Montel Williams a coward? Not likely

This past Wednesday Montel Williams was scheduled for an appearance on the Fox News Network’s, The O’Reilly Factor, but reportedly backed out when he learned that the topic of discussion was changed at the last minute.

Williams stated that the interview was supposed to be about LGBTQ rights and a recent poll that suggested Barack Obama was a racist. According to Williams when he arrived at the Fox News station, he learned that the discussion would only be about the President’s poll numbers.

When Bill O’Reilly found out that Montel Williams canceled his appearance, O’Reilly, in his true ignorant form, called Williams a coward on-air and stated that, “He’s not a man of his word, he’s unprofessional. That is about as low as it gets.”

Really O’Reilly! Those comments are laughable coming from you. You have the nerve to talk about someone not being a man of his word, a coward, unprofessional aand as low as it gets. Are you sure you were not subconsciously describing yourself, because it sure sounds like your character traits. If you were half the man Montel Williams is you would be pretty lucky.

If O’Reilly thought that he was going to get away with calling a former U.S. Marine a coward he had another thing coming. He opened the floodgates on this one which was a big mistake.

Montel Williams took to social media with a video  and fired back at O’Reilly and rightfully so. Speaking about Bill O’Reilly, Williams stated, “Let me talk about this little coward thing for a second. The word coward is usually used on people who have done most of the things you have done, like embellish and lie about your credentials as a journalist. Like the fact that your own daughter in her testimony in a court case reported in the Washington Post, said that you dragged your ex-wife down a flight of stairs. You want to talk about coward, homeboy. When you point a finger this way, look at that, three are coming back. We know who the coward is, and if I’m a coward just because I won’t talk to you, let’s also remember this. I spent 22 years in the military my friend, which you made sure you shirked your responsibility and didn’t serve. You want to talk about a coward, that’s what a coward truly is. Someone who is going to call someone a name on air and not even to their face. I’m calling you one now so the whole world can see it. That’s the definition of a real coward.”

Montel Williams served both in the U.S. Marine Corps and the U.S. Navy. He became the first African-American to complete and graduate from both the Naval Academy Prep School and Annapolis. He worked for Naval Intelligence, served both on land and at sea including aboard submarines. Williams was awarded among others, the Navy Commendation Medal and Meritorious Service Medal. He left the Navy at the rank of Lieutenant Commander.

In 1999 Williams was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and has been battling that disease ever since. In 2000 he created the MS Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to research and education.

Montel Williams, a conservative Republican has been a staunch supporter and a voice for all U.S. military veterans for years. In October 2014 he spoke at a Congressional committee in support of Marine Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi, who had been arrested in Tijuana, Mexico and imprisoned.

In fact, many say that his support of the American military and veterans was the reason his show, The Montel Williams Show was cancelled. On Thursday January 31, 2008 Brandon Friedman with Daily Kos wrote an article titled, “Montel Williams Loses Job after Defending Troops on Fox News.” Friedman wrote:

For just over three minutes on Saturday morning, TV talk show host Montel Williams owned the host of Fox and Friends. A former Marine and Naval officer, Montel lectured the stunned hosts on the stupidity of spending time on the death of Heath Ledger, rather than covering the war in Iraq. It was a spectacle rarely seen on live cable television, as Montel exposed and condemned both tabloid “news” shows and much of American culture for what they have each become: shallow and greedy.

Three minutes into this awkward segment on Fox, one host cut off Montel in order to go to a commercial. Montel did not return after the break. Four days later, after 17 years as a television host, Montel lost his job. “Variety” reported on Wednesday that the fate of “The Montel Williams Show” was sealed when key Fox-owned stations opted not to renew it for the 2008-09 season. I have no idea whether Montel already knew his show wasn’t going to be renewed, and thus felt emboldened to cut loose on the air, or whether his firing was a result of his actions on Saturday. Either way, Montel Williams exhibited courage this week that few in the television industry ever will. And for that, American troops around the world stand with him. We support him not only because he stood up for the troops, but because he did it on Fox News — a station that has done more damage to the U.S military since 9/11 than any other.

Montel Williams is an American patriot. Though he left the military years ago, he has never forgotten “his” troops.

For that we salute and thank you, Montel. Best of luck with whatever you chose to do next.

It is rather interesting that this incident with Bill O’Reilly and Montel Williams happened this week, as Roger Ailes, the CEO of Fox News, resigned this week amid allegations of sexual harassment claimed by former Fox anchor, Gretchen Carlson.

Also this week New York magazine reported that Fox News’ Megan Kelly had told investigators working for Fox News Channel parent, 21^st Century Fox, that Ailes had sexually harassed her when she was a reporter at Fox 10 years ago.

