Had he still been a daytime anchor on MSNBC, Carlos Watson would no doubt have spent Monday marshaling reports about the Trump hush-money trial in downtown Manhattan.
Instead, Watson was on the other side of the East River, sitting as a defendant in Brooklyn Federal Court, awaiting the start of jury selection in a multi-million dollar fraud case that could leave him facing as many as 37 years in prison.
A 54-year-old Harvard and Stanford educated superachiever, Watson had gone from anchoring a morning news show in 2009 to co-founding the digital startup Ozy Media in 2013, when it seemed there a fabulous fortune to be made online with news articles, newsletters and podcasts. He also produced television, including The Carlos Watson Show, on which he interviewed notables ranging from Bill Gates to Scarlett Johansson to NASCAR’S Danica Patrick.