Sure Montel Williams can ask his talk-show guests the really though questions (like "Why did you think it was OK to have unprotected sex with with your crackhead brother? Did you know he had AIDS?"), but if a reporter asks him anything more probing than who his favorite Spice Girl is he will purchase explosives, assemble a bomb, and blow your ass up. He is just that committed to affordable health care. According to CNN:
Talk show host Montel Williams has apologized for an angry confrontation with reporters who said he threatened them.
Williams — in Savannah to promote a program giving free prescriptions to low-income people — became upset with a reporter's question Friday and terminated an interview.When the Savannah Morning-News reporters later returned to the hotel for an unrelated assignment, he approached one of them — high school student Courtney Scott, an intern at the newspaper.
"As we were preparing to film, Montel walked up with his bodyguard and got in Courtney Scott's face pointing his finger telling her 'Don't look at me like that. Do you know who I am? I'm a big star, and I can look you up, find where you live and blow you up,"' said Joseph Cosey, a web content producer for the newspaper.
"At this time he was randomly pointing at all of us."
Scott said she wasn't sure how to interpret Williams' comment.
"I'm not sure if he meant 'blow me up' and ruin my career or really blow us up, but it was threatening," Scott said.
Williams, a patient advocate since being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, later issued a statement apologizing for the outburst.
"I mistakenly thought the reporter and photographer in question were at the hotel to confront me about some earlier comments," Williams said. "I was wrong, and I apologize for my overreaction."
The earlier interview ended after Scott asked Williams: "Do you think pharmaceutical companies would be discouraged from research and development if their profits were restricted?"
According to the reporters, Williams reacted angrily, saying:
"I'm trying to figure out exactly why you are here and what the interview is about. I'm here as a patient advocate talking about the fact that medications available today are saving people's lives, that's what's saving mine and after that, this interview is done."
Teenacide is a bit of an extreme reaction to that question. You'd think she had asked him why he murdered three-legged puppies for fun.
One Comment
Excerpt from my own blog early yesterday:
Montel Williams has multiple sclerosis, as do I, and has been the visible image of PPArx since . Now I've got my own opinions as to the quality of assistance which Billy Tauzin and his Orange Bus purport to provide needy individuals. [see PhRMA and PPArx: How much are they really helping patients in need?]
Previously, I've given Williams the benefit of the doubt regarding the use of his image to promote a glossed-over PR concoction. I have no doubt wondered as to the level of compensation the Big Pharma lobby may be providing him, but I've let it go.
Is Montel Williams Disturbed by Big Pharma?
Also, as someone with MS, I understand the type of pain (as Ken Johnson eluded to) which can become so distracting as to limit one's emotional control. But this is not the same as 'pseudobulbar affect' which is characterized by inappropriate emotional outbursts, ie. laughing uncontrollably at something sad.
In my opinion, Montel's behavior was inexcusable and should not be blamed on MS. In no way should he have jumped to the conclusion that Ms. Scott had ulterior motives. His behavior was simply inappropriate in normal circumstances, much less as the representative of a program which supposedly helps patients in need.