Adam Carolla has a website for downloadable podcasts each of which is free until it's moved into the premium section. I mention that up front, because the podcast I recall would now cost money to download.
Carolla was one of the celebrity apprentices on Donald Trump's TV show of that name, and Carolla spoke of it on one his podcasts after he got fired. According to him, here's the way it happened.
Carolla was the team leader, and his team was given a product with instructions to come up with some way to promote it. I believe the product was a car made by one of the big American car companies. The team came up with a plan which involved most of the team members and some dialogue and jokes written by Carolla. But they ran into objection from one of the show producers. The producer wanted their presentation to be like Steve Jobs' introduction of a new iPhone, i.e., one person standing on stage explaining the product. Carolla's team objected, but the producer prevailed. And the presentation consisted of Carolla standing alone on stage advertising that new car. Their team lost. Nothing about the producer or his demands were ever made available to the TV show audience.
Someone on the losing team had to be fired. In the board room with Trump presiding, Carolla was asked who he would fire. Carolla said he would fire the producer for steering them off a winning course to a losing one. He was told he couldn't fire the producer, but he persisted. None of that got shown in the TV show. However, we did get to see Trump fire Carolla and one other team member because Carolla refused to name a team member he would fire.
Viewers were left with the impression that Carolla was too weak to fire anyone and wouldn't take the blame himself. That was simply wrong.
The narrative is everything in a reality show. We all know that they are heavily influenced by the show producers and edited to fit a story line. So this shouldn't surprise us too much that Trump didn't change that part of the formula or that he manipulated some important details to make someone other than him look bad. Carolla's side of the story was very credible, and for those who heard it, Celebrity Apprentice lost a lot of its credibility. But when the star of the show holds himself out as the master of the art of the deal, someone is going to get a raw deal.
Anyway, nothing in this story would persuade anyone for or against Donald Trump. But it's a little detail that nags at me when I hear some die hard Trump supporter call into C-Span's Washington Journal blaming everyone but Trump for anything bad that comes his way.
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Meanwhile, I'm still a one issue voter: future Supreme Court nominees. Currently Ted Cruz is leading in that category. However, Ilya Shapiro imagines that Trump's nominations might not be all that bad in There Are Better Reasons To Vote Against Trump Than Judge Picks. Well, OK then. Maybe someday I can stop worrying and learn to love the Donald.
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