TRUMP IS PERSONALLY LOSING THE WAR IN IRAN - 3.16.26

Summary

Podcast Summary: Countdown with Keith Olbermann

Episode: "TRUMP IS PERSONALLY LOSING THE WAR IN IRAN – 3.16.26"
Host: Keith Olbermann
Date: March 16, 2026
Production: iHeartRadio

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Episode Overview

This episode centers on a scathing examination of President Donald Trump’s handling of the ongoing war in Iran. Keith Olbermann delivers his signature political commentary—arguing that Trump, through military incompetence and self-delusion, is directly responsible for the United States’ failures in Iran and should resign as commander-in-chief. The episode includes Olbermann’s "Special Comment," a break-down of the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz, the potential for a global economic spiral, and a trenchant critique of both the Trump administration’s war policies and its threats to media and democracy. Other regular segments—such as “Worst Persons in the World,” sports commentary, anecdotes from Olbermann’s media career, and a heartfelt dog adoption appeal—provide Olbermann’s trademark mix of sharp commentary and wry storytelling.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Special Comment: Trump’s Military Incompetence and the Iran Crisis

Timestamps: 03:21–22:45

• Thesis: Trump is militarily unfit to serve as commander-in-chief and is "personally losing the war in Iran," turning it into “instant processed Vietnam.”

  • “Donald Trump is not qualified to continue as commander in chief. Never mind the politics…just militarily, just making decisions that will get American troops killed. Just about this war in Iran. Trump is not qualified to continue… and he needs to resign at least his command today.” (03:21)
  • “Trump is personally turning Iran into instant processed Vietnam.” (03:29)

• Trump Ignored Warnings:

  • Iran’s threats to block the Strait of Hormuz were downplayed by Trump—despite repeated warnings from military advisors, including General Dan Kaine.
    • Olbermann mocks Trump’s overconfidence:
    • “‘He knows better than the chairman of the Joint Effing Chiefs. He knows better than the guy holding the gun at his head.’” (05:55)

• International Humiliation:

  • As Iran closes the Strait and chaos spreads, Trump is forced to beg for help from China, the UK, and South Korea—countries he previously belittled.
    • “Trump on Saturday had to scream for help from Effing China, save me, China, save me, England.” (06:01)

• Loss of Control and Escalation:

  • American evacuation from Iraq signals the total collapse of U.S. strategy.
  • Olbermann characterizes Trump as a panicked bully:
    • “A schoolyard bully who just got kicked in the nuts and has no idea what to do next besides cry for Mommy, save me, England.” (07:05)

• Consequences:

  • Economic disruption is already severe: Oil is at $103 per barrel (headed for $203), and global food supplies are at risk due to fertilizer supply disruptions.
    • “What has already happened to oil is now going to happen to food. So Trump's $10 gallon of gas will be accompanied by a $10 strawberry soon, rather than late.” (09:27)

• False Optimism and War Propaganda:

  • Trump’s advisors go on TV predicting a swift end (“all over within four weeks, tops”—10:07), while military and economic experts warn of a quagmire.

• Binary Choices and the ‘Forever War’:

  • The only viable routes: withdraw immediately or commit to a decades-long occupation.
  • Wall Street and JP Morgan assessments warn of a “multi-year war”—with Iran’s size and complexity exceeding even Ukraine.
  • Olbermann: “He is preparing for forever war in Iran. The Wall Street Journal reported the USS Tripoli…are being moved from the Pacific to the Middle East. That’s 800 combat infantry…Welcome to Hamburger Hill 2026.” (10:56–12:05)

• Strategic Idiocy and Economic Fallout:

  • Trump’s approach to targeting infrastructure will backfire, as it will also cut off global oil/fertilizer supplies.
    • “You wind up cutting off everybody else’s ability to ship their oil through that facility. You’re gonna blow it up. Did you ever think of the possibility that we are in what you’re planning to blow up? Moron, ass clown, amateur, brain dead moron in chief.” (13:39)

• International Blowback and the Risk of Global Recession:

  • Direct hits against Iran only invite broader regional retaliation, as warned by both military analysts and Senators (Chris Murphy highlighted).
  • “Global recession then becomes likely, per the world’s economists. And what happens then if there is a global recession that affects the west and oil? The US drops to third in influence in the world economy.” (14:14–15:24)

• Trump’s War Crimes and Media Suppression:

  • Policy pronouncements from Trump’s team (“no quarter for the enemy”) amount to advocating war crimes on international TV.

    • “No quarter means take no prisoners or kill any opponents, any enemy who surrender. That’s what no quarter means. And it is an internationally recognized war crime…And Trump…just told the world that’s our policy. A war crime.” (17:29)

  • Trump’s FCC, through Brendan Carr, threatens news broadcasters’ licenses for failing to lie about Trump’s war:

    • “Brendan Carr is dedicated to one thing only, an assault on American democracy. To change the nature of our country to a dictatorship in which the government decides what is on the news.” (20:23)

Notable Quote:
“Iran could never in a million years harm this country as much as Donald Trump has harmed it in the last two weeks.” (21:20)

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2. Voting Rights: The SAVE Act and Voter Disenfranchisement

Timestamps: 22:45–27:36

• Olbermann praises Sen. Dick Durbin:

  • Presents Durbin’s concise dismantling of the Republican “SAVE Act,” calling it a mechanism for mass disenfranchisement of poor (and likely Democratic) voters.

  • Key point: Voter ID requirements (like passports) are not widely held and impose real financial and logistical barriers.

    • Durbin: “50% of Americans do not have a passport…any person who has changed their name as a result of a marriage…will not be voting. And I think that is the ultimate goal of this administration.” (24:34)

  • Olbermann’s summary for activists:

    • “The SAVE act disenfranchises 10% of all Americans. Just round it to 10.” (25:38)

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3. Comic Relief: Name Gaffes & "Worst Persons in the World"

Timestamps: 27:36–46:18

• Name Flub of the Decade:

  • Fox’s Brian Kilmeade refers to Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullen as “John Wayne Mullen,” with neither Trump nor Kilmeade noticing—Olbermann lampoons their ignorance. (44:28)
    • “John Wayne Mullen. John Wayne Mullen. Pilgrim and Trump didn’t even blink. Obviously he meant John Wayne Gacy Mullen.” (44:45)

• Social Media Absurdities:

  • A viral “raptor” (instead of “rapture”) post about bulk-shopping for the apocalypse—Olbermann pokes fun at online gullibility.

• Media Industry Roundup:

  • Critique of CBS News and its leadership turmoil, referencing sexual harassment scandals, lawsuits, and rumors of Joe Rogan being courted for “60 Minutes”—mocking both the strategy and the personalities involved.

