TRUMP DOUBLES DOWN ON DEFILING ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY - 8.29.24

political activities. Trump's team exploited a memorial event at Arlington on Monday, broke the law by privately photographing and filming it, physically assaulted Arlington National Cemetery staff who asked him to stop. He gave a thumbs up and smiled idiotically while literally standing on the graves of dead US military heroes. And now his campaign is trying to turn it into an

online campaign advertisement. By definition partisan political activity. Trump people need to be arrested for this because it could have been trivial. It could have been there was a miscommunication, not even an apology, like anybody in the Trump campaign were human enough or honest enough or respectful of our

war dead enough to apologize just say it was a misunderstanding. No, they blamed the cemetery staffer, They blamed the media, They blamed Vice President Harris for not being there to commemorate the sad anniversary of deaths in Afghanistan, the commemoration Trump has illegally turned into a campaign ad, the commemoration Trump skipped last year and skipped the year before. Because to

Trump and to this robot JV. Vance, those buried at Arlington are just another product, just another sell, just another gimmick, just another brand name to exploit. But Vance, and thank god, Vance might be the least intuitive politician of this century. He makes Jeb Bush look like George Bush. Vance escalated this by swearing at the Vice President of the United States and blaming her. Because Trump has been exposed as a monster who smiled and gave a thumbs up while

literally standing on the graves of dead American soldiers. Kamala Harris is so asleep at the wheel that she won't even do an investigation into what happened, and she wants to yell at Donald Trump because he showed up. She can go to hell that may be marrying lead shit for brains there finally learned how to pronounce it's her name.

Just to twist this knife further, Trump's thug Chris Losovita has now doubled down on the attempt by Trump's moron Stephen Chung to blame the staff at the National Cemetery for Trump breaking the law. Quote for a despicable individual to physically prevent Trump's team from accompanying him to this solemn event is a disgrace and does not deserve to represent the hollowed grounds of Arlington National Cemetery. You heard me right, hollowed ho llowed as in hollowed out, as

in Trump's brain is hollowed out. You know, these manipulative trump isst bastards who hate the troops, who hate this country, can't even get the word right. It's hallowed ha llowd to honor as holy? Oh, do you want to make this worse? Still? Well, to their credit, the news organization's Axios and Daily Beast added the notation parenthesis sick and

parenthesis after las Aveda's unforgivable stupidity. The former Obama staffer and Army veteran a captain in Iraq and Afghanistan, Brandon Friedman, noted that other news organizations like NBC simply cut and pasted hollowed as if it were the right word, never mentioning it was not, but CNN corrected las Avita before publishing. They printed hallowed as if he had said that, giving no indication that Trump's senior campaign advisor made an offensive mistake,

claiming he didn't. And worst of all, one news outlet first cut and pasted hollowed, then corrected it to hallowed without a sick or a note that la Savita made the mistake, or even that they the news organization changed it after publication. And you already know that the news organization that managed to commit three separate journalistic felonies on one infuriating quote to cover for Trump. The news organization that again has covered for Trump's barbarism. You already know

it was The New York Times. And of course there remains the context for this, the real reason the trumpists did not just resolve this with a quick statement, not even accepting responsibility, just confirming a miscommunication. America has caught on to Trump's insanity and the fact that he doesn't care if American soldiers die or are wounded or captured, or are asked to shoot other Americans on the street.

Donald Trump is not loyal to the United States of America, nor to the memory of anybody buried at Arlington National Sene Cemetery, nor at flanders Field, nor in the Ardennes, nor at Brookwood. And this issue, his fake patriotism, his flag hugging bullshit, his suckers and losers essence, this is about to break wide open, because hey, remember this. We're only thirteen days removed from this.

his trained monkey JD. Vance by his side, underscores that he has never been more dangerous than he is today because the reality has somehow pushed its way past the nearly infinite amount of self reverence and the diseases and the mini strokes and made its way to Trump's core. What's made its way to Trump's core is that he is now losing, that at the current trajectory, he is going to lose, and lose badly, and that there will be no immunity so thorough that it will keep him

from dying in prison. If he did not know that before he found out about it last night. More polls, more disasters for Trump. These are Fox News polls done after the Democratic Convention, done after Trump was endorsed by Bear cub Boy Arizona Harris fifty Trump forty nine. It had been Trump by five, Georgia Harris fifty Trump forty eight. It had been Trump by six. Nevada Harris fifty Trump forty eight. That had been Trump by five. North Carolina

Trump fifty Harris forty nine. It had been Trump by five. That is a total swing in four states to Harris of twenty five points. Maintime the Republican Commissioner of Miami Dade County in Florida commissioned to poll there. It's Harris forty seven Trump forty seven. Florida a long shot still to be sure is in play Harris forty seven, Trump forty seven. They are tied in Miami Dade. The Harris campaign just bought time for TV ads tying Trump to

