Report: Why Olbermann may never return to sports broadcasting

If you're a sports fan and hoping Keith Olbermann (pictured) will return to sports broadcasting -- don't hold your breath.

Looks like Olbermann has burned too many bridges behind him. What he hasn't burned employers have.

SportsGrid reported Saturday that it’s unlikely that Olbermann will go back to ESPN and has also exhausted his options with Fox as an employment option, having ended his tenure at Fox Sports Net with News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch firing him and calling him “crazy.”

Other examples of the 'minefield' Olbermann left in his wake as he moved from job to job:

Olbermann, who anchored at ESPN from 1992 to 1997 and co-hosted a radio show in 2005, instigated trouble while employed there. In 1997, he was suspended for two weeks after making an unauthorized appearance on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show.” During the appearance, Olbermann made negative comments about Bristol, Connecticut, ESPN’s headquarters. Olbermann said Bristol was a “godforsaken place.”

While delivering Cornell University’s 1998 commencement address, Olbermann told graduates that his ESPN position gave him “dry heaves” and would “make [him] ashamed, make [him] depressed, make [him] cry.”

After ESPN, Olbermann had a three-year stint with Fox Sports Net, but was fired by Murdoch, who called him crazy.

Olbermann's problems with women are also well known:

In 2002, Olbermann wrote in a Salon.com column that he was shocked and sorry to learn that he’d previously brought fellow anchor Suzy Kolber to tears while at ESPN.

“I now read with horror of my ESPN2 co-host, Ms. Kolber, sequestering herself in the women’s bathroom and weeping over how I treated her,” Olbermann wrote.

During a 2007 appearance on the “Late Show,” host David Letterman asked Olbermann, “What is it about you? You seem to burn bridges wherever you leave.”

Olbermann replied “I don’t burn bridges, I burn rivers. If you burn a bridge, you can possibly build a new bridge, but if there’s no river any more, that’s a lot of trouble. I just try to run the place.”

In that same interview, Olbermann added that he was banned from ESPN’s main campus in Bristol.

It looks like Olbermann is his own worst enemy. Burning rivers indeed.

Link

Ice encased car in NY East Village

A leaky pipe beneath a Manhattan street encased a parked car in ice and caused the pavement to sink.

East Second Street between First and Second Avenues is like a glacier as layers of thick cascading ice cover the block. Beneath the frozen tundra sits an Audi A3 completely encased in six inches of ice.

“I’ve never seen anything like that, it’s like an ice sculpture,” a woman said.

The owner of the car, is taking the situation in stride. “It could be worse like if that was me or a family member covered in ice that wouldn’t be good; so it’s all relative.”

Link

State of the Union message…

Fact checking the Obama speech…

The report below is titled: Fact Check: Obama and his imbalanced ledger.

Two examples from the report:

OBAMA: "I'm willing to look at other ideas to bring down costs, including one that Republicans suggested last year: medical malpractice reform to rein in frivolous lawsuits."

THE FACTS: Republicans may be forgiven if this offer makes them feel like Charlie Brown running up to kick the football, only to have it pulled away, again.

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OBAMA: "To put us on solid ground, we should also find a bipartisan solution to strengthen Social Security for future generations."

THE FACTS: With that comment, Obama missed another chance to embrace the tough medicine proposed by the commission for bringing down the deficit. For example, he ruled out slashing benefits or partially privatizing the program, and made no reference to raising the retirement age. That left listeners to guess how he plans to do anything to salvage the popular retirement program whose trust funds are expected to run out of money in 2037 without changes.

Much more here.

Vehicle said to be JFK Ambulance sold by Barrett-Jackson

The 1963 Pontiac Bonneville ambulance said to have carried President John F. Kennedy’s body after his assassination sold at the Barrett-Jackson Auction Co. sale in Scottsdale, Arizona, for $120,000 plus buyers commission for a total of $132,000.

One source claims the JFK Ambulance sold by Barrett-Jackson is a "near perfect fake" and that the real JFK ambulance was crushed in 1986. But why would anyone destroy a bona fide JFK artifact?

The Barrett-Jackson Auction Company described the ambulance as having met Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base and taken JFK’s casket to Bethesda Naval Hospital for autopsy and later to the Capitol, some experts said the actual ambulance that carried Kennedy was destroyed in the mid-1980s.

A Barrett-Jackson attorney told The Associated Press Friday that the auction company can't say for sure if the ambulance actually carried Kennedy's coffin.

Link here here and here.

Jesse Ventura sues HS and TSA for invasive pat downs and scans

Former Minnesota governor, professional wrestler and conspiracy theory advocate Jesse Ventura (pictured) has sued the Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration claiming full-body scans and pat-down at airport checkpoints violate his right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures.

Ventura is asking a federal judge in Minnesota to issue an injunction ordering officials to stop subjecting his body to "warrantless and suspicionless" scans and searches.

Since receiving a hip replacement in 2008, Ventura, a frequent traveler, has been subjected to numerous body scans; however, when Ventura's titanium implant set off a metal detector in November and was subjected to a pat-down, the 59-year-old was about ready to lay the smack down.

