Montel Williams - "Way Too Much News Coverage of Heath Ledger"

[Phillip Dampier]

Montel Williams has blasted the news media (and the Fox News Froot Loops on their morning show in particular) for the outrageous overcoverage of the Heath Ledger story with endless speculation, rehash, and invasion of a private family's grief in what amounts to little more than tabloid trash stories.  All this while 28 brave American soldiers died in Iraq since January 1st.

As I wrote in an earlier message, this is the natural progression of a typical entertainment story.  Montel was the first to blast the oversaturated coverage, and this will become the next major story, as the media begins to turn inwards and start interviewing each other about how responsibly they covered the story, and then we'll begin to see a major reduction in the number of stories about Heath.  That is in the cards anyway, as attention now turns back to Britney Spears latest psych ward visit and "new developments" in the Natalie Holloway story which will become a huge obsession.

Williams has a major point, particularly about the media irresponsibility in covering stories that frankly carry no new facts and are now spent talking to seedy trashy pundits who are looking for the 15 minutes of fame, usually by coming up with some sensational new angle that wouldn't have passed a smell test a week ago.

That's a major reason I have cut way back on the number of news accounts I am posting here, because frankly none of it is really news - its just garbage speculation, trashy bottom feeders trying to elbow their way into the media, and tasteless stories that require the usual suspects to invade the privacy of grieving families in order to come up with a new story.

Of course, Montel pays the price for saying this.  The Fox owned and operated television stations announced, en masse, they are cancelling his program, which has led the decision for CBS/Viacom, which distributes it, to pull the plug on the show, taking it off the air at the end of this season.

[Katie77]

Well done Montel...well said.

I guess what happens with the media, is, in the beginning the news is informative and news worthy, but they just dont seem to know when to let it go...and so it just goes on and on and before we know it, they have lost sight of what the original news coverage was all about, that a young aspiring 28 year old actor, tragically lost his life.

We all scanned the news items for any word on Heath in the beginning, I think, bcause his death was so unpredictable and sudden, that reading about it, or watching a news item, kind of made us come to the reality of it all.....now as that reality has finally set in, and the initial painful sadness starts to subside a little more each day,  its nice to reflect in our own time, with our own personal thoughts.

Montel was in no way disrespectful to Heath in his comments, he was putting the whole thing in persepective....that these boys, whether they are an actor, or a soldier, were somebodys son, somebodys father, somebodys brother and they all must be given the same respect.

Heath would be appalled at this media circus, and would loathe that his family have been subjected to it all....hopefully, they have been protected from most of it.

[moremojo]

Of course, Montel pays the price for saying this.  The Fox owned and operated television stations announced, en masse, they are cancelling his program, which has led the decision for CBS/Viacom, which distributes it, to pull the plug on the show, taking it off the air at the end of this season.

Wow...just for offering this one opinion?! There's freedom of speech for you...the Constitution protects it on paper, but it's meaningless if powerful citizens punish it this way.

[louisev]

I wonder whether Montel seems to think he got sacked for the Ledger comments or whether they were just looking for a reason to can a show whose ratings were dropping.  I've always appreciated that Montel wasn't a shrieker but I can't say I approve of the psychic witch he's got on regularly.

[Phillip Dampier]

I wonder whether Montel seems to think he got sacked for the Ledger comments or whether they were just looking for a reason to can a show whose ratings were dropping.  I've always appreciated that Montel wasn't a shrieker but I can't say I approve of the psychic witch he's got on regularly.

The psychic witch?  This sounds stupider than the other guy who does essentially only one topic now - DNA tests.  I forget his name.

[louisev]

Sylvia Browne.

I didn't mean a literal witch: but she has a low gravelly voice and comes across very creepily.

On the Montel show, her most famous mistake came when she was asked for a reading by the parents of Shawn Hornbeck, who had been abducted and held captive for several years not far from his home, and she told his parents that he was dead and buried in national forest.

Fortunately the parents kept looking for him, and he was eventually found when his abductor grabbed a second boy and got caught and now reunited with his family.

This woman has zero credibility.

[louisev]

300,000!

[Phillip Dampier]

On the Montel show, her most famous mistake came when she was asked for a reading by the parents of Shawn Hornbeck, who had been abducted and held captive for several years not far from his home, and she told his parents that he was dead and buried in national forest.

The bigger mistake was made by Bill O'Reilly who suggested Hornbeck enjoyed getting out of school and his captivity.

[louisev]

oh my god, I can't believe he said that!!!

[moremojo]

This sounds stupider than the other guy who does essentially only one topic now - DNA tests.  I forget his name.

I believe you're thinking of Maury Povich.

[Phillip Dampier]

Thanks Moremojo...

Louise, no time to embed this but here is the video: http://mediamatters.org/static/video/oreilly-20070116-kidnap.wmv  Watch Greta's stunned frozen smile reaction.

[Phillip Dampier]

Check Keith Olbermann out: http://mediamatters.org/static/video/countdown-20070118-oreilly.wmv

[louisev]

ew.

[ednbarby]

God, I love Keith Olbermann.

And good for Montel.  Never had much respect for him, because I frankly just don't care for that kind of programming in general.  But I appreciate his going out on a limb, there.  Especially since he's absolutely right.

When there's real news to report, I suppose it's one thing.  But analyzing the crap out of something that's really none of our business in the first place, and at the expense of grieving loved ones besides is, as Keith would say, reprehensible.

Oh, and Rupert Murdoch is the Devil.

[SFEnnisSF]

The psychic witch? 

 

You know she lives here in the South Bay, and her offices are jes' down the street from me.

She was buying ads in our yellow pages and asking prices, and I felt like asking her "Don't you know what the prices are?" 

[SFEnnisSF]

Didn't Montel go off on someone recently, 'tellin' them he was gonna kill them or something?  I remember hearin' somethin' about him goin' off on someone... 

[ifyoucantfixit]

           Those are precisely the kind of shows that perpetrate that kind of blue journalism.
semi news and information.  Its all rehash and sensationalism.  Montel is one hundred percent right.  Our news stations here in portland and our governor.  Always mention the names of
the men killed, specially the ones from Oregon. Our governor and our news media also attend'the memorials and the funerals of those servicemen.......but maybe its more intense here because
we have the largest number of service men and national guardsmen here with repeat tours
being the norm.  rather than an exception.  We have many young men here in the national
guard.. Those so called week end warrriors.  On their third tour of duty in Iraq.  How dare
those money driven, ratings whores fire someone who finally speaks a truth for once.

            It just shows how low and depraved it has all become.  Ghouls and grave robbers all.