ONE WEIRD TRICK THAT GIVES BIDEN A LANDSLIDE - 9.12.23

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Listen on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. This is the I Heart Radio Music Festival. Buy your tickets for our 2023 I Heart Radio Music Festival now. Starting at just $55 plus taxes and fees at AXS.com. Countdown with Keith Overnon is a production of I Heart Radio. Joe Biden really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really should take Trump up on this acuity test challenge. Really, really, really, really Joe Biden, Trump posted at 6.11 p.m. Eastern Daylight last night, 9.11, if he ever noticed, is not too old. He is too incompetent, unquote. Trump will not let this go for more posts yesterday on to use his own phrase, Biden's acuity. Good. Handled correctly, Trump's belief that he can prove he is the mentally competent one, and Biden is the other, handled correctly, this will lead to Trump's own destruction. Seriously, eight years of this, eight years of corruption and greed and madness and disaster in the offing and a disease in the national consciousness. And what will do Trump in is one boast to many. I know it sounds nuts, and I know it sounds undignified. And I know it sounds unpresidential. And on the other hand, this is America 2023. Right now, we are the world's all time leading distributor of nuts and of undignified and of unpresidential. And more importantly, we are the world's leading distributor of false political narratives and Trump's mindless, insane, heubristic, blind rage because just one person somewhere thinks he's stupid and brain damaged. That is not just his typical daily mindless, insane, heubristic rage. It is a potentially fatal mistake on his part, because whether us sane people like it or not, there is somehow a debate in this country over whether Joe Biden, who will celebrate his 81st birthday in exactly 70 days and would probably like to commemorate it by going on a five mile bike ride is more coherent or intelligent or functional emotionally and physically than Donald Trump, who is himself 77 years old and stood in front of this nation and suggested that you could eat light and inject bleach into your body to fight COVID and who is so fat and ungainly and deteriorated and mind diseased that if he tried to ride a bicycle, the bicycle would be immediately subsumed into his enormous backside, never to be seen again, except perhaps by a gastroenterologist or a scrapyard dealer. This subject is not only debated, but it is clear that at this point, some majority of the American public has been convinced by constant repetition that Joe Biden is feeble and dementia, Jay Trump is strong. And we have 421 days to correct this or we may really see Trump grab power again and this time, we may see him really refuse to let it go and oh, by the way, even if he does let it go, he will still get to make all the climate decisions for this country and thus this planet for the years 2025 through 2029 and he already has that all planned out and it's called Project 2025 and it rolls back every climate protection we have and then some and it means we will all be dead. Ian Millheiser of Vox summed this up last night. Coverage of Biden's age of Biden's acuity is quote, starting to take on the same character as the 2016 but her emails coverage. Find something that is genuinely suboptimal about the democratic candidate and dwell on it endlessly to quote balance on quote coverage of the criminal in charge of the GOP and he's exactly right. The American political media industrial complex will both sides this country into its grave into your grave into my grave. It all but succeeded in 2016 and again in 2020. It believes it is supposed to do this. It believes this is it doing its job correctly. After years of promoting idiots into key editorial positions after years of reaching the point where balanced news coverage consists of the following. Here's a pound of truth and for balance over here here's a pound of bullshit. We report you decide we're neutral. We're not liberal. We will not alienate you no matter your party for God's sakes. Please pay us to stay in business. I have a mortgage. After years of that, after decades of that, America is the world's leading distributor of false political narratives because we have built it into the core of our news coverage. And then suddenly below the radar on a non-descript Sunday afternoon. In the usual pile of crap, at first glance, no different than any other grain of sand on the beach there, it is the speck of gold. The thing that will change it. It is a stupid thing we live in a stupid world. What better to fix the stupidity with. If Biden responding to Trump's psychotic post, I hereby challenge Rupert Murdoch and sons Biden, WSJ heads to acuity tests. We can also throw some physical activity into it. If that lessens the chances of all of us, you know, whining up dead a decade from now because our teaming millions of fellow Americans whose stupidity is too vast to be described by mere human language cannot tell the difference between an undulating mass of blubber and stupidity. And on the other side, a