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4. Sports Segment: Mets, Beltran, and Cheating in Baseball

Timestamps: 31:41–35:41

• Carlos Beltran Jersey Retirement:
  • The New York Mets will retire Carlos Beltran’s number, despite his role in the infamous Astros sign-stealing scandal—a decision Olbermann critiques as emblematic of sports’ strange code on cheating and reputation.
  • “Carlos Beltran's baseball conduct was bad enough that it cost him his first manager's job…he was one of the keys in a team-wide cheating scandal to win the World Series…They're gonna have to explain that disconnect.” (34:18–35:24)

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5. Dog Rescue Appeal: Mai Tai and Soraya

Timestamps: 48:55–51:23

• Personal Segment:
  • Olbermann shares the story of two senior Maltese dogs—rescued from a puppy mill and in need of a new home together. He encourages rescue and emphasizes the reward of adopting seniors:
    • “Senior dogs know how to be dogs already. And they recognize when you’re helping them. And the moment they begin to thank you will be as special a moment as you will have in your life.” (50:14)

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6. Things I Promised Not to Tell: Rupture with Fox Sports/Rupert Murdoch

Timestamps: 51:23–67:24

• Inside Baseball Anecdote:
  • Olbermann details the convoluted end to his tenure at Fox Sports, anchored by the questionable firing allegedly ordered personally by Rupert Murdoch after Olbermann reported Fox’s plans to sell the Dodgers.
  • The saga includes threats, stealth contract manipulation to avoid severance, and ultimately Murdoch boasting publicly about firing Olbermann.
    • “I reported the story that night. Howls of denials…But 12 days after that…the president of Fox Sports…told my agent…keith's not doing any baseball for us this year. Business decision.” (58:55–59:50)
    • “Murdoch was speaking at a Dow Jones conference…A story came across the Wire…He was crazy. Timing was off, but there it was, Rupert Murdoch confessing in front of a crowd that he fired me personally.” (63:55–67:24)

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• On the Iran crisis and Trump’s character:

  • “He is an amateur and an idiot and a schoolyard bully who just got kicked in the nuts and has no idea what to do next besides cry for Mommy, save me, England.” (07:05)
  • “Welcome to Hamburger Hill 2026.” (12:05)
  • “This is the military idiot who was very surprised that Iran’s response was to attack other Gulf countries. Quote, the biggest surprise I had of this whole thing.” (14:11)

• On war crimes and propaganda:

  • “No quarter for the enemy…an internationally recognized war crime…And Trump…just told the world that’s our policy.” (17:29)
  • “Brendan Carr is dedicated to one thing only, an assault on American democracy. To change the nature of our country to a dictatorship in which the government decides what is on the news.” (20:23)

• On media blunders:

  • “Let’s talk about immigration. Why is Senator John, John Wayne Mullen the right pick?...John Wayne Mullen. Pilgrim.” (44:28–44:45)

• On his firing by Rupert Murdoch:

  • “He was crazy. I fired him five years ago…No, we fired him once. We don’t believe in firing people twice…There was never any such show called Late Night Fox Sports. But never mind. It was impossible. I fired him. He was crazy…” (63:55–67:24)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

| Segment | Start | End | |-------------------------------------|-----------|-----------| | Special Comment: Trump & Iran | 03:21 | 22:45 | | Voting Rights: The SAVE Act | 22:45 | 27:36 | | Comic Relief, Name Flubs, Worst | 27:36 | 46:18 | | Sports: Mets & Beltran | 31:41 | 35:41 | | Dog Rescue: Mai Tai & Soraya | 48:55 | 51:23 | | "Things I Promised Not to Tell" | 51:23 | 67:24 |

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Episode Tone & Style

Olbermann maintains his signature blend of urgent, scathing political critique, irreverent humor, and deeply personal storytelling. He moves fluently from apocalyptic warnings about American democracy and the global order to wry asides and savaging media and political figures with both wit and venom.

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Final Thoughts

• Main Message: Trump’s reckless mismanagement of the Iran conflict endangers U.S. lives, global stability, and democracy itself, and his continued leadership is intolerable.
• Action Points:
  • Pressure for Trump’s immediate removal as commander-in-chief;
  • Use Durbin’s voting-rights message to activate resistance to voter suppression;
  • Elevate awareness of manipulation in media and government communication.

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Summary prepared for listeners seeking an in-depth, critical, and characteristically Olbermann recap of a pivotal episode dissecting U.S. war policy, threats to democracy, and media absurdities.

Transcript

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[Keith Olbermann]

Olbermann is a production of iHeartRadio. Donald Trump is not qualified to continue as commander in chief. Never mind the politics, never mind his instability, never mind his corruption, never mind his unidentified illness, never mind any of the details. Just militarily, just making decisions that will get American troops killed. Just about this war in Iran. Trump is not qualified to continue as commander in chief and he needs to resign at least his command today. Trump is personally losing the war in Iran. Trump is personally turning Iran into instant processed Vietnam. If we do not want the United States to lose this war, to be materially hurt by this moron's buccaneering bullshit, and we don't, we all live here, he has to go. At least as commander in chief. It is more important right now than impeaching him or send him off on his path to the penitentiary. Iran could never in a million years harm this country as much as Donald Trump has harmed it. In the last two weeks, Iran warned Trump they would block the Strait of Hormuz. They warned him. In 2019, Trump's pet general, Dan Kaine, told Trump Iran would block the Strait of Hormuz. Trump told his advisors, told Kaine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs.

[Keith Olbermann (Interjecting/Commentary)]

Trump told them he heard them when

[Keith Olbermann]

they warned him that Iran would block the Strait of Hormuz and hit everybody else's ships with drones and missiles and

[Keith Olbermann (Interjecting/Commentary)]

mines and that just planes and bombs

[Keith Olbermann]

would not open up the Strait. And and from the Wall Street Journal,

[Keith Olbermann (Interjecting/Commentary)]

quote, he told his team that Tehran would likely capitulate before closing the strait.

[Keith Olbermann]

And even if Iran tried, the US Military could handle it. Trump did it anyway because he knows better. He knows better than reality.

[Keith Olbermann (Interjecting/Commentary)]

He knows better than the chairman of

[Keith Olbermann]

the Joint Effing Chiefs. He knows better than the guy holding

[Keith Olbermann (Interjecting/Commentary)]

the gun at his head.

[Keith Olbermann]

And now he's screwed and we're screwed and he's so screwed and we're so screwed that Trump on Saturday had to scream for help from Effing China, save

[Keith Olbermann (Interjecting/Commentary)]

me, China, save me, England.

[Keith Olbermann]

Save me, England. Even after I said a week ago

[Keith Olbermann (Interjecting/Commentary)]

that you Brits only wanted to help now that the war had already been won, help me. Even though after you do help me,

[Keith Olbermann]

I'll still take all the credit and

[Keith Olbermann (Interjecting/Commentary)]

I'll say you didn't help me until it was needed. Help me send ships, ships. Ships that, by the way, will still do no good because Trump still doesn't understand the 21st century. Trump humiliates us by asking South Korea to save us at Hormuz. And one hour later, the U.S. embassy in Baghdad tells all Americans to get

[Keith Olbermann]

the hell out of Iraq.

[Keith Olbermann (Interjecting/Commentary)]

Because Trump has lost all control of

[Keith Olbermann]

this war on the ground because he is an amateur and an idiot and

[Keith Olbermann (Interjecting/Commentary)]

a schoolyard bully who just got kicked in the nuts and has no idea what to do next besides cry for Mommy, save me, England. And he still convinces himself and still tries to convince the rest of us

[Keith Olbermann]

that he is God here.

