by John Walters
Tweet du Jour
Chris Cuomo says what most of America thinks about Kellyanne Conway right to her face: “You should admit he’s lying, and you don’t, and that’s why people don’t trust you.” pic.twitter.com/QTxaTfRDAN
— Adam Best (@adamcbest) August 24, 2018
If this were a ’40s Hollywood film, they’d bicker for 15 seconds more and then he’d grab her and kiss her on the lips. Those were the days.
****
CORRECTION FROM YESTERDAY: Kirk Herbstreit DID appear on ESPN after the Ohio State presser Wednesday night. He’s also doing a media conference call today.
Starting Five
45th President’s Film Festival
Featuring Flipper, Ratatouille, Liar Liar, Birth of a Nation, All The President’s Men, Wag The Dog and Godfather II.
2. The Malibu Stalker
For the past few years, someone has been acting like a sniper in the canyons above Malibu, peppering campers and hikers with buck shot. Two months ago, a camper was murdered, shot in the head while in his tent shortly before dawn. Is one person involved in all of these incidents? The Guardian examines these incidents.
3. Trump’s Pecker May Once Again Get Him Into Trouble
Ron Silver will definitely play him in The Worst Wing movie
The CEO of American Media David Pecker, who by connection also publishes the National Enquirer, which has been a repository (but not a printer) of what is apparently a trove of torrid Trump tales, well, this Pecker fella has apparently reached an immunity deal with federal prosecutors.
Why this longtime pal of the president’s would need an immunity deal is itself a story. Did the NE, which is technically a news organization, work to protect the president during the election and did it receive money for doing so? Appears that way.
And yes, Kellyanne Conway leveled the same charge in he opposite direction against CNN last night, claiming they tried to influence the election by reporting the news about Trump. Of course, no one from Hillary’s camp paid them to do so and then there’s the small matter of news organizations’ jobs being to, you know, report the news.
4. Beadle Juice*
*The judges will NOT accept “Get Up! On Your High Horse.” Just won’t do it. But they will accept “Miss Ain’t Behavin’ “
In the wake of the Ohio State presser, Michelle Beadle, trip-host of an ESPN show called Get Up! that we panned from the beginning and continue to pan, declared the she no longer watches college football or the NFL. That same night the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles played the 0-16 Cleveland Browns in a preseason contest and lost 5-0 and we decided that Beadle may just have a point.
Beadle’s declaration of gridiron independence, her girlcott, was about football not caring one bit about women (unless they’re prancing on the sidelines) and she has a point. We haven’t watched the NFL—until the playoffs—for years because A) the games are no longer played as much as litigated B) the NFL takes itself entirely too seriously; even the U.S. Senate has a better sense of humor and C) the entire regular season is about fantasy football, which we have never bothered to care about.
As for Beadle, she was making huge coin talking about the NBA and living the glam life in LA on a show that aired around noon local time. Now she’s had to uproot herself to New York City (bad NBC memories), wake up before dawn, pretend to have chemistry with Mike Greenberg, and play much more by Norby’s rules. No wonder she’s miserable.
Put me in, coach: I likes football
This, once again for Beadle, won’t end well. You don’t absolutely need to watch football to be a trip-host for Get Up!, but it’s a bad look in the months September through January. Forget how much ESPN has invested in its NFL coverage for a moment: if 95% or more of your core audience watches something that you yourself find not worth your time, maybe you’re doing the wrong show.
Admire Beadle’s candor. But she’s headed down a Bill Simmons/Jemele Hill path. Maybe she hopes they’ll move her back to LA. and let her do nothing but talk about the NBA with her good pals. My guess is that Norby tells her to take her views to another network. And, oh, by the way, isn’t Katie Nolan there in the corner, twiddling her thumbs, waiting to be given something to do?
5. Booking a Book Writer*
The judges will accept “Conan’s Caro Canon” but will not accept “The Purple Prose of Caro”
Harvard grad/talk show host Conan O’Brien is a total fan boy of Robert Caro, author of The Power Broker (which is like required reading as soon as you move to New York City). But for reasons beyond the TNT talk show host’s understanding, Caro has no interest in sitting on a couch in Burbank.
Maybe he just doesn’t want to be that close to a guy named Richter in a land notorious for earthquakes. We don’t know. Anyway, here’s the story.
*****
Gotta run, kids. The cookoutateria called us in early today.
