EPISODE 192: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN

A-Block (1:43) SPECIAL COMMENT: "A group of Trump guys surrounded an Antifa kid and started pounding the living shit out of him," Tucker Carlson texted to his producer on January 6, 2021. "It was three against one, at least. Jumping a guy like that is dishonorable obviously. It's not how white men fight." 

THAT is the thing Fox found, at the last moment, just as its trial with Dominion was about to begin, that it could not afford to let out publicly; not, at least, while Tucker Carlson was still its employee. I raised the likelihood that there was something just like this, something even worse than everything that had already come out. Got that one right.

That's not only why Murdoch settled - it's a major reason that Murdoch fired Carlson. It also suggests Fox is the source of the text (Exhibit 276 to be precise) because it serves a purpose for Murdoch now. It dirties up his EX-employee on his way out and makes him a huge risk for anybody else to hire.

Unfortunately it also segues into CNN's disastrous decision to double-down on its live Town Hall next week with Trump. Not only was its moderator, Kaitlan Collins, still working FOR Tucker Carlson at The Daily Caller seven years ago, but a cache of her articles there shows grotesque indifference to human suffering to say nothing of Islamophobia. Her "ICE BUCKET CHALLENGE HIPSTERS: THESE GUANTANAMO DETAINEES DID IT FIRST" not only says Khalid Sheik Mohammed "took the challenge a record 183 times" but mocks the 'challenge' itself - which was to raise money for ALS Research and Treatment. She also mocked Syrian refugees in another article, and authored a pair of homophobic tweets in college.

Yet it is Kaitlan Collins that CNN's political director thinks can stand up to Trump lying in real time. She can "prod, ask questions, follow up, and try to get as revealing answers as possible." It is this David Chalian quoted in a Vanity Fair piece explaining "we obviously can't control what Trump says - that's up to him" and how Trump's sedition and crimes "does not make our approach any different" to him.

CNN is standing on a precipice. If it does not cancel the Town Hall, fire Licht and Chalian, and fire or demote Collins, both its remaining journalistic credibility and any possible re-sale value it still has, will be erased. Because its last line of defense against Trump was getting a pay check as recently as seven years ago from Tucker "It's not how white men fight" Carlson to mock ALS, torture, and refugees.

B-Block (18:30) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: When Kevin McCarthy goes to the White House Tuesday to dictate terms on the debt ceiling, Biden may have a surprise for him: defaulting on US debt may be literally unconstitutional. And Chuck Schumer supposedly talked to Dianne Feinstein on Monday, except he didn't actually TELL anybody that. Politico merely read it of a photograph of the talking points he was carrying in his hand! (22:28) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: A woman who slammed her car into BLM protestors gets a deal for FIVE HOURS OF COMMUNITY SERVICE. Texas wants its Republican Secretary of State to be able to overturn Democratic election victories in Houston just...cuz. And Disney's unexpected witness against Ron DeSantis... Ron DeSantis!

C-Block (28:41) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Joe, not only hit by a car, but needing two surgeries and a Rescue desperate to pay for them (30:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: I was reminded on a dog walk why one of the best pieces of advice I ever got came from a man I worked with for only five months: the late Boston star newscaster Chet Curtis. Hear the harrowing tale of the day he walked into "his" restaurant ready to be recognized only to find nobody there knew who the hell he was. I ain't modest much, but when I am, it's because of Chet.