Evariste, I'm not going to suggest that people are overreacting. I think it sucks that someone is invited on a talk show without being told that they are going to be confronted with the victims of anthrax vaccine.

It's dishonest and unfair, and it's also standard practice in that business. Producers like to get spontaneous, unscripted reactions out of people (because it makes good television, by their lights - as if there were such a thing) and this is how they do it. Essentially, they use guests as guinea pigs.

So I agree with their reaction, except when it comes to anathematizing Montel Williams. I don't know much about Williams, but I know he was a Marine and an Annapolis graduate, and to my knowledge he is not a raging moonbat. Someone should ask him to respond to this.

Glen, I respect you a lot. And I'm not just saying that to pre-excuse myself for some offensive thing I'm about to say. I'm just saying it.

I can see why you'd like to give him the benefit of the doubt, but I hold him responsible because he's the face of his show, he's the brand, and he saw with his own eyes the offense members of the audience were taking at the first taping under fraudulent pretenses, both active duty military and their families. And with his implicit or explicit permission, his producers are continuing to pursue this theme and seek more people to ambush. He isn't concerned about respecting them as human beings; why should I respect him?

I have a hard time seeing where the social value lies in a tawdry show like Montel's tackling a serious issue like anthrax vaccinations in the military. When their usual fare is "I'm leading a double life?", "I'm not sure who my baby's daddy is", "My teenager is out of control", and so forth, they're clearly not a serious journalistic outfit. They're entertainment. This steps way over that line, into issues of discouraging people from going into the military with their sensationalistic treatments of a serious issue about which thoughtful people can disagree and debate.

There's no utility in turning it into a shouting match between emotional people on both sides, other than in ratings for Montel. It's all about Montel. He wanted attention for this, and he'll get it. For my part, I'm trying to bring him a little negative attention, and to help unmask the fraud before he can perpetrate it again. I don't see why the individuals and families who pay the highest price in the service of the nation should be unwitting pawns of a blowhard seeking ratings and controversy. It trivializes the issue and hardens feelings on both sides. It solves nothing.

Perhaps Montel himself is not to blame so much as the people who surround him; either way, he's the face of the show and he can take the heat. If no one puts him on the spot, nothing will change.

The frivolity with which these fake plastic TV idiots-for-hire treat people whose toilets they aren't fit to clean personally offends me. I don't like seeing people I admire brought down to this level. Deceived, ambushed, and then censored. It was clear from the taping that airforcewife attended that everything they said would not appear in the televised edition, because they were re-shooting a lot. That tells you that Montel is pushing for a particular agenda. If there was any indication of an even-handed treatment, I might not be this outraged. But it's obvious that there is an agenda, and it's being promoted with deceit. How is that any different than what Michael Moore does?

Why should Montel get a pass for behavior that is essentially real-life in-person aggravated trolling? He gets no pass from me. He needs to apologize and back down. There are some lines, even in our coarsened culture, that we should hesitate to trample. Everything does not go.

Thank you very much for bringing attention to this, evariste. And thank you so much for your passion.

Glen Wishard, Montel is indeed an academy grad and a veteran. But as a military family, I can tell you that his veteran status only serves to make his ambushing of military families even worse. Military people, whatever their service, are basically a big family. Sure, we argue and fight amongst ourselves just like other families do. But we are also all we have many times, and it is a role that - when push comes to shove - we all take very seriously.

Montel violated that family role. And he did it by using scaremongering and ambushing. His producers contacted our family support center to get people to attend the taping. The Family Support Center is our deployment and hardship resource. On my base, they take their role VERY seriously, because they are responsible for the morale (and this leads to the mental health) of families whose loved ones are in danger every day and gone for months at a time.

He, more than any civilian talk show host, should have known better.

It may be the modus operandi of all these shows. Actually, I don't generally watch them myself. But standard operating procedure or not - who on EARTH has a right to purposefully reduce the wives of deployed servicemembers to tears? And when a celebrity of some sort does so, should they not be held accountable?

And finally, as a military wife, I am just tired of having people with the freedom of speech I do not have claiming to speak for me. I wish more people would stand up and tell these celebrities who are abusing their public roles and claiming to be our voice that they are NOT representing us. I wish more people, because many people don't have any connection to the military, understood that.

I guess maybe they weren't just after unscripted reactions, because it sounds like some people's reactions got them escorted out of the studio by security. What a class act. Even for daytime television, that's low.

It also seems that Montel Williams is a Chavez apologist, which is half an inch away from being a fascist child molester in my book. So much for him.

Quick correction, probably trivial, to the first comment... but Montel was Navy, not Marines. He gave a lecture one time while I was at Annapolis, and he was still a Lieutenant Commander in the Reserve at the time.

After reading this, I'm kind of embarrassed that he's one of us.

Quick correction, probably trivial, to the first comment... but Montel was Navy, not Marines.

According to his bio (please click on my name for the link):

Born in Baltimore, Maryland, on July 3, 1956, Williams enlisted in the U.S. Marines upon graduating high school in 1974. He took basic training at Parris Island, South Carolina, where he was promoted to platoon guide. After basic training, he was sent to the Desert Warfare Training Center at Twenty-nine Palms, near Palm Springs, California.

While at Twenty-nine Palms, his superiors became impressed with his leadership skills, and he was recommended for, and accepted to, the Naval Academy Preparatory school at Newport, Rhode Island. He completed the one-year course, and was accepted to the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis.

When he arrived at Annapolis on July 6, 1976, he was honorably discharged as a corporal from the marines, and enlisted into the navy as a midshipman. While at Annapolis, Williams studied Mandarin Chinese and graduated with a degree in general engineering and a minor in International Security Affairs. It was at Annapolis that Williams first began to shave his head. Upon his graduation in 1980, he became the first black enlisted marine to complete and graduate both the Academy Prep School and Annapolis.

My reading of it was that he did both.

Well, I must say that my first reaction to this post was "Montel still has a TV show?" I honestly thought it was removed years ago. I don't watch any of those type shows, so I guess I'm just out of touch.

Anyway, being a Navy vet I am appalled by the actions of many ex-military and/or their family members, but especially someone with the wide spread audience a Montel has to spew their morale busting agenda.

I've got just a fledgling little-read blog, but a couple of much larger bloggers who read occasionally, and I will post links to this story and airforcewife's to help spread the word.

Fair winds and following seas to all.

Dear Montel, I have a brother in Law that is really sick. He has hepatitis c, and has type A blood. And he needs a liver transplant. If he does not get this trasplant, he may lose his life by September. I like to know, if you can help him find a doner. He is suffering a great deal. He has serve in the military in te 70's, and he does not know how he contacted this. He said, that it could of been from the needles from over seas, or a tatoo that he recieved while in the military. Can you help, in finding a donor for him. He is in the hospital in pain. I know whith this type A blood type, it is very hard to find a doner. If you can help... please e-mail me. I would really apreciated. I do not want to loose him.
Thank you..
Linda

Re the immediately prior post: As Montel might say, "Things that make you go hmmmmm...."

Montel sold out way before he ever got in the media business, he was involved in a great scandal that was kept from the media involving his son's fake diploma with which he made his way into politics.