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This YouTube video reminded me that I was the person who introduced Keith Olbermann to America. Keith was a sportscaster at the local CBS affiliate in Los Angeles at the same time I was doing a talk show for that network. I thought Keith was pretty funny on the air, and I suggested we have him come on the show and talk sports. This was the first of several appearances he made on the show, and he always did a nice job. Keith tended to wear out his welcome at stations and networks, and he bounced around to several places...

Manmade global warming, like so many other social and economic issues, has become hopelessly politicized. Each side has dug in its heels and has accused the other of acting irresponsibly and dishonestly. For the believers, the other side has become the equivalent of Holocaust deniers; and for the doubters, the other side has become a cult intent on manipulating mankind to remake the world in some sort of natural Utopian image. The divide has become so great, it seems virtually impossible to bridge the gap. However, I’m not writing for Ricochet merely to outline problems; I’m here to offer real...

“I don’t know whether Fred Thompson will ultimately prevail as the Republican Party’s nominee for President, but I find myself rooting for him, because, even if there were no other reason (and I think there are many), he drives the mainstream media crazy by paying absolutely no attention to them."

There have been so many debates and interviews and columns and profiles and polls, it’s hard to believe the election for president is still about 11 months away. Recently, celebrity endorsements have been making news, with Oprah Winfrey saying she would campaign for Barack Obama and Barbra Streisand making the not-so-stunning announcement that she was supporting Hillary Clinton... ...the question remains: do these endorsements really translate into votes?...

Before Tennessee Republican Fred Thompson began running for president, the South did not have a top-tier Republican candidate in the field — even though that region is fertile political ground for that party. Thompson, an actor and former U.S. senator (1994-2003), last month formally joined a field in which the best-known Republican contenders were either from the Northeast (former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney) or from the West (Arizona Sen. John McCain). So it was not exactly shocking that a detailed campaign finance report Thompson’s campaign filed Monday with the Federal Election Commission...

"Hiya, Pat...it’s Merv Griffin.” “G’bye, Pat...give my love to Lesly and the kids.” Those were the first and last words uttered to me by Merv Griffin, and there were 26 years of joy in between. Our first conversation occurred on the phone from my office at KNBC-TV in Los Angeles in November, 1981. It was, indeed, one of my early heroes, Merv Griffin, calling, and he wanted to know whether I was interested in taking over the hosting duties on a daytime game show he was producing for NBC called Wheel of Fortune. The final words came in a quiet...

January 6, 2006 - Hollywood has a richly-deserved reputation as an extremely liberal town populated by celebrities who rarely hesitate to assail their audiences with their political opinions. Between bluffing that they'd leave the United States if Bush was elected (Alec Baldwin), demanding that he be impeached (Barbra Streisand), hosting Air America radio shows (Janeane Garofalo, Al Franken), consorting with Fidel Castro (Danny Glover) and making romantic movies about Stalinist mass-murderer and t-shirt icon Che Guevara (The Motorcycle Diaries), Hollywood has gotten quite fat suckling at the liberal teat. But just as there may be a few Britney Spears fans...

Dear Working Man, We here at The Democratic Party are on your side. Remember, Republicans are the party of the rich, and Democrats are the party of the working man. (Of course, “working man” is merely an expression not meant to exclude working women, who make up a large and growing part of the work force. Nor are we attempting to discriminate in any way against transgender workers, who deserve full protection of their rights in the workplace.) Frankly, we have been baffled by your tendency to vote against your own interests in recent elections, as you drift away from...

Why I've Stopped Arguing with Liberals by Pat Sajak Posted Mar 28, 2005 Every time I argue with a Liberal, I’m reminded of quarrels I used to have with my parents. The battles never seemed fair because my folks decided what the rules were and what was out of bounds. In addition, because they were parents, they could threaten me in ways I couldn’t threaten them, and they could say things I could never say. Recently, for example, I was discussing the United Sates Supreme Court with one of my many Liberal friends out in Los Angeles when she said,...

I awoke Sunday morning wanting to know what was happening in the Terri Schiavo saga, and here’s what one of the major news services had to say: WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush cut short a holiday to return to Washington and be ready to sign a bill that may keep a brain-damaged woman alive in a case pitting Christian conservatives against right-to-die activists.That sentence is just one of dozens of examples you can find almost daily of what’s wrong with the press. First of all, it is inaccurate. The notion that Christian Conservatives are the only ones on one side...

