Thursday, January 31, 2008

Montel Williams Dresses Down Fox News Drones

...and then is quietly removed from the segment. Soon thereafter, his show "The Montel Williams Show", was cancelled when several key Fox owned stations refused to re-new it. Williams had been invited on the Fox show to yammer on about the passing of Heath Ledger, but he shocked the Fox lemmings by asking them why they were still talking about Heath Ledger, but not a word about the 28 soldiers that have died since Ledger's death. Mind you, he was very respectful of Ledger, but questioned the motives of the media in reporting on the death of celebrities while saying nothing about the deaths of our uniformed men and women. It was quite an exchange and the end results are a sad reminder of just how far this country has been taken down the sewer by people like Bush, Murdoch, Limbaugh and the right wing, for whom party and politics come before country, our soldiers and what's just decent!

5 comments:

Right Mike said...

That's really sad, In this case I think you'll like the video I just made. I'm encoding it and uploading it to You tube. I'll then put it up on my Blog.

SnarkAngel said...

While I've never been much of a fan of Montel's, he was absolutely right to address this issue. Tough turdies to the Fox "News" media whores. And while Montel may be cancelled on Fox, the controversy may well lead to other employment opportunities for him on another network. He won't starve. For sure.

It IS extremely sad that the so-called "news" media focuses more on Heath and Brittany and celebrities in general than it does on war heroes or even other, actually important issues. Yes, celebrities become overwhelmed by their very own lives and yes, they screw up. But let's face it, who deserves more respect, more reverence: an actor or actress who abuses prescription or non-prescription drugs, or a soldier who gives up life or limb for their country.

Problem is, we CANNOT place the blame solely on the media. The blame lies, first, with the American public. Our complacency and silent acceptance with what the media feeds us is OUR fault. The fact that the masses of asses CHOOSE to watch a bunch of overpaid, idiotic celebrities critique amateur talent, as opposed to reading a newspaper, a news magazine, AND a news channel that SOMETIMES deal with IMPORTANT matters that actually affect our lives and our futures, is just plain sad. And THESE CHOICES are the very reason the media chooses to focus on what it does. The ratings tell the story. Media outlets are businesses, competing for advertising dollar revenue based on viewership and readership. As long as the masses of asses remain absorbed with shallow celebrity, and as long as their voices remain silent on issues like this, our soldiers will remain a very, very low priority as far as the media is concerned. We are a nation of mostly spoiled, shallow, self-absorbed, self-medicating folk who turn away from things that make us squirm, things that make us uncomfortable . . . ah, yes: things like the horrors of war . . . bodies blown to bits and pieces by bombs; bloody, wounded soldiers with missing eyes and missing limbs.

The other, equally guilty (perhaps more so) party is our own president and military leadership. The LAST thing they want is the media getting actual footage and photographs of what's truly happening to our men and women in uniform in Iraq and Afghanistan. A nation of sheep is easier to "control" than a nation of truly concerned citizens.

I look forward to seeing how much play this story gets on competitors such as CNN and MSNBC.

val said...

Good on Montel. Shame on the farts at Fox.

cathy said...

Good for montel.
Fox channel is not exactly noted for it's integrity though so this comes as no surprise. The best thing to do is not watch it, maybe then they would rethink their policy's.

Right Mike said...

We need a new Patton to run the news corps.