses the print arms to try to strangle the opponent. When a right wing would-be terrorist sent fake anthrax to me and a dozen other liberals, the FBI asked me - and all news organizations - to keep it quiet just for a day. Murdoch's New York Post not only refused, but wrote the story concluding that the person to blame here was...me.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio. Good
News everyone, we can all relax now. Kevin McCarthy has
(00:26):
promised that the January sixth security video he has released
to Fox News may indeed be shown on television, but
it will not include footage showing the secret exit paths
for congressman and senators and vice presidents. The Trump mob
wants to hang, and Kevin McCarthy promises this because he
has been promised it by Tucker Carlson. So he'll have
(00:52):
an exclusive, McCarthy says, then I'll give it out to
the entire country like he was a publicist trying to
sell somebody on interviewing one of the real housewives of
m ansk as if he would be qualified for such
a job. If there has ever been in American political
history a greater confluence of corrupt, cynical, unprincipled, immoral, indefensible, unreliable, disloyal, dishonest, condescending, unstable, malicious,
(01:25):
anti democracy crooks from two different fields than Kevin McCarthy
and Tucker Carlson, I cannot identify them. McCarthy has told
reporters that Carlson has personally and specifically assured him he
would not show any video detailing the exit routes, and
in fact, he would not even watch any video detailing
(01:46):
the exit routes. Quote. We walked through the security basis,
so there's no concern the assurances of Tucker Carlson. Like
when Tucker Carlson recoiled at the made up conspiracy theories
that the election had been stolen by voting machines controlled
by software from Venezuela or China or Mars or whichever
(02:08):
they chose, and he texted, the software shit is absurd,
shockingly reckless unquote. Yet seven weeks later he had Mike
Lindell on his show to make all those software accusations
all over again. And when Lindell finished making them all
over again, Carlson said, quote Mike Lindell, I really appreciate
you coming on tonight. Thank you very much. God bless you.
(02:33):
Tucker Carlson's word is the coin of the realm, provided
the realm is Russia. As John Schwartz at the Intercept
memorably summed up the dominion documents, quote, the most wonderful
part of the filings is Tucker Carlson's inspiring, principled stand
against telling the truth. I await Kevin McCarthy's announcement that
(02:55):
Tucker Carlson has also promised not to alter any of
the video, nor to decontextualize it, nor to use it
to support further Fox News segments gaslighting this country over
what happened on January sixth, twenty twenty one, calling it
as Carlson already has repeatedly a false flag operation, and
casting other doubts on the obviousness of a Trump inspired
(03:19):
coup attempt, doubts that who knows Tucker Carlson might even
himself believe it is certainly possible, though none of us
who have ever worked with him can identify such a
previous case that Tucker Carlson actually believes in something besides
his own paycheck. Tucker Carlson promises Kevin McCarthy, and Kevin
(03:45):
McCarthy promises us the face of a television channel that
a month ago ranked incredibility and honesty somewhere near German
State Radio in the nineteen thirties, yet actually found a
way to go downhill from there. With these revelations of
the jaundiced hypocrisy, the deliberate lying by Carlson and the
(04:06):
other vermin in Fox Primetime in the first set of
dominion lawsuits, exhibits and depositions, and now with the naked
suppression and censorship of truth and fact by the network's owner,
and his theft of the advertisements of one presidential campaign
so he could illegally give them to the other presidential campaign,
contained in the second set of dominion exhibits and depositions
(04:28):
that got out on Monday, And that promise is conveyed
to us from Tucker Carlson by Kevin McCarthy as vile
and scheming and worthless a human being as has ever
appeared on the American political stage, a sort of man
(04:50):
who in exactly two years went from prompting Trump to
resign on the night Trump instigated an attempt to overthrow
the government of this country to thanking Trump personally repeatedly
grovelingly forgetting him elected Speaker of the House with the
support of such traitors and scum as Marjorie Taylor Green
(05:12):
and Matt Gates. Maybe there was a similar pair of
walking cancers in our nation's past. Pick somebody and join
him or her with John Wilkes Booth, pick somebody else
and join him or her with Jefferson Davis. And why
is the Speaker of the House of Representatives dealing personally
(05:35):
with a creature whose reputation for thirty years in television
has been that of a constant, remorseless liar. Who on
earth is Kevin McCarthy think he is? What omniscient writes
does he think he has? At? Who on earth does
Kevin McCarthy think Tucker Carlson is? We have now gotten
(05:56):
more details of this devil's bargain between Carlson and McCarthy,
in which it is impossible to tell which one of
them is the devil. I have said previously that, in
addition to his baseline of evil, Kevin McCarthy may also
be that rare combination of hyena and moron. He also
told reporters at the Capitol that he quote wanted to
make sure we don't play politics with the release of
(06:19):
the video, as if playing politics was not the only
thing he's doing here, and not the only thing. Kevin
McCarthy has the vaguest idea of how to do if
the perfidy off. Kevin McCarthy and his alliance with the
scumbag that is Tucker Carlson so bad as scumbag. It's
continued out of the next scumbag. If all that we're
(06:40):
not bad enough. It is now clear that McCarthy's adjutant
in this sleaziest of businesses is not that freshman Wisconsin
Congressman Brian's Style, whom McCarthy apparently talked into misleading the
Capitol police about setting up a viewing station nominally for
a House committee. In fact, it was for Tucker Carlson's producers. No,
it's even worse than this kid's style. McCarthy's number two
(07:03):
in this scam is Barry louder Milk, the Georgia congressman who,
as one reporter perfectly put it, is very familiar with
the January twenty twenty one Capital Security video because he's
on it, shown giving personal tours of the Capitol and
specifically of areas of it, as the January sixth committee
(07:24):
phrase that quote not typically of interest to tourists, including hallways, staircases,
and security checkpoints. The videotape louder Milk tour was on
January fifth. On January sixth, one of louder Milk's guests
on that tour was recorded on video. Marching towards the
(07:44):
Capitol as the violence began, shouting there's no escape, Pelosi, Schumer, Nadler,
We're coming for you, instead of breaking rocks at sing
sing this insurrectionist slime. Barry louder Milk is actually the
chair of a subcommittee of the Administration Committee, because evidently
there were too many Republican crooks to put each of
(08:06):
them in charge of a full committee. Now, louder Milk
is also promising that this is all above board. Because
the Fox News producers who were already viewing this January
sixth video before Capitol Hill police or the Department of
Justice or Homeland Security or minority members even knew it
was going to happen, they were not allowed to duplicate
(08:28):
anything they saw, nor were they given copies of the videos,
though there is no indication that there was any security
preventing them from duplicating the videos, and even if there
had been, it would have been security provided by louder
Milk and or McCarthy. Fox News producers, louder Milk explains,
must request that specific clips of the January sixth video
(08:50):
be given to them, and those requests will be carefully vetted,
and louder Milk promises, quote, We'll make sure there's nothing sensitive,
nothing classified, including escape routes. Louder Milk then actually added, quote,
we don't want al Qaeda to know certain things al
Qaeda because Barry Loudermilk doesn't really know the name of
(09:14):
the likeliest foreign terrorist threat out of whose hands we
need to keep that video. So he just mentioned the
last one he'd heard about, and we should be grateful
he didn't mention the boder Minehoff group. And of course
louder Milk certainly wasn't going to mention the likeliest domestic
terrorist threat, because how could he choose among the House
Republican Caucus, Fox News, and Donald effing Trump. However, in
(09:41):
a twist that could only happen in these cynical times,
with this cynical, stupid Republican Congressional collection of America's flotsam
and jetsam, there is blowback against McCarthy's indefensible deal with
Tucker Carlson, and it comes from his own party. It's
not about safety or propriety, or false narratives or false
(10:01):
flags or false news networks, but about your politics. Monday
night and again yesterday morning, McCarthy met with his congressional
leadership teams. One can envision the devils taking five in
hell to huddle up with Lucifer. The team's anger was
reported by CNN Monday night, but it got buried behind
(10:23):
the second wave of Fox Dominion damnations. Some of McCarthy's minions,
quoting the CNN report, questioned how long the footage is
going to be dragged out in the press, with some
lawmakers concerned about the optics of appearing to try to
downplay a deadly insurrection in the US Capitol. Quote, let's
just rip the band aid off and get this over with,
(10:44):
one GOP lawmaker told CNN, happily for what is left
of American democracy. Those lawmakers are evidently unaware of what
the crisis at News Corps means. Tucker Carlson now has
to do. He not only has to gaslight with the
false flag story every night until he or Rupert Murdoch
(11:06):
think the dozens of bombs inside the Dominion releases are
no longer big news, but clearly Carlson also has to
come up with something new and worse to distract everybody
from the Fox scandal. He will now have to fabricate
something using that video something proving I don't know. Nancy
(11:27):
Pelosi is shown leading the mob towards her own office.