Project twenty twenty five. They bought it in the Swing States, and they bought it in the West Palm Beach market wherein lies Mara crapshack and maybe worse than everything else, Trump is beginning to kill off Republicans down ballot, especially the ones closest to him psychopathically. The Fox poll in Arizona scores the Senate race there as Reuben Diego fifty six, Carrie Lake forty one, forty one forty one last week

of August. How in the hell is Carrie Lake going to be able to afford to buy nine hundred more camera filters this late in this race. The Fox powl in North Carolina scores the governor's race there as Josh Stein fifty four. Mark deserves killing, saying that of his opponents Robinson forty three fifty four to forty three Stein. The Fox pol in Nevada scores the Senate race there

as Jackie Rosen fifty five, Sam Brown forty one. The Florida Politics website poll for the fourth District congressional race there shows the brand new Democratic congressional nominee Whitney Fox at forty eight compared to the incumbent Republican Anna Paulina. If that is your real name, Luna forty four. I am not saying this will happen. None of the people

around Trump are this smart. But Richard Nixon was driven from office half a century ago, not by Democrats, but by Republican senators and congressmen who went to the White House and explained to him that not only would he be impeached and convicted and remove from office, but more importantly, all of them were going to lose in the midterms

because of him. Trump doesn't care. But Trump is not just on a trajectory to lose and lose outside the margin of insurrection, but on a trajectory to take down his entire party on November fifth. Thus, however, he becomes indescribably dangerous. He is seeing this for what it is electoral victory or electoral theft through a contingent election, or death in jail. It is tangible to him now with

definable features. This is a man so detachable reality that he may think himself immortal for all we know, or invincible or unbeatable. And yet the reality is clearly beginning to get through, and he has thus become the cliche of all cliches, the cornered and wounded animal, capable of

trying anything. Yesterday, Trump reposted four despicable memes, even by Trump's standards of despicability, parenthetically, a day after his spokesman mocked Kamala Harris's campaign for unseriousness because it was posting memes. Spiritual Street Fighter seventeen retruthed by Donald J. Trump. All Roads lead to Obama retruth if you want public military tribunals, a picture of Trump with President Obama aka pro Boss

retruthed by Donald J. Trump. Indict the Unselect J Six Committee, sedition retruth if you want to lock them up from Beware of Penguin retruth by Donald J. Trump. Funny and

it's a picture of Kamala Harris and Hillary Clinton. I'm quoting this quote funny how blowjobs impacted both their careers differently unquote and most importantly from Proud American seventeen seventy six, retruth by Trump, how to actually fix the system and pictures in orange jumpsuits not very well done of Joe and Hunter Biden and Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton, Doctor Fauci, Bill Gates, and Kamala Harris. That last count Proud American

seventeen seventy six is one of Trump's favorites. It recently reported hosted an image calling for the murder of Vice President Harris and Governor Walls. I guess we are fortunate that Trump yesterday anyway, did not repost the work of an account labeled the Rise of Rod, which has posted five times on Trump's social in the last year, pro Hitler video and statements like quote Adolf Hitler was right. The Holocaust was the hollow hoax. Jews have been capitalizing

on n word for thousands of years. These are Trump's people, these and JD. Van's. This is going to get far worse before it gets any better, and it gets better only when Trump is defeated beyond the margin at which the corrupted Georgia electoral process can try to thwart the certification of Kamala Harris's would be victory. It gets better

only when Trumps tried, found guilty, and imprisoned. In the interim, it is essential to remember that, as hopeful as we should be that we can defeat Trump's efforts to destroy all right America from within for his own personal benefit, we must remember he is desperate enough to try anything now, or, more correctly, since at heart he is a weak and pusillanimous coward, he is desperate enough to try to get

others to try anything now. Since it is Trump's people who have dragged Hitler into this from as far back as Charlottesville and even earlier, right from that point to these creatures on Trump's social let us invoke Hitler for a good reason. We need to treat Trump right now as if he were Hitler Hitler with access to nukes. Okay, this has to be lightened somewhat halfy. There are two stories of some amusement quality. I cannot fully convey this.

This is a video. It's a visual thing posted by a very talented guy named Dan Wilbur who my old friend Lauren Michael should be calling about cameos. It is a ninety second video of this Dan Wilber as jd Vance, complete with mismatched haircut and too much eyeliner, trying to order the doughnuts. Go and find it on social media. In the interim, the audio is damned good on its own.

