Brandon Friedman (no relation) writes:
Four days later, after 17 years as a television host, Montel lost his job. Variety reported on Wednesday that the “Fate of ‘The Montel Williams Show’ was sealed when key Fox-owned stations opted not to renew it for the 2008-09 season.”
Here’s what happened…
Despite the tease at the end of those uncomfortable three minutes, that Williams would be back for more after the break, he was not there when the show returned from commercial.
More details on the above three minutes on Fox and Friends, and the fate of “former Marine and Naval officer,” Montel Williams, here…
That took guts. Thank you Montel.
How come that “here” link took me to the CIA II site.
I always thought Brad had an uncle Miltie, like I have an uncle John 😛
I notice all the Alphabet channels are programming very sloppy lately.
Facts wrong, wrong clips playing. Like they’re all trying to stuff the time-slots in emergency mode. Of course there’s no USEFUL news. We got uh, two trains stuck in the High Sierra dominating the news.
Blagh, it snowed, snow covers tracks, trains get stuck. The only news there is the problem, and emergency they are making it into. Meanwhile we don’t hear a damn thing about the suicide bomber in Iraq, the NH recount, or …
I’d like to see Montel go volunteer at his local public access TV station until he finds another movie or gets another series. I don’t know nothing about his financial situation, but hey it can’t be any worse than MINE, I make ZERO!
Oh yeah, and I am military too. USAF. and I ain’t forgot the troops either.
Montel, do some blogging here dude.
Quite frankly Fox (“Faux” News) is only good for the Simpsons and schtick comedy. So if you look at Faux News as real imformative news, boy you are due for a rude awakening!!
A very interesting exchange – cracks in the Faux foundation as vacuous and shallow “air” personalities in every sense of the word meet up with Montel, who is mad as hell and won’t take it anymore.
I think they just raised Montel Williams to the level of icon. Good work, Faux.
Where will the next crack appear in the Faux net worth?
When Bill Maher told the truth and got the ax..it didn’t hurt his career at all. May Montel go on to better things.
There is some good news, though. “[Thursday] night’s Democratic debate on CNN drew 8,324,000 million total viewers, making it the most-watched primary debate in cable news history, and the second-most watched on TV this election cycle (ABC’s Democratic debate on Jan. 5 drew 9,360,000).”
I think we may be seeing the beginning of the turning of the tide at faux news sources like Fox. At least, I hope we are, and there are some signs that this is happening.
It is extraordinarily patriotic, not to mention ethical, to stand up to these media bullies. It DOES matter what you do to earn a living.
I just read a commentary last night by Alice Walker on censorship and freedom of speech. Walker is one of the most censored writers in America. In it, she explains how certain forms of censorship can be seen as honoring the person being censored.
Montel Williams is now in the company of Alice Walker, J.D. Salinger, Mark Twain, and many, many more. Walker explains how censorship is the banning of “the glimpse of life beyond the words.” When the reality of what is being banned is so disturbing, so distasteful, there are always plenty of shills who step forward to declare it unacceptable, unpatriotic, not in line with whatever.
Fox has chosen to dishonor one more American’s right to speak about life as he knows or imagines it, one of our basic and most precious rights. Williams’ decision and courage to be authentic before his audience was just too bitter, or too painful, or too frightening, for the corporate interests that are profiting off of this war.
Maybe FOX will have even more woes:
http://mediamatters.org/columns...001?f=h_column
And I think this was out before they axed Montel.
Peter Arnett was the first to go from CNN back in ’03…remember?
What would be a good news show…Arnett, Rather, Williams, Donohue and whomever else got shafted have their own news show called the outsiders or something like that.
Hear that Mr. Cuban ?
Roger Ailes strikes again. Saw the movie ‘Network’ again last night; worth seeing again; depressing that 31 years later from the movie, we see that nothing has changed; at least Montel wasn’t shot.
Of course it’s been 47 years since Minnow’s speech to the NAB calling tv a ‘vast wasteland’ also.
But it was CBS Paramount who actually made the decision based on the Faux stations not renewing the CBS distribution. http://network.nationalpost.com...overfield.aspx
http://www.montelshow.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montel_Williams
Perhaps they will hire Mukasey’s third cousin who Shumer and Feinstein schlep for?
Muckycase’s son works for Verizon, a fascist corp that is being sued for violating FISA.
Meanwhile Shumer and Feinstein still don’t have a clue that they are political retards for advocating for Mukasey:
(RawStory, emphasis added).
Go Montel! You Rock. I watched the YouTube clip, and that was very gutsy. The “hosts” looked so uncomfortable. Now that he is free at last… I would like to hear more from him. I had not realized that it was 17 years since I watched Montel regularly (I won’t watch FoxNew, etc. except on rare occassions). Montel was always of cut above. I would like to see some real talk shows that talk about what he was talking about.
Thanks for the link to http://www.vetvoice.com/. Amazing site. Well worth the time.