Who knows it's Tucker Carlson. Most of his brain may
be a diseased, dysfunctional mess, but his imagination and his
ability to come up with barely plausible excuses for Republican
disloyalty and treason seems to be intact. There will be
(11:51):
no relief of the dragging this out in the press Republicans,
nor the chance to just rip the band aid off
and get this over with Republicans. There will be dozens
and dozens of band aids until Fox News either plodes
or Tucker Carlson saves Rupert Murdoch's ancient ass. Even worse
(12:13):
for the Republicans, who have some foggy view of the
real world that McCarthy no longer has. In this particular nightmare,
they are also being led by this Barry louder Milk,
you know, the guy who's worried about Al Qaeda. Seeing
this video, I'm surprised you didn't mention the Viet cong yesterday.
(12:38):
Tour guide louder Milk of Georgia said he who was
not sure exactly what the time frame was for actually
releasing January sixth video to Carlson or you know, news
organizations or I don't know whoever would pay louder Milk
twenty five dollars. Is that the way this works? But
get this quote, Barry louder Milk quote. Hopefully sooner rather
(13:01):
than later. But I think we're talking about weeks to
months months. The real problem today on the Fox News
front is if Murdox propagandists are not actually mortally wounded,
they clearly could be with a few quick shots from
the Democrats or the Biden administration. But of course I
(13:23):
am asking for political street smarts from people who so
far have not even been able to end the careers
of somebody as stupid as Barney Rubble's body double Marjorie
Taylor freaking green. The first thing that should have happened
yesterday was a notification to news corps from the FCC. No,
(13:44):
the FCC cannot do a damn thing about Fox News.
The FCC has no jurisdiction over cable. I have been
saying sentences like that since the year nineteen eighty two.
But the FCC sure as hell can do something about
the twenty nine over the air station's news corp owns
in eighteen markets from Albuquerque to Sandusky. It can challenge
(14:06):
their licenses. It rarely works, but it always gets great publicity,
and it always leaves scars on the corporation involved. The
second thing that should have happened yesterday is that the
Biden administration should have announced, matter of factly, that Rupert
Murdock can put any damn thing he wants on his
little faux news operation. This is America. But A that
(14:31):
does not mean anybody has to treat them any longer
as a journalistic entity. And therefore all press access under
White House control is hereby revoked. And b that therefore
the scheduled Tuesday evening interview of FBI Director Christopher Ray
by Brett Baer, the opinion host who actually believes he
is a straight news announcer on Fox that interview had
(14:53):
been canceled. Well, guess what did not happen yesterday? Any
of those things I just mentioned? Can we at least
pretend to fight back? A last point on the January
sixth insurrection before Tucker Carlson's Nightly Hour is converted by
Murdoch into a twenty four seven telethon to raise funds
(15:15):
for the slendered patriots charged by the dictatorial Department. There
are so many of these patriots whose idea of loyalty
to America is to destroy its representative government that they
have officially run out of even bad excuses for what
(15:36):
they did. On January sixth, newly unsealed court documents confirmed
that I, retired New Jersey state trooper facing five federal charges,
helped knocked over a barricade, pull other barricades out of
the hands of outnumbered Capitol police officers, and entered the
capital through a broken doorway after the building had been
(15:57):
cordoned off and the insurrectionists had been ordered to leave.
His name is Michael Danielle of Holndale, New Jersey, and
in an affidavit written by the FBI agent who interviewed him,
retired Trooper Danielle said he only went into the Capitol
because he was quote looking for a bathroom and not
(16:19):
finding one. Left immediately thereafter unquote looking for a bathroom. Well,
if he needed to go, why didn't he just find
the nearest American flag? God knows. That's what Kevin McCarthy
and Tucker Carlson use stell ahead of us in this
(16:52):
edition of Countdown. While the corruption of news Corp and
Fox News and Rupert Murdoch is front of mind, time
for me to recount what they did when somebody sent
me and a dozen other liberals packages that they claimed
contained anthrax. The FBI asked us all to keep it
quiet for a day so they could follow a great lead.
(17:12):
But news Corp published a story anyway in The New
York Post and mocked me for calling the FBI. How
dumb is Matt Gates dumb enough that he tried to
score points against an Undersecretary of Defense by quoting an
article for him a newspaper that he did not know
was published by the Chinese Communist Party? How he spelt
(17:34):
Jackie Robinson? Don't ask the signmakers at the New York
Department of Transportation. A big announcement about this here podcast.
It's good news. And not only is Joe Biden running
for reelection, but he's getting taller. That's next. This Discountdown
(18:04):
is a countdown with Keith old Woman postscripts to the news,
some headlines, some updates, some snarks, some predictions, state Line Washington,
Patard time on Capitol Hill. As in hoist on one's.
At a hearing into aid to Ukraine, Congressman Matt Gates
(18:27):
decided to show up Defense under Secretary Colan Call he
had a gotcha moment about American money purportedly going to
a Ukrainian brigade once linked to Neo Nazis. Problem was
his source for this story was, well, you'll hear his
source is the A's Off battalion getting access to US weapons.
(18:49):
Not that I'm aware of, but if you have information,
I sets consent to enter to the record. The Global
Times investigative report that that talks about training. It's from
the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensics Resource Lab, citing that the
Azab Battalion was even getting stuff as far back as
twenty eighteen without objection. Show order any reason to disagree
(19:11):
with that assessment. Doctor, I'm sorry? Is this the Global
Times from China? No? This is well that's what you read. Yeah,
it might be. Yeah, would that be a reason. As
a general matter, I don't take beijings. Probably No, No No, yeah,
just if the if the allegation is true or false,
I mean, I don't have any evidence one way or
the other. As a general matter, I don't take Beijings
(19:31):
propaganda at face value, fair fair enough. I would agree
with that assessment. As Under Secretary Call noted, the Global
Times Gates was quoting is the international edition basically of
the People's Daily, which is the official newspaper of the
Chinese Communist Party. And as whoever runs against Gates next
year can now say Gates not only reads Chinese communist
(19:54):
propaganda but entering some of it into the congressional record. Morn,
Thank you, Nancy Faust, Dateline, Washington. Another hearing, Another moron
(20:18):
Marjorie Taylor Green about the implications of school shutdowns during COVID.
What it did to our children's math and reading levels
is horrific. School closures brought them to the lowest levels
in years. England eighth graders math proficiency dropped by seven points.
But do you have any numbers, Marge? There are one million,
(20:40):
five hundred and twenty four, five hundred and twenty four
and four hundred and eighty one. This is over one million,
one point five million, a lot, Midge, Just say a
lot and move on. Oh, I got to hear that again.