Senator Bob Casey in Pennsylvania. And this is because Dave McCormick is a dits end wokeness. Also a collection of ditzes with a screen shot. New details released on Philadelphia shootings. Police say suspect is gang member from Al Salvador breaking. The man in Philadelphia who gunned down and tried to kill eight innocent Americans is an illegal immigrant. He's a

MS thirteen member from l Salvador. Dave McCormick, Republican nominee for the Senate from Pennsylvania, retweets all this, adding MS thirteen gang members are terrorizing Philadelphians because of Harrison Casey's radical open border policies. It's a bad thing. It's a bad thing when people get shot. It's also irrelevant to the Pennsylvania Senate race because, as the Casey communications team helpfully noted, quote Dave, this story is from This story

is from Philadelphia, Mississippi. Say good night, Dave. Also of interest here on this all new edition. If this is where do you usually hit? Stop a couple of pieces of business. First, Gonna take Tomorrow off. I hope have to do a show Monday night for Tuesday. I need the long weekend. I really need the long weekend. On the other hand, next week we will cross the five hundredth episode mark. And also I am considering going to five shows a week again down the stretch. Something short

on Monday's Probably it's not a final call. It's still back out of it, but it is the stretch of more urgent interests. The CNN uncommitted voter who turned out to be a committed Trump voter scandal that gets worse. This is the guy who fooled CNN is now selling

t shirts celebrating the fact that he fooled CNN. And the saga of the time NBC tried to blackmail me by literally threatening to make my parents homeless because I said I wanted to quit the show in which we slandered President Clinton on behalf of the proto trumpists of a quarter century ago. That saga in full. That's next. This is Countdown. This is Countdown with Keith oldwoman stell ahead of us on this all new edition of Countdown.

Somebody said to me the other day, boy Bill Clinton looked old at the convention, and I stared into space, and for a moment I was back in a tiny dingy office at thirty Rock a quarter of a century ago, and an alleged certified social worker for NBC News was threatening to sue me, bankrupt me, and put my parents out onto the street if I tried to quit doing the MSNBC show that had accidentally formed around me, in which each night we helped the primordial version of the

current fascist push in this country to try to run a coup against Bill Clinton. Nah, good times, Great oldies. The story of the threat to blacklist me because I would not smear Bill Clinton ahead in things I promised not to tell first. There are still more new idiots to talk about. The daily roundup of the miss Grant's morons and Dunning Kruger effects specimens who constitute two days worse persons in the world. Lebron's Attorney General, Ken Paxton

of Texas, I'm looking at you, Ken, I'm over here. Well, he's in Texas. He doesn't work for the people of Texas. He's just a rogue lawyer using the power of the state to crush political opposition. The other day, the League of United Latin American Citizens LOULAC did something it has never done before, and it has been in business since nineteen twenty nine. It endorsed a presidential candidate. Guess which one, and guess the response of private prosecutor's star Chamber Ken.

The Latino group lu LAC has written to the Justice Department asking for an investigation by the FEDS. After Ken Paxton sent agents of Texas to raid the homes of the leaders of LULAC and other Latino Democrats in Texas. Laptops and cell phones seized. The CEO of lu LAC says that last week Lydia Martinez, an eighty seven year old woman who lives in San Antonio and is a thirty five year LULAC member who works to expand voter registration among seniors and veterans in South Texas, got a

knock on her door. She opened it to find nine officers in tactic gear with firearms who said they were executing a search warrant. The eighty seven year old Ms Martinez was questioned for more than three hours about her voter registration efforts. Paxton's excuse, and Paxton needs to be in prison, was that there has been vote harvesting in Texas and illegal voting in Texas and he's going to get to the bottom of it. Of course, there hasn't

been any. The record remains intact. Ninety nine percent of all illegal voting in this country is done by Republicans. This bastard Paxton. What he should get to the bottom of is hell to borrow the vice presidential candidate's terminology for today from the Republican Party. The runner up worser CNN Gary Tuckman, whoever manages the place? And I'm assuming here there's still somebody managing the place. There's no evidence

of that. Actually, their journalistic malpractice is now on a thirty five dollars T shirt with their disaster printed on it, available for you without a prescription. Remember the CNN Bryant Rosato scandal. I mean it's from three days ago. Thirty five year CNN veteran Tuckman conducted a panel after the DNC acceptance speech by Vice President Harris. Eight avowedly undecided voters. Having heard her speak, they met with him on the air live from Allentown, Pennsylvania. One of the eight said

they remained undecided. Six of the eight said they were now ready to vote for Harris. One of the eight said he was also now ready to vote for Trump. This is Bryant Risotto, and after some pressing, he revealed that not only did he go into that focus group intending to vote for Trump, but that he told CNN, and in fact personally told Gary Tuckman, that he was

intending to vote for Trump. He says Tuckman approached him and a friend at a restaurant and he asked They asked him who they were voting for, and they told him. Tuckman asked the two men, including Risotto, quoting Risotto, crazy part is that CNN invited me knowing I was a Trump supporter. Then they said it'll be voters that are undecided,

not Democrats. They told me to keep an open mind and to give Kamala a chance after the speech, since she's the new candidate after Biden, So I did hashtag Trump. CNN's initial anonymous response to the Midas Network after this disaster was quote, when building the panel of voters who haven't decided on a candidate, all participants made it clear

that they indeed hadn't made a final determination. This particular individual, who said he had supported Donald Trump in the past, expressed to us that after President Biden dropped out of the race, his mind became open and he hadn't make a final decision on a candidate. Now, the folks at the Midas Network report Risotto is using the notoriety provided by his CNN appearance to sells for thirty four dollars