I’ve continued to watch ‘Get Up!’ for 1 hour every non-TDF weekday morning but I didn’t see Beadle’s, er, CRY FOR FREEDOM since that segment must have aired after I left for work. Couple things. No, the chemistry of the show has not magically improved but I now look for & appreciate different aspects from each ‘host’ so I don’t keep wailing about it. (However, I hope to find out one day WHY Greeny actually WANTED to CEASE the 18-year ESPN flagship morning show of which he was a co-star for THIS. To live in his home town where he does NOT really live yet because he promised his daughter they wouldn’t move until after she left for college?! And WHO at ESPN put this 3-some together & HOW could they not see there was ZERO chemistry?!). 2nd, Beadle was mysteriously off this show “on vacation” for 4 straight weeks & didn’t return until this past Monday. Um, I watched ‘Mike & Mike’ for its last 6 years & don’t remember either M or M EVER taking more than 2 weeks off at a time & usually it was only one. By the 3rd week of no-Beadle, I started checking online to see if she was seriously ill or recovering from surgery. And then, her 1st week back she pontificates that she does not (& apparently did not last year) watch either college or pro football? She’s a co-host of a TV SPORTS TALK SHOW! (Hey, maybe this will start a trend – next up – a financial investment show where one won’t talk about the stock market: Whoo-eee!). And wait, you’re telling me it’s because “football doesn’t care about women”? This JUST dawned on her? I’ve actually grown to like Beadle’s input but this is LUDICROUS. Not the part where football doesn’t care about women, of COURSE it doesn’t, never has, except for wanting their money. But that someone whose JOB it is to report & DISCUSS sports, including the biggest sport in this country, won’t actually WATCH it? The show should immediately be re-named ‘GET OUTTA HERE’.
I’m guessing Beadle realized her huge mistake of leaving LA & the “sunshine” (on Monday, she mentioned how she “missed it”, er, is NYC suffering some kind of ongoing eclipse that you’ve kept “hidden” from us? See what I did there? 🙂 ) & she wants out.
On the other hand, you say YOU don’t watch the NFL either & that hasn’t stopped your pithy observations & comments. And over the past 5 years, I’ve watched less & less NFL until the past 2 years, I watched NO entire game except the Super Bowl. Of course I’m not PAID to discuss/analyze/comment on ALL of sports. Well, WE both still watch CFB, although my growing disenchantment with the pro game has been lessening my enthusiasm for that too. Then there’s that whole “toxic culture” thing that apparently many in the sports media has JUST discovered. (Reminds me of when the cycling media & yes, there is such a thing, FINALLY realized there was “doping going on in here!”).
When I heard The Sociopath’s ranting about “flippers” yesterday, the theme song from the old TV show immediately moved into my brain & has not left! One MORE reason to hate the SOB. “They call him FLIPPER, FLIPPER!….” (I actually loved that show when I was a kid but don’t really want that song lodged in my brain right now).
My “fave’ thing from The Sociopath’s TV interview is when he gave himself an “A+” for the job he’s been doing. Just think about that when remembering the SHIT SHOW this country (specifically its political realm) has been for the past 21 months. The reason it’s my FAVE thing (despite my almost choking to death on a popcorn kernel when I heard it) is that this CONFIRMS the SOB is a SOCIOPATH.
Susie,
Loving the commentary lately.
Mike and Mike was growing stale and I think both guys knew that. There’s only so many fat jokes or metrosexual jokes those two could make. I also feel that Greeny felt he could do better. Golic probably never dreamed that he would become rich hosting a radio show.
I’ve only watched GetUp when traveling and had the same conclusions. I expected a SportsCenter type show but I instead got another discussion show with very little highlights. Also, I believe Beadle had a pelvis issue that required surgery which could explain the absence. Their does appear to be more chemistry when it’s two hosts rather than 3.
Now regarding Beadle. Since her return, I haven’t been a fan. She gives off a vibe that she’s a gift to TV when you would have figured that failure at NBC would have knocked her down a few pegs. (Rachel Nichols gives me the same vibe). SportsNation was a good show for her because she played off Cowherd well. But she wasn’t going to want to stay there.
Do you know how many female sportscasters have admitted that they don’t watch the WNBA and feel the game is terrible and unappealing? It’s the same rant but that hasn’t stopped them from being on TV.
One point from yesterday. I understand your defense of Urban but Urban brought this upon himself as not being prepared at media day (you can also blame his PR team). If he answers Brett’s question with any sort of answer along the lines “the incident had been brought to our attention and we had addressed it with Zach and no charges had been at the time. Since then, new information has come to us and we decided it was best to part ways with Zach” then Brett more than likely drops it and we move on. Urban calling the story make believe and denying it is what opened the floodgates. Don’t worry once Ohio State is in the CFP again, the media will fawn over him.