[Keith Olbermann (Interjecting/Commentary)]

And as he lies, he has to make up a compliment about himself. In the lie, NBC the President said several countries have committed to helping secure the Strait. But he declined to name any of them, quoting Trump, They've not only committed, but they think it's a great idea. Big, strong countries, right? With tears in their eyes, fatso saying, sir, it's a great idea. Yeah. The countries are Lilliput, Panem and Gilead. Get out of this war. Get out of it now. Pull the U.S. resources and Personnel out as stealthily as you can. Tell Netanyahu, you are on your own, pal. And then Trump, do the only thing you do lie. Save this from turning into instant processed Vietnam. Do as much as you can to get Iran to reopen Hormuz and Reconstruction Island. Because it's not just oil at $103 a barrel, heading towards $203 a barrel. But a third of the fertilizer in the world passes through Hormuz or comes from countries in the area whose shipping is now affected by Hormuz. And what has already happened to oil is now going to happen to food. So Trump's $10 gallon of gas will be accompanied by a $10 strawberry soon, rather than late. Instead, Trump is now threatening to go back and destroy what's left. The oil infrastructure at Harg island, as he actually said, just for fun. And he is insisting the Iranians want a ceasefire, but he doesn't think we've won enough yet, even as their foreign minister says, no, we never asked for a ceasefire and we have never asked even for Negotiation. We are ready to defend ourselves as long as it takes. And Trump set his idiots like his foppish buffoon Chris Wright and his buffoonish fop Kevin Hassett, to go on TV yesterday and insist this will all be over within four weeks, tops. Up from the original estimate two weeks ago of four days. Four weeks. While the Israelis are saying they have bombing scheduled for the next three weeks and they are firming up the three weeks after that, and that is May. Oh no, says Trump. Iran is about to surrender.

[Keith Olbermann]

The essence of this is, of course, Trump does not understand quality, only quantity. We sank all their boats, we shot down all their planes, we hit 5,000 targets, 7,000 targets. Within two days, it'll be totally decimated. Eleventy billion targets, by the way. Within two days, it'll be totally decimated. The two days are up. Let me check my watch. Now we are losing in Iran. And Trump has two choices right now, one of which he cannot understand. He either gets out of the Middle east now, today, or he has to take and occupy and keep thousands of American troops at the Strait of Hormuz and at Harg Island. And that means a multi year, possibly multi decade commitment. The JP Morgan assessment of this. And nobody is more willing to invest in killing American soldiers if it means higher investment payoffs than is JP Morgan. The JP Morgan assessment is a succinct attempt to wave this country off this madness before even a win would turn into a loss. This could transform into a multi year war if we use Russia, Ukraine as a proxy. Iran is 2.7 times larger than Ukraine. And don't worry, Trump is preparing for that. He is preparing for forever war in Iran. The Wall Street Journal reported the USS Tripoli and the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit are being moved from the Pacific to the Middle East. That's 800 combat infantry with stealth fighter jets, anti tank and mortar equipment. The 1st Marine Expeditionary Force is already there. They are the ones that attacked Harg island, which escalated this disaster a little. Welcome to Hamburger Hill 2026. Faster. And even if there were some value to Trump's amateur, but I went to the New York Military Academy reform school in 1964. Pinheaded strategic suggestion. Let's just escort every single oil tanker through the strait like this was Farragut going through Memphis. Even if that would work, it would require the entire American Navy, every boat. We have everything except the Intrepid permanently moored off 46th street in the Hudson Effing river. And all the craft that England and China and Japan and every other country he pleaded with, he cried to could provide. Oh, oh wait. Having destroyed the military facility on that Harg island, he can now go back and destroy the oil processing infrastructure on Haarg Island. Just for fun. Remember that's what he said. And now your 103 on the way to $203 barrel of oil will go to $303 because this idiot has yet to figure out that in order to

[Keith Olbermann (Interjecting/Commentary)]

cut off Iran's ability to ship its

[Keith Olbermann]

oil through the facility on this Harg

[Keith Olbermann (Interjecting/Commentary)]

island, you wind up cutting off everybody

[Keith Olbermann]

else's ability to ship their oil through that facility. You're gonna blow it up. Did you ever think of the possibility that we are in what you're planning to blow up? Moron, ass clown, amateur, brain dead moron in chief. This is the military idiot who was very surprised that Iran's response was to attack other Gulf countries. Quote, the biggest surprise I had of this whole thing. Even though every analyst in this country

[Keith Olbermann (Interjecting/Commentary)]

and abroad said if you attack Iran full bore, they will run out of Fs, they will attack all their Middle Eastern rivals. They told him this. Dan Cain told him this. And if he missed it and oh boy did he miss it. Trump should read. Okay, have somebody read to him Senator Chris Murphy's online briefing. Hormuz stays closed for any length of time. Global recession then becomes likely, per the world's economists. And what happens then if there is a global recession that affects the west and oil? The US drops to third in influence in the world economy. As the Atlantic put if the strait remains closed for even a month, sustained higher oil prices could plunge the world into a recession, raise borrowing costs, alter the outcome of ongoing wars and shift the balance of global power competition in favor of of Russia and China. Nice work Trump.

[Keith Olbermann]

Oh, by the way, Goldman Sachs confirms shipping Insurance is up 1,000%. Oil flow in the Strait of Hormuz is off just a little. Just down from 19,500,000 barrels a day to 500,000 barrels a day. Slight percentage drop 97.4. Or by Trump math, it's down by 11venty billion percent. Number of tankers going through the strait last Thursday,

[Keith Olbermann (Interjecting/Commentary)]

zero.

[Keith Olbermann]

Back to Senator Murphy. He notes yes, Iranian proxies in Lebanon already have struck at Israel, but it's the dog that didn't bark in the night that still matters here. The Houthis in Yemen have held fire for the moment. And what has commander in Cheap Trump actually done about this tire fire he set up two weeks ago and goes back every day and restocks it with more tires and more fuel. He has fear mongered. He says there are 1700 Iranians in this country that Homeland Security is worried could be parts of sleeper cells.

[Keith Olbermann (Interjecting/Commentary)]

Homeland Security, huh?

[Keith Olbermann]

They've known about these alleged sleeper prospects. 1700 of them. And your Homeland Security Trump has ignored them and instead devoted all of Homeland Security resources into having ICE terrorize Minnesota and disappear children and murder native born American citizens outside their kids schools. You let the threats go and you shot the protesters. If that's true, then firing Kristi Noem and benching Greg Bovino isn't enough. They should be in prison while we investigate why they didn't investigate actual threats to this country country. And if by ignoring those threats they are complicit in those threats. What else has the commander in creep Trump actually done about this? Well, he's committed war crimes. When Brill cream boy Hegseth got up and recited every war cliche ever written except damn the torpedoes full speed ahead and all soldier employees must wash hands, he used a phrase that went by so fast you may have missed its implications. Like apparently he did because he's a psycho or buzzed or high or just stupid or whatever he is. No quarter for the enemy. You know what that means? No quarter means take no prisoners or kill any opponents, any enemy who surrender. That's what no quarter means. And it is an internationally recognized war crime to do that and has been for centuries. And Trump, PlayStation Secretary of Defense just told the world that's our policy. A war crime. Kill prisoners if we aren't living in hell. And Trump and his gang are held liable for all this. Pete Hegseth is going to wind up at the International Court of Justice at the Hague. Happily, right now Pete Hegseth is probably in a padded room somewhere because at his big press conference he said TV headlines, the graphics, the news banners were fake news. And he specifically attacked one. He specifically attacked, quote, war widening. What was one of the news banners on TV news yesterday? Mideast war intensifies. You know what show that was on Fox and Friends Weekend, the show Pete Hegseth used to host. Not war widening but war intensifies. And what else has Commander asleep Trump actually done about all this? He's threatened the TV networks with losing their station licenses if they don't lie about the Trump war, that he is losing his Goebbels. Only Goebbels looked a little bit more human than this guy. FCC commandant Brendan Carr has shown the idiots at the broadcast ownership corporations that collaborating with the Trump dictatorship and not collaborating with the Trump dictatorship produce the same results. Broadcasters that are running hoaxes and news distortions, also known as the fake news, have a chance now to correct course before their license renewals come up. The law is clear. Broadcasters must operate in the public interest and they will lose their licenses if they do not. What is in point of fact now clear is that Brendan Carr is dedicated to one thing only, an assault on American democracy. To change the nature of our country to a dictatorship in which the government

[Keith Olbermann (Interjecting/Commentary)]

decides what is on the news.