nearly 51-year veteran of service to this nation in its Senate, its vice presidency, and its presidency whose worst critics and most virulent haters still insist at this moment is actually simultaneously an infebold skeleton and the indefatigable mastermind of an international criminal conspiracy and actually runs this country and Ukraine and will personally remove every gas stove and dishwasher from every home in America with his bare hands. If Biden's saying to Trump, acuity test, feats of strength, let's go fat boy. If that can actually change that narrative, Joe Biden really, really, really, really has to do it. We forget sometimes. We have normalized Donald Trump. Donald Trump is bluff. His life is bluff. His alleged net worth is bluff. His patriotism is bluff. His intelligence is bluff. His marriage is bluff. His ability to remember his own kid's names is bluff. His business success is bluff. His hair is bluff. But once just once, just once someone needs to step down off the stage of dignified reluctance and call Trump's bluff and slap him across the face with it and keep slapping him until the crowd of support that forms around all the bullies in all of our history backs away from him and looks for a new bully. Because only one thing about Trump is not bluff. He has perfected political jujitsu. I'm impeached. I'll get you impeached. Then everybody's impeached and impeachment means nothing. I've been indicted for countless criminal enterprises. I'll get you indicted. And then indictments mean nothing. I've called for 27 of my political opponents to be jailed when you actually indict me for crimes I committed. I'll pretend I never called for anyone to be jailed. I'll act like a martyr and I'll sell t-shirts with my mugshot on it, even though I don't own the rights to sell t-shirts with my mugshot on it. It is jujitsu. It is using the power of the punch to defeat the one who has thrown the punch. But now, Trump has thrown the punch, and Trump has thrown one punch too many because in that fetted cesspool between his ears, even he has remembered to try to give himself an out. I'll quote it again. I will name the place and the test, and it will be a tough one. Nobody will come even close to me. He has caveated his one punch, but he has still thrown it. And he cannot take it back now. And now, for once, and only for once, Joe Biden should imitate Trump. Employee, jujitsu. Do not ignore that one punch. Do not evade that one punch. Grab the fist and pull it towards you. And even if what follows does not finish Trump on the American stage, and I honestly believe it could finish him completely, it will reset this essential narrative of competence, and acuity, and age, and insanity. Remember Ian Milhizer's comparison, and imagine it is September 2015, and you are Hillary Clinton. And somebody says, you know, these emails, these are going to be the undercurrent that costs you the presidency. And then they say, the good news is there's a fix. What we're thinking of doing is printing out all 450,000 pages of your emails. And we'll put them in wheelbarrows. And we'll call a news conference. And you go up to the podium and you say, just three words, but my emails, and then 40 young energetic staffers of yours will push those wheelbarrows, full of those printed emails of yours onto the stage. And then you say, here they are. And then you walk away. Do you do it? Because not engaging in emails or acuity tests. That is the tried and true American political way and the tried and true democratic party way. And guess what? It may work again someday. If ever we can rebuild our educational system or Coca-Cola develops a flavor called common sense. But we live right now in an era in which politics is almost entirely no more sophisticated, no more meaningful, no more dignified, no more reality based than professional wrestling. Joe Biden does not have to dress up in a Mexican lucha Libre mask and pick up Jim Jordan and throw him onto a collapsing card table in the 14th row, satisfying as that would be. But once, just once, the president has to play this game. And this is the time. Game play it in your own mind. Trump says, I challenge Biden to an acuity test. Biden says, you believe this guy? Pick the time in the place, fat boy. Let's go. What happens then? Trump can only do two things. He can go through with it. And that would, by the way, reveal that, yes, remembering the words person, woman, man, camera, TV. Indeed, that was the highlight of his intellectual life. It was the apex of his brain's functionality. It was the only time he ever won anything without rigging it first, that if there had been a sixth word or a seventh, his head would have so overheated, it would have fallen off his shoulders. He can do that. Or he can do what we know he will do because he has always done this. He can pretend it never happened. He can avoid it. He can ignore it. Or try to. And this is where the narrative can not only be broken, but reversed and rebuilt, and the jujitsu move can be completed at his earliest opportunity. Joe Biden should now say, bring it on. And the next day, he should then ask reporters, anybody