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.
Called satire and most all listening would not know the Art Bell biography.
I wonder if Savage’s induction into the Radio Hall of Fame hasn’t made him a bit self-important (well, more than usual), like he’s “big” enough now that he can say whatever he wants. It might explain the things he’s been saying about Trump, as well as this cheap shot.
I think Savage is over the top on this one. Bell is a little eccentric, but not evil.
Hyperbole is protected speech, Art. And since you are a public figure you must prove “actual malice,” a nearly impossible standard under the best of circumstances.
Oh come on, Art, grow a pair. You’re 70 and you marry a 22 year old, people are gonna talk.
Michael Weiner needs to keep his mouth under control. Maybe this lawsuit will teach him to do that.
When has ever not been self important? He thinks other talk shows listen to him to get their topics.
Why would this even be relevant to the usual Michael Savage nonsense about how he’s the only person in the world who knows anything?
Not really. It was crude and cruel. When others aren’t laughing it ain’t a joke. Savage long ago became unlistenable
I stopped listening to him in 2002, whined like a liberal.
Well it isn’t like Michael Savage called Airyn Ruiz Bell a LBFM...c’mon man.
“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.”
What an idiot. If “a listener would understand” the reference, then Bell himself is saying that this rumor about him was already in circulation and probably known to anyone listening. So what damage could Savage have possibly done to him by mentioning something that Bell assumes everyone is already aware of?
They all say that. LOL
Why do I find myself wanting to make a batch of meatballs this morning?
I thought he was talking about me...Now I find out it was about Art Bell?
The bride got slandered.
I’d be happy as a clam if the powers-that-be would eliminate both Art and Michael permanently from the radio dial.
Bell and Savage,,,?
Abbott and Costello of Talk Radio,
Correct?
“Who’s on First?”
It Is Funny,isn’t it.
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