There are one million, five hundred and twenty four, five
hundred and twenty four and four hundred and eighty one.
(21:02):
This is over one million, one point five million, eleveny
billion dateline Leesburg, Florida. Comforted by the thought that Ron
Desantist might be the Republican presidential nominee and not Trump,
don't be de Santists did a book signing in a
mall yesterday. The book has his name on it. Lord
knows who actually wrote it, but we do know who
(21:22):
that was outside the mall telling Trump supporters who came
to troll to Santists that anybody wearing or carrying Trump
signs was required to leave the area. It was a cop.
Governor Huey Long used to do this too, and dateline
the White House. President Biden's physical had a surprise in it. No,
he's fine, he's just well. In his last physical at
(21:46):
the end of twenty twenty one, he was five feet
eleven and sixty five one hundredths inches tall. In the
new physical, he's six feet tall. He grew thirty five
one hundredths of an inch in a little over a year. Actually,
it's probably just daily height variability or better posture or
(22:08):
as a terrific legendary Saturday Night Live sketch from nineteen
seventy nine about the Three Mile Island nuclear accident, was
once titled He's the Amazing Colossal President Ahead. I went
(22:34):
on at length yesterday about the measures News Corps and
Fox News will take to prevent people criticizing it. Step
one is always character assassination, but they don't stick to
television character assassination. They also have a newspaper called The
New York Post, and they have not only used it
against my employers, but against two of my former girlfriends,
(22:55):
and against members of my family, and often against me
once because they did not like it when I called
the police when somebody sent to my home home what
that person claimed was anthrax things I promised not to tell.
Coming up first time for the daily roundup of the
mis grants, morons, and Dunning kruger offex specimens who constitute
(23:15):
today's worst persons in the world. The Bronze New York
City's Department of Transportation. It has installed a new sign
directing drivers from the corner of Myrtle Avenue and Forest
Park Drive onto the Jackie Robinson Parkway. It's got his initials,
the sign does. It's got a very good likeness of him.
It's got his number, forty two, and it's got his name,
(23:37):
Jackie j A k I E j A k I E. No,
Jakie would be Jake to JK. Robinson Parkway your runner
up CNN's Chris Licked. The implosion continues. A round table
discussing the Norfolk Southern chemical disaster train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio,
(23:59):
featured on a Dana Bash program. One of the participants
was a CNN political commentator, David Urban, a Republican, who
blamed who else, the President, not Norfolk Southern Railway par
for the course in the remaking of CNN into a
right wing outlet. But more importantly, CNN standards have just collapsed.
(24:20):
Urban and they never mentioned this, deflecting blame from Norfolk
Southern was until twenty twenty, president of the firm that
lobbied for Norfolk Southern. But our winner, New York City
Mayor Eric Adams, Help us, we have elected a messianic theocrat.
(24:42):
Mayor Adams has done it again, telling an interfaith breakfast
that he does not believe in the separation of church
and state. Don't tell me about no separation of church
and state. State is the body, Church is the heart,
he said. You take the heart out of the body,
the body dies. Unquote well, sure if this is a rand.
(25:04):
Last spring, Adams was consoling the family of a murder
victim and he suddenly blurted, I thank God I'm the
mayor right now. And then at Shabbat's services in May,
he added circular logic to his obsessions, quote, there is
no way God created me for this moment if he
did not believe this was my moment. Uh huh, this
(25:25):
is not going to end well, help us, New York Mayor, Eric.
There is no way God created me for this moment
if he did not believe this was my moment to
be creating me momentarily for this creative momentum moment. Adams
two days worst person in the world still a head
(26:03):
on Countdown of the news Corp files. The day the
FBI had me evacuate my apartment because they were sure
that what I had gotten in the mail was fake anthrax,
and somebody leaked the story to news Corpse New York
Post and it identified who was to blame for the
fake anthrax attack and it was me first. In each
(26:26):
edition of Countdown, we feature a dog in need you
can help. Every dog has its day today, two of them,
Dora and Lee. They were found wandering the streets in
a small Arkansas town, saved by positively canine rescue puppies.
Just week old sisters, the bandons sticking together without food
or medical care. They're now being treated for malnourishment, parasites,
(26:48):
bacterial infections. The prognosis is good, but they'll need several
hundred dollars in betcare. If you want to donate, you
can find Dora and Lee on cuddy dot com or
on my Twitter feeds, and your retweets can really help them.
I thank you, and Dora Lee thank you. You should
(27:25):
never believe any source story you read in The New
York Post, or indeed, in or on any media outlet
owned by the Murdochs like Fox News. They occasionally do
report real things, but just as often they make stuff up.
Not exaggerate or get slightly wrong, or spin for political purposes,
but utterly fabricate. On April eleventh, two thousand and five,
(27:49):
the Post was to run such a story. Only under
the threat of multiple lawsuits did the Post spike this story.
I've never told this thing before, but I was reminded
of it the other day. And I think going through
the mechanics of it will illustrate just how evil an
organization news actually is, Like you didn't know that from
the existence of Tucker Carlson, but more importantly, how unreliable
(28:11):
it is as a source of news, even for people
who agree with it politically. As a New York Post
page six gossip story, this one had everything. It attacked MSNBC,
It had quotes from informed sources even at one point,
it had a witness. It had somebody insulting Peter Jennings
right after the late ABC anchorman revealed he had lung cancer.
(28:33):
And it was constructed in such a way that if
I did not comment on it, they could print the story,
then come back the next day and rehash it and
add that I was still refusing to comment on it.
But there was one overriding problem. It was a complete fabrication.
It was full of events that did not happen, and
people who did not exist. New York Post Page six
(28:57):
contacted MSNBC's then media relations guy, Jeremy Gaines on Thursday,
April seventh, two thousand and five, and this was the story.
They told me. A quote frequent critic of President Bush
had refused to anchor the coverage of the death of
Pope John Paul the Second, pretended to be ill and
called in sick instead. The major problem with their story
(29:20):
was I had anchored the coverage of the death of
Pope John Paul the Second. I had been anchoring primetime
coverage for hours each weeknight leading up to the Potiff's passing.
There were viewers who saw me, Studio staffers. Carl Bernstein
was our in studio Papal expert, remembered seeing me there.
There were videotapes of me anchoring. This did not stop
(29:41):
the Post. In the first version of their story, page
six told us that their unnamed source had been on
board the Amtrak Acela train from Washington to New York,
sitting near my agent as my agent talked to somebody
on a cell phone. Their witness said, my agent complained
that I had had a quote meltdown after quote, calling
in sick rather than anchor the papal coverage, which I anchored.
(30:05):
But there was more quote. Aulderman, a frequent critic of
the president's policies, said it was better in sports. They
quoted my agent quoting me into the phone. She supposedly
said I'll be dealing with this all day now. Apart
from the fact that I had anchored the coverage, the
postclaimed I had not anchored. There was another major flaw
on the story. My agent was not on a train
(30:27):
from Washington to New York on the day in question,
nor the week in question, nor in fact the year
in question. She told me she thought she had once
been on a train from Washington to New York in
the year nineteen sixty seven. My agent at the time
lived a top Mount Shasta in California, and so seldom
(30:47):
left there that when she once drove to town to
get the mail, I asked her for full details because
I jokingly suggested we should lead the news with it.
So the next day, Friday, April eighth, New York Post
Page six came back with a different version of their story.
They had misheard their source. Of course, it wasn't my
agent on the phone from the train from DC to
(31:09):
New York. It was a woman who worked for my agent,
a woman named Susan. A woman named Susan, whom I had,
they would report, already phoned three times that morning and
was to meet urgently at the boat House in Central Park,
presumably because the middle of Grand Central Station would have
been a little too public. MSNBC's Jeremy Gaines responded again
(31:32):
with some irrefutable refutations. Nobody named Susan worked for my agent.