heard from Trump on when the acuity test is? And the day after that, preferably on a bicycle, he should say within range of a microphone, you think Trump's already forgotten the acuity test? And the day after that, vice president Harris should ask about the Trump Biden acuity challenge. And the day after that, some malleable member of the media should write up the Trump Biden acuity challenge. And the day after that, some democratic congressman should take to the house floor and ask about the Trump Biden acuity challenge. And the day after that, that token liberal unfox should ask Janine Piro if she could pass the Trump Biden acuity challenge. And by then, it will become the dominant subplot of the 2024 presidential campaign. And there will be only two options on the table. Trump can proceed and fail and finally expose himself to his own people for the defective mentally imbalanced fraud he is. Or he can keep letting Biden and every Democrat and every commentator and every liberal and every undecided voter and every both sidesist day after day after day of free shots to Trump's endlessly receptive belly. Person, woman, man, camera, TV, acuity test. The other headlines, we got nothing, nothing as expected out of the Trump response to the Jack Smith filing on the Trump extra judicial statements that threatened to prejudice the jury pool. Whatever that was, whatever Trump's ambulance chasers filed yesterday, Smith is supposed to respond to it tomorrow. We did get another Trump install asking Judge Chutkin to recuse herself from the trial because she had obliquely referenced Trump in two previous cases. The judge who has to decide that is of course herself. And if we're getting into a recusing contest, we have a whole island cannon was hired by Trump thing. But the point is not a recusing contest. It is the delay. This will add a few days here. Smith has until Thursday to explain to Chutkin why Chutkin should not force Chutkin to recuse Chutkin. And then after Trump is convicted in Washington, this will increase the chances that an appeal will be heard because Chutkin did not recuse, which she won't. Trump is also filed to move the crew suit in Colorado, the one that would force him off the ballot there via the 14th Amendment to federal court because again, delay, delay, delay. And to my earlier point about the American brain drain, do you remember Senator Dr. Roger Marshall of Kansas, the gynecologist who filled the George Carlin joke out into reality? The joke that somewhere in the world there has to be mathematically, statistically, the world's worst doctor. You remember this from Senator Dr. Marshall from last year? I want to take your list of us back to 911 when 3,000 Americans died and we declared war on those terrorists. What a dope. A year later, and Senator Dr. Marshall still can't pronounce Americans or a terrorist or 9-11. Can't pronounce 9-11 on 9-11. In fact, he's getting dumber. He ripped Biden for being in Alaska yesterday, quote, that is not the way to celebrate 911. Celebrate 911. I'm going to need to see this asshole's license and prove that there has ever been any electrical activity in his brain. Also of interest here, a month or so ago, my friend of now nearly 30 years, Rich Eisen, was waxing poetic about the future of his beloved New York Jets now that they have Aaron Rodgers. You and I know Aaron Rodgers is an aging nut job who lied about getting vaccinated, who has taken hallucinogenic drugs, who believes in every conspiracy that can grab the attention of his tiny little mind for 15 seconds or longer. He wants quiz to back up quarterback of his over 9-11 conspiracies, and Aaron Rodgers nearly 40 years old a liar afraid of needles and recently not a very good football player would be making his debut for the New York Jets on 9-11. So when Rich posted all this optimism about this New York Jets season, and there has not been reason to be optimistic about the New York Jets since the year 1969 when I was 10 years old, I answered Rich, and I answered simply four and 13, indicating my prediction for the Jets record this season, which may turn out to be optimistic. Last night on the fourth play of his Jets career, Aaron Rodgers was tackled by Buffalo defender Leonard Floyd. He crumpled to the turf and was carted off the field with a left ankle injury, and though X-rays were negative, he was seen leaving the stadium in a car in a big walking boot. Mark Attix, former National Football League lineman, then Harvard Train Orthopedic Surgeon, speculated that it looked to him like an ankle dislocation or a Liz Frank, an injury to the Liz Frank joint that stabilizes your arch. Dr. Attix says it's actually good news that it's not broken, and that Aaron Rodgers could be back in less than two months, maybe. Hashtag Sudden Liz Frank, after failure to vaccinate. Idiots. Also, how my old boss Walter Isaacson's story about Elon Musk, meddling in Ukraine's defenses against the invasion from Russia suddenly got changed in the Washington Post to make Musk look, you know, less guilty of violating the Logan Act. That's next. This is countdown. Oh my aching Liz Frank. Hey, this is Annie. And