Just when I was happy Montel is on his last season...

[Minarvia]

he makes me cry. Or, rather, his guest did. I just saw the show where he has on a girl named Brie who has Tourette's so badly that she is forced to live her life almost entirely isolated.

Montel was so moved by her that he cried and I don't think there was a dry eye in the room watching poor Brie struggle so much with her disease. I cried and then even more when Montel promised her that she was now his mission. I think, wow, what a compassionate guy. And I have no doubt that he really cares and will try to help this girl get the surgury that may help her and possibly save her life.

But then I think that if Sylvia Browne was asked about Brie she would spout her horsedung about Brie choosing her disease in her Chart and that she is doing it for god.

So I have mixed feelings now. I can't believe that Montel is entirely unmoved and uncaring about peoples' suffering. But then again he DOES support Sylvia Browne and I'm happy to see him take some heat for it.

I don't know what to think here. I guess I just wonder if people who could be helped now won't when Montel goes off the air. Maybe I'm just too much of a sap.

[EeneyMinnieMoe]

Myself, I've never been able to reconcile his bringing on Sylvia Browne with the help he apparently gives to addicts, single mothers, MS sufferers, etc.

Or how seemingly compassionate and gracious he otherwise seems to be with what how he acts like and to the people coming to see her.

Is he faking the sincerity? He must.

[Babbylonian]

Myself, I've never been able to reconcile his bringing on Sylvia Browne with the help he apparently gives to addicts, single mothers, MS sufferers, etc.

Or how seemingly compassionate and gracious he otherwise seems to be with what how he acts like and to the people coming to see her.

Is he faking the sincerity? He must.
Why can't you reconcile it? He might actually be battling between his desire for money and being a kind, compassionate person. There's no reason that someone who does bad things has to be an entirely bad person.

Now, I'm not letting Montel off the hook for his support of Sylvia Browne when I believe he knows good and well she's a fraud. But, it doesn't bother me in the slightest that he could do so and still work for good in other ways. It just means that humans can be complicated. :)

[RSLancastr]

Let's not forget his empassioned promise to the grandmother of Opal Jo Jennings that his detectives would be on the case to find Opal in white slavery in Japan.

According to friends of the family, no such help was ever forthcoming.

What he promises on the show may or may not ever come to fruition.

[shadron]

It very rarely happens in this world that any person in it is unmitigatedly bad or good; if you never learned that before, let it sink in now. Assuming that someone is all good or all bad (or all anything, except perhaps "evolved") falls into the common trap of stereotyping.

For example, Montel was a naval officer; no matter what he's doing with SB, he was that, and no one should ever be able take that away from him. Tearing down Sylvia Browne, as he actually might want to do, involves a whole lot more than just the act of doing it - there are many people in New York that count on him and his show for their livelihoods. He determined to do what he did in his weighing of the evidence and consequences, as he probably does in all cases, and there it stands. And. also, as Robert says - perhaps he really isn't that good a person, either.

Agree, Babylonian: Damn, it would be boring if people weren't so complicated, nicht wahr?

[JoeTheJuggler]

Surely you don't think every person who was ever a navel officer is honorable?

Remember, Montel never really responded to the letter written by Lt. Colonel Hal Bidlack (Ret) (http://stopsylviabrowne.com/articles/openlettertomontel.shtml).

Tears and grand promises are just as good for ratings as the paranormal, I'm sure. (What exactly does Montel propose to do in making this girl his "mission"? Maybe he'll put her in touch with every alternative healer and charlatan he can find.)

The one thing Montel has been consistent about is that ratings matter more to him than the truthfulness of his shows.

[Minarvia]

Let's not forget his empassioned promise to the grandmother of Opal Jo Jennings that his detectives would be on the case to find Opal in white slavery in Japan.

According to friends of the family, no such help was ever forthcoming.

What he promises on the show may or may not ever come to fruition.


I had forgotten about that. You're right.

