Kent Brockman gay? Say it isn't so.
Posted on 04/20/2011 7:57:47 AM PDT by raccoonradio
A former Channel 56 anchor has resigned from his TV anchor job in Springfield, telling the Herald he plans to get help for alcoholism after his booze-fueled, charity-event ramblings wound up on YouTube.
“It’s something I’m going to seek treatment for,” said Paul Mueller, who said he was forced to quit his morning anchor gig at WGGB-TV on Monday.
“I don’t know if I’ll ever return to the field of television news, because I may have ruined my career,” Mueller, 37, said yesterday. “I’ve always loved television news. I’ve always put that at the forefront of whatever I did in my life. However, alcohol is a problem.”
Mueller said he’d “had a few drinks” before addressing the crowd Saturday night at a fund-raising soiree for the Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover Foundation, named for the 11-year-old Springfield boy who hanged himself in 2009 after being bullied by schoolmates.
Mueller, the event’s host, slurred his words as he took the stage and recalled his own bullying experience in a disjointed speech that drew chuckles — and was captured on video.
“This bullying is ridiculous. . . . I was a nerd. I was a geek. I was a fag. Not a good word. It’s not. Lord. It was awful,” said Mueller, who’s openly gay. “When we have those little laughter fits right over there, we understand what our society is about. We’re not all the same. . . . And if they bully you, you might be able to understand — you might not. . . . I, though even bullied all those years, made it. Thankfully. Thank you, God. God made me make it.”
Mueller said organizers asked him to leave.
A video of Mueller’s speech quickly hit the Web and was picked up by several online sites that cover the media.
Mueller, who had been at WGGB — a Fox and ABC affiliate — for a year, said management gave him an ultimatum: quit or be fired.
Station owner John Gormally wouldn’t comment on the ultimatum but said: “Paul’s a terrific guy and we will miss him, and we wish him all the best.”
Meuller apologized to Walker-Hoover’s family and the foundation, which declined to comment.
“I meant no harm in my delivery the other night,” Mueller said. “Whoever took that video and put it up on YouTube, for whatever ulterior motive, I’m glad they did it because it was the best thing that they could have done for me.”
Mueller has been in the TV industry for 17 years and was a weekend anchor for the old WLVI -TV (Ch. 56) before Sunbeam bought it in 2006.
No surprize.
Most queers I’ve known are either raging alkies or drug abusers.
mediabistro had video but settings changed to private before I could see it
Kent Brockman gay? Say it isn't so.
hahahha, yeah, right.
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