Samantha. And we are the host of Stuff I'm Never Told You, an intersectional feminist podcast about anything and everything from social issues, gender, entertainment, science, fashion, and everything in between. And we're coming out with a book called Stuff I'm Never Told You, The Feminist Past, Present, and Future. We break down things like the pantsuit revolution, the battle of the sexes, the civil rights movement, disability activism, LGBTQ plus rights, the Jane Collective, and so much more, including the feminism of fictional women like Princess Leia and tropes like the final girl. Which is one of my very favorite parts. You know, I love digging into entertainment and tropes, but we also expanded out on that to talk about the power of representation at large. Yeah, and you know, I love digging into some of the minute things in history that people don't talk about enough that we need to have more conversations on. And hopefully this will start that. You can order your copy if Stuff I'm Never Told You, The Feminist Past, Present, and Future. Now, where books are sold, or get yours at stuffyshedreadbooks.com. NFL analyst and certified fantasy football legend allowed me to present to you your new favorite fantasy football podcast, The Dynasty Exchange, hosted by my first round rookie picks, Davis, Dylan, and Josh. Three guys who most definitely know their stuff. They're the co-commissioners of the coolest and most cutthroat dynasty league you'll ever come across, The Yacht Club. And now they're the co-hosts of the most elite. Now make that the definitive dynasty program in the game. It's dedicated to only the most devoted of die hearts. The guys like me who can't stay off sleeper in KTC. And trust me, you won't regret making the choice to follow their dynasty advice. Listen to Michael Smith presents The Dynasty Exchange on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, hello, Malcolm Gladwell here. This season on revisionist history, we're going to the heart of America's gun violence crisis. Six episodes, some weird, some whimsical, some heartbreaking, some angry. Because so much of what we believe about guns and assault rifles and mass shootings, he's actually wrong. We're going to talk about TV Westerns about a crime in a little town in rural Alabama, about the nuttiness of the Supreme Court, about the world of trauma surgeons. And wonder what would have happened had Bobby Kennedy been shot today and not 50 years ago. Join me and the revisionist history team for our six-part chaotic ride to America's gun problem. It's our biggest series ever and one you won't want to miss. Listen to revisionist history on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is Countdown with Keith Oberman. Post scripts to the news, some headlines, some updates, some snarks, some predictions, date line, Washington, another day, another one of my ex-bosses in trouble. It was Walter Isaacson, briefly and unhappily, the president of CNN at the turn of the century, who wrote the book about Elon Musk that revealed Musk had been meddling in American foreign policy on behalf of the Russians against the Ukrainians. As media matters for America reports, what Walter originally wrote about Musk scuttling a Ukrainian underwater drone attack, directed via the satellite communications Musk so loudly boasted he had given to Ukraine, against the Russian naval fleet, was excerpted thusly in the Washington Post, at least originally, quote, throughout the evening and into the night, he personally took charge of the situation. Allowing the use of Starlink for the attack, he concluded could be a disaster for the world, so he secretly told his engineers to turn off coverage within 100 kilometers of the Crimean coast. As a result, when the Ukrainian drone subs got near the Russian fleet in Sevastopol, they lost connectivity and washed ashore harmlessly. When the Ukrainian military noticed that Starlink was disabled in and around Crimea, Musk got frantic calls and texts, asking him to turn the coverage back on. Fedorov, the deputy prime minister who had originally enlisted his help, secretly shared with him the details of how the drone subs were crucial to their fight for freedom. We made the sea drones ourselves. They can destroy any cruiser or submarine he texted using an encrypted app. I did not share this information with anyone, I just want you, the person who is changing the world through technology to know this, unquote. And then came the revelation that Musk had mused on Twitter that he was spending a Sunday morning about a year ago, trying to figure out how to de-escalate the war in Ukraine. When up popped the ever-helpful pro-Russian propagandist, Malaysian loser Ian Miles Chong, who suggested that Musk shut off Starlink near Crimea, so the Ukrainians wouldn't try to take Crimea back from the Russians, who invaded it. When the war in Ukraine really started, a decade ago. Oops! That's about when I suggested and others did too, this country had better cancel all its defense contracts and business deals with Elon Musk and kick him out of the country if we could, since if he's not a Russian asset himself, he is under