Somebody tell the troops what they are standing up in Iraq, so they can stand down.
Good for Montel. Hey, maybe our dissenting is finally having an effect. I kid you not, CBS just had a brief clip on the states turning to paper ballots because of the crappy electronic voting. They even interviewed Brunner!
Guy needs to get a talk show on sirius radio, ch 146. Maybe co-host with Mark @3 pm
2nd the call for Montel to blog a few words or more here at B blog. He did some fine work on in TV land and he should weigh his options and look at new engaging opportunities. He showed patriotism and that he cares what the hell is going on around him unlike a bunch of US corporate government mass media drones who focus on celebrities to coverup the lying and massively destructive work of the bush government and their wars.
Lets have some more death, bush and cheney. American names don’t matter only the numbers. Lets have some more torture and killing and anti-environmental policies to favor your multi-national corporations you greedy fcks.
And Congress, don’t fix the rigged American voting system and don’t prosecute the 25 high level official for selling nuke secrets to other countries stabbing world people in the back while you promote death brought on by lying criminals.
i will watch this amerikka burn.
Can’t wait until President Clinton and Vice President Obama undo all the harm this pathetic administration and their cronies have done.
Anthony # 20
Good name choices, but ya got ’em assbackwards.. 🙂
Now, how ’bout some chain of custody to go with those ballots?????????????
http://www.cbsnews.com/sections...=search_videoe
New Hampshire…our retarded standard.
And where is the reporting on that cbs?
And really Rush and Michelle, no ban on dre’s yet? That’s damn disgraceful. Vpat my ass!
I agree with Montel, And I think its a shame
that freedom of speech doesn’t work in this case.
I for one get tired of hearing about people (celebrities) that make the wrong choices with their lives and then
exspect the world to feel sorry for them.
No one feels sorry for the common people.
I did not hear anything about the man who froze
to death last week ,here in my hometown because he was homeless. This should not happen here in the USA.
Any way a cheer for Montel.
He’s right really tired of hearing about Britney Spears when I don’t even know who the troops are from my own home town. But we know how it goes mess with Rupert,or Bill and you get canned.
Fox News is a joke.
I have not watched Montel in years and was not a fan. He did something at Fox which I think needs to be done more often and I commend him. As I said elsewhere: Montel, welcome to the world of John Edwards.
Montel had a show which was presumed to be topical, even news-worthy at times. He did his share of celebrity-stuff, but I recall him also doing seriously themed shows like Tavis, or Donohue. But the format remains first and foremost “entertainment”—a very good example of how “news” (however artfully presented in diluted form) has no place in an organization that is about entertainment and advertising.
Montel was very civil in this slip. He wasn’t angry or snooty. The co-anchors did try to respond with some respect even when being caught off-guard. But who gets fired for changing the subject away from morbidly entertaining hollywood reporting? He is being fired for ruining the format, altering the timing, throwing a change-up,focusing on what he (as the GUEST) felt about discussing ad nauseum the pressures of celebrity.
He felt those pressures were just some among many who die of other causes–causes with more explicit facts and motives attached than the mystery of a suicide or the clumsiness of an accidental overdose.
The GUEST behaved in an unseemly fashion for Fox Entertainment. He ruined the party (or the wake).
He did not share any personal torment over Heath Ledger.
The only thing bad about this whole event is this: I actually had to watch Fox for a few minutes just to see Montel do the right thing.
Montel is admirable and very civil in his talk show business over the years without race boundaries. I cannot believe that his present ordeal is as a result of his citizen’s rights to free speach which he exercised and subsequently booted out by his employer-FOX. what an irony of big medial conglomerate, controlling the American free speech? please save America. Cheers from- shopmull.com
I, too, never watched Montel’s show, because most of the time it was drivel. But give the man credit, he told some truth about those men and woman who are killing and dying over there.
I never watched Montel’s show, either. As a matter of fact, I never heard of him until this little episode popped up. But here’s the thing: He had a moment of clarity, of truth, right there on that show for everyone tuned in to witness, a culmination of weeks, if not months, of realizing something about our country, the MSM, and his role in the whole shebang. Good for him for finally seeing the light! So now, Montel, you can honestly leave Cheney’s “dark side” and use your experience, expertise, and notoriety to bring the truth into America’s homes. You’re one more person who’s jumped ship, not because you’re a coward, but because the burden of not expressing truth, day after day after day, became too much for you to bear. Congratulations on your graduation from shilling for deceit, to whatever it is you end up doing next. Hopefully, it will be more meaningful and honest.