and ninety nine cents each. They show a screenshot of his CNN appearance along with the caption she meaning Vice President Harris is not ready. You know who's not ready CNN, honest to God, is one of the people who was there almost at the founding. They should just go dark until after the election. Nobody would miss them. I mean, run the Kamala Harris Tim Walls interview tonight. In fact,

have Kamala Harris interview, Tim Walls and vice versa. Send Dana Bash home, just then do this interview and then shut the network down, tone and bars until we assess whether CNN management is suffering an utter loss of cognitive ability. He is selling t shirts of how he screwed CNN, and still there's somebody worse our winner, Jesse Wat of Fox. You might ask yourself how anybody this stupid could be a prominent figure at Fox for twenty years, and remember

he was O'Reilly's henchman, literally that long ago. O'Reilly used to send him out to harass people. The answer, of course, is Fox looks for people like this. They look for stupid people. The dumber a TV guy is, the more he is to likely to overhear news that he vaguely understands and think, only, how are my bosses couching this? If I couch it that way, or even go further,

they'll give me more money. That's Bill Hemmer, It's Harris Faulkner, and it's the champ of them all, this idiot Jesse Waters. The debate on the air was over a ban on kids having cell phones in schools. There's a lot to this debate on both sides. It's actually a legitimate cause of concern, whether it's on Fox or PBS. But there's one angle for which there can be no debate. Phones for kids are vital lifelines in the event of emergency,

and that's where the topic had gone. But Waters on Fox, with arrogance dripping from his voice, said what kind of emergency would it be where you couldn't just call the school? Even Janine Piro saw what was wrong there. She interrupted with quote, oh my god, Waters, of course only he knows anything, then interrupts her, why do you need to call your child right then? In math class? That never had you call? The token liberal on the program, Jessica Tarloff,

then interrupts him and says, simply school shooter. Now Waters is really annoyed. Get them a beeper, he said that, Get them a beeper. You and I hear somebody just incredibly stupid, suddenly realizing he's made a disastrous mistake live on television. He's backed into a corner and like a little Trump with racer head hair, he's just decided he's going to crash his way out because it's always worked before. And what are they going to do? Fire him? He's stupid.

They want him to be stupid. That's the appeal. What I hear is they're talking about kids and schools and emergencies, and Jesse Waters, the father of four kids, claims to

be I'd need to see a paternity test. Honestly, the father of four kids immediately thinks of himself, not the kids, Not the kids in schools where things like school shootings happen because of Republicans like him, not the needs of kids, not the needs of his own kids, but his needs, him calling them in math class, his emergency, not the

kids emergency. And this nonsensical fallback here, give your child a beeper so that during a school shooting allowed twentieth century, noise goes off from his book bag or his belt. Waters regularly says something stupid. One critic noted, the trade of the malicious snake Tucker Carlson even up for Jesse Waters at eight o'clock every night is a win for those trying to destroy Fox because it is the triumph of sheer stupidity over subversion. But in this case this

is really bad. Jesse Waters doesn't give a crap about your kids. Jesse Waters doesn't give a crap about his kids. Jesse, his kids should be taken away from him by the authorities. Waters two days worst person in the world, to the number one story on the Countdown, and things I promised not to tell. And the further I get away from the day I left NBC, the more I realize that almost everybody there and many who are still there, was

crazy remains crazy. It is a nest for aggressive ingratitude and the rewriting of history to make sure that everybody who is a success did it all on their own, sprang fully grown from the ground, and nobody owes anybody anything.

And those are the good parts. Then there are the really crazy people, the ones who are in charge of covering the election, the ones who laid the groundwork years ago for the bottomless pit that American news media has fallen into, particularly the curse that will, if not corrected, kill us all both sides ism Chuck Todd disease. Sadly, Katie Turd disease outside of the NBC, Crystal is a disease, Ryan Lizzid disease, These New York Times, at this Ohio

diner disease. It started with the scumbag Roger Ales at Fox News, It migrated to ken Starr and the Bill Clinton prosecution, and it then became, after the sufficient number of refs were worked, the we can't dismiss these sleeze balls on the right because even if they are sleeves balls, they have public support. We need every viewer we can get.

It's a declining marketplace. Instead of saying what American News once said to the sleeze balls of any party like Joe McCarthy or Father Coughlin or any of the others, which was, screw you, We're going to write or broadcast about your perfidy every day until you die, they looked at ken Starr's read thin persecution of Bill Clinton and said, well, no, they've found nothing in two months, in six months, in

two years. But What if they find something later and it turns out we opposed them and we were wrong. We'll get killed by right wing media and our fascist bosses like Bob Wright, ken Starr and his thugs who went after Bill Clinton played the American news media, especially TV news like the proverbial two dollar banjo. No news

in the Clinton Lewinsky scandal, no problem. A quick phone call Alisa Meyers at NBC or any of several correspondents at CNNABC or CBS, or anybody at Fox, and suddenly there was breaking news and another alleged victim ready to do a tiery on camera interview which had already aired a dozen times with clips on every network before anybody realized the alleged victim hadn't actually alleged anything. It was putrid,

