After 17 years, Montel Williams is closing his doors. And the world’s IQ goes up a few points.
But whatever will Sylvia Browne do? Make an honest living for once?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAhahahahaha!
No, of course not. She’ll continue scamming people through her phone readings, books, and tours.
You just can’t stop Sylvia Browne.
Or can you?
Tip o’ the tin foil beanie (gotta block those psychic rays) to Way of the Woo.
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Phil Plait, the creator of Bad Astronomy, is an astronomer, lecturer, and author. After ten years working on Hubble Space Telescope and six more working on astronomy education, he struck out on his own as a writer. He has written two books, dozens of magazine articles, and 12 bazillion blog articles. He is a skeptic, and fights misuses of science as well as praising the wonder of real science.
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 | Open Lab 2008 is a collection of the best blog posts of the year, all in one place. Are you a science junkie? Yeah, you want it. |
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January 31st, 2008 at 7:04 am
Sure you can.
You just need a sniper rifle, a pair of gloves and a good alibi.
January 31st, 2008 at 7:29 am
Gareth, soliciting crimes of violence or making threats of same on the Internet is a federal crime (Telecommunications Act of 1983 a/k/a Helms Act). I know you were just trying to be funny, but be careful with that stuff.
January 31st, 2008 at 7:35 am
If anyone was so utterly stupid to take my comment seriously then they really need a brain operation.
January 31st, 2008 at 7:37 am
YES! FINALLY!!! God I hated that guy!
Just a shame they will probably run reruns endlessly on the syndication.
January 31st, 2008 at 7:50 am
Finally.
Of course, a show like that taking 17 years to close is not-so-good-news.
January 31st, 2008 at 7:56 am
As I free-lance cameraman, I was once hired to shoot a segment for his show, interviewing a couple who claimed their (I kid you knot) china hutch was haunted. Nice couple, but their whole story was so blatantly bogus, I had a hard time not laughing. We even staged a scene (at the Montel Show’s request) where they woke up from their bed, panic stricken.
Montel aired it, no questions asked.
January 31st, 2008 at 8:18 am
Gotta love “context based” ads.
Here’s a screenshot of the “Amateur astronomy Ringtones” ad from this blog page.
January 31st, 2008 at 8:20 am
Now if only Larry King and Oprah will shut down as well, so two more purveyors of woo would stop their garbage.
January 31st, 2008 at 8:32 am
Lighten up.
There are things to worry about in this world, and then there’s the quality of talk shows. Newsflash: television content panders, and is nothing more than a delivery system for advertising. Talk show content is calculated to draw people who believe their lives will change dramatically for the better if they buy a new mop, or if they change their personal grooming products.
Talk show content that might encourage personal responsibility and critical thinking isn’t compatible with the marketing.
Here’s a Montel clip to consider - it’s still a morning show, but it’s not his:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=co3Spcq6Uzs
(The one where they’re talking about the death of a young actor, and Montel tries to point out that there are far more important things to discuss…)
I have a side theory about Jerry Springer - but that’s OT for now.
January 31st, 2008 at 8:56 am
Yes! I’ve been praying for that show to close for 2 years, and god almighty has finally answered my prayers!
Ha, take that you silly nonbelievers. The power of prayer has been proved!
January 31st, 2008 at 9:37 am
DaveS-
WOW.
Montel nearly makes up for giving Sylvia Browne air time with that smack down.
No in fact because he did it on Fox, he comes out ahead.
January 31st, 2008 at 9:55 am
@DaveS
Um, I beg to differ. The hosts set the tone, and it is precisely these value judgements for sensational content over actually putting the work in to be entertaining that differentiates Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show where he actively pursued an agenda of debunking from Montel who ostensibly is an intelligent individual but panders to low common denominators.
January 31st, 2008 at 10:04 am
What make anyone think that the new show will be better than The Montel Williams? That’s putting far too much faith in the programmers and the American public.
January 31st, 2008 at 10:11 am
I’m glad to hear it. The last Montel show I saw was in February 2007 on the office-kitchen TV. Sylvia Browne was on and my calling her a fraud put me in the “wet-rag” category (otherwise known as the reality-based community) of the day. Following Sylvia was a woman who uses the Ouija board in a similar manner as the fraudulent psychics.
