Countdown with Keith Olbermann
News:Politics
SERIES 2 EPISODE 157: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN
A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: In the SportsCenter computer I read something that made my blood run cold. It was one line in a preliminary script for the 6:30 PM SportsCenter for Monday, June 14, 1994. O.J. Simpson’s wife and a man with her had been murdered. The script noted “Simpson is NOT a suspect.” What made my blood run cold was not the news of the murders. It was that phrase. It might as well have been “of COURSE Simpson is not a suspect.”
The problem was, I knew Simpson was a suspect because I had not a doubt in my mind that Simpson had butchered them because I knew what all of us who worked – or had worked – in L.A. media knew – that the O.J. Simpson known to the public, to TV audiences, movie audiences, sports audiences, was an utter fabrication. I knew he had hit his wife. I knew the authorities in Los Angeles had done nothing about it. I knew the sportscasters in Los Angeles – including me – had done nothing about it, though I wondered then and have known since that there was almost nothing WE could have done about it, legally.
I called police source in L.A. and he was emphatic:: “whatever you do, DON’T say he’s a suspect. We’re terrified he’s going to run. This guy has make-for-the-border written all over him. Or off himself maybe. But yeah, maybe…” and he had had to stop himself from laughing… “maybe you want to drop that part about NOT a suspect. Jesus. Not a suspect? HE’S OUR ONLY SUSPECT."
I then had to explain it to executives - representative of the America of 1994 - who were still saying aloud "Poor O.J." There is no comparison to Simpson's fall in American history. And the system of the time was designed to protect him, the way the system of today protects similar scumbags.
ALSO: The Johnson-Trump conference today was Johnson's idea and Trump is not in favor of getting rid of the Speaker. And RFK Jr gets rid of the New York staffer who admitted the campaign is about getting Trump, not Kennedy, elected. But it turns out he's got at least one more saying essentially the same thing.
B-Block (26:30) IN SPORTS: It's amazing that Shohei Ohtani could have so relied on his interpreter Ippei Mizuhara that basically nobody else could talk to Ohtani, and Mizuhara could exploit that reality to secretly steal millions from him. But the FIGURES involved are twice as amazing: $16,000,000 embezzled? 19,000 bets on sporting events in three years? Gambling wins and losses totaling $325,000,000? Also America's hottest new team is the Indiana Fever, and no, there aren't more baseball pitchers being injured this year than the last ten years.
C-Block (41:05) FRIDAYS WITH THURBER: A first-time story, which reads as if it was ripped from today's headlines. In his profile of his boss, discoverer, and the founder of The New Yorker Harold Ross, Thurber told of Ross's assisting, who took advantage of his boss's inattentiveness to money to embezzle the equivalent of one and a half million from him and bet most of it on sporting events. There are so many similarities it sounds as if Ohtani's interpreter used the story as an instruction manual: "The Secret Life Of Harold Winney."
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
POLLS: TRUMP AHEAD OF BIDEN WHO'S AHEAD OF TRUMP - 2.1.24
TRUMP DECLARES WAR ON TAYLOR SWIFT - 1.31.24
14TH AMENDMENT STUNNER: SCALIA SAID PRESIDENT IS TOO A "U.S. OFFICER" - 1.30.24
TRUMP PRETENDS TO OPPOSE IMMEDIATE GOP CORONATION - 1.26.24
JON STEWART BACK TO DAILY SHOW THROUGH ELECTION - 1.25.24
TRUMP THREATENS HALEY AFTER HIS NEW HAMPSHIRE WIN - 1.24.24
TRUMP DEMENTIA CRISIS: DAY EIGHT - 1.23.24
TRUMP THREATENS SUPREME COURT. SEND HIM TO GITMO - 1.19.24
ONE OF THESE JUDGES MUST JAIL TRUMP FOR CONTEMPT - 1.18.24
TRUMP DIDN'T "CRUSH" ANYTHING. HE WON IOWA BY 2,222 VOTES - 1.17.24
TRUMP ROMPS, TALKS ABOUT "4 YEARS AND BEYOND" - 1.16.24
WAS CAWTHORN RIGHT? ARE ALL REPUBLICANS ON DRUGS? - 1.11.24
NEW TRUMP TERROR THREAT - 1.10.24
BIDEN FINDS THE MAGIC WORD: TRUMP IS A "LOSER" - 1.9.24
BULLETIN: BIDEN REACHES JFK/FDR HEIGHTS IN VIVISECTION OF TRUMP - 1.5.24
TRUMP SUPREME COURT THREATS CONTINUE; NOW AGAINST KAVANAUGH - 1.5.24
TRUMP JUST STARTED THREATENING THE SUPREME COURT - 1.4.24
TRUMP LAWYER'S STUNNING ADMISSION: HE MAY BE GUILTY OF INSURRECTION - 1.3.24
IF THE COURT RULES TRUMP IMMUNE, IT MAKES BIDEN OMNIPOTENT - 1.2.24
WHAT WOULD TRUMP HAVE DONE TO BIDEN IF JAN. 6 HAD WORKED? - 12.22.23
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Legal AF by MeidasTouch
The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell
UNCOVERED
The Young Turks
Alex Wagner Tonight