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.
Michael Savage thinks that he knows how to get ratings better than anyone. He’s big nation wide, but he’s not real big in any one city. Donald Trump saved his career, not the other way around.
If Savage didn’t have hyperbole he wouldn’t have anything at all.
Savage's former name was "Weiner"? Good grief.
She wasn’t named. So technically she didn’t get slandered. They’re probably getting more people to hear about this by talking about it than they would’ve if they just let it go.
Yes, just like Mark Twain’s ‘former name’ was Samuel Clemens. /s
And his son is named Russell Goldencloud Weiner...hippie-esque sounding middle name (Russ born 1970). Created RockStar energy drink
Years ago on his radio show I heard Hannity jokingly refer to “WeinerNation”
OT but related, I did a search and saw pictures of Art Bell with his young wife. It does creep me out when man marries a much younger woman (over a decade). My wife (in my first and last and current marriage) is 2 years younger than me. When I was a kid it used to baffle me how gay men wouldn't be attracted to a beautiful woman. Silly, I know. Now, in my middle age, I wonder how adult men over the age of 35 could be attracted to a significantly younger woman (e.g., 10 years or more). The older my wife gets the more attractive she is to me. She seems more womanly. I've never told her this because she'll think I'm bullsh*tting her. Nonetheless it's true. As the question goes, "At what age do you think women are the most beautiful?" My answer, "The age of my wife."
I hate to differ but most folks who’ve listened to talk radio would for sure know
I knew and I never was an Art Bell fan much
A place for insomniacs and truckers and late night folks to kibbitz over crazy topics
Bell may have a case
Savage is a decidedly mixed fruit jelly
“When others aren’t laughing it ain’t a joke.”
Just because YOU aren’t laughing doesn’t mean others weren’t. Humor is entirely subjective.
I don’t get it either. I’m a 50 something woman and no man who is in his 20s or 30s is attractive to me. Not in the sense that I would want to be with him in “that way”. There’s something not quite right about it. Of course it’s not pedophilia but it’s in the spectrum somewhere IMO.
Btw, I know this includes Trump, but it’s his third marriage and Melania is almost 50. His first marriage was to Ivana, who was previously married before marrying Trump. Trump’s first marriage mistake.
Michael Savage could be elected “Greatest Person of the Decade” and he’d still be intolerably self-loathing.
The remark was crude and shabby, but that’s how Mike’s on air humor can be once he gets fueled up with momentum. Art Bell is someone I vividly recall listening to, but he hasn’t been much of a factor in radio for years. If you weren’t listening to him fifteen years ago, you may never have heard of him at all.
When Art hasn’t been into other projects, he’s been very sick with various illnesses. Art and his wife now suing over this remark has only served to direct more attention to the remark. Now, more folks will become updated with the whole meandering, eccentric, tawdry story. The story would make a good screenplay for an actor like Nick Cage playing Art and Jennifer Lawrence playing his present wife, Aryin. George Noory thinks the hosting job is now his for life. I wish that wasn’t so, as he’s boring most the time.
Respectfully
I hate to break it to you but we have I’d reckon a couple dozen freepers who married younger Filipinas and other tropical Asian gals
Men want company..,I could not live without a woman to hold and love
Women want men for innumerable reasons
If it works for them so what
Some of these guys here are really solid and several ex military who acquired a preference for these gals from postings in their youth
One is one of my closer compadres here and he has a great marriage
Another died unexpectedly recently and his poor yes younger wife didn’t look like fake tears to me
I can see why American men today lean towards traditional culture women and in the Philippines that means they are likely Christian
Another bonus
Just my two cents
Accusing someone of child molesting is serious even if satirical
It’s like when the media libtards say “some are saying”
I think Savage crossed a line
Both of them aren’t relevant anymore, but when they were on their game, both of them were great talents.
Yeah, some mystery....
Neither of them was named.
I said I don’t understand it and that it’s not pedophilia. I just find it odd as do many others. It works for you and your wife and Art and his wife and so there it is. God Bless a happy marriage because they’re hard to come by.
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