In fact, sorry Post, nobody at all worked for my agent.
She was independent. She had a working relationship with a
small Los Angeles agency which basically covered her phone when
she was on vacation, which was almost never because she
never left the top of Mount Shasta. We called that
(31:56):
see and they confirmed they not only did not have
anybody working for them named Susan, but nobody from their
agency was even on the East coast so far that year.
At this point I called the television columnist of the
New York Post, who I knew a little, and off
the record explained to him that I was furious in
getting ready to sue, but that NBC was far angrier
(32:16):
than I was, and that they were going to sue
as well and sue the editor of Page six personally
in an effort to put him out of business. I
calmly went through the facts of this. This guy, who
had a conscience, sighed, said he got these kinds of
calls more often than I would believe and I said, no,
I'd believe it, And he said he would go to
the editor of page six and explain somebody was lying
to the editor of page six and he was going
(32:38):
to get himself sued into bankruptcy over a really obviously
untrue and completely disproven story. A couple of hours later,
New York Post Page six called again, demanding a comment
from me on a third different version of their exclusive
papal scoop. No, the woman their witness heard, who they
first said was my agent, then said she'd gotten it wrong.
(32:59):
It was a woman named Susan who worked for my
agent had now become a woman who worked for my agent,
whose name witness never heard, but she was talking to
somebody else named Susan. And there was an additional quote
that appeared out of nowhere. I'll be dealing with this
all day now was gone. It was replaced with I'll
be dealing with this all day now. The same week
(33:21):
Peter Jennings makes his announcement about having lung cancer. This idiot,
a frequent President and President Bush critic, is sitting around
in his pajamas calling me about this. Years later, a
former gossip reporter in Murdoch's employee explained to me that
his celebrity and gossip people are taught never to back
down from a confrontation, and that if the subject of
(33:41):
one of their hit jobs fights back or tries to refute,
or especially threatens legal action, to keep making the story
worse and worse for them. And in the first decade
of this century, you were supposed to try to work
in a defense of George W. Bush. But there's also
what they called an emergency exit. If there is no
question that the story is nonsensible, the basic spine of
(34:03):
the story does not line up with provable facts. Just
abandoned it. Don't tell the subject of your attack that
you are abandoning it. Just don't make any more phone
calls and don't send any more emails about it. Just vanish,
and then send the name of the subject around to
all the other Murdoch operations to see if they can
come up with any dirt on the subject to punish
(34:23):
them for fighting back against the Murdoch lies. Well, it
took the New York Post a year and a half
after dropping this story. They never called back about Susan
or my agent or the boathouse in Central Park again.
But on September twenty six, two thousand and six, I
opened an envelope bearing a California post mark at my
(34:44):
home in New York, and a sticky substance it looked
like drano mixed with talcum powder fell out. An accompanying
note said it was antrax, and now I and other
Liberals would get a taste of our own medicine. Even
reading those chilling words and having covered the actual anthrax
letters attacks of two thousand and one for CNN, I
knew it wasn't antrax. The guy who supposedly sent the
(35:06):
actual anthrax was an expert in the field, and even
he mishandled the stuff so badly that the official report
was he gave himself anthrax poisoning and died of it.
On the other hand, whatever I was wrong, my apartment
building was filled with little old ladies who had lived
there since Roosevelt was president. I only assumed that meant
Franklin Roosevelt. The odds were about one in a trillion.
(35:28):
This was actually anthrax, but who was I had to
dismiss this on their behalf, So I made a phone call.
Well that made it into quite an evening. The cops
showed up. The FBI showed up. They said, of course,
it's not anthrax. What we have to act like it is.
The hazmat squad came in, they set up a command
post in the building. They swept my apartment and they said, okay,
now you have to go to the emergency room for tests.
(35:50):
And I said, it's not anthrax. You just said so.
And they said, if we have to do this, you
have to do this too. I laughed, And if you don't,
we can arrest you as a threat to public health
and make you do it. So out I went into
an ambulance dressed in a hazmat suit one size too
small that really chafed in the groin. I spent the
(36:10):
night getting checked out, and the FBI called back and said,
it's like Draino with ivory soap flakes. But they also
said there were other letters that had arrived that night
and the night before and the week before to people
like the chairman of CBS and David Letterman's office, and
Nancy Pelosi and the wrong John Stewart, And they couldn't
(36:31):
make me do this, but it would really help if
I did not report what had happened to me on
my TV show just for one day because they had
a lead on the guy and they didn't want to
scare them off. Naturally, I said sure. The next day,
while we were still observing the embargo on the story
my story, which actually happened to me, New York Post
(36:51):
page six ran a picture of me with the headline
powder Puff spooks Keith and making sure to identify me
as quote can you guess a frequent critic of President
Bush's policies. It mocked me for not just assuming it
was fake antrax and ignoring it, and claimed I insisted
the cops take me to the hospital. Quote whether they
gave him a lollipop on the way out isn't known.
(37:15):
By the way, one of the anthrax letters in two
thousand and one, the actual anthrax letters had been mailed
to the New York Post, and one of their staffers
contracted the anthrax poisoning, but that didn't seem to matter
anymore when it was a chance to take a shot
at me. Anyway. As it turned out, there was a
guy in California sending out these threatening letters, each with
fake antrax, to about a dozen people. He sent me
(37:36):
four of them. I soon knew the FBI guys on
the case by their first names, and one day I
pointed out to FBI Doug that the last envelope had
a barcode on it that maybe could track the guy,
and he said, oh, you're right, And the next thing
I knew, the FBI had videotaped the suspect mailing yet
another letter to me from his home in Woodland Hills, California,
(37:58):
and I swear to god he actually lived in his
mother's basement. And FBI Doug said, do you have your
permission to pull a letter out of the mailbox and
open it? And I said sure, And the guy wound
up going to prison for like eighteen months, but not
before FBI Doug said, by the way, the barcode you'd
noticed it was for the post office here, and that's
where we found his address, and the fact that he'd
(38:21):
bought all this stuff and purchased a postal money order
for fifteen dollars made out to the Katherine Harris for
Florida Senate campaign, and that led us to his online history,
which is all about how she is the most beautiful
woman in the world, Katherine Harris, except for maybe some
gal named Laura something, the most beautiful woman in history,
(38:43):
and I said, Laura, Laura Ingram an FBI. Doug said, Yeah,
that's it, Laura Ingram. And if that isn't ten years
of my life in one sentence, I don't know what
it is. Thanks for listening, and thanks for listening so much.
(39:13):
I'm happy to tell you that for the second consecutive month,
Countdown cleared the podcast benchmark one million downloads in a month,
and in a month who only had twenty week days.
Thank you. Now go and find others to listen. Here
the credits. Most of the music was arranged, produced and
performed by Brian Ray and John Philip Channel, who are
(39:34):
the Countdown musical directors. Produced by Tko Brothers. All orchestration
and keyboards by John Philip Chanelle guitarist based on drums
by Brian Ray, Our Beethoven selections. Others of them have
been arranged and performed by No Horns Allowed. The sports
music is the Olberman theme from ESPN two and it
was written by Mitch Warren Davis and appears courtesy of ESPN, Inc.
(39:57):
Musical comments from Nancy Faust. The best baseball stadium organist
ever our announce here today was Jonathan banks and everything
else is pretty mu my fault. So let's countdown for this,
the seven hundred and eighty fifth 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 countdown is tomorrow. Until then, I'm Keith Olberman.