I like the United Nations. Sure, they’ve got their problems, but what large, multi-leveled bureaucracy doesn’t? And, like those other bureaucracies, it has its good and bad points. A few billion here or there will occasionally disappear. Folks like the Libyans and the Cubans get to sit in judgment of others’ human rights abuses. Millions are spent on fancy buildings and offices around the world in order to bring help to the planet’s suffering masses. Diplomatic immunity allows a few thousand parking tickets in New York City to go unpaid. Despots and thugs get to share the international stage with...

Pat Sajak's Moment of RageBy Chris Shugart, Feb 7, 05        John Kerry has done it now. Oh sure, he's cranky, aloof, and overbearingly annoying every time he opens his mouth. But this time he must have really stepped over the line. He made Pat Sajak mad.        Yes, that Pat Sajak, the affable game show host that makes Clark Kent look like an uncouth brute. What exactly does it take to ruffle up Wheel of Fortune's long standing and generally likeable master of ceremonies? Asking to buy a vowel when an obvious consonant is available? Not likely. Making a catty comment...

Picture this: Somewhere in the world, a filmmaker creates a short documentary that chronicles what he perceives as the excesses of anti-abortion activists. An anti-abortion zealot reacts to the film by killing the filmmaker in broad daylight and stabbing anti-abortion tracts onto his body. How does the Hollywood community react to this atrocity? Would there be angry protests? Candlelight vigils? Outraged letters and columns and articles? Awards named in honor of their fallen comrade? Demands for justice? Calls for protection of artistic freedom? It’s a pretty safe bet that there would be all of the above and much more. And...

Because Hollywood is so big and so powerful, so great and so well-known, it has an exaggerated view of its significance. Not Hollywood, the town. Not much Show Business actually goes on there. Most of the studios are spread around other Southern California communities, like Culver City or Burbank. But I mean Hollywood, the Entertainment Mecca - which includes parts of Southern California and New York City, and, because news has become entertainment, some of Washington, D.C., as well. While I work in Hollywood, I live elsewhere. My family and I live in a quiet suburb of Annapolis, Maryland. The...

Wheel sued for fortune A "Wheel of Fortune" winner has sued the show for $2 million, charging the game's exuberant host, Pat Sajak, hugged him so hard he caused severe back injuries. Will Wright, 38, an accountant and father of two, was a contestant on the hit TV show three years ago during the taping of a special episode in Washington, said Wright's attorney, Gregory Lattimer. Wright won $48,000. Sajak was so excited by Wright's big win that he "hurled himself into [the] plaintiff's chest and wrapped his legs around the plaintiff's body," according to the lawsuit, first reported by...

LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - Long-time "Wheel of Fortune" host Pat Sajak is moving back into the talk-show arena. The Fox News Channel has hired Sajak to serve as host of a weekly Sunday-night talk show, according to the Wall Street Journal. The show is scheduled to air at 8 p.m. ET, leading into "At Large with Geraldo Rivera." Sajak is not a stranger to talk shows, although his last foray into the genre didn't go so well. He hosted "The Pat Sajak Show" on CBS in 1989 and '90. It was first attempt in many years to challenge "The Tonight...

Tuesday mornings at 10:30. How I hated that day and time. I can still feel the same tightness in my stomach. As a kid growing up in Chicago in the '50s, Tuesday mornings at 10:30 meant the testing of the city's air raid sirens. People seemed to get used to the ear-piercing wails, but I always remember thinking that if I were a clever Soviet official -- I had never heard of the word oxymoron at that time -- I would attack Chicago at 10:30 on a Tuesday morning. No one would know or care until it was too late....

Pat Sajak was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1946 and attended Columbia College. Hired at his first job in broadcasting in 1967, he left college in 1968 to volunteer for the Army and was posted to Vietnam, where he served as a morning disc jockey on Armed Forces Radio. Following his discharge, Mr. Sajak's broadcasting career brought him to television station KNBC in Los Angeles, where he performed weather duties and hosted a weekend talk show. Wheel of Fortune creator Merv Griffin hired him to host the then-daytime game show in 1981, adding the syndicated evening version in 1983. Since...