the influence of them. Well, guess what? Now, there is a new version of the Washington post synopsis of the Walter Isaacson story of Elon Musk, Nobel Peace Prize Desirer. And gone are the references to turning anything off, turned Starlink off, it was never on. Here's the new version from the post, quote, what the Ukrainians did not know was that Musk decided not to enable Starlink coverage of the Crimean coast. When the Ukrainian military learned that Starlink would not allow a successful attack, Musk got frantic calls and texts asking him to turn the coverage on. Federer off, the deputy prime minister who had originally enlisted his help, secretly shared with him the details of how the drone subs were crucial to their fight for freedom. We made the seed drones, as media matters notes, the only Walter Isaacson source for this that there could possibly be is Elon Musk. So the only reason Isaacson and the Washington post changed the story when in and edited it on the website would be Elon Musk bitched about it. Walter Isaacson was editor of Time magazine back when that was like a full-time paying job. Then Time and CNN merged and they thought, well, hey, this guy does news, make him like president of CNN or something. And in his first three months, Walter decided CNN needed a comedy news show. But as I will tell you, he never thought I would be right for that. Then he decided CNN needed a new 8 p.m. newscast from somebody outside of the company actually signed me to a contract to maybe do it then decided, no, I wasn't right for it. Then he had to oversee CNN's 9-11 coverage and then he had to make a crucial decision that the future of CNN was Anderson Cooper who has done as much as anybody to make sure that CNN has in that time sunk from first place in the field to last. The part about the humorous news show put Walter Isaacson back in the news early this year because Chris licked and honestly CNN ought to build a statue to him and have a festival every year like Latamatina in Italy where everybody stands around and throws tomatoes at the statue. Chris licked was per semefore news is reporting, quote, considering hiring a comedian to host one of CNN's prime time shows to fill the prime time 9-11 p.m. hours with a non-traditional version of the news. Five people with the planning said CNN executives have floated names including Bill Mar, Trevor Noah, Arsenio Hall, and John Stewart and have looked at other comedic focused talk shows for inspiration. And as I read this story, I found myself transported back in time to the office of Walter Isaacson, president of CNN, Friday, August 3rd, 2001. His big office was filled with the brilliant late summer sun. He called me in. He said how much he had enjoyed how I had used humor in my work at ESPN and MSNBC and that he had what he thought was a great idea and he wanted my thoughts. What if we took an hour in prime time and instead of being deadly serious CNN or conversational CNN or even point counterpoint CNN, what if we were funny CNN satirical CNN sounded familiar to me because I had pitched this exact idea to Walter and his bosses not a month before I still have the email in my computer. I had done a version of it for CNN in my sports reporting when I started in TV two decades before and then I had raised it to something higher and more of a proven success at ESPN and I did it at MSNBC in 1997 and 1998 more sardonic than satirical more bitter than humerus but it got some laughs. In 2001 I happened to be back with CNN as a scheduled freelancer filling in on the show Jeff Greenfield was supposed to host at 11 o'clock every night and he broke his ankle or something. My agent was negotiating to get me the 8 p.m. hour that they were going to give to somebody who was not currently on the network and I had said obviously you couldn't have a comedian do the news but you could have a newscaster with a decent sense of comedy bring a humorous starting point to it and not only was I qualified but as I said to Walter right then I can do the key thing that is the only way you can get away with this idea. I can be the guy on the air doing the slightly funny news when a bridge suddenly collapses or Ronald Reagan dies or there is a terrorist attack and I can swerve back into serious coverage before the network crashes because you know it had a comedy show on when the world ended. Walter nodded politely. What would you think of John Stewart he asked do you think the audience would buy John Stewart doing that I think he's great don't you? I said frankly Walter no mostly for the reason I just outlined I mean if John Stewart is doing your funny news one night then there's unfunny news you are and then I said a word that rhymed with ducked. I also said that I didn't know him well but everybody I knew who did said John Stewart was insufferable impossible to work with a dreadful and dreary person notorious for stealing other people's ideas and pretending they were his. I said his point of view was closer to my own but that frankly the closest personality comp in cable news to John Stewart was actually Bill O'Reilly. I saw my words bounce off Walter's head and float