(40:20):
Good morning, good afternoon, good night, and good luck. Countdown
with Keith Olberman is a production of iHeartRadio. For more
podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
(40:43):
wherever you get your podcasts.
Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio. Good
News everyone, we can all relax now. Kevin McCarthy has
(00:26):
promised that the January sixth security video he has released
to Fox News may indeed be shown on television, but
it will not include footage showing the secret exit paths
for congressman and senators and vice presidents. The Trump mob
wants to hang, and Kevin McCarthy promises this because he
has been promised it by Tucker Carlson. So he'll have
(00:52):
an exclusive, McCarthy says, then I'll give it out to
the entire country like he was a publicist trying to
sell somebody on interviewing one of the real housewives of
m ansk as if he would be qualified for such
a job. If there has ever been in American political
history a greater confluence of corrupt, cynical, unprincipled, immoral, indefensible, unreliable, disloyal, dishonest, condescending, unstable, malicious,
(01:25):
anti democracy crooks from two different fields than Kevin McCarthy
and Tucker Carlson, I cannot identify them. McCarthy has told
reporters that Carlson has personally and specifically assured him he
would not show any video detailing the exit routes, and
in fact, he would not even watch any video detailing
(01:46):
the exit routes. Quote. We walked through the security basis,
so there's no concern the assurances of Tucker Carlson. Like
when Tucker Carlson recoiled at the made up conspiracy theories
that the election had been stolen by voting machines controlled
by software from Venezuela or China or Mars or whichever
(02:08):
they chose, and he texted, the software shit is absurd,
shockingly reckless unquote. Yet seven weeks later he had Mike
Lindell on his show to make all those software accusations
all over again. And when Lindell finished making them all
over again, Carlson said, quote Mike Lindell, I really appreciate
you coming on tonight. Thank you very much. God bless you.
(02:33):
Tucker Carlson's word is the coin of the realm, provided
the realm is Russia. As John Schwartz at the Intercept
memorably summed up the dominion documents, quote, the most wonderful
part of the filings is Tucker Carlson's inspiring, principled stand
against telling the truth. I await Kevin McCarthy's announcement that
(02:55):
Tucker Carlson has also promised not to alter any of
the video, nor to decontextualize it, nor to use it
to support further Fox News segments gaslighting this country over
what happened on January sixth, twenty twenty one, calling it
as Carlson already has repeatedly a false flag operation, and
casting other doubts on the obviousness of a Trump inspired
(03:19):
coup attempt, doubts that who knows Tucker Carlson might even
himself believe it is certainly possible, though none of us
who have ever worked with him can identify such a
previous case that Tucker Carlson actually believes in something besides
his own paycheck. Tucker Carlson promises Kevin McCarthy, and Kevin
(03:45):
McCarthy promises us the face of a television channel that
a month ago ranked incredibility and honesty somewhere near German
State Radio in the nineteen thirties, yet actually found a
way to go downhill from there. With these revelations of
the jaundiced hypocrisy, the deliberate lying by Carlson and the
(04:06):
other vermin in Fox Primetime in the first set of
dominion lawsuits, exhibits and depositions, and now with the naked
suppression and censorship of truth and fact by the network's owner,
and his theft of the advertisements of one presidential campaign
so he could illegally give them to the other presidential campaign,
contained in the second set of dominion exhibits and depositions
(04:28):
that got out on Monday, And that promise is conveyed
to us from Tucker Carlson by Kevin McCarthy as vile
and scheming and worthless a human being as has ever
appeared on the American political stage, a sort of man
(04:50):
who in exactly two years went from prompting Trump to
resign on the night Trump instigated an attempt to overthrow
the government of this country to thanking Trump personally repeatedly
grovelingly forgetting him elected Speaker of the House with the
support of such traitors and scum as Marjorie Taylor Green
(05:12):
and Matt Gates. Maybe there was a similar pair of
walking cancers in our nation's past. Pick somebody and join
him or her with John Wilkes Booth, pick somebody else
and join him or her with Jefferson Davis. And why
is the Speaker of the House of Representatives dealing personally
(05:35):
with a creature whose reputation for thirty years in television
has been that of a constant, remorseless liar. Who on
earth is Kevin McCarthy think he is? What omniscient writes
does he think he has? At? Who on earth does
Kevin McCarthy think Tucker Carlson is? We have now gotten
(05:56):
more details of this devil's bargain between Carlson and McCarthy,
in which it is impossible to tell which one of
them is the devil. I have said previously that, in
addition to his baseline of evil, Kevin McCarthy may also
be that rare combination of hyena and moron. He also
told reporters at the Capitol that he quote wanted to
make sure we don't play politics with the release of
(06:19):
the video, as if playing politics was not the only
thing he's doing here, and not the only thing. Kevin
McCarthy has the vaguest idea of how to do if
the perfidy off. Kevin McCarthy and his alliance with the
scumbag that is Tucker Carlson so bad as scumbag. It's
continued out of the next scumbag. If all that we're
(06:40):
not bad enough. It is now clear that McCarthy's adjutant
in this sleaziest of businesses is not that freshman Wisconsin
Congressman Brian's Style, whom McCarthy apparently talked into misleading the
Capitol police about setting up a viewing station nominally for
a House committee. In fact, it was for Tucker Carlson's producers. No,
it's even worse than this kid's style. McCarthy's number two
(07:03):
in this scam is Barry louder Milk, the Georgia congressman who,
as one reporter perfectly put it, is very familiar with
the January twenty twenty one Capital Security video because he's
on it, shown giving personal tours of the Capitol and
specifically of areas of it, as the January sixth committee
(07:24):
phrase that quote not typically of interest to tourists, including hallways, staircases,
and security checkpoints. The videotape louder Milk tour was on
January fifth. On January sixth, one of louder Milk's guests
on that tour was recorded on video. Marching towards the
(07:44):
Capitol as the violence began, shouting there's no escape, Pelosi, Schumer, Nadler,
We're coming for you, instead of breaking rocks at sing
sing this insurrectionist slime. Barry louder Milk is actually the
chair of a subcommittee of the Administration Committee, because evidently
there were too many Republican crooks to put each of
(08:06):
them in charge of a full committee. Now, louder Milk
is also promising that this is all above board. Because
the Fox News producers who were already viewing this January
sixth video before Capitol Hill police or the Department of
Justice or Homeland Security or minority members even knew it
was going to happen, they were not allowed to duplicate
(08:28):
anything they saw, nor were they given copies of the videos,
though there is no indication that there was any security
preventing them from duplicating the videos, and even if there
had been, it would have been security provided by louder
Milk and or McCarthy. Fox News producers, louder Milk explains,
must request that specific clips of the January sixth video
(08:50):
be given to them, and those requests will be carefully vetted,
and louder Milk promises, quote, We'll make sure there's nothing sensitive,
nothing classified, including escape routes. Louder Milk then actually added, quote,
we don't want al Qaeda to know certain things al
Qaeda because Barry Loudermilk doesn't really know the name of
(09:14):
the likeliest foreign terrorist threat out of whose hands we
need to keep that video. So he just mentioned the
last one he'd heard about, and we should be grateful
he didn't mention the boder Minehoff group. And of course
louder Milk certainly wasn't going to mention the likeliest domestic
terrorist threat, because how could he choose among the House
Republican Caucus, Fox News, and Donald effing Trump. However, in
(09:41):
a twist that could only happen in these cynical times,
with this cynical, stupid Republican Congressional collection of America's flotsam
and jetsam, there is blowback against McCarthy's indefensible deal with
Tucker Carlson, and it comes from his own party. It's
not about safety or propriety, or false narratives or false
(10:01):
flags or false news networks, but about your politics. Monday
night and again yesterday morning, McCarthy met with his congressional
leadership teams. One can envision the devils taking five in
hell to huddle up with Lucifer. The team's anger was
reported by CNN Monday night, but it got buried behind
(10:23):
the second wave of Fox Dominion damnations. Some of McCarthy's minions,
quoting the CNN report, questioned how long the footage is
going to be dragged out in the press, with some
lawmakers concerned about the optics of appearing to try to
downplay a deadly insurrection in the US Capitol. Quote, let's
just rip the band aid off and get this over with,
(10:44):
one GOP lawmaker told CNN, happily for what is left
of American democracy. Those lawmakers are evidently unaware of what
the crisis at News Corps means. Tucker Carlson now has
to do. He not only has to gaslight with the
false flag story every night until he or Rupert Murdoch
(11:06):
think the dozens of bombs inside the Dominion releases are
no longer big news, but clearly Carlson also has to
come up with something new and worse to distract everybody
from the Fox scandal. He will now have to fabricate
something using that video something proving I don't know. Nancy
(11:27):
Pelosi is shown leading the mob towards her own office.