The Washington Post in an article today stated, “News of Carlson’s firing, and the lawsuit she filed shortly thereafter, have now prompted 25 women to come forward with what they describe as similar harassment claims against Ailes that stretch across five decades back to his days in the 1960’s as a young television producer, according to Carlson’s attorney, Nancy Erika Smith. Interviews with four of these women portray the 76-year-old television powerhouse as a man who could be routinely crude and inappropriate, ogling young women, commenting about their breasts and legs, and fostering a macho, insensitive culture. Among those who agreed to interviews is a 2002 Fox intern who spoke for the first time about her accusation that Ailes grabbed her buttocks and repeatedly propositioned her.”

What does all this talk of sexual harassment have to do with Bill O’Reilly you ask?

Well it seems that the mainstream media, which is controlled by a handful of corporations, let Bill O’Reilly get a free pass on his own case of sexual harassment, one that ended with plenty of people asking, why wasn’t O’Reilly fired from Fox News back in 2004. Did it have anything to do with the power and influence of Bill O’Reilly’s boss and friend, Roger Ailes? In most other corporations O’Reilly would have been given his walking papers at the time, but not at Fox.

In October 13, 2004, Andrea Mackris, a producer on the O’Reilly Factor at the time, filed a suit in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, charging Bill O’Reilly with sexual harassment. O’Reilly said at the time it was all lies and called it a shakedown for money, and vowed he would fight it to the end with no settlement and let the courts decide the matter.

O’Reilly had one big problem though. Among Andrea Mackris’ basis for the lawsuit, there were, allegedly, recorded sexually explicit telephone calls with O’Reilly talking to Mackris about masturbation, vibrators, group sex and other sexual fantasies.

After rumors that Mackris recorded his phone calls, less than two weeks after the filing of the lawsuit on October 28, 2004, O’Reilly who had said he would never settle, settled the case with Mackris. It was rumored that he paid Mackris close to $10 million, to get the tapes and shut her up.

According to court records, in one of those telephone conversations Mackris told O’Reilly that he had done the same thing to other women who worked on The O’Reilly Factor to which he vehemently threatened with the words to the effect:

If any woman ever breathed a word I’ll make her pay so dearly that she’ll wish she’d never been born. I’ll take her through the mud, bring up things in her life and make her so miserable that she’ll be destroyed. And besides, she wouldn’t be able to afford the lawyers I can or endure it financially as long as I can. And nobody would believe her, it’d be her word against mine and who are they going to believe? Me or some unstable woman making outrageous accusations. They’d see her as some psycho, someone unstable. Besides, I’d never make the mistake of picking unstable crazy girls like that. If you cross Fox News Channel, it’s not just me, it’s [Fox President] Roger Ailes who will go after you. I’m the street guy out front making loud noises about the issues, but Ailes operates behind the scenes, strategizes and makes things happen so that one day Bam! The person gets what’s coming to them but never sees it coming.

I wonder did Montel Williams in January 2008 see it coming. Bam! His show was canceled after his appearance on Fox and Friends.

As for who is the real coward. If my butt was backed into a corner and things were getting rough and I needed backup who would I chose?

A former U.S. Marine and Naval officer, a real man who is no coward?

Or a fabricator of lies and one who bends the truth to fit a narrative; a man who perversely sexually harassed a female subordinate; a man who choked his wife and dragged her down the stairs; a man who claimed to have survived a combat situation in Argentina and said he reported from an active war zone in the Falklands, who saw nuns get shot and saw guys gun down nuns in El Salvador, the man who stated he was a teacher in a poor school; the man who saw Irish terrorists kill and maim their fellow citizens in Belfast with bombs or the man who was about to knock on a door in Florida when someone blew their brains out?

I’m going with the former U.S. Marine, a real man named Montel Williams.

Last year I wrote a two-part article titled, Bill O’Reilly: True lies in the Spin Zone. Click on the links to read the full article.

Doug Poppa

Doug authored over 135 articles on the October 1, 2017 Las Vegas Massacre, more than any other single journalist in the country. He investigates stories on corruption, law enforcement and crime. Doug is a US Army Military Police Veteran, former police officer, deputy sheriff and criminal investigator. Doug spent 20 years in the hotel/casino industry as an investigator and then as Director of Security and Surveillance. He also spent a short time with the US Dept. of Homeland Security, Transportation Security Administration. In 1986 Doug was awarded Criminal Investigator of the Year by the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office in Virginia for his undercover work in narcotics enforcement. In 1992 and 1993 Doug testified in court that a sheriff’s office official and the county prosecutor withheld exculpatory evidence during the 1988 trial of a man accused of the attempted murder of his wife. Doug’s testimony led to a judge’s decision to order the release of the man from prison in 1992 and awarded him a new trial, in which he was later acquitted. As a result of Doug breaking the police “blue wall of silence,” he was fired by the county sheriff. His story was featured on Inside Edition, Current Affair and CBS News’ “Street Stories with Ed Bradley”. In 1992 after losing his job, at the request of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Doug infiltrated a group of men who were plotting the kidnapping of a Dupont fortune heir and his wife. Doug has been a guest on national television and radio programs speaking on the stories he now writes as an investigative journalist. Catch Doug’s Podcast: @dougpoppa1