Please you Fox News “Haters,” realize that at LEAST they tell the truth, whereas CNN (often called the Clinton News Network) and MSNBC couldn’t tell the truth from fantasy if they were given a map. Especially MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann, David Shuster, and Chris Matthews – they can’t get their devout hatred of George W. Bush (or Republicans in general) out of their reporting. They are hardly honest or objective. I admit Fox News sometimes brings on some ultra-right wing guests like Ann Coulter or the other dude that Brit Hume always has on (Charles something), but at least they have another person on to balance the discussion. Whether it be “Fox And Friends,” Brit Hume, Bill O’Reilly on the “The O’Reilly Factor,” or even “Hannity and Colmes” they also have BOTH views and they always are presented responsibly and professionally. MSNBC and CNN hardly ever has a conservative or conservative-leaning individual on, and when they do, it is someone who has some grudge or personal agenda.
As for Montel Williams, I do agree with him for the most part. I don’t care about all the celebrity news, because it is nauseating and irrelevant for the most part. I do feel sorry for Heath Ledger’s family though, and for that matter anyone of Britney Spears family, but I don’t really care about the fluff at ALL! I also agree that we should honor the soldiers who have died and been injured more (in a responsible manner). We do talk about the Iraq War enough though, and networks like CNN, MSNBC (by extension NBC), and CBS couldn’t wait to put those devastating images on air when things were going drastically bad in Iraq. However, now that it seems the surge is indeed working, they seemingly and suddenly don’t want to cover the issue as fervently. Because it doesn’t fit their ultra liberal agenda and hatred for George Bush. Again less fluff, more rational and responsible stuff.
Montell Williams didn’t get fired (canceled) because of his segment on “Fox And Friends,” nor did they likely not let him come back and commentate or discuss what he wanted to say. They might have mutually agreed the segment was a little too confrontational or awkward and decided to let it lie where it was. Maybe Montell didn’t want to stay. Or maybe he did get kicked off “Fox And Friends,” although I doubt it – they never have shied away from controversy. The point being no one knows for sure, except the four people on the set that day and the crew – so please get your facts straight. As for his how, it was probably a victim of ratings. With shows like “Oprah,” “Ellen,” or “Tyra Banks” on, things started to get really competitive for other shows.
I understand some are against the war, and that is fine, I understand why you would be. I’m not one of you, then again I’m not for war in general either. However, sometimes it must be done for the greater good. I feel we are finally making progress over there, and the mission was worth the sacrifice. I understand others don’t, and that is fine – and I DO understand your point. “Sometimes to help you have to attack, ” is my personal motto. Obviously, not everyone subscribes to this motto, and that is what makes this country great. We all can have our own opinions and express them, and we won’t get a visit from Hugo Chavez or Saddam Hussein in the middle of the night for disagreeing with them.
Joe #33,
Re “We all can have our own opinions and express them, and we won’t get a visit from Hugo Chavez or Saddam Hussein in the middle of the night for disagreeing with them.”
Chavez and Saddam were never going to pay you a visit in the middle of the night. It never happened, it never will happen, and it never was going to happen … ever.
Thanks in part to the fearmongering politcizing rhetoric that Fox and others took up and ran down the field with, enough people actually believed that shit long enough for a small, very radical, highly incompetent bunch of kooks called the neoconservatives to rip apart much of what was left of our democracy.
Their latest infringement on our rights to free speech and assembly is the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act (S. 1959) which, if it becomes the law, will enable our own government (not Iraq’s or Argentina’s) to declare U.S. citizens who speak out against its policies enemy combatants, arrest them, and throw them into these illegal and unAmerican holding tanks such as Gitmo, if the government decides that, by speaking out against its policies, these U.S. citizens are putting U.S. national security at risk.
I can tell you think your opinions are based on reality, but I assure you, they are not. Please become better-informed about our own government, before accusing others who are taking the time to learn the truth about our government, a truth which you will never learn on Fox news, of simply hating the individuals and news sources that have gotten our country into the huge mess it’s in today.
Namaste, Joe.
Cpt. Michael A. Norman
1st Lt. David E. Schultz
Thanks, Hisee # 35
R.I.P. – Cpt. Norman and 1st Lt. Schultz
In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act, and yes, it will get you fired now, next month or next year maybe something worse would happen to someone who tells the truth.
Montel had the courage to tell the truth. We should all remember that and support this next venture. I think that a real daily news show would go over well. How about you?
Along those lines, a local news team recently reported on something that will almost surely get them all fired, too. For more information on that and the video, see What Happens When the People Lose the Power to Control Government and What You Can Do to Take the Power Back? If you care about the safety of your family, read this article now, and send it to all of your contacts today. Now is the time for action! http://www.opednews.com/article...ns_when_th.htm
What the fUCK is wrong with Fox news? First they were bashing Obama. To which they found nothing (DUH). Now a great guy like Montel has been bashed for telling the truth. This was a set up from the word go. They bring Montel on the show to talk about Heath Ledger’s death (SO THE FUCK WHAT). Montel and Heath have nothing in common. Montel was telling it like it is. FOX SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF THEMSELVES FOR CANNING MONTEL. FUCK FOX THERE A BUNCH OF ASSES IN A BAG.