Who knows it's Tucker Carlson. Most of his brain may
be a diseased, dysfunctional mess, but his imagination and his
ability to come up with barely plausible excuses for Republican
disloyalty and treason seems to be intact. There will be
(11:51):
no relief of the dragging this out in the press Republicans,
nor the chance to just rip the band aid off
and get this over with Republicans. There will be dozens
and dozens of band aids until Fox News either plodes
or Tucker Carlson saves Rupert Murdoch's ancient ass. Even worse
(12:13):
for the Republicans, who have some foggy view of the
real world that McCarthy no longer has. In this particular nightmare,
they are also being led by this Barry louder Milk,
you know, the guy who's worried about Al Qaeda. Seeing
this video, I'm surprised you didn't mention the Viet cong yesterday.
(12:38):
Tour guide louder Milk of Georgia said he who was
not sure exactly what the time frame was for actually
releasing January sixth video to Carlson or you know, news
organizations or I don't know whoever would pay louder Milk
twenty five dollars. Is that the way this works? But
get this quote, Barry louder Milk quote. Hopefully sooner rather
(13:01):
than later. But I think we're talking about weeks to
months months. The real problem today on the Fox News
front is if Murdox propagandists are not actually mortally wounded,
they clearly could be with a few quick shots from
the Democrats or the Biden administration. But of course I
(13:23):
am asking for political street smarts from people who so
far have not even been able to end the careers
of somebody as stupid as Barney Rubble's body double Marjorie
Taylor freaking green. The first thing that should have happened
yesterday was a notification to news corps from the FCC. No,
(13:44):
the FCC cannot do a damn thing about Fox News.
The FCC has no jurisdiction over cable. I have been
saying sentences like that since the year nineteen eighty two.
But the FCC sure as hell can do something about
the twenty nine over the air station's news corp owns
in eighteen markets from Albuquerque to Sandusky. It can challenge
(14:06):
their licenses. It rarely works, but it always gets great publicity,
and it always leaves scars on the corporation involved. The
second thing that should have happened yesterday is that the
Biden administration should have announced, matter of factly, that Rupert
Murdock can put any damn thing he wants on his
little faux news operation. This is America. But A that
(14:31):
does not mean anybody has to treat them any longer
as a journalistic entity. And therefore all press access under
White House control is hereby revoked. And b that therefore
the scheduled Tuesday evening interview of FBI Director Christopher Ray
by Brett Baer, the opinion host who actually believes he
is a straight news announcer on Fox that interview had
(14:53):
been canceled. Well, guess what did not happen yesterday? Any
of those things I just mentioned? Can we at least
pretend to fight back? A last point on the January
sixth insurrection before Tucker Carlson's Nightly Hour is converted by
Murdoch into a twenty four seven telethon to raise funds
(15:15):
for the slendered patriots charged by the dictatorial Department. There
are so many of these patriots whose idea of loyalty
to America is to destroy its representative government that they
have officially run out of even bad excuses for what
(15:36):
they did. On January sixth, newly unsealed court documents confirmed
that I, retired New Jersey state trooper facing five federal charges,
helped knocked over a barricade, pull other barricades out of
the hands of outnumbered Capitol police officers, and entered the
capital through a broken doorway after the building had been
(15:57):
cordoned off and the insurrectionists had been ordered to leave.
His name is Michael Danielle of Holndale, New Jersey, and
in an affidavit written by the FBI agent who interviewed him,
retired Trooper Danielle said he only went into the Capitol
because he was quote looking for a bathroom and not
(16:19):
finding one. Left immediately thereafter unquote looking for a bathroom. Well,
if he needed to go, why didn't he just find
the nearest American flag? God knows. That's what Kevin McCarthy
and Tucker Carlson use stell ahead of us in this
(16:52):
edition of Countdown. While the corruption of news Corp and
Fox News and Rupert Murdoch is front of mind, time
for me to recount what they did when somebody sent
me and a dozen other liberals packages that they claimed
contained anthrax. The FBI asked us all to keep it
quiet for a day so they could follow a great lead.
(17:12):
But news Corp published a story anyway in The New
York Post and mocked me for calling the FBI. How
dumb is Matt Gates dumb enough that he tried to
score points against an Undersecretary of Defense by quoting an
article for him a newspaper that he did not know
was published by the Chinese Communist Party? How he spelt
(17:34):
Jackie Robinson? Don't ask the signmakers at the New York
Department of Transportation. A big announcement about this here podcast.
It's good news. And not only is Joe Biden running
for reelection, but he's getting taller. That's next. This Discountdown
(18:04):
is a countdown with Keith old Woman postscripts to the news,
some headlines, some updates, some snarks, some predictions, state Line Washington,
Patard time on Capitol Hill. As in hoist on one's.
At a hearing into aid to Ukraine, Congressman Matt Gates
(18:27):
decided to show up Defense under Secretary Colan Call he
had a gotcha moment about American money purportedly going to
a Ukrainian brigade once linked to Neo Nazis. Problem was
his source for this story was, well, you'll hear his
source is the A's Off battalion getting access to US weapons.
(18:49):
Not that I'm aware of, but if you have information,
I sets consent to enter to the record. The Global
Times investigative report that that talks about training. It's from
the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensics Resource Lab, citing that the
Azab Battalion was even getting stuff as far back as
twenty eighteen without objection. Show order any reason to disagree
(19:11):
with that assessment. Doctor, I'm sorry? Is this the Global
Times from China? No? This is well that's what you read. Yeah,
it might be. Yeah, would that be a reason. As
a general matter, I don't take beijings. Probably No, No No, yeah,
just if the if the allegation is true or false,
I mean, I don't have any evidence one way or
the other. As a general matter, I don't take Beijings
(19:31):
propaganda at face value, fair fair enough. I would agree
with that assessment. As Under Secretary Call noted, the Global
Times Gates was quoting is the international edition basically of
the People's Daily, which is the official newspaper of the
Chinese Communist Party. And as whoever runs against Gates next
year can now say Gates not only reads Chinese communist
(19:54):
propaganda but entering some of it into the congressional record. Morn,
Thank you, Nancy Faust, Dateline, Washington. Another hearing, Another moron
(20:18):
Marjorie Taylor Green about the implications of school shutdowns during COVID.
What it did to our children's math and reading levels
is horrific. School closures brought them to the lowest levels
in years. England eighth graders math proficiency dropped by seven points.
But do you have any numbers, Marge? There are one million,
(20:40):
five hundred and twenty four, five hundred and twenty four
and four hundred and eighty one. This is over one million,
one point five million, a lot, Midge, Just say a
lot and move on. Oh, I got to hear that again.
There are one million, five hundred and twenty four, five
hundred and twenty four and four hundred and eighty one.