out the window of his CNN top floor office. Do you think John would do it? To be fair I don't think they asked him in 2001 the previous time a CNN president thought of this idea and mistakenly believed he was saying let's have John Stewart do the news when in fact what he was saying was let's have John Stewart's ratings between nine and 10 every night because that's what Chris Lick was thinking as it was what Walter Isaacson was thinking and why Chris Lick immediately moved the idea from impossible crash and burn to feasible no on Stewart let's call Arsenio Hall he's alive right the longest that a comedy news hybrid show can be is about 30 minutes and one can argue based on audience retention for the John Stewart Daily show and the Colbert report it's actually closer to about 15 minutes as Lick must have remembered from his days running Colbert's amazingly unfunny CBS program no late night comedy show that dabbled in news in a monologue or even multiple desk segments has ever done more than about 10 12 minutes of it a night and I mean the superstars limited themselves to 10 minutes of it a night David Letterman Johnny Carson even Jay Leno others have tried 10 minutes of news humor and were never heard from again and if you doubt me ask yourself if you remember the Pat Sejack show on CBS at 1130 every night or comedy essentials the nightly show with Larry Wilmore or frankly what do you remember of the third incarnation of the daily show with Trevor Noah who kept the franchise alive after Stewart retired but my god it was just barely and Chris Lick of the we thought they were paste eaters licks supposedly brought up Trevor Noah and did bring up John Stewart in an interview with the New York Times in 2022 and so then somebody thought of Charles Barkley and my old college colleague Bill Mar as semiforne noted Mar is a potentially more realistic prospect the host of HBO's long running weekly show that bears his name is already in house at Warner Bros Discovery CNN's parent company puck reported this way that CNN is in talks to begin airing some of Mars weekly extra HBO segments there were several problems with Bill Mar of course for 25 years he has been abhorred by conservatives they got him canceled from his original nightly show on ABC politically incorrect after 9-11 that's fine conservatives are not going to watch CNN no matter what it's fascist owner John Malone might do but the issue here is Mar has also gradually spent nearly all of his goodwill and reputation with liberals they may not all abhor him yet but he stopped being appointment viewing for liberals perhaps as long as a decade ago also if the quality of the humor in his once a week HBO show is an indicator putting him on nightly on CNN starting say next Monday would mean he would be out of material by next Thursday maybe next Wednesday I also know Bill since literally 1978 then I used to be on the HBO show often and he invariably told me that the best thing that ever happened to him was getting away from having to do a TV show every night that six days of prep for one show was a tough enough ratio finally CNN had the brilliant idea it would solve that problem by putting Mar just once a week on in his time slot his regular favorite time slot late nights on Fridays it took the segment he used to do after his HBO show was over that they would put online and instead they put it in the 11 p.m. Friday night CNN newscast and it got an audience literally half the size of this podcast I think they've cancelled it for good but who knows because honestly who'd notice and lastly while it is assumed people actually watch Bill Mars show there is no proof of that HBO does not produce ratings for the programs it puts on cable it's not in the ratings game it's in the subscription game as I suggested just now we don't know how many people watch Mar we know there aren't maybe any conservatives we don't know if there are still any liberals and that of course is the other fundamental flaw here the cover story for Chris Lick's actual job was he was to bring back balanced a political news well quick name me the last a political news comedian or satirist I'll wait even if you think the Foppish guy they have on Fox blowfeld or or gut worm or whatever his name is is actually funny is he a political letterman was actually kind of a political yet most of his political stuff wound up mocking Republicans because they do things that are easier to laugh at like John McCain lying to him and not showing up for that 2008 hour long interview we were supposed to get just before the election and they had to bring in me sorry when Colbert who is far more conservative than he wants you to know could cover up his intent by pretending he was just pretending he was far more successful than he is now and it needs to be remembered that until Trump's ascension CBS with that guy licked in charge of it was about to swap him and the a political and a funny James cordon and relegate colbert at 1230 at night and even if you disagree with my comedy analysis the bottom line is you cannot do comedy about news without being political and you can't put a comedian in the driver's seat