[Keith Olbermann]

That is Brendan Carr's job. That is what Trump told him to do. Trump has decided that operating in the

[Keith Olbermann (Interjecting/Commentary)]

public interest will now mean lying for Trump and telling them, no, we are winning. No, Trump isn't an idiot whose military

[Keith Olbermann]

education happened only because his parents were given a choice of that or sending him to the reformatory when he got kicked out of public school for God knows what.

[Keith Olbermann (Interjecting/Commentary)]

No, Trump isn't utterly disconnected from the

[Keith Olbermann]

reality that the Iranians aren't giving up.

[Keith Olbermann (Interjecting/Commentary)]

The Iranians have in fact spent the last 47 years not at war with us, but preparing for the next idiot Republican president to come along and try something exactly like this. And Reagan wasn't enough of an idiot, and Bush 1 wasn't enough of an idiot, and even Bush too wasn't enough of an idiot. But Trump, here's our guy. Let me repeat this.

[Keith Olbermann]

Trump cannot continue as commander in chief.

[Keith Olbermann (Interjecting/Commentary)]

He is losing and refusing to acknowledge he is losing. Never mind the politics, never mind his instability, never mind his corruption, never mind his illness, never mind any of the details. Just militarily, just making decisions that will kill American troops. The troops are doing great. We support the troops and want them all home safely. Just about this war in Iran. Trump is not qualified to continue as commander in chief. And somebody else needs to be in charge today because Trump is personally turning Iran into instant processed Vietnam. And let me repeat this too. Iran could never in a million years harm this country as much as Donald Trump has. In the last two weeks,

[Keith Olbermann]

I have one bit of good news. Just when you think somebody like Dick Durbin has lost all usefulness and the Senate is filled with two kinds of Democrats and two kinds of Democrats only. Fetterman, a Twilight Zone Kanamet, upholding the great traditions of Kirsten Cinema. And the other type, a series of Chuck Schumers, 30, 40 Chuck Schumers who are convinced that any day now it'll become 2009 again, just when you're ready to riot them all off. Dick Durbin has single handedly provided the entire Democratic Party and everybody who wants to forestall Trump's attempt to disembowel our elections with this ironically named SAVE Act. Dick Durbin has provided all of us with a simple 30 second how to guide to shut up the advocates of the SAVE act and expose this bill for the fascism that it is. The message is simple and Dick Durbin composed it by alchemy, almost by accident in a committee hearing when pressed by, of all people, John Cornyn. The message is simple. Whatever fictional fraud the Save act prevents,

[Keith Olbermann (Interjecting/Commentary)]

however phony, simple is the thought that

[Keith Olbermann]

it's just like producing ID when you buy beer. The Save act is designed to, intended to and will disenfranchise 10% of American voters. The poor ones. Here is Durbin, assisted by Cornyn. Please take notes.

[Senator Dick Durbin]

I don't understand how it could disenfranchise

[Keith Olbermann (Interjecting/Commentary)]

millions of Americans and maybe he would explain.

[Senator Dick Durbin]

I'm happy to thank you for that question because I think all of us should be aware of the fact of what is required by this act when it comes to registering to vote. You have to present identification, Correct? But your driver's license, which most people use in the course of business every single day, is not acceptable. What is acceptable is a passport. 50% of Americans do not have a passport. Those who want to obtain it so they can vote will pay $186 and wait three or four weeks for that to happen. Secondly, you can use a birth certificate. But any person who has changed their name as a result of a marriage or a hyphenate relationship has to find not only their birth certificate, but some correction of it to prove that they're eligible to register to vote. It's estimated that 9% of the voters in America do not have the identification required by this bill. It means ultimately that those people will not be voting. And I think that is the ultimate goal of this administration.

[Keith Olbermann]

That's the message. This should be every Democrat's message on this. The only thing they say. The SAVE act disenfranchises 10% of all Americans. Just round it to 10. The SAVE act will stop 10% of all American voters from voting. The SAVE act will stop. Make up a number. The SAVE act will stop half of all poor people from voting. Quote the stats you need.

[Keith Olbermann (Interjecting/Commentary)]

Passport.

[Keith Olbermann]

50% of Americans don't have passports. That is it. That's the message. 10% of all American voters will be disenfranchised by the Republicans. That's the point. Thank you, Senator Durbin, sincerely. Now we have to tell the Democrats and those pro democracy holdout cells around our country. And we have to tell every single goddamned liberal, you know that. That is the message. The SAVE act will keep 10% of all American voters from voting. Also of interest here, Comic Relief. It's the best name screw up of the year, maybe of the decade. And it stars three of the most hateful, stupid clowns of our times. Mark Wayne Mullen, Brian Kilmeade and Donald Commander in Thief Trump. It's wonderful. That's next. This is Countdown.

[Keith Olbermann (Interjecting/Commentary)]

This is Countdown with Keith Olbermann.

[Keith Olbermann]

Most people think their insurance will cover them when disaster strikes. The truth? Many are wrong. You pay premiums and assume you're protected until the fine print hits. Exclusions, limits, loopholes. Suddenly that coverage isn't coverage at all. My policy advocate reviews your policies, Home, Auto, Life and breaks them down in plain English. They show what's really covered and what isn't. It costs just 27 cents a day less than a cup of coffee. For peace of mind before you assume you're covered, go to mypolicyadvocate.com you might be shocked at what you find. Mypolicyadvocate.com no one knows what the future

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[Hyundai Advertiser]

No.

[Keith Olbermann]

Oh, boy.

[Golf Lesson Person]

Yeah, I know my golf swing is off today.

[Keith Olbermann]

It's just a lesson.

[Golf Lesson Person]

Who sent up Chad? I can't. I think I might have gotten away with something I shouldn't have.

[Keith Olbermann]

What the heck are you talking about?

[Golf Lesson Person]

Okay, you see that brand new Hyundai Santa Fe over there?

[Keith Olbermann]

Yeah.

[Keith Olbermann (Interjecting/Commentary)]

Well, I only paid

[Hyundai Advertiser]

deal, so right, it almost feels wrong. Get the Hyundai you've always wanted plus America's best warranty at the Hyundai getaway sales event.

[Keith Olbermann]

Finish that bucket of balls on your own. I gotta run. Little Santa Fe's come in green, right? I love green. What?

[Golf Lesson Person]

No to come back. I paid for the full hour.

[Hyundai Advertiser]

It's a great day for a new Hyundai at the Hyundai Getaway sales event. Going on now. Get 0% APR for 60 months plus 0 payments for 90 days on the Hyundai Tucson. Tucson hybrid, Santa Fe or Santa Fe Hybrid. Now during the Hyundai getaway sales event.

