Crazy! I don't know whether anyone has been reading our coverage of Art Bell's net war with Robert M. Stevens and David John Oates, the "Reverse Speech" guru, but it's fun to write about because it keeps getting crazier. Now the conflict has gone nuclear. Tonight on Coast to Coast, Art Bell announced that he has filed a 60 MILLION DOLLAR DEFAMATION OF CHARACTER LAWSUIT against the two former guests.

The lawsuit describes a "conspiracy to slander" Art Bell, which includes malicious public allegations that Oates and Stevens have made. Basically, the complaint says they went on some radio shows and said that Art is

• a child molester,
• a trafficker in various aspects of pornography,
• has been mixed up with the militia movement,
• and travels to Thailand to have sex with little boys.

As well as several other nasty things.

Matt Drudge of the Drudge Report is hosting a huge IRC chat concerning the whole nasty business on the Undernet tonight (Thu., May. 27, 1999 11 PM ET/8 PM PT North America) in the #ARTBELL channel.

Matt Drudge seems to have an INSIDE TRACK on Art's mysterious problems during the last several months. It may be because he has been a guest on Art's show, Coast to Coast, in the past. Many people speculate that Drudge may be Art Bell's chosen method of leaking information to the press at large.

Speaking of which, earlier this evening Matt Drudge was reporting that Art would be talking about AIDS and HIV on tonight's show, even though the topic does not appear on the the official schedule. Could AIDS be the "terrible personal tragedy" that Art keeps talking about, and the reason that Art Bell has been leaving the air so often?

Early in tonight's show Art said that he believes that the full story on his drastic behavior and personal problems will become publicly known within a week, although he will not be announcing the information himself. We'll be watching the Drudge Report.

Check it out yourself

yungstud@pigdog.org