but worse, it was profitable. And if you questioned it, if you said, this isn't journalism, the other networks, the other newspapers, the others invest in this story. A real time twenty four to seven soap opera would go do any length to attack you. And what would your own network do? Hell sir, That's why I wanted to tell this story in full. I haven't before almost by accident. I had become the face of the star Clinton Lewinsky story on cable news early in nineteen ninety eight, and

one day I had enough. I decided to get out, and the reaction at NBC News was to try to prevent me from leaving. It was going to be a hostage situation, to literally threaten my career, my income, my future, my family, to try to force me to keep working there, to keep pushing whatever Ken Starr was cooking. Until you were in the middle of that, you can never really imagine what television executives will do for ratings or money. I think sometimes they are worse than politicians. By that point,

I had been in TV for sixteen years. I was already thirty nine years old, I had some gray hair, I'd already been through the grinding machinery of local news in Boston and Los Angeles. I had already made my mark on SportsCenter and moved on. I thought I had

seen it all, ha ha, dumb me. I had not, however, seen NBC News President Andrew Lack, nor had I imagined that he would actually have ready to go at a moment's notice, an employee who would be willing to try to blackmail me, literally threatened to bankrupt me and my parents and put them, as Lacks employee phrased it, quote on the street. This was in the spring of nineteen ninety eight. As I said, I had decided I didn't

want to do the nightly show anymore. That was devoted to covering the Bill Clinton Monacolunsky story, whether there was any news about it that day or not, and especially since the network was devoted to portraying the Clinton Lewinski story as the worst thing to happen to America since the Civil War. The problem was the shows I did for Andy Lack's MSNBC in nineteen ninety eight. They were making millions of dollars a week in profit, and the rest of the network was losing money. It had never

had ratings before. I wanted to do something else, something else, anything else, fifty percent Lewinski, fifty percent, something else inside NBC. Failing that outside NBC, stay in news, go back to sports, do it in New York, go to Los Angeles, anything except the show as it was constituted. So, through his personnel, Vice president Elena Nachmanoff, an otherwise fairly pleasant person, there came a message from Andy Lack in May of nineteen

ninety eight. If you go see our personnel consultant, a woman named Deborah Byrne, and you talk to her frankly, we will consider letting you leave NBC immediately. I went first off. Elena Akhmanoff told me on Friday afternoon, June fifth, nineteen ninety eight, some of us understand where you're coming from, about the madness of covering this scandal every night like this. So you're the good Sport Award winner for doing this today, Keith.

You'll like Deborah byrn She's a certified social worker, and she's done great things for us. She saved a lot of people who were in trouble. I don't mean ethical crises like yours, Keith, I mean people who were passed out drunk at their desks. I didn't stop to ask her what she thought was worse. In any event, Elena walked me through a labyrinth of hallways at thirty Rock in New York to the office of this Deborah burn She was a bespectacled, bent looking woman of about sixty,

with badly dyed hair and a fiercely aggressive handshake. She was not big, but Frankly, I was not convinced I could take her in a fight if it came to that, and from the get go her manager suggested it might come to that. I am not an employee of NBC or MSNBC, and I'm not beholden to them. Deborah Burn began loudly and too quickly. I work on a contractual basis, meaning I don't get ten percent of anything, and I

don't get money for attracting more business. It was clear whatever money they gave her, it did not go to office decorps. There were a dozen filing cabinets, no windows, two lamps, her high back chair, a metal desk, and the plain wooden chair at its side on which I was instructed to sit. I'm not here to be critical of NBC or MSNBC or Andy Lack. I'm not here to be critical of you. I'm an impartial observer and

I'm simply here to help Nachman off. The talent vice president was still there, and Burn turned to her for the record. Elena, I need you to describe the company's position about Keith's employment. Keith, Elena said, understands that if he chooses not to work for NBC, as NBC wants him to work, he will have to face consequences. Now, this was a slightly changed story from the one Elena Knackmanoff had given me even minutes earlier. But once she had given me in her own office, gone was the

Good Sport Award winner crap. Obviously, She said, We're not going to release you from your contract, Keith. If you want to be on the beach for the next two years plus whatever remains after that, so be it. That's his contract status, Deborah with a crisp thanks. Deborah burn now dismissed the vice president of NBC News who left.

Burne produced and opened and probably large folder with my name on it in improbably large letters, so I could they had a folder on me ostentatiously shuffled quickly through one hundred assorted documents, got to a blank form of some kind, and asked me to describe the circumstances that had brought me into her office. I explained I was

asked to come in. I also explained my conviction that I had made a complete mistake going into news in the first place, that I missed doing sports, and on top of all that, there had now emerged this new kind of news, which I felt was against my personal ethics and beliefs about what I should be doing, or in fact, what the media should be doing. I threw in the word pollution a couple of times. Very grand of me, I thought. She didn't look up at me. Once all of media is becoming polluted in the way

you've described. She yanked off her glasses and staring at me, not with anger, but with annoyance. You should learn how to live with it. It'll be a lot easier for everybody if you just do that. You're not a child. Grow up. Maybe next time you'll learn to read the contract before you sign it. I had to fight a smile. This wasn't some sort of counselor. This was Andy LAX's enforcer. She'd be threatening to break my legs before we were done.