[Keith Olbermann]

Hurry.

[Hyundai Advertiser]

Offer ends March 31. Call 562-314-4603 for details.

[Keith Olbermann]

This is SportsCenter. Wait, check that.

[iFlag Announcer]

Not anymore.

[Keith Olbermann]

This is Countdown with Keith Olbermann.

[Keith Olbermann (Interjecting/Commentary)]

Still ahead in this all new edition

[Keith Olbermann]

of Countdown, things I promised not to tell. And obviously we have sports news here in a second. And Rupert Murdoch had another birthday the other day. You know how old he is? He's 206. So let me put these things together and tell you about the day Rupert Murdoch fired me personally from my job at Fox Sports, hosting baseball and doing cable sports news because I had found out he wanted to sell the LA Dodgers.

[Keith Olbermann (Interjecting/Commentary)]

And instead of just putting it on the air, I went to Rupert Murdoch's

[Keith Olbermann]

office to get his instructions on whether

[Keith Olbermann (Interjecting/Commentary)]

to report it or bury it since

[Keith Olbermann]

he owned the network and they told me to report it. And then after the blowback, Rupert Murdoch fired me anyway.

[Keith Olbermann (Interjecting/Commentary)]

There's a lot more to the longer

[Keith Olbermann]

version of that coming up in things

[Keith Olbermann (Interjecting/Commentary)]

I Promised not to tell. First, from the Sportsball Central center news deck tonight, Dateline New York, New York. The New York Mets are retiring. Carlos Beltran's uniform number 15. He was a former outfielder with that team and many others. And I get it, I'm a Mets fan. You scan down the list of the all time greatest Mets players and you quickly get to guys who didn't play full time. I mean the 18th largest total of wins above replacement for Mets pitchers is by a guy named Steve Trachsel. Carlos Beltran is in the hall of Fame. He's been elected to the hall of Fame. He'll be one of its low end members of course. But he had four whole seasons with the Mets in which he played more than a hundred games. So that puts him on the all time games played list. Cause it's the Mets and they get rid of their stars after like five years at the most. For the Mets usually throw away their heroes. Four years of a hundred games is a lot. So you could criticize retiring his uniform number on the merits of if he didn't play there very long. But you could also defend it on the merits. It's a wash I guess. However, there is the little other thing. On November 1, 2019, the New York Mets hired Carlos Beltran as their new manager. And 77 days later they fired him. Officially they mutually agreed to part. But they fired him after Beltran became the only former player implicated by name in the sign stealing scandal that still sullies the Houston World series title of 2017. So Carlos Beltran's baseball conduct was bad enough that it cost him his first manager's job two months before the first game he would have managed. And it probably cost him his managerial career. And it presumably delayed his election to the hall of Fame. It's not necessarily a felony as far as sports infractions go, but it's a serious misdemeanor. And the Mets are retiring the uniform number of a guy they actually fired as manager because his character was deemed insufficient. That he wasn't just a cheater, but that he was one of the keys in a team wide cheating scandal to win the World Series. They're gonna have to explain that disconnect. They're gonna have to explain it at the retirement ceremony this year. And then they're going to have to explain it just once more. And that would be forever.

[Keith Olbermann]

Hey, guess what? We always have more new idiots to talk about besides the Mets. The roundup of the miscreants morons and Dunning Kruger effect specimens who constitute today's other worst persons in the world. The Bronze Cornelius Rudd. Specifically Cornelius Rudd. 64. Okay, I think upon reflection this is a troll job. But it may only serve as evidence that my cynicism is not yet terminal. It could Be a real account on threads. Corneliusrud64 It's a thread. I don't know if it's a real guy or if it's some sort of, you know, New York Times Pitchbot kind of sarcasm thing. Because Cornelius Rudd 64 has posted, and I quote, costco very crowded today. People know about the raptor and are Preparing. Raptor on March 22nd. Spread the word. Raptor, of course, is supposed to be rapture. Blondie. There's another one of these things that happens every 18 months or so about the end of the world or the rapture or the New Fire Festival or whatever happening is going to happen on a specific day. And there is no doubt that anybody dumb enough to believe in a raptor rapture is a candidate to also think it's spelled like Tyrannosaurus rex or whatever. Raptor R, A, P, T, O, R. Anybody dumb enough, you know, like Trump. But what makes me doubt Cornelius Rudd 64 is that it reads overdone. He used the word no in there and he wrote it N O, not K, n O, W. I mean, I've seen that before. People do make that mistake. But then the word people is misspelled P E E P L E. And I don't think so. I don't think people misspell the word people. Costco very crowded today. It got crowded, right? People know about the raptor and are preparing. Preparing is spelled correctly. But people and no are not spelled correctly. Raptor on March 22. Spread the word. I still have to include it, and I have because of the image of morons stocking up for an event in which everybody is either supposed to be taken up or left here to die. But they need to buy groceries in large quantities at Costco. That is the only thing that makes me think Cornelius Rudd is for real. The runner up werser, CBS News. Four wonderful stories. Four amazing stories, all of them about CBS News. One, the new owner, David Ellison. He's in the Epstein files. A wire transfer has surfaced. $39,999.90 a dime under the legal limit. Before you have to explain what the wire transfer would be for from Epstein to Ellison in October 2015. Nobody knows why and it's unlikely anybody's going to find out why. This is one of the guys who now runs CBS and will probably run cnn. Number two of the four stories about CBS and CBS News. The guy who would have, although I don't think he's going to last that long, would have likely been put in charge of CNN from A presidential standpoint. Jeff Shell, the president of CBS parent Paramount, who's fired as the president of NBC over a woman reporter who lied to me about our negotiations that lasted a year and a half to bring me back to msnbc. And his explanation in public was, Keith should have known I was lying. I'm a liar.

[Keith Olbermann (Interjecting/Commentary)]

He has now been sued.

[Keith Olbermann]

Jeff Schell has. The details are a little murky, but it appears he's been sued for non payment of services by a crisis management guy. A crisis management guy that Jeff Shell evidently hired during the sexual harassment case at NBC.

[Keith Olbermann (Interjecting/Commentary)]

In other words, he's in trouble over this woman and he's about to get fired and his right reputation is going to be ruined.

[Keith Olbermann]

So he hires a crisis management guy

[Keith Olbermann (Interjecting/Commentary)]

and then doesn't pay the crisis management guy. So the crisis management guy sues him and creates another crisis.

[Keith Olbermann]

That's crisis management. All right, Jeff, do you see what happens? Do you see what happens when I

[Keith Olbermann (Interjecting/Commentary)]

get along with an executive like I did with Jeff Shell at Fox? I mean, there has to be something wrong with the executive if I get along with him that well.

[Keith Olbermann]

The National Enquirer, meanwhile in story number two, reports that Tony decouple has held

[Keith Olbermann (Interjecting/Commentary)]

discreet conversations with high profile media figures about a new job.

[Keith Olbermann]

I don't necessarily believe in the National

[Keith Olbermann (Interjecting/Commentary)]

Enquirer, but this also tracks. Decopol became the anchor of the CBS Evening News 73 days ago

[Keith Olbermann]

before it went to hell in a handbasket at high speed.

[Keith Olbermann (Interjecting/Commentary)]

So actually I believe this one, even though I don't believe the source. Meanwhile, number three, Radar Online says decouple's boss, the idiot Barry Weiss, has now turned her magic hiring wand in the

[Keith Olbermann]

direction of Joe Rogan.

