Posted on 12/02/2016 7:20:58 AM PST by raccoonradio
Art Bell and his wife sue Michael Savage and Westwood One for defamation. Bell says Westwood should’ve hit the dump button on his September 25 show, when Savage allegedly said this – “You say ‘UFOs’ [on a radio show], you wind up in the Philippines with a ten-year-old hooker and you are off the radio after a number of years...That’s an in-joke, by the way, for people who understand the business.” Former “Coast to Coast” personality Art Bell says the industry should know his story – that he married his wife Airyn Ruiz Bell in the Philippines when she was 22, not 10. The suit says she “has never been a prostitute.” And that the reason he’s “off the radio” is not “because he discussed UFOs or married Ms. Bell.”
The couple’s been married ten years and have a daughter, and their suit says they “demanded that defendants make a correction or retraction of the defamatory statement.” But neither was forthcoming. The named defendants in the suit filed in federal court are Michael Alan Weiner, known professionally as Michael Savage, syndicator Westwood One, and its parent Cumulus. The Bells are suing in the Bay Area because Savage is based there.
The Bells admit that Michael Savage didn’t mention their names. But their defamation suit says “a listener of the program would understand” that Art Bell was the subject of the gibe about marrying “a 10-year-old hooker” in the Philippines and as a result being off the air. Savage didn’t launch his September 25 routine talking about another talk-show host. He wandered there, while musing about the topics he usually eschews – “I generally avoid gun questions. I know from the first day in radio. I learned you never do certain topics where you can destroy your show. Third rail...You say ‘UFOs,’ you wind up in the Philippines” – and you know the rest. The Bell suit alleges that “Cumulus and Westwood failed to exercise due care and adhere to standard radio broadcast industry practice, by not utilizing the delay button.” The suit then covers the legal ground for defamation – “reckless disregard for the truth” and “cognition that such broadcast would defame and disparage plaintiffs.” Art was inducted into the Chicago-based National Radio Hall of Fame in 2008, after ending his 19-year stint as full-time host of “Coast to Coast AM.” He did some guest-hosting after that, then returned in Summer 2015 with his own “Midnight in the Desert.” He says he halted that show after receiving a death threat. The Bells’ lawsuit was filed by the L.A.-based Gerard Fox Law P.C.
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I have a niece and nephew that went to school with him.
They considered him a total queer. (and they are familiar with the mechanism, since one of their maternal uncles was a constant molester)
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It doesn’t surprise me that Americans think an older man and a younger woman implies ‘perversion’, which is what Weiner was riffing on.
Other cultures (Philippines, Brazil, Thailand, Costa Rica, and many others) have never frowned on this type of match.
Maybe it’s the USA that has the hangup with age differences, not the other way around. Or maybe it’s because in the USA sex is too central to relationships, and in other cultures it’s more about companionship, or status changes through marriage, or what’s beneficial for the greater extended family (a concept that has all but disappeared in the USA).
What he said.
What a nice husband your wife has!
Mrs. AV
Stern freepers on parade
Yep one of life’s greatest mysteries for sure
Why Men Like Younger...and Younger Women?
Tomorrow tune in for another of life’s more vexing questions::
Do women really like the thermostat turned up in winter?
heh - see post 58!
I was between marriages for 11 years. I discovered the strong points of a variety of women, by age, race and body type. I guess I just like women. I’m going to be 70, but I haven’t lost the interest.
You are correct. It also has its positives and negatives to be single or married, like younger girls, or older.
He’s not a leftist he’s a nationalist like Trump. Always has been- borders language culture.
Wrong. Read his history not the fluff that he tries to spread on the radio
I know all about him. He was a big liberal for gods sake he went to Berkeley. That doesn’t mean he can’t change as a person. Honest question, are you a Levin listener by chance?
Haven’t been for a time now.....he is unlistenable
I like Savage for his more nostalgic stuff....
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