Yesterday in my email I got a Calvin & Hobbes cartoon that clearly shows the “truth” of the Ouija board.
Good riddance to bad TV.
January 31st, 2008 at 10:26 am
Some woo-woos just do what they do because they have more heart than critical intellect. Oprah falls in that category. The major objection people of faith have toward atheists and other critical thinkers is that they APPEAR to have no compassion. As Jerry Garcia sang”,,,without Love in the dream, it will never come true,,,”.
I like Oprah. She has a really big heart,,,
The greatest teaching attributed to Christ was that no society could survive that was not based on love. Love those who have not the ability to be critical thinkers. They are sheep who deserve our compassion and care. That’s what a hypothetical god would/should be all about. If there is no God, then it is up to us to BE God. If there is a God, then we are already that One,,,
GAry 7
January 31st, 2008 at 10:38 am
@Melusine,
I love that set of Ouija board cartoons (there’s 3 alltogether - http://www.s-anand.net/calvin_92.html).
Thanks for the laugh.
January 31st, 2008 at 10:54 am
I’m killing myself laughing at the irony here. The Google ads underneath BA’s post, “Montel Giveaway”, “Sylvia Browne”, and “Sylvia Browne on CD.” You’ve just gotta love that! Seriously, most of these talk shows do nothing to add to the intelligence and awareness of real issues. Unless of course you need to know who your “Baby Daddy” is. Then Maury is for you.
January 31st, 2008 at 11:02 am
I’m glad that you emphasized “appear,” because people who see atheists as less than compassionate probably do not hear the real live conversations we have with those who are suffering from pain and grief - and those who are prone to psychics, mediums, et al. I understand people’s need to feel some sense of control and surety in their lives; to know their deceased loved ones are OK; to feel like somebody knows what will happen tomorrow, but many of these Sylvia-types lead people astray by creating false hope and false prognostications. And of course…
Love doesn’t pick your pocket while offering compassion.
January 31st, 2008 at 11:19 am
Melusine:
“Love doesn’t pick your pocket while offering compassion.”
Now THAT’S a GREAT line,,,
,,,can I steal it?
GAry 7
January 31st, 2008 at 11:22 am
Gary: Steal away - comments are free.
CarrieP: They have one mislabled. This is the one I got. Thanks for the link.
So true - we did the same as kids. I was pushing for a letter of a boy I liked, my sister some other letter…the wisdom of C&H.
January 31st, 2008 at 11:26 am
I just read the article. Hold your applause:
“CBS Television Distribution, the syndicated show’s producer and distributor, is offering the compilation series “Best of Montel” for fall, which includes 52 weeks of highlight episodes from the show.”
Unfortunately, the nuttery will live on in endless re-runs. The one positive thing Montel did was raise awareness of MS, a condition much like one that I suffer from, that occurred in an injury at work 11 years ago. When I describe it (it’s called Tethered Cord syndrome) I often say that it mimics MS in many ways. (It is neurological). People often respond with, “Oh, that’s like what Montel has!”
Unfortunately his support of nut jobs like Browne negate any positive effect he may have had.
Hey, why didn’t Sylvia Browne see this coming in her predictions for 2008!?
January 31st, 2008 at 11:43 am
Ah, Sylvia Brown, also known as S.B.
If humans desire certainty in their predictions, I have one that is(well, almost)irrefutable,, EVERYBODY’S GONNA DIE,,,eventually,,,
The very nature of scientific approximation is uncertainty but, given enough time, we can get real close to the way things really are and close is good enough for me.
GAry 7
January 31st, 2008 at 11:44 am
Alas, I can’t celebrate this. Montel got the boot because he had the sheer unmitigated NOIVE to criticize Faux News for hyping the death of Heath Ledger and not covering Mr. Bush’s War.
The reality-based community weighs in.
January 31st, 2008 at 11:57 am
@Pat: I don’t disagree. I’m simply saying that the primary goal is selling soap, and the programming decisions are strongly influenced by the soap sales potential, long ahead of other qualities.
I remain surprised that people are surprised by this. It’s part of the “free TV” bargain, after all - or did y’all just click through that EULA without reading it?