[Keith Olbermann (Interjecting/Commentary)]

That Barry Weiss wants Joe Rogan to appear on 60 Minutes to make up for the loss of Anderson Cooper. Now, I bought this story hook, line and sinker until I read a quote attributed to an unnamed media executive. Here's the quote.

[Keith Olbermann]

You bring in Rogan and you immediately gain a core connection to over 50% of the country.

[Keith Olbermann (Interjecting/Commentary)]

He speaks to viewers who feel ignored or mocked by legacy media. That could solve the ratings and credibility problems of CBS overnight. Well, of course, of course it couldn't solve the ratings and credibility problems of CBS overnight because the people who would watch him on CBS would never watch CBS in the first place. And most of them would, in fact, never find out that he's on cbs. The bifurcation of America media is complete. It will not be reversed in our lifetimes. Although do I think Barry Weiss has thought about hiring him for 60 minutes. Why not? I mean think about it. Don Hewitt put Andy Rooney, have you ever noticed on at the end of the 60 Minutes of 1978 he was a summer replacement for the debate segment they used to have at the end of 60 Minutes called Point Counterpoint. And people said who? What's the with those eyebrows? The guy who used to be Harry Reasoner's writer. You're putting them on at the end of 60 minutes? Him? Why of course there is still the dream scenario if you put all of these stories together. This is the CBS Evening News with Joe Rogan. But the winner, the worst, Brian Kilmeade. When I met him in 2001, I had just been offed by Fox. Stay tuned for the story of how Rupert Murdoch fired me. And Brian's little morning show on Fox News was just beginning to take off and he wanted me to come on and I had watch to explain to him they probably didn't want me on the show, but he still wanted my advice. He wanted my advice on how to get off the stupid morning news show and get back into sports. If only I had found some way to help him. If only I had succeeded. Although they would have found another idiot. There are a lot of idiots who will say and do anything just to be on tv. I mean look at the people who are on there with him. Steve Doocy and this guy Jones or whatever his name is. Anyway, this past week Kilmeade did the latest in his series of flatulent lap sitting interviews with Trump for his radio show. And Brian Kilmeade has made one of the great name screw ups of our time. All you need to remember, and it's quick, all you need to remember here is the idiot senator from Oklahoma who Trump wants to have succeed the idiot governor from the wilderness as the head of the Department of Homeland Security. The idiot senator is named Mark Wayne Mullen. Mark Wayne, one word. Mark Twain. Mark M, A R, K, W A Y, N E. Mark Wayne. That's all you need to know.

[Keith Olbermann]

And Kilmeade either doesn't know it or he forgot it.

[Keith Olbermann (Interjecting/Commentary)]

Let's talk about immigration. Why is Senator John, John Wayne Mullen the right pick? Just a fantastic guy. He's got it. He's got what it takes. I think he's going to do a fantastic job. John Wayne Mullen.

[Keith Olbermann]

John Wayne Mullen. John Wayne Mullen. Pilgrim and Trump didn't even, didn't even blink. John Wayne Mullen. John Wayne Mullen. Brian, obviously he meant John Wayne Gacy Mullen. Today's other worst person in the world. Most people think their insurance will cover them when disaster strikes. The truth? Many are wrong. You pay premiums and assume you're protected until the fine print hits exclusions, limits, loopholes. Suddenly that coverage isn't coverage at all. My policy advocate reviews your policies home, Auto, Life and breaks them down plain English. They show what's really covered and what isn't. It costs just 27 cents a day less than a cup of coffee. For peace of mind before you assume you're covered, go to mypolicyadvocate.com you might be shocked at what you find. Mypolicyadvocate.com no one knows what the future

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holds, but you deserve a weather app that can help. Weatherbug is easy to use and provides forecasts for your every need from storm warnings to pollen levels right at your fingertips. Get the fastest local Alerts and comprehensive 10 day forecasts wherever you are. Its hyperlocal real time customizable alerts. Make sure the weather never takes you by surprise so you can plan every day with confidence. Download the free Weatherbug app from the App Store today and start getting accurate weather forecasts 24. 7

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Flag football is exploding and iflag is leading the way as the Guinness World Record Holder. Iflag hosts premier flag tournaments nationwide for boys, girls, high school girls and adults. From first time players to elite competitors, iflag delivers top level competition, unforgettable experiences and a community built around the game. Ready to be part of it? Join the movement, find your tournament and learn [e-mail] that's iflag.org Come on.

[Hyundai Advertiser]

No.

[Keith Olbermann]

Oh boy.

[Golf Lesson Person]

Yeah I know my golf swing is off today.

[Keith Olbermann]

It's just a lesson. Who sent up Champ?

[Golf Lesson Person]

Can't. I think I might have gotten away with something I shouldn't have.

[Keith Olbermann]

The heck are you talking about?

[Golf Lesson Person]

Okay, you see that brand new Hyundai Santa Fe over there?

[Keith Olbermann]

Yeah.

[Keith Olbermann (Interjecting/Commentary)]

Well I only paid

[Hyundai Advertiser]

deal so right. It almost feels wrong. Get the Hyundai you've always wanted plus America's best warranty at the Hyundai getaway sales event.

[Keith Olbermann]

Finish that bucket of balls on your own. I gotta run. Those Santa Fe's come in green, right?

[Keith Olbermann (Interjecting/Commentary)]

I love green.

[Keith Olbermann]

What?

[Golf Lesson Person]

No. To come back. I paid for the full hour.

[Hyundai Advertiser]

It's a great day for a new Hyundai at the Hyundai getaway sales event. Going on now. Get 0% APR for 60 months plus 0 payments for 90 days on the Hyundai Tucson, Tucson hybrid, Santa Fe or Santa Fe Hybrid. Now, during the Hyundai getaway sales event.

[Keith Olbermann]

Hurry.

[Hyundai Advertiser]

Offer ends March 31. Call 562-314-4603 for details.

[Keith Olbermann]

Haven't done this for a while. Every dog has its day. My request to you to help me with a dog in need, and I know doing this every show kind of wore you guys out, so I have limited it to to. I don't remember the last time I did this, but this is special. This is close to my heart. It is about not just a senior Maltese, but two of them. Two senior Malteses, bonded girls who appear to have been rescued from a life in a puppy mill. They are safe with each other, they are wonderful, they are healthy, and they need a home together. They can't be split up. By the way, if adopting two dogs seems like a lot to you, let me assure you it is worth the extra effort. And the extra effort is only about 50%. It's not double. And adopting a senior dog. Senior dogs know how to be dogs already. And they recognize when you're helping them. And the moment they begin to thank you will be as special a moment as you will have in your life. So these two. These two girls are fostered in Centerville, Pennsylvania, which is about an hour south of Erie and really close to almost everywhere in the Northeast. Everywhere from Cleveland East, Mai Thai and Soraya. The guess is they're 10 years old. They are gentle, they are shy.

[Keith Olbermann (Interjecting/Commentary)]

They will need a patient, calm home.

[Keith Olbermann]

But once they accept that home, they'll be like puppies. Soraya is deaf. You'd never know it.