They might bring in Brokaw to narrate it. I uh, I did read the contract thoroughly, I said, suppressing my laughter. This isn't about the contract. This is about my morals and nobody else's morals, I said, not NBC's not, mister Lax, just mine. I don't like the way the news industry is handling this story. I have no delusion about being able to change the news industry. I don't even feel it's my responsibility to try to change the news industry.

This is about my ethics and my incorrect choices related to TV news and TV sports. Now, she put her glasses back on. She wrote some notes. She chuckled as she wrote them. You may indeed miss sports as you put it, and you may feel that sincerely, but it's nonetheless an adolescent fantasy. And as to the pollution of the media, that's also part of this fantasy world you live in. You're grown up now, and you have to live with the consequences of your actions. You heard what

Elena said. If you try to break this contract, NBC will punish you severely. This is David and Goliath here, Keith, and you're just not seeing it. I started to reply something about how I had come down there as there's a gesture of compromise at their request, and then she shouted me down. You'll have to learn to compromise. She emphasized the word as if I had not only not just said it, but as if she had just invented it. This is what the company wants, this is what the

audience wants, and you signed the contract. That's your responsibility. I've been an NBC employee for twenty years, and they're very big, and they're very successful, and they just won't sit idly by. This will be David and Goliath, and I'm very sorry to have to break it to you. But you are not Goliath. I asked her why she had just said she'd been an NBC employee for twenty years. Two minutes after telling me that she was not an NBC employee, she looked at me. She snickered. She wrote

that down too, Otherwise she just kept talking. Television viewers are fickle, and if you're off the air for two years, it'll be real difficult to get back on. People will forget you. That's the real world now. Deborah Burn paused and looked over at nothing over in the corner of the room. I have a daughter who isn't realistic, she suddenly whispered, just like you, lives in a world of her own. She judges others and moralizes to them too.

She's tall like you too. It's difficult for parents to have to look up at their children and discipline them. Your height has always made it difficult for your parents to discipline you. Thus you remain a headstrong child. The defeat in her voice was total and as disturbing as that, and this whole line was getting I really did think somebody was gonna pop out from between those filing cabinets to tell me I'd been punked, or that this was

a remake of candid Camera or something. I patiently explained to Deborah Burn that I had not been born at my current height of six three and a half inches, that, in fact, my mother was taller than me until I was probably twelve thirteen years old. That my father was still taller than me until I got to college. But your mother is short, she blurted, with great satisfaction. I need descriptions of your parents, of their personalities, for my diagnosis,

and please stop giving me your obviously prepared answers. I was still trying at this point. I started to describe my parents. She cut me off. Father passive, of course, this time I actually couldn't stop laughing. I said that was not my father at all, that he usually did what he damned well pleased. This annoyed Deborah Burn. No, he's passive. I can tell I'm a professional, Keith. He didn't stand up to your mother, did he? He never told her to grow up or act her age? Did he?

That means he was passive. I could see her writing the word passive in block letters on one of the forms in which she'd been putting her notes. She then detached this page theatrically. She stuck it into the large pile of documents on the top of the thing, and she grabbed a fresh page from a stack to her right. What about your parents' finances, I explained, they were both retired, so you take care of them. I began to answer that they were both extremely independent, when she cut me

off again. I said, so you are responsible for them financially, don't evade me. My amusement at this obviously deranged woman now began to be overcome by anger. I swallowed both the anger and the amusement, and I explained I handled their finances, so your their sole financial support, just as Elena Nachmanoff's report to me indicates. I thought, so, so

you're the superstar in the family, are you. I began to try to bring us back to this planet, when Deborah Byurn rose in her chair and leaned in toward me and tell me, Keith, what exactly will your parents do for money? What will keep them from being out on the street when their precious superstar is blacklisted from television.

This purported social worker who worked for NBC or didn't work for NBC, or maybe both, depending on which minute it was, went into detail about the threat she was now making on behalf half of NBC News MSNBC, Andy lack Lanna nackman Off, and our corporate parent ge. Even if I simply quit the Clinton Lewinsky Show, indeed quit television, NBC would declare that my contract was still in force. It would suspend me, It would not pay me. It would then sue me for the salary it had already

paid me. Then it would sue me for the money it had spent on promoting the show. Then it would get a court order extending my contracts indefinitely until the suspension ended, and then it would suspend me some more. Let that sink in, she said, first time I ever heard that phrase, Let that sink in. And then she didn't even pause for a second to let me let that sink in. Instead, she burst out with this the greatest of all the non secutors on a day of