(BTW and also: “The Tonight Show” wasn’t a talk show.)
January 31st, 2008 at 12:08 pm
Montel fought for some really good causes, so it’s a loss in some ways. No idea what he was smoking when he thought bringing Browne on was a good idea, though.
Wait, I do know what he was smoking, haha.
January 31st, 2008 at 12:23 pm
@DaveS: Well, in technical points “The Tonight Show” was and is a late night talk show. It isn’t a knock-down drag-out like Montel et al, but it is a talk show. Guests form the focus of at least the last half. And I’d say that it really depends on the host: you can present the same material of some psychic or faith healer as dictated by market, but whether you laud or lambast is the host’s decision.
January 31st, 2008 at 12:37 pm
His comments to Fox were good, though a bit ironic on some points. I despise Fox News, but there isn’t necessarily a correlation between his comments and some Fox News stations not renewing the contract. Don’t know for sure.
Still, his show had these frauds on quite often. Since I did not regularly see the show, I don’t know if he had on skeptics often enough who countered Sylvia Browne and Oiuja-board lady, for example. Their choice, our criticism.
Anyway, the post was mainly about Sylvia Browne losing a venue to peddle her scamware.
January 31st, 2008 at 1:07 pm
Gary, trust me on this — you’re not God.
January 31st, 2008 at 1:41 pm
Thats right Barton - he’s not God. I am.
January 31st, 2008 at 2:51 pm
No, I’M SPARTICUS!
No… wait… um…
Nevermind
January 31st, 2008 at 3:58 pm
I’m the Flying Spaghetti Monster, allow me to bless to with my noodliness.
January 31st, 2008 at 4:12 pm
Does it matter? Sylvia Browne is right now fleecing the good people and tourists of Las Vegas, NV at the Excalibur.
The jerk in me wants to show up and picket.
January 31st, 2008 at 5:08 pm
Daytime T.V. won’t get any better.
And it will also eliminate a public airing of her chicanery which can be put to the test later on.
Maybe she’ll give the purple dinosaur a visit ha ha ha. Or the Teletubbies–Time for Sylvia Browne bye bye, time for Sylvia Browne bye bye!
January 31st, 2008 at 5:52 pm
Troy, instead of Baby Sun, the Teletubbies can have Sylvia Sun. If he got the boot for criticizing Faux News for not covering Bush’s war, it’s a sad commentary on television news. Today, I was dismayed to turn on the Intertoobs and what do I see on all the major American News organizations? Britney Spears led to hospital by a motorcade the length of a football field. I realize that it is the viewer that drives the programming. It’s a sad commentary on society as a whole I think.
January 31st, 2008 at 5:54 pm
BArton:
Note that I used the collective pronouns Us and We. It’s all about the Ideal and thus it doesn’t really matter if there is any single individual sentience that YOU would identify as God.I really don’t care if God is “real” in the objective sense. It’s an idea to grope towards. In that regard, we must recognize we are our own best and worst. Both gods and demons joined at the hip,,,so to speak. In a few hundred thousand years, when we are able to create our own versions of this universe, THEN we will have some vague idea what we REALLY are,,,
Welcome to my Heaven,,,it’s ambiguous, beautiful, terrifying and really interesting and with luck will remain so ,,,forever,,,
GAry 7
January 31st, 2008 at 9:30 pm
YES! FINALLY!!! God I hated that guy!
Honestly, I thought the guy left the air years ago. I would hear about Sylvia being on a TV show but I always thought it was someone else.
February 1st, 2008 at 6:02 am
Human beings, singular or plural, are creations. The whole of nature is a creation. God is the creator. Human beings, individually or in a group or in some future Teilhard de Chardin/Frank Tipler “Omega Point” are not God. And the FSM is the clearest evidence yet produced that when it comes to debating religion, atheists think at the level of a six-year-old child.
February 1st, 2008 at 8:41 am
Barton, the point of the FSM is just to pinpoint that you can’t say that your religion is any better than anyone else’s and should be taught in schools. If you teach one religion in school, you have to give equal time to every other silly belief out there.