[Keith Olbermann (Interjecting/Commentary)]

She reads hand signs, she gets along

[Keith Olbermann]

fabulously, and she's very playful. They have a puppy pen in their foster home. It is their safe space. Anything that goes wrong, as long as they can get back into their puppy pen, they're happy. All the vaccines are up to date. They're chipped, they've got their shots, they've had their dentals. They are great adoptable dogs. I would take them in a moment, but that would give me six. Anyway, if you're within driving range of Centerville, Pennsylvania, like I said, a big area. I mean, you're two hours from Cleveland, you're six seven from New York. You can apply to adopt them if you want to see them.

[Keith Olbermann (Interjecting/Commentary)]

There's video.

[Keith Olbermann]

You can go to Instagram. Just type in Mai Tai M A

[Keith Olbermann (Interjecting/Commentary)]

I T A I Maltese Mai Tai

[Keith Olbermann]

Maltese and it's the first video that will come up. Or go to american maltese rescue.org american

[Keith Olbermann (Interjecting/Commentary)]

maltese rescue.org and look for the story

[Keith Olbermann]

of Mai Tai and Soraya. And I'll put all this stuff on my socials too. Mai Tai thanks you and Sariah thanks you and I thank you you. To the number one story on the countdown and my favorite topic. Me and things I Promise not to tell over the weekend watching hockey, I had occasion to invoke my days hosting the baseball game of the Week and the World Series for Fox, and it reminded me of the delightful way that ended with me being paid $100,000 a month not to do anything. I have changed jobs a lot and seldom have. The departures included gold watches and going away parties. At least not going away parties to which I was invited. But in 43 years in radio and television, I have only actually been fired in the traditional sense of go clean out your desk and get out twice. Once the order was from a drunken radio executive who did not like the fact that I was 21 years old and he was overruled and he was sent home with a warning by his bosses hours later and I was back on the job 48 hours after that. The other time, when it actually happened, you're fired. Clean out your desk. That was, unsurprisingly, at the hands of Rupert Murdoch and Fox, and I mean Rupert Murdoch personally. Or so he claims. When I finally convinced NBC News that I was serious about no longer hosting its Monica Lewinsky a Thon in 1998, the head of NBC Sports, Dick Ebersole,

[Keith Olbermann (Interjecting/Commentary)]

had an ingenious solution.

[Keith Olbermann]

He knew his friends at Fox Sports longed to have me front their version of SportsCenter, and so he proposed the

[Keith Olbermann (Interjecting/Commentary)]

following NBC would give my agent 10 days in which to negotiate two deals.

[Keith Olbermann]

A deal for me to go to LA and host Fox Sports News and

[Keith Olbermann (Interjecting/Commentary)]

Major League Baseball on Fox, and another deal in which Fox would pay NBC $1 million for my contract like I was a mediocre baseball pitcher. Amazingly, it worked. I got what was then a record breaking salary for any cable sportscaster ever. NBC got its million. And maybe most startlingly, NBC then asked me to stay on the air as a lame duck at MSNBC for like six weeks. Curiously, throughout my career, no matter how Abrasive. The exit. My lame duck employers have always, for some reason trusted me to stay on their air. Even though I was leaving in local news in Los Angeles once, I did this for three months. Anyway, at first, going to work at Fox Sports was a delight. Their news guys, the evil Roger Ailes and his henchman John Moody, pitched me on doing stuff for them. Maybe co anchoring with Bill O'Reilly. I'm serious. I passed sports. We spent money. I worked with friends. I didn't have to talk about politics. I could narrate highlights. I could do funny voices from way downtown. Bang. I lived on the beach. I mean, my next door neighbor was Hawaii. Every time there was a newspaper story about espn, even though our ratings were terrible, there was also my picture in it with a caption like challenging espn. It was great. But then two things happened. The Fox guy who knew we needed five years at minimum just to tie ESPN in the ratings took me to lunch one day and said, sorry mate, my missus is moving back to England tomorrow with or without me. So I'm going. Good luck. He was replaced by guys who replaced the five year plan with a five week plan to raise the ratings by literally 1/5 of 1 point. I left that meeting in which they explained their suicidal plan and revealed that my salary represented an unsustainable 20% of their entire budget. And I called my real estate agent and put my house on the beach up for sale. Not long after, my doctor gave me a physical and a warning. Cut back on work and stress and everything else or you can have a heart attack 10 years from now.

[Keith Olbermann]

I told my bosses this and their response was to blackmail me. We have a clause in your contract which allows us to send you on the road once a week while you are still working five days in the studio. We're going to enforce that unless you kick back 2/3 of your salary. They put this in a document. There are, as the kids say, receipts. So I folded to blackmail, because 2/3 of $3 million a year is still pretty good. But I kept doing the job. In 1999, I broke a story that everybody laughed at that Michael Jordan was unhappy in retirement and he wanted to come back to play in the NBA. But instead of getting a salary, he wanted an ownership stake in a team. Two years later, he did exactly that. In 2000, I got to host the first Mets Yankees World Series. And hosting baseball every Saturday on Fox was a pretty good gig. And we were just gearing up for the 2001 baseball season when I got a tip on April 20th that the owners of the Los Angeles Dodgers had unofficially put their team up for sale. And in fact, they were talking to the old owners, the o' Malley family, about taking the Dodgers off their hands, selling the Dodgers back to the son of Walter o'. Malley. This was a great scoop, but it had great danger because the owners of the Dodgers were Fox, my own employers. The next day, after getting this scoop, I made about a hundred phone calls and sure enough, I got the friend of a friend of a friend of my agent to confirm that he and his family were in preliminary discussions joining the omalleys to buy the Dodgers from Fox 2 sources. Great scoop. And that night I reached out to my bosses and said, what the hell do we do here? The story is solid. The Dodgers are for sale. But look, this is your candy store and I do work for you, and if you don't want me to report this, I'm obviously not going to report it and I'm not going to pout and I'm not going to give the story to somebody else. My bosses replied, good for you. Why don't we all get on the phone with the top? Rupert Murdoch has his own personal News Corp. Public relations department. Let's see what he says. So on Sunday, April 22, 2001, we got Murdoch's own PR guy on the blower. And I explained it to him. Well, Mr. Murdoch has a policy about this. He never interferes in editorial decisions, not even in sourced business stories, not even if they involve him. So long as you make it clear your sources are not from within the company, and so long as you're confident in your sources, and so long as you include our denial, you should proceed with this Dodger story. That is what we are paying you for.

[Keith Olbermann (Interjecting/Commentary)]

For a brief moment, I thought maybe I have misjudged Rupert Murdoch.

[Keith Olbermann]

Well, it turned out to be a very brief moment and a very wrong moment. I reported the story that night. Howls of denials.

[Keith Olbermann (Interjecting/Commentary)]

Five days later, though, the Long Beach Press Telegram newspaper had its own story said, despite denials, Dodgers are for sale with far more details than I had. And that really was the end of it. The team was unofficially for sale. Dodger fans who hated what Fox had done to the team seemed happy. And the vast, stinking pile of burning excrement that was Fox and News Corp. And Murdoch sailed on, unperturbed.

[Keith Olbermann]

But 12 days after that, just before

[Keith Olbermann (Interjecting/Commentary)]

I was getting in my car to go to the first Fox baseball meeting for our 2001 season coverage, the president of Fox Sports yet Another Aussie called. David Hill called my agent and told her, keith's not doing any baseball for us this year.

[Keith Olbermann]

Business decision.