(21:02):
This is over one million, one point five million, eleveny
billion dateline Leesburg, Florida. Comforted by the thought that Ron
Desantist might be the Republican presidential nominee and not Trump,
don't be de Santists did a book signing in a
mall yesterday. The book has his name on it. Lord
knows who actually wrote it, but we do know who
(21:22):
that was outside the mall telling Trump supporters who came
to troll to Santists that anybody wearing or carrying Trump
signs was required to leave the area. It was a cop.
Governor Huey Long used to do this too, and dateline
the White House. President Biden's physical had a surprise in it. No,
he's fine, he's just well. In his last physical at
(21:46):
the end of twenty twenty one, he was five feet
eleven and sixty five one hundredths inches tall. In the
new physical, he's six feet tall. He grew thirty five
one hundredths of an inch in a little over a year. Actually,
it's probably just daily height variability or better posture or
(22:08):
as a terrific legendary Saturday Night Live sketch from nineteen
seventy nine about the Three Mile Island nuclear accident, was
once titled He's the Amazing Colossal President Ahead. I went
(22:34):
on at length yesterday about the measures News Corps and
Fox News will take to prevent people criticizing it. Step
one is always character assassination, but they don't stick to
television character assassination. They also have a newspaper called The
New York Post, and they have not only used it
against my employers, but against two of my former girlfriends,
(22:55):
and against members of my family, and often against me
once because they did not like it when I called
the police when somebody sent to my home home what
that person claimed was anthrax things I promised not to tell.
Coming up first time for the daily roundup of the
mis grants, morons, and Dunning kruger offex specimens who constitute
(23:15):
today's worst persons in the world. The Bronze New York
City's Department of Transportation. It has installed a new sign
directing drivers from the corner of Myrtle Avenue and Forest
Park Drive onto the Jackie Robinson Parkway. It's got his initials,
the sign does. It's got a very good likeness of him.
It's got his number, forty two, and it's got his name,
(23:37):
Jackie j A k I E j A k I E. No,
Jakie would be Jake to JK. Robinson Parkway your runner
up CNN's Chris Licked. The implosion continues. A round table
discussing the Norfolk Southern chemical disaster train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio,
(23:59):
featured on a Dana Bash program. One of the participants
was a CNN political commentator, David Urban, a Republican, who
blamed who else, the President, not Norfolk Southern Railway par
for the course in the remaking of CNN into a
right wing outlet. But more importantly, CNN standards have just collapsed.
(24:20):
Urban and they never mentioned this, deflecting blame from Norfolk
Southern was until twenty twenty, president of the firm that
lobbied for Norfolk Southern. But our winner, New York City
Mayor Eric Adams, Help us, we have elected a messianic theocrat.
(24:42):
Mayor Adams has done it again, telling an interfaith breakfast
that he does not believe in the separation of church
and state. Don't tell me about no separation of church
and state. State is the body, Church is the heart,
he said. You take the heart out of the body,
the body dies. Unquote well, sure if this is a rand.
(25:04):
Last spring, Adams was consoling the family of a murder
victim and he suddenly blurted, I thank God I'm the
mayor right now. And then at Shabbat's services in May,
he added circular logic to his obsessions, quote, there is
no way God created me for this moment if he
did not believe this was my moment. Uh huh, this
(25:25):
is not going to end well, help us, New York Mayor, Eric.
There is no way God created me for this moment
if he did not believe this was my moment to
be creating me momentarily for this creative momentum moment. Adams
two days worst person in the world still a head
(26:03):
on Countdown of the news Corp files. The day the
FBI had me evacuate my apartment because they were sure
that what I had gotten in the mail was fake anthrax,
and somebody leaked the story to news Corpse New York
Post and it identified who was to blame for the
fake anthrax attack and it was me first. In each
(26:26):
edition of Countdown, we feature a dog in need you
can help. Every dog has its day today, two of them,
Dora and Lee. They were found wandering the streets in
a small Arkansas town, saved by positively canine rescue puppies.
Just week old sisters, the bandons sticking together without food
or medical care. They're now being treated for malnourishment, parasites,
(26:48):
bacterial infections. The prognosis is good, but they'll need several
hundred dollars in betcare. If you want to donate, you
can find Dora and Lee on cuddy dot com or
on my Twitter feeds, and your retweets can really help them.
I thank you, and Dora Lee thank you. You should
(27:25):
never believe any source story you read in The New
York Post, or indeed, in or on any media outlet
owned by the Murdochs like Fox News. They occasionally do
report real things, but just as often they make stuff up.
Not exaggerate or get slightly wrong, or spin for political purposes,
but utterly fabricate. On April eleventh, two thousand and five,
(27:49):
the Post was to run such a story. Only under
the threat of multiple lawsuits did the Post spike this story.
I've never told this thing before, but I was reminded
of it the other day. And I think going through
the mechanics of it will illustrate just how evil an
organization news actually is, Like you didn't know that from
the existence of Tucker Carlson, but more importantly, how unreliable
(28:11):
it is as a source of news, even for people
who agree with it politically. As a New York Post
page six gossip story, this one had everything. It attacked MSNBC,
It had quotes from informed sources even at one point,
it had a witness. It had somebody insulting Peter Jennings
right after the late ABC anchorman revealed he had lung cancer.
(28:33):
And it was constructed in such a way that if
I did not comment on it, they could print the story,
then come back the next day and rehash it and
add that I was still refusing to comment on it.
But there was one overriding problem. It was a complete fabrication.
It was full of events that did not happen, and
people who did not exist. New York Post Page six
(28:57):
contacted MSNBC's then media relations guy, Jeremy Gaines on Thursday,
April seventh, two thousand and five, and this was the story.
They told me. A quote frequent critic of President Bush
had refused to anchor the coverage of the death of
Pope John Paul the Second, pretended to be ill and
called in sick instead. The major problem with their story
(29:20):
was I had anchored the coverage of the death of
Pope John Paul the Second. I had been anchoring primetime
coverage for hours each weeknight leading up to the Potiff's passing.
There were viewers who saw me, Studio staffers. Carl Bernstein
was our in studio Papal expert, remembered seeing me there.
There were videotapes of me anchoring. This did not stop
(29:41):
the Post. In the first version of their story, page
six told us that their unnamed source had been on
board the Amtrak Acela train from Washington to New York,
sitting near my agent as my agent talked to somebody
on a cell phone. Their witness said, my agent complained
that I had had a quote meltdown after quote, calling
in sick rather than anchor the papal coverage, which I anchored.
(30:05):
But there was more quote. Aulderman, a frequent critic of
the president's policies, said it was better in sports. They
quoted my agent quoting me into the phone. She supposedly
said I'll be dealing with this all day now. Apart
from the fact that I had anchored the coverage, the
postclaimed I had not anchored. There was another major flaw
on the story. My agent was not on a train
(30:27):
from Washington to New York on the day in question,
nor the week in question, nor in fact the year
in question. She told me she thought she had once
been on a train from Washington to New York in
the year nineteen sixty seven. My agent at the time
lived a top Mount Shasta in California, and so seldom
(30:47):
left there that when she once drove to town to
get the mail, I asked her for full details because
I jokingly suggested we should lead the news with it.
So the next day, Friday, April eighth, New York Post
Page six came back with a different version of their story.
They had misheard their source. Of course, it wasn't my
agent on the phone from the train from DC to
(31:09):
New York. It was a woman who worked for my agent,
a woman named Susan. A woman named Susan, whom I had,
they would report, already phoned three times that morning and
was to meet urgently at the boat House in Central Park,
presumably because the middle of Grand Central Station would have
been a little too public. MSNBC's Jeremy Gaines responded again
(31:32):
with some irrefutable refutations. Nobody named Susan worked for my agent.