of a real newscast because one day he will have to segue into live coverage of the massive explosion down at the goiter clinic if you really wanted to do an hour or just half an hour of comedy news it would have to be political and it would have to be hosted by somebody able to turn on a dime from the chuckle hut to good evening there are dead ex presidents you're talking al franken or maybe maybe me and CNN is not going to hire al franken and guess what CNN is definitely definitely not going to hire me so let us go back in time again to Walter Isaacson's office long before anybody heard of god damned Elon mux back to Walter's office at CNN in the deer innocent free day loose days of august 2001 and when Walter Isaacson was the president of CNN after reshown felt had been it and Bert Reinhard whom I worked for and Tom Johnson who I did not but I knew and Rick Kaplan who I did work for later and Walter was before John Klein who tried to bring me back to CNN in 2006 but got overruled by Jim Walton who had been the backup chiron guy on my CNN sportscast in 1983 and Jim was also president and then Jim fired John and then somebody fired Jim and then they brought in Jeff Zucker and he tried to bring me back in 2016 and then they fired him and then it was Chris licked and then they fired him and now I got that British guy who wants bit a producer because he thought it was funny I can't actually recall how long I was in Walter Isaacson's office that summer day so long ago he had a lot of questions he wanted to ask me and he continually referred to my experience mixing humor and serious coverage in sports and even right then when I was filling in for Jeff Greenfield and the longer I was in there the more it seemed like he was leading up to asking me if I wanted to try it and he never asked and what made that even crazier was not long after CNN offered me the job of lead anchor and managing editor at its CNN SI sports network and a different contract as a full-time salary host and essayist on news and sports for the regular CNN network and a third contract a holding contract which would really just be a pre-negotiation in case they chose me from the finalists for their main eight o'clock anchor flagship show and it turned out a month later they shuttered CNN SI but we did proceed on the anchor essayist contract and we signed that holding contract so I had two contracts with CNN and then at eight o'clock they never executed my other contract because they gave the show to Connie John Connie John and then they canceled her show one year later Walter left CNN in January 2003 and a month later I returned to MSNBC and we started countdown politics and commentary gradually squeezed out the time I had devoted to the humor and satire but originally countdown was as much satire as it was controversy and one day in 2005 a call was transferred into my office from one of our guest bookers who said somebody that they tried to get to be on the show was not going to do it but he wanted to talk to me while he was on the line. Keith it's Walter Isaacson I've been meaning to call you for a couple of months I don't know if you remember this in fact I kind of hope you don't but in 2001 do you remember I asked you about doing a newscast with a comedy element to you and I must ask you about John Stewart and everybody like John Stewart and I just wanted to say I watch countdown every night and every night I say to myself this is exactly the show I wanted and the guy was sitting on the other side of my goddamn desk and I didn't even see him because I was looking at it backwards and I just kicked myself this is the man who just fixed the Elon Musk quotes what Walter Isaacson said next in 2005 should be a lesson to anybody else who wants to try Walter Isaacson's idea from 2001 and claim it is their idea you don't get a comedian to do funny news Walter said as if I had not told him this you get a newsman who's kind of funny to do news that's kind of funny I missed you the king uh king uh what's good y'all it's your main man Michael Smith a steamed NFL analyst and certified fantasy football legend allow me to present to you your new favorite fantasy football podcast the dynasty exchange hosted by my first round rookie picks Davis Dylan and Josh three guys who most definitely know their stuff they're the co-commissioners of the coolest and most cutthroat dynasty league you'll ever come across the yacht club and now they're the co-hosts of the most elite now make that the definitive dynasty program in the game it's dedicated to only the most devoted of die hearts the guys like me who can't stay off sleeper in KTC and trust me you won't regret making the choice to follow their dynasty advice listen to Michael Smith presents the dynasty exchange on the iHeart radio app Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts hey this is Annie and Samantha and we are the host of stuff i'm never told to you an intersectional feminist podcast about anything and everything from social issues gender entertainment science fashion and everything in between and we're coming out with a book called stuff i'm never told to you the feminist