[Keith Olbermann (Interjecting/Commentary)]

Click. End of conversation. Nothing else. No firing, no get out, no clean out your desk. No announcement. But then two days later, they turned off my access to the Fox computer system. And four days after that, they called and canceled my cable show. And then that night, I got two weird calls from Rich Sandomir, who was the TV sports critic and TV sports business reporter for the New York Times. And Rich asks me, so did you know you got fired by Rupert Murdoch personally? And I said with genuine astonishment that I not only didn't know that, but even given my thoughts about Rupert Murdoch, I didn't believe that. Now, that's what my sources at Fox tell me. Apparently, your Dodger story really pissed him off. But.

[Keith Olbermann]

But.

[Keith Olbermann (Interjecting/Commentary)]

But really. And I said I had cleared it through his personal PR guy. I don't know. Rich Sandomir said. Apparently he was on vacation and he got back, like, the ninth of this month, and he read all these stories about the Dodgers being for sale and how FOX Sports was the first to report it. And he called up David Hill and. And he told Hill to fire you immediately. So I told Rich, this is the first I ever heard of this, and I still don't believe it, even though the day he mentioned May 9th was the day David Hill had called my agent and told her I would not be doing baseball for Fox that year. An hour later, the phone rings again, and it's Rich Sandomir again. And he sounds shaken. I got it wrong. I don't have any sources at Fox who told me Rupert fired you personally. My source said that you were telling people Rupert had fired you personally over the Dodger story. And I gave Rich a sequence of, well, kind of friendly ahas. And I said, no, I didn't, and, no, you've never been dumb enough in your life to make the mistake you're saying you just made. And he said, well, I never said somebody at Fox said Murdoch fired you. Okay, thanks.

[Keith Olbermann]

Bye.

[Keith Olbermann (Interjecting/Commentary)]

The next day, they had me come into the Fox building on Pico Boulevard and clean out my office while a guard watched. And she was a really nice guard. In fact, she brought donuts. But a lovely way to go out. As I packed, I thought more and more of what had happened in the month since I had gotten that tip about the Dodgers being for sale. As I left the Fox lot for the last time as an employee, I went back a couple of times to attend table reads for the Simpsons Table reads for the Simpsons were much more fun than being an employee at Fox. I called a couple of reporters I knew and my agent and some people in the business, and we tried to put together a timeline that made some sort of sense because the slow motion firing thing. May 9, you're not doing baseball. May 11, your computer won't work. May 15, your cable show is canceled. May 16, clean out your office. A week long firing made no sense until one reporter friend said, you know, Fox called me and said, call Keith up and provoke him. Get him to call us names, tell him about this story in that paper, calling him washed up. Get him going. And then it all clicked. My contract ran through the end of the year 2001, because Fox was firing me without any cause, or even claiming there was a cause, without any violation of my contract or their rules because I had left a trail of good behavior on the Dodger story. They were trying to enrage me and get me to say something nasty that itself would be a violation of my contract so they could outright fire me and keep the money. And the money still on the contract was about $800,000. Now, after decades of contemplating this, I am confident that I am no crazier than the next guy. At least not the next guy in television. But on my worst, craziest, least rational day, if you said, you have two choices, alderman. You can blow up these people who are firing you, and you can make them look bad in a newspaper for a day, and then they'll fire you and keep all the money they owe

[Keith Olbermann]

you, or you can keep your big

[Keith Olbermann (Interjecting/Commentary)]

bazoo shut for just seven months, you can keep the $800,000, and you can spend the summer doing whatever the hell you want, and you can then spend the rest of your natural life blowing these people up. If that's the choice, I will always take the scenario that gives me the $800,000 for doing nothing. Always. So on January 1, 2002, after the last Fox check cleared, I began making a professional avocation out of attacking Fox News, Fox Sports, Fox Business, Fox Murdoch, Fox O'Reilly, Fox, Tucker Carlson, whatever. And I got the $800,000. But there lingered for years this kind of academic question of whether Rupert Murdoch had actually fired me for having followed the rules set out by his own personal PR guy. As usual, these things resolve themselves when you least expect them to. Murdoch was speaking at a Dow Jones conference in Carlsbad, California, on May 28, 2008, seven years to the month they got rid of me. And a story came across the Wire with my name on it. The guy interviewing him at this conference talked about whether there should be dissenting voices on Fox News. Like that guy who was killing it on msnbc, Keith Olbermann. Now Murdoch barked. I fired him five years ago. He was crazy. Timing was off, but there it was, Rupert Murdoch confessing in front of a crowd that he fired me personally. The red badge of courage in quotes. I wondered if it still pissed him off that he had to pay me the $800,000 when I didn't take the grievance bait. Three years after that, Murdoch said it again. Like I hadn't heard it the first time. On February 1, 2011, Rupert Murdoch was interviewed by his business talking head, Neil Cavuto, who for some reason asked him if he would consider hiring me to put me on Fox News. No, we fired him once. We don't believe in firing people twice, Cavuto replied. You called him a nut. Well, he was a nut on. Well, we had him on Late Night Fox Sports. There was never any such show called Late Night Fox Sports. But never mind. It was impossible. I fired him. He was crazy. Fired me for following his rules, and I was the one who was crazy. Finally, speaking of crazy, I have had for 63, nearly 64 years now a love hate relationship with the name Keith. But did you know that Rupert Murdoch's real first name is also Keith, but that rather than call himself Keith, he voluntarily chooses to call himself Rupert? I mean, sure, my name is Keith, but at least my name ain't freaking Rupert.

[Keith Olbermann]

I've done all the damage I can do here. Thank you for listening. Rupert Murdoch fired me personally and boasted about it. Couldn't keep quiet. I won. Our musical directors of Countdown are John Philip Chenale on keyboards, handling orchestration and Brian Ray on guitars, bass, drums and of course the whole vibe of the thing. And their work is produced by TKO Brothers. Nancy Foust, the best baseball stadium organist ever and never herself fired by Rupert Murdoch, is responsible for the satirical and pithy musical comments. When we play the sports music as we did today, that's the old theme from the old Olbermann show on ESPN2. It was written by Mitch Warren Davis. Courtesy of ESPN Inc. The show is from 2013-15. Other music arranged and performed by the group. No horns allowed. In keeping with the sports theme. My announcer today was my friend Kenny Main. This program was produced by Ted. Everything else was, as always, my fault. That's countdown for today. Day421 of America held hostage again just 1,051 days until the scheduled end of Trump's lame duck and lame brained term, unless he is removed sooner by the Strait of Hormuz. The next scheduled countdown is Thursday. Bulletins as the news merits, until the next one, I'm John Wayne Mullen. Good morning, good afternoon, good night and good luck. John Wayne Mullen Countdown with Keith Ulberman is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Most people think their insurance will cover them when disaster strikes. The truth? Many are wrong. You pay premiums and assume you're protected until the fine print hits exclusions, limits, loopholes. Suddenly that coverage isn't coverage. My policy advocate reviews your policies Home Auto Life and breaks them down in plain English. They show what's really covered and what isn't. It costs just 27 cents a day less than a cup of coffee. For peace of mind before you assume you're covered, go to mypolicyadvocate.com you might be shocked at what you find. Mypolicyadvocate.com no one knows what the future

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[Keith Olbermann]

It's just a golf lesson, champ. Loosen up.

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[Keith Olbermann]

Yeah. Finish up on your own. I gotta run.

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[Keith Olbermann]

Hurry.

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This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.