You have no proof that your faith is the one true belief. You have FAITH that your belief is the right one, but the true believer of another religion also has FAITH that his religion is the right one. But FAITH is not a PROOF. Say the contrary and you’re just being a jerk.
February 1st, 2008 at 9:48 am
BArton:
Yeah, but we’re really fun six year old children,,,
GAry 7
February 1st, 2008 at 11:01 am
Michelle posts:
[[Barton, the point of the FSM is just to pinpoint that you can’t say that your religion is any better than anyone else’s and should be taught in schools.]]
I didn’t say I wanted it taught in schools, did I? Not public schools, at any rate. I’m as opposed to state-church entanglement as anyone here. But the “point” of the FSM is simply to ridicule theists, to show that belief in flying spaghetti is of exactly equal value to belief in Christ. I don’t accept that and I find it offensive.
[[You have no proof that your faith is the one true belief. You have FAITH that your belief is the right one, but the true believer of another religion also has FAITH that his religion is the right one. But FAITH is not a PROOF. Say the contrary and you’re just being a jerk.]]
I didn’t SAY FAITH was PROOF. And it doesn’t HELP my CASE to use CAPITALS for EMPHASIS.
]]
February 1st, 2008 at 1:22 pm
Yet again, let’s try to NOT be a jerk, shall we? The only reason I use caps is because I don’t know if bold HTML works here. It’s called emphasis. Try to find good arguments, don’t bash on such silly things like a 2 years old.
No, you didn’t say faith was proof. I never said that. I was explaining. The FSM’s point is not what you say. Just visit the website, read on the subject, see the origins of it. The FSM point was not to ridicule theists, it was to point out that you cannot teach ID in schools unless you want to teach every other religion and belief out there.
February 1st, 2008 at 2:42 pm
In practice, I find that it isn’t used that way. But I’m getting used to hearing about it. Kind of how a black person in the south in the 1950s had to get used to hearing n***** jokes.
February 1st, 2008 at 3:02 pm
Well they plain and simply misuse it. But don’t compare little FMS jokes to the much more offensive n word.
February 23rd, 2008 at 4:23 am
I believe that the Montel Williams show is a very positive part of our media’s history. It has raised awareness about many important issues concerning the people of today. Why must you all criticize him just because he is successful? We should be congratulating others on their accomplishments. Be happy for someone else’s success. Anyone who can maintain his own talk show successfully for 17 years while still sending a positive message to viewers is obviously doing something right. You may not agree with every topic that is discussed on the show, but you have to agree that through the media, charities, and donations, Montel has made a big difference in many people’s lives. At any rate, he has done way more good than harm.
In the words of TUPAC SHAKUR
“I love my people, do or die
But I wonder why, we scared to let each other fly”
March 17th, 2008 at 8:48 am
Montel is, I believe, a well intentioned fool. Very few times did I see evidence of any research at all on his part to verify the truth or validity of his guests. Just like a recent episode that featured a young man stating he was accidentally shot in the back of the head by a person that was celebrating New Years Eve by shooting a pistol straight up in the air. Montel related the story adding what goes up must come down, resulting in the young mans injuries. This is IMPOSSIBLE !! After the bullet reaches terminal velocity on the return to earth it tumbles , slows, and could be caught with a bare hand ( if you have really keen eyesight ) I learned this in the fifth grade. I have since seen it featured on shows like “Mythbusters”. Montel is an IDIOT !
May 1st, 2008 at 4:30 pm
Me and my husband will definitely miss Montel’s show and Sylvia was a Godsend to us all. Montel is such a positive force for everyone who struggles in life with real issues and shows how everything can be overcome. 17 years is amazing and there’s a reason why he was on and that’s because we all loved watching and learning. He’s really a male Oprah !!!
I doubt another show could shine a light to his and again I’ll miss seeing him daily.
May 15th, 2008 at 4:06 am
Montel is a con artist just Like that monster Sylvia brown.They just take advantage of ppl. How the hell can idiot say that Sylvia Brown is a godsend, etc..when she charges 700$ / per min on her phone line. I mean Come on! That BS iof closing her eyes and making up stories. Those ppl are desperate and she takes advantage of that! I hope that one day ppl wake up and realise SB is just taking advantage of them with a smile.