past present and future we break down things like the pantsuit revolution the battle of the sexist the civil rights movement disability activism lgbtq plus rights the jane collective and so much more including the feminism a fictional woman like princess leia and tropes like the final girl which is one of my very favorite parts um you know i love digging into entertainment and tropes but we also expanded out on that to talk about the power of representation at large yeah and you know i love digging into some of the minute things in history that people don't talk about enough that we need to have more conversations on and hopefully this will start that you can order your copy of stuff on ever told you the feminist past present and future now where books are sold or get yours at sefishadreedbooks.com hello hello Malcolm global here this season on revisionist history we're going to the heart of america's gun violence crisis six episodes some weird some whimsical some heartbreaking some angry because so much of what we believe about guns and assault rifles and mass shootings he's actually wrong we're going to talk about tv westerns about a crime and a little town of rural Alabama about the nuttiness of the supreme court but the world of trauma surgeons and wonder what would have happened had bobby kennedy been shot today and not 50 years ago join me and the revisionist history team for our six part chaotic ride the america's gun problem it's our biggest series ever and one you won't want to miss listen to revisionist history on the iHeart radio app apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts given the continuing miseries with my throat i think i've done pretty well but i've also done all the damage i can do here possibly to my throat thank you for listening countdown has come to you from our studios high it's up the sports capsule building in new york here are the credits most of the music arranged produced and performed by brine ray and john philipp shaneel the countdown musical directors all orchestration and keyboards by john philipp shaneel guitars bass and drums by brine ray produced by t.k.o brothers other Beethoven selections have been arranged and performed by the group no horns allowed sports music when we have it is the old roman theme for me spand two written by mitch warren davis courtesy of the spand ink musical comments by nancy fous the best baseball stadium organist ever our announcer today was my friend howard fineman everything else was pretty much my fault so that's count down for this the nine hundred and eighty if days in stonald trump's first attempted coup against the democratically elected government of the united states can victim now while we still can joe if you're listening take him up on the acuity test it will win you reelection the next scheduled countdown is tomorrow bulletins as the news warrants and as my throat permits till then aim keith oberman good morning good afternoon good night and good luck to my throat countdown with keith oberman is a production of i heart radio for more podcasts from i heart radio visit the i heart radio app apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts welcome to grown-up stuff how to adult a new podcast from i heart join us as we tackle the complexities of adult life with help from experts from understanding finances and health insurance plans to mastering practical skills like meal prep and laundry we'll break it all down for you get ready to navigate adulthood with confidence here's some great advice from our recent episode when it comes to gift stick within your budget you can go off registry if you want to and you can also use the registry to inspire you to get a sense of their taste and the things they're interested in let us not think that wedding gifts have to be crystal and silver and cappuccino makers like they just don't they can be very sweet very simple things small collection of your favorite recipes would be an amazing wedding gift listen to new episodes of grown-up stuff how to adult every other Tuesday on the i heart radio app or wherever you get your podcasts hey guys it's kevin bacon my podcast six degrees with kevin bacon is out now join me as i kick back with the likes of mark ruffalo matty mccanae jule and many more as we talk about their favorite nonprofits doing amazing good in the world highlighting some of the most pressing social issues of our time the time is now listen to six degrees with kevin bacon on the i heart radio app apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts what's up this is big long check out my podcast it's up to each and every Monday it's up to a podcast brings a conversation for supporters and business leaders of the coach from the podcast business music and entertainment deals we have an in-depth dialogue with a level of understanding for everyone it's up their podcast sees through the smoking mirrors within the industry while delivering a perspective that's one of a kind laugh crying soaking game with every episode listen to us up their podcasts on the black effect podcast network i heart radio app apple podcast or whatever you get your podcast