Ventura claims he did not mind the hand-held wand that was used to scan his body as a secondary security measure prior to the November incident, but what he does mind is the "humiliation and degradation" he experienced as a result of the "unwanted touching, gripping, and rubbing of the intimate areas of his body."

Link

A half van is better than none

A Pakistani laborer transports the front portion of a van on his handcart on a road in Rawalpindi, Pakistan

Ed Schultz bashes Bachmann for doing what Obama did in 2008

MSNBC's Ed Schultz (left photo) must be ignorant of politics and recent history.

Uncanny resemblance

On Friday, he (Schultz) attacked Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) for giving a competing response to the upcoming State of the Union address even though presidential candidate Barack Obama did the same thing in 2008.

Actually the facts really don't matter to a bloviator like Ed Schultz. As with others on MSNBC, his audience is mostly made up of rabid left-wingers eagerly cheering as he 'preaches to the choir.'

One commenter wrote, "once again, Sergeant Schultz has gone into strudel withdrawal" alluding to the addlebrained Schultz (right photo) on the old Hogan's Heroes" TV series.

Link

New York City takes aim at rich and famous tax deadbeats

Actor Alec Baldwin (pictured) has joined a list of elite New Yorkers targeted by tax collectors who think they're fibbing about where they really live to dodge New York City income taxes.

In recent years, auditors have confronted hundreds of super-wealthy New Yorkers over the residency rules - including star Yankee shortstop Derek Jeter.

Facing shrinking revenues, the state has ramped up its pursuit of suspected tax dodgers, hiring 189 new auditors and - for the first time - making filers swear under oath on tax forms as to how many days they "spend in New York City."

If it's more than 183 days and the filer has a residence in the city, the tax bill goes up.

They may still find ways to, as the Brits say, "fiddle the tax man."

Link

Report: Joan Rivers calls Michelle Obama 'Blackie O'

Joan told scandal-loving Howard Stern that she pulled a joke out of her repertoire about Michelle Obama (pictured) for fear of being accused of racism.

"We used to have Jackie O," she said. "Now we have Blackie O!"

Rivers claimed she meant the nickname as a term of endearment for Michelle.

She thought it was a funny complimentary joke.
Endearment and funny complimentary joke? Yeah, right.

Link

Rahm Emanuel kicked off ballot in Chicago!

Former Obama White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel has been kicked off the ballot in Chicago’s mayoral election.

With Obama's blessing Emanuel left the White House inner circle to run for Mayor of Chicago.

The photo shows Rahm Emanuel hamming it up during the January 20, 2009 Barack Obama Inauguration.

Now a Chicago appellate court ruled that Emanuel did not meet the residency requirement necessary to run for mayor.

Emanuel’s attorney Kevin Forde called the court’s decision a “surprise.”

The former Congressman was leading both in the polls and in fund raising ahead of next month’s election.

The case is now expected to go to the Illinois Supreme Court.

But will there be enough time for a SC hearing before the election?

Link

Graffiti mural in New York

Mural by graffiti artist Kenny Scharf along Houston Street in New York. The mural is part of an ongoing project in which a variety of artists are invited to decorate the wall as part of an urban art series.

Shuffling deck chairs on the MSNBC Titanic

Say what you will about Keith Olbermann - he never feigned fairness or balance like so many other leftist cable news program hosts do.

He was always up front about his political leanings. He never tried to hide his loathing of conservatives.

Maybe it was his honesty that got him the highest ratings of any cable news show on either MSNMC or CNN. At the second link below there is a listing of the cable news shows by number of viewers. Olbermann is the next one after all of the Fox News shows.

MSNBC is going to have another angry leftist, Lawrence O'Donnell, take over Olbermann's 8:00 time slot. Ed Schultz will be moved to juggle the time slots.

So not much has changed really - just a shuffling of the chairs on the decks of the MSNBC Titanic, which gets beaten consistently and badly in the ratings wars by its arch-rival, Fox News.

Link here and here.

More on eating bugs - yes, eating bugs!

A group of Dutch scientists are doing groundbreaking research into insects replacing animal meat as a healthier, more environmentally friendly source of protein.

"There will come a day when a Big Mac costs 120 euros ($163) and a Bug Mac 12 euros, when more people will eat insects than other meat," head researcher Arnold van Huis told a disbelieving audience at Wageningen University in the central Netherlands.

The volunteer shown above appears to be having serious doubts about her attempt to eat something that once crawled.

Link

Tucson sheriff Dupnik faces recall

Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik (pictured) has never lost an election, but that was before his remarks assigning blame for the deadly Tucson, Ariz., shooting to political "vitriol" and calling Arizona "a mecca for prejudice and bigotry."

Now it's Sheriff Dupnik who finds himself on the public-opinion hot seat. A group opposed to illegal immigration has begun an effort to recall the sheriff in a special election. Meanwhile, a Pima County tea party group is planning on holding a "Dump Dupnik" rally next week outside his office.

Sheriff Dupnik has refused to enforce the Arizona immigration law.

I haven't been a fan of Dupnik's for a long time, but this really was the straw that broke the camel's back," said Tom Rompel, co-owner of Black Weapons Armory in Tucson. "He's law enforcement. We expect 'the facts, ma'am,' not his opinion."