About Brie, however, I think there flashed up a website or a part of Montel's that will let viewers know how they can help Brie. Perhaps some or most of his guests who are in horrible circumstances do indeed get some help. If nothing else at least viewers can see them and pitch in.

I've never watched Montel on a regular basis. I have seen enough to know that some of his shows are pure fluff, some very funny and entertaining, and some are gut-wrenching.

And then there's the Sylvia shows. :mad:

[Minarvia]

Now, I'm not letting Montel off the hook for his support of Sylvia Browne when I believe he knows good and well she's a fraud. But, it doesn't bother me in the slightest that he could do so and still work for good in other ways. It just means that humans can be complicated. :)

That sums up pretty much what I'm feeling right now about Montel. I hate how he endorses Sylvia, yet I also appreciate those who he does help.

[EeneyMinnieMoe]

Why can't you reconcile it? He might actually be battling between his desire for money and being a kind, compassionate person. There's no reason that someone who does bad things has to be an entirely bad person.

Now, I'm not letting Montel off the hook for his support of Sylvia Browne when I believe he knows good and well she's a fraud. But, it doesn't bother me in the slightest that he could do so and still work for good in other ways. It just means that humans can be complicated. :)

I don't know about that. I agree that people can have highly contrasting aspects to their personalities and you can only predict someone else's actions so far but it's my opinion that people are also more or less consistent. If someone has show him/herself to be a dog in one situation, I have no reason to expect that he/she would act any better in any other set of circumstances.

I can think of many people who showed vast contradictions- Stalin was probably as close to an evil person as there ever was, but he loved his wife very much, and so on - but if someone has no qualms about cruelly victimizing one group of absolute strangers, I don't expect him/her to be any better towards another group of absolute strangers.

[biostudent]

I used to watch Montel's show regularly because I found it entertaining. (this was back in, erhm um, the early 90s, I think) After a while, though, I began to dislike the attitude he displayed towards his guests. He really seemed to dislike some of his guests on a personal level and he had this nasty habit of jumping to conclusions very early (often before he had even heard the whole story) and then refusing to allow anyone to change his mind. I eventually found him to be quite an unpleasant individual.

It was around that time that I took a break from cable for a couple of years, which momentarily ended my addiction to all talk shows. I find TV to be very mind-numbing, so I killed the cable subscription when I found that I was spending too much time sitting on the couch drooling. I grew up without TV, so I'm not used to things like shows that encourage me to turn off my brain and commercials that try to make me do things I don't want to do. Anyway... That was all before I ever saw a Sylvia Browne episode. Then when I got cable again, I started watching the show again and saw a few of her episodes. (don't ask me why I didn't see them before when I watched the show regularly - I must have watched before she was a regular guest). I was so turned off by what I saw that I never watched his show again. I mean, his poor attitude towards his guests plus her psychic garbage was just too much. At that point, I decided to go with what I had previously thought about all the talk shows I was watching at the time anyway: They are really all about entertainment, but in a negative way - they parade people with problems for all to laugh at and only pretend to try to be helpful. They are like modern day freak shows, really. I find it incredibly sad.

Montel Williams is an actor, IMO, just like all the rest of them. And no, I don't buy anything they promise on their shows. If they ever followed through on their promises, I really think we would hear about them. Heck, it would seem to me to be rather good material for an episode! "Hey look at how many people we've helped! We're a really good show! Watch us!" The only time I've ever seen any sort of "help" administered is when the episode is designed around some sort of program, such as a weight loss program or a boot camp program or something like that. Promises just thrown out on a whim by the host have never been kept, in my experience (although I could certainly be wrong about that).

I'm on a really extensive break from cable these days (we've been without it for over 6 years, now). We'll probably never get it again, although I might cave in momentarily if my kid starts bugging me about it when he gets older (he's 3 right now, so he doesn't care). I'm hoping that our extensive DVD collection will keep him happy, though. There is some good material out there, and luckily for us, a lot of it has been put on DVD.