non sequiturs. You have what I would classify as a Howard Stern kind of personality, And how I was back to actually biting my tongue to keep from laughing at the image of a bunch of therapists at a conference somewhere, drily discussing the parameters of the Howard Stern kind of personality, Dogmatic, unbending, presenting absolutely forceful opinions on the air that no one is permitted to disagree with. Imagine going on a date with Howard Stern. I tried not to. All he would

be doing would be talking about himself. It would be unbearable. You're like him on the air, and I can see that who you are on the airs, who you are in life. Of course, I've never seen your show. I don't have cable. Ever been married. I recovered from these non sequitors quickly enough to explain that I had not been married engaged again. No, I thought I might be about to be ever had a long term relationship of any kind? I told her I had, Oh, really, how

long term? I answered? Eleven years? And when did that end? I calculated it had ended four years previously to the month, in fact, And you haven't had an eleven year relationship, since I explained to her as pleasantly as I could, while I looked to see if there were any emergency exits, or calculated if there might be a window somewhere outside that I could throw myself through to get out of

the building as fast as possible. I explained to her as pleasantly as possible, but I didn't know any way of squeezing an eleven year long relationship into four calendar years, so that my answer here would have to be no. I told you to stop giving me prepared answers right then again, she switched tones and topics. How much do you drink? She demanded. I said, I almost never drank. She dropped her pen and stared at me again. Well

what does that mean? I said? I believed I'd had four glasses of wine during the current calendar year, and it was June. She took the glasses off and leaned as far as she could without again rising from her chair or falling off it. Well, then, how much drug do you do? Told her, I'd never use drug or drugs stronger than alcohol, and before I could criticize her grammar, she got red and angry. Then, what's that smell on your breath. Look, you just don't get this. Do you

look at my telephone? Keith, and I did as instructed. I looked at an ordinary black telephone, although given her manifest insanity, for all I knew she would shortly reveal it was a direct line to Elvis Presley. If I didn't want a black telephone and I have a black telephone, I'll just have to make the best of it, won't I, I said. I thought she was holding up very well under the strain of that disappointment. I instantly regretted the snidness of that remark, because it was just going to

make things worse. And then, to my astonishment, she sat back in her chair, ran her hand through her hair, and almost whispered, thank you for saying that. I appreciate it. The pause in the storm did not last long. You're seeing a therapist, it says here you've been discussing these so called ethical issues. I said, we've made a lot

of progress. Well, you can't resolve the work matters without getting at the core problems, which are obviously personal and family related, not to mention the alcohol and the drug. So talking about work with your therapist is probably not

going to solve this to the satisfaction of NBC. So I will need to talk to your therapist, and I want you to sign a release here and now permitting me to do so, unless that is this therapist of yours is working towards making you adjust to the facts that you signed this contract and this is your job, and this is the real world, and this is David and Goliath, and that's all there is to it. And you're on the air tonight at eight o'clock, and that's

it now. She paused and stared off into space again, like when she mentioned her daughter. When I was in my early twenties, I was traveling from Smith College to Montreal by train. She suddenly announced My meeting with her went on for two hours. It featured threats against my parents. It had her yelling at me, It had her accusing me of using alcohol and drug and yet this was the only point where I really considered trying to make

a break for the door. The Montreal Canadians hockey team were on that train, very drunk, very happy, very boastful of their conquests during their trips to the various cities of their hockey league, and one of them, I suspect, giving your fantasy world interest in sports, you may have heard of him boom boom, Jeffreyon he came over and tried to pick me up. I nodded robotically and began to wonder if I suddenly leaped from the wooden chair and did run out of her office, would she continued

to tell this story anyway after I left. We didn't talk of such things then, not in the nineteen fifties. A married man, an athlete, a tall athlete. Now, of course, if I was a reporter and this happened, I'd have to report it, I'd put it on the news. That's just the way the world has changed, the real world,

that is. Keith. I suggested that at every news organization for which I had worked, the code had been the same that unless an incident involved the law, or it diminished a player's ability or availability in a game, we in fact didn't report it, like at ESPN. I related a story similar to her own that had occurred in Miami at the past World Series in nineteen ninety seven. Well, she resumed, indignantly, you might have gotten away with that under an old contract or in the sixties, where a

hippie like you might have fit in. But this isn't the sixties. This is the real world of today, and you won't get away with that kind of attitude under this contract or any other contract in the future. You could even go back to your precious sports and you'd soon find out about the real world. Don't kid yourself, it'll be David and Goliath. I said that the decision not to report the story in Miami was made under

this contract by executives from NBC Sports. And now she sat bolt upright and slammed her glasses back on her face. I can't get this done, and just there's one session, you know, deathly afraid that she was about to recite another memory from the glorious days of rail travel, I agreed to return the following Thursday, knowing full well, as I said so, that I would never come back to her office, even as a hostage or in a body bag. Well, I don't know about you, she said, as she opened

her door. But I'm exhausted, I told her. Indeed so was I, which was rather unfortunate because now I had to go do two live hours of television. Yes, I guess you do. She suddenly stared at my feet, then quickly up at my head, as if she were estimating what size I took in caskets. But you're so much