In fact, sorry Post, nobody at all worked for my agent.
She was independent. She had a working relationship with a
small Los Angeles agency which basically covered her phone when
she was on vacation, which was almost never because she
never left the top of Mount Shasta. We called that
(31:56):
see and they confirmed they not only did not have
anybody working for them named Susan, but nobody from their
agency was even on the East coast so far that year.
At this point I called the television columnist of the
New York Post, who I knew a little, and off
the record explained to him that I was furious in
getting ready to sue, but that NBC was far angrier
(32:16):
than I was, and that they were going to sue
as well and sue the editor of Page six personally
in an effort to put him out of business. I
calmly went through the facts of this. This guy, who
had a conscience, sighed, said he got these kinds of
calls more often than I would believe and I said, no,
I'd believe it, And he said he would go to
the editor of page six and explain somebody was lying
to the editor of page six and he was going
(32:38):
to get himself sued into bankruptcy over a really obviously
untrue and completely disproven story. A couple of hours later,
New York Post Page six called again, demanding a comment
from me on a third different version of their exclusive
papal scoop. No, the woman their witness heard, who they
first said was my agent, then said she'd gotten it wrong.
(32:59):
It was a woman named Susan who worked for my
agent had now become a woman who worked for my agent,
whose name witness never heard, but she was talking to
somebody else named Susan. And there was an additional quote
that appeared out of nowhere. I'll be dealing with this
all day now was gone. It was replaced with I'll
be dealing with this all day now. The same week
(33:21):
Peter Jennings makes his announcement about having lung cancer. This idiot,
a frequent President and President Bush critic, is sitting around
in his pajamas calling me about this. Years later, a
former gossip reporter in Murdoch's employee explained to me that
his celebrity and gossip people are taught never to back
down from a confrontation, and that if the subject of
(33:41):
one of their hit jobs fights back or tries to refute,
or especially threatens legal action, to keep making the story
worse and worse for them. And in the first decade
of this century, you were supposed to try to work
in a defense of George W. Bush. But there's also
what they called an emergency exit. If there is no
question that the story is nonsensible, the basic spine of
(34:03):
the story does not line up with provable facts. Just
abandoned it. Don't tell the subject of your attack that
you are abandoning it. Just don't make any more phone
calls and don't send any more emails about it. Just vanish,
and then send the name of the subject around to
all the other Murdoch operations to see if they can
come up with any dirt on the subject to punish
(34:23):
them for fighting back against the Murdoch lies. Well, it
took the New York Post a year and a half
after dropping this story. They never called back about Susan
or my agent or the boathouse in Central Park again.
But on September twenty six, two thousand and six, I
opened an envelope bearing a California post mark at my
(34:44):
home in New York, and a sticky substance it looked
like drano mixed with talcum powder fell out. An accompanying
note said it was antrax, and now I and other
Liberals would get a taste of our own medicine. Even
reading those chilling words and having covered the actual anthrax
letters attacks of two thousand and one for CNN, I
knew it wasn't antrax. The guy who supposedly sent the
(35:06):
actual anthrax was an expert in the field, and even
he mishandled the stuff so badly that the official report
was he gave himself anthrax poisoning and died of it.
On the other hand, whatever I was wrong, my apartment
building was filled with little old ladies who had lived
there since Roosevelt was president. I only assumed that meant
Franklin Roosevelt. The odds were about one in a trillion.
(35:28):
This was actually anthrax, but who was I had to
dismiss this on their behalf, So I made a phone call.
Well that made it into quite an evening. The cops
showed up. The FBI showed up. They said, of course,
it's not anthrax. What we have to act like it is.
The hazmat squad came in, they set up a command
post in the building. They swept my apartment and they said, okay,
now you have to go to the emergency room for tests.
(35:50):
And I said, it's not anthrax. You just said so.
And they said, if we have to do this, you
have to do this too. I laughed, And if you don't,
we can arrest you as a threat to public health
and make you do it. So out I went into
an ambulance dressed in a hazmat suit one size too
small that really chafed in the groin. I spent the
(36:10):
night getting checked out, and the FBI called back and said,
it's like Draino with ivory soap flakes. But they also
said there were other letters that had arrived that night
and the night before and the week before to people
like the chairman of CBS and David Letterman's office, and
Nancy Pelosi and the wrong John Stewart, And they couldn't
(36:31):
make me do this, but it would really help if
I did not report what had happened to me on
my TV show just for one day because they had
a lead on the guy and they didn't want to
scare them off. Naturally, I said sure. The next day,
while we were still observing the embargo on the story
my story, which actually happened to me, New York Post
(36:51):
page six ran a picture of me with the headline
powder Puff spooks Keith and making sure to identify me
as quote can you guess a frequent critic of President
Bush's policies. It mocked me for not just assuming it
was fake antrax and ignoring it, and claimed I insisted
the cops take me to the hospital. Quote whether they
gave him a lollipop on the way out isn't known.
(37:15):
By the way, one of the anthrax letters in two
thousand and one, the actual anthrax letters had been mailed
to the New York Post, and one of their staffers
contracted the anthrax poisoning, but that didn't seem to matter
anymore when it was a chance to take a shot
at me. Anyway. As it turned out, there was a
guy in California sending out these threatening letters, each with
fake antrax, to about a dozen people. He sent me
(37:36):
four of them. I soon knew the FBI guys on
the case by their first names, and one day I
pointed out to FBI Doug that the last envelope had
a barcode on it that maybe could track the guy,
and he said, oh, you're right, And the next thing
I knew, the FBI had videotaped the suspect mailing yet
another letter to me from his home in Woodland Hills, California,
(37:58):
and I swear to god he actually lived in his
mother's basement. And FBI Doug said, do you have your
permission to pull a letter out of the mailbox and
open it? And I said sure, And the guy wound
up going to prison for like eighteen months, but not
before FBI Doug said, by the way, the barcode you'd
noticed it was for the post office here, and that's
where we found his address, and the fact that he'd
(38:21):
bought all this stuff and purchased a postal money order
for fifteen dollars made out to the Katherine Harris for
Florida Senate campaign, and that led us to his online history,
which is all about how she is the most beautiful
woman in the world, Katherine Harris, except for maybe some
gal named Laura something, the most beautiful woman in history,
(38:43):
and I said, Laura, Laura Ingram an FBI. Doug said, Yeah,
that's it, Laura Ingram. And if that isn't ten years
of my life in one sentence, I don't know what
it is. Thanks for listening, and thanks for listening so much.
(39:13):
I'm happy to tell you that for the second consecutive month,
Countdown cleared the podcast benchmark one million downloads in a month,
and in a month who only had twenty week days.
Thank you. Now go and find others to listen. Here
the credits. Most of the music was arranged, produced and
performed by Brian Ray and John Philip Channel, who are
(39:34):
the Countdown musical directors. Produced by Tko Brothers. All orchestration
and keyboards by John Philip Chanelle guitarist based on drums
by Brian Ray, Our Beethoven selections. Others of them have
been arranged and performed by No Horns Allowed. The sports
music is the Olberman theme from ESPN two and it
was written by Mitch Warren Davis and appears courtesy of ESPN, Inc.
(39:57):
Musical comments from Nancy Faust. The best baseball stadium organist
ever our announce here today was Jonathan banks and everything
else is pretty mu my fault. So let's countdown for this,
the seven hundred and eighty fifth 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 countdown is tomorrow. Until then, I'm Keith Olberman.
(40:20):
Good morning, good afternoon, good night, and good luck. Countdown
with Keith Olberman is a production of iHeartRadio. For more
podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
(40:43):
wherever you get your podcasts.
Host
Keith Olbermann
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