Chris Russo considered CNN's Joe Torre chat 'a disgrace'

Photo credit: Watchdog

Chris Russo was unimpressed with how CNN and Larry King handled Joe Torre's first TV interview about the book "The Yankee Years."

(Chris gets his crack at Torre at 4:45 p.m. Wednesday on Sirius XM.)

Click below for my transcript of his vintage rant Saturday morning.

Photo: Getty"I was not able to sleep last night, so I saw this at about 3:15. Let me tell you, Larry King's got to retire. Let's start with that. Larry King is lost, lost, lost. And CNN was so bad last night with its presentation with Torre, it was a disgrace.

"First off, they have two bars in operation here. They had a New York bar, and they had an L.A. bar. So they thought it would be a great idea, for some ungodly reason, to have fans in New York ask Joe questions and fans in L.A. ask Joe questions.

"Now, we all want to know about the book. I don't care about what some 18-year-old in L.A. wants Joe to do with Manny Ramirez. I'm not interested. Today's not the day for that. It's Jan. 30. I don't care if Manny Ramirez plays for the Royals, I'm not interested right now. In two weeks I'll get into it. Right now I can't get into it.

"So Larry, fumbling around, goes to New York and goes to Mickey Mantle's and some lady or kid or whatever might ask Joe about the book, might ask Joe, you know, what do you think about A-Rod, but also might say, 'Joe, we love you, hope you come back some day.'

"It was so absurd that CNN decided - and CNN with sports, you don't pay any attention to anyway, they know nothing about sports. If you watch sports in this world - with news, they do a nice job - but if you watch sports, you don't go to CNN. We all know that. I know that. You know that. You don't go to Atlanta.

"You know what you don't do? You don't go to Atlanta for sports, whether it's TBS, TNT, they stink for sports. Their announcers are awful. They're awful. Awful. They've been awful, they are awful, they will always be awful.

"How could you be the executive producer at CNN last night and say to yourself, OK, we've got Joe Torre in our studio, he's gotten a lot of publicity with this book, SI this week and everything else, big exclusive interview, you know, Joe is a big guy in sports. It's a Friday night, so people are thinking sports with the Super Bowl. And you know what we're going to do?

"We are going to put a camera in a bar in New York and a camera in a bar in L.A. and we're going to go back and forth to have the fans ask Joe a question. No fan of which has bought the book. You can't buy it until Tuesday, so nobody can get the book. The book is embargoed. You can't buy this book if you're Doubleday. My editor couldn't buy this book! Jason Kaufman hasn't got the book yet! And he's the editor of the Da Vinci Code. You can't get any bigger than that guy. He hasn't read it! So that was a dumb idea.

"Then they've got that dopey anchor, whatever his name is, I don't even know, I've seen him a couple of times, and he's sitting there on the blog in New York reading blogs, i-blogs. He's got Joe we love you, Joe how can you do this, Joe how about Manny Ramirez, Joe what'd you think about Game 4 of the 2001 World Series? I mean, it didn't make any sense.

"And then you've got Larry doesn't pace the show right. It's ridiculous. I don't care how many spots you have. Listen, I did a radio show with another person for 18 years, 19 years, with 19 to 20 minutes of commercials every day, not to mention news, sports, weather and traffic and Wall Street. There's a way to pace a program. Larry, learn, please.

"And then Larry, all over the map, asking more questions about Ramirez, we both are from Brooklyn, how about that? I mean, nobody cares. Then Joe chimes in by giving him a Dodger cup.

"And to top the disaster all off, what's King do at the end of the program? He's been married 30 times. What's he do at the end of the program? He brings his four young kids up, all wearing Ramirez jerseys in Dodger blue!

"You can't make it up at 3:30 in the morning!!!"

By the way, Sirius XM sent a list of Russo's 56 Super Bowl week guests as of Friday night:

1. Bruce Springsteen

2. Nils Lofgren- E Street Band

3. Patti Scialfa- E Street Band

4. Steven Van Zandt- E Street Band

5. Clarence Clemons- E Street Band

6. John Madden - NBC

7. Al Michaels - NBC

8. Bob Costas - NBC

9. Dick Ebersol - NBC

10. Bill Parcells

11. David Wells - former NY Yankees pitcher

12. Joe Theisman - former Redskins QB

13. Jim Kelly- former Bill QB

14. Jonathan Ogden- former Ravens OL

15. Justin Tuck- Giants DE

16. David Tyree- Giants WR

17. Anthony Munoz- former Bengals OL

18. Kevin James- actor

19. Derrick Brooks- Tampa Bay Bucs LB

20. Joe Flacco- Baltimore Ravens QB

21. BJ Upton- Tampa Bay Rays OF

22. Calvin Johnson- Detroit Lions WR

23. Archie Manning- Former New Orleans Saints QB

24. Tim Brown- Former Raiders WR

25. Leigh Steinberg, NFL Agent

26. Dick Vermeil- Super Bowl Champion Head Coach

27. Warren Sapp- Former NFL DL

28. Joe Montana- HOF QB

29. Matt Ryan- ATL QB

30. Marvin Lewis- Bengals Head Coach

31. Phil Simms- NYG Super Bowl QB/CBS Analyst

32. Mike Ditka- Bears Coach

33. Franco Harris- HOF PIT RB

34. Doug Williams- Super Bowl MVP QB

35. Ryan Howard- Phillies 1B

36. Peter King- NFL Expert

37. Mike Westhoff- Jets Special Teams Coach

38. Mike Tirico- ESPN Radio Host & MNF PbP

39. Chad Pennington- MIA Dolphins QB

40. Brandon Jacobs- NYG RB

41. Lee Roy Selmon, former Tampa Bay Buccaneer

42. Stump Mitchell - Assistant Head Coach, Washington Redskins

43. Tim Ryan, former Bears DL, Sirius NFL Radio host

44. Pat Kirwan, former Jets exec, Sirius NFL Radio host

45. Randy Cross, former 49ers OL, Sirius NFL Radio host

46. Solomon Wilcots, former Bengals DB, Sirius NFL Radio host

47. Brady Quinn- Quarterback, Cleveland Browns

48. Gary Myers, Columnist NY Daily News

49. LaDainian Tomlinson, Chargers RB

50. Ira Kaufman- Tampa Tribune

51. Rich Eisen- NFL Network

52. Jack Youngblood- Hall of Fame Defensive End

53. Mickey Loomis- Exec. VP & GM for New Orleans Saints

54. Patrick McEnroe- Tennis Analyst

55. Adam Schefter- NFL Network

56. Sean Landeta- former NFL punter

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