taller than I am, so you'll recover more quickly. MSNBC had arranged a car service to take me out to the studios in New Jersey from thirty Rock, and I spent the entire trip writing all this down, page and pages of notes and quotes and boom boom jeffreyon and my own height at birth. And I called my therapist on my phone, and I asked her if there was a New York state number that I could call to complain about a certified social worker who seemed to be

certifiable and who had just threatened me. She gave me a number I called while still in the car, and they said they had no record of any social worker named Deborah Burn. When I got to the MSNBC studios in Sicaugus, New Jersey, now the home of MLB Network of all things, I went to my little office. I picked up a small microcassette tape recorder that I kept in the desk there, and I went in to see

my executive producer, Phil Griffin. I explained how this woman Burn had threatened me, and I mentioned that I'd called the state social worker hotline and appeared that Deborah Burn was operating without a license. And as I did this, I kept flipping that mini cassette machine from hand to hand until I was sure Phil Griffin had gotten the implication. Completely phony on my part, But like James Jones says in Field of Dreams, there are rules here. No, there

are no rules here. My executive producer buried his head in his hands. Needless to say, the Deborah Burn thing had blown up in NBC's face. They went into a full fledged panic at the news that she was not registered as a certified social worker. And it turned out that was a clerical mistake. It was her own clerical mistake. She was registered, but she was registered only under her maiden name. But for the next few weeks NBC was

completely on the defensive about me. Soon they were promising to make me Tom Brokaw's air apparent if I would only stay. I said, yeah, but it says in Brian Williams' contract that he's Tom Brokaw's heir apparent. The executive in question laughed and said, no, Brian only thinks it says in Brian Williams contract that he's Tom Brokaw's heir apparent. It can be you stick with the Lewinsky story, oh and layoff ken Starr, and I have to think that

one through too long. If they could make poor Brian think that he was the heir apparent when he wasn't, they could make me think I was the heir apparent when I wasn't as well, and that price laying off

ken Starr, that was a non starter. The stalemate continued for a few weeks until, as I have related here previously, a friend in the Sports division revealed that NBC had lied to me to get me to sign my contract with them, that I was not being paid as they had told me, primarily by the News division, but by the Sports division. I then met with Monica Lewinsky's first lawyer, Bill Ginsburg, to discuss suing NBC over such illegal negotiation tactics.

Ginsburg thought just leaking the fact that we had met would spring me. Sure enough, About six weeks later, Lanna Akmanoff suddenly called my agent and told her they were willing to sell my contract to Fox Sports in Los Angeles. Yippee, so do not doubt what television executives are willing to do to protect their ratings and their profits even in

the event of full fledged fascism. And do not doubt what a zealot with even minimal skills at medium manipulation like Ken Starr can do to the news you watch or hear or read, even after he's dead. Also, most relevantly now, as CNN's talent faced the prospect of conforming to the right wing party line, or suddenly finding themselves with a conservative co host, or finding themselves unemployed, there's

one more MSNBC story to tell that is relevant. I went back there in two thousand and three and we did pretty well, and then in twenty ten they began to pressure me to change my tone and to add in more diverse voices. And they did not mean women or members of minority groups, or people like i'd hired,

like Rachel Maddow. They meant conservative, diverse voices. That's when I began to pack my bags, Ti Lee, and a few months later I left, And then four years later they asked me to come back as long as I agreed to have a conservative co host. I passed. But here's the problem. I don't know anybody else pressured in those ways who has also passed, not at CNN, not at MSNBC, not anywhere else. Do not doubt what some television talents are willing to do just to remain television talents.

I've done all the damage I can do here. Thank you for listening. Please share this podcast with somebody who does not listen. Send it to Deborah Byrne, Brian Ray, and John Phillip Shaneil. The musical directors have Countdown, arranged, produced, and performed most of our music. Mister Chanelle handled the orchestration and keyboards, Mister Ray was on the guitars, bass and drums, and it was produced by Tko Brothers. Our satirical and pithy musical comments are by the best baseball

stadium organist ever, Nancy Faust. The sports music is the Olderman theme from ESPN two, written by Mitch Warren Davis courtesy of ESPN, Inc. Other music arranged and performed by the group No Horns Allowed. My announcer today is my friend Jonathan Banks. Everything else was pretty much my fault. Let's count down for this the sixty ninth day until

the twenty twenty four presidential election. They three hundred and thirtieth day since convicted fellon Donald J. Trump's first attempted coup against the democratically elected government of the United States. Use the September eighteenth sentencing hearing. If it happens, use the mental health system. You have this available to you. President Biden used presidential immunity to stop him from doing it again while we still can and anti Semitic, anti immigration,

gun nut Republicans plea stop shooting at Trump. The next scheduled countdown is Tuesday. I'm going to try to take tomorrow off. I'm gonna try. There'll be a bulletin if the news requires. Don't make me come out there till the next one. I'm Keith Ouldreman. Good morning, good afternoon, good night, and good luck. Countdown with Keith Ouldreman is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.