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.