"He leans far left, always has, and frankly, people have had enough."

Link

Olbermann ouster 1 yr after demise of Air America

It may be coincidental irony or it may be an omen. The ouster of ultra-liberal Keith Olbermann from MSNBC came exactly one year after the ultra-liberal Air America Radio went belly up.

Air America was started with seed money from George Soros in the early months of 2004. It was a far-left radio network headed by talk show host Al Franken (pictured) who was intended to be the liberal answer to Bill O'reilly. Mr. Franken even called his Air American talk-show the "Franken Factor."

Air America was intended to help elect John Kerry and we all know how that turned out.

The report announcing the final shut-down of Air America along with a multitude of excuses why it failed can be found here.

Report Unions see sharp membership declines again

From an Associated Press report last Friday:

The nation's labor unions saw another steep decline in membership last year, even as the economy showed signs of recovery and job losses slowed.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday that unions lost 612,000 members in 2010, dropping the unionized share of the work force to 11.9 percent from 12.3 percent in 2009.

That follows a loss of 771,000 workers in 2008, continuing a steady decline from the 1950s when more than a third of workers belonged to unions.

Union membership in the private sector fell from 7.2 percent to 6.9 percent, a low point not seen since the infancy of the labor movement in the 1930s.

Link

More on the abrupt Keith Olbermann firing

The firing of liberal firebrand Keith Olbermann (pictured) came so quickly after the acquisition of NBC Universal by Comcast that it sure seems as though Comcast insisted on the Olbermann ouster.

Why else would MSNBC fire the host of their most popular show? The chart below shows that Olbermann had the most viewers of any cable news program that wasn't on Fox - the King of Cable News.

By the way, the cheering you hear in the background is probably Olbermann's associates at MSNBC applauding his departure. Olbermann has been known as a difficult man to get along with and may not be missed by those at the MSNBC offices.



Cable News viewers on Thursday January 20, 2011 showing Keith Olbermann as the MSNBC leader just below the FOX News programs.

FOX News - Bill O’Reilly - 2,918,000
FOX News - Sean Hannity - 2,079,000
FOX News - Bret Baier - 1,940,000
FOX News - Shepard Smith - 1,786,000
FOX News - Glenn Beck - 1,780,000
FOX News - Greta Van Susteren - 1,460,000
MSNBC - Keith Olbermann - 1,106,000
CNN - Piers Morgan - 1,025,000
MSNBC - Rachel Maddow - 976,000
MSNBC - Lawrence O'Donnell - 855,000
MSNBC - Ed Shultz - 760,000
CNN - Anderson Cooper - 740,000
MSNBC - Chris Matthews - 700,000

Link here and here.

Journalism 101. Making a meaningless story into a lead story.

Sometimes it is done innocently but mostly it is practicing what is taught in Journalism 101 - "hype a trend."

More often hyping a trend is done purposely to get recognition for the journalist.

But even if the journalist does it innocently, hyping a "trend" can lead to a complete misunderstanding of what is really going on.

How does it work? Whenever an event makes a big splash, local reporters and editors will add it to their informal lists of things to watch for.

Every instance of a similar event will get the journalist in print until it becomes common enough that interest wanes.

Here's an example:

A train derailed in Texas (doesn't matter where) and a tank car ruptured, leaking toxic chemicals. Fumes drifted across a busy highway, causing casualties.

The journalist instinctively asks what was aboard the tank car that ruptured.

If the contents sounded sufficiently alarming, the lead would say something like "A train carrying toxic sulfuric acid derailed just 10 miles from a school on Sunday."

By hyping every little story of train accidents for the next year or so it appeared that the nation had a dangerous train problem.

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A good example of a recent hyped story was the report about the politically motivated Sheriff Dupnik (shown on left below) from Tucson who was paraded in front of news cameras and newspaper journalists for the next two days without letup.


The story was hyped until someone suddenly told the sheriff to shut up.

It's hard to forget watching and reading about Sheriff Dupnik using "vitriolic" political rhetoric while blaming "vitriolic" political rhetoric for the shootings in Tucson two weeks ago.

When asked if he had evidence suggesting the young shooter was motivated by conservative rhetoric, the sheriff replied, "not yet."

The sheriff assumed his story would not be challenged. He was right. CNN didn't challenge the story. MSNBC did not challenge. Did ABC, CBS or NBC challenge Dupnik? If they did we missed it. Fox News supplied the only challenge to the left-leaning opinionated sheriff.

As a result of this hyped story, the public defenders for Jared Loughner (shown on right above) will have an advantage when trying to get an insanity plea.

Barrett-Jackson auto auctions

Once or twice a year I enjoy watching the Barrett-Jackson auto auctions on TV while catching up on some writing on my laptop while kicked back in a recliner.

It would be fun to attend one of the Barrett-Jackson auctions. However, even if I could qualify as a bidder, I would be nervous in the bidding area.

I would worry that a quick forehead scratch would make me the new owner of a 1926 Hupmobile.

Last night I had my Barrett-Jackson 'fix' so now I will be fine for the next few months.