art bell vs john houge:
Art Bell
October 13 near
Pahrump, NV
John Hogue has decided to blast me on his Facebook page AFTER the show was over, saying among other things that I was unprofessional and did not let him respond to profound questions with profound and never ending answers. You also kept saying “read my book” again and again. Yes, I did try to move you along for the sake of our listener’s. If you felt slighted you could have sent me a private messa...ge or even called, perhaps a message here on Facebook because you are in my friends list, or responded on the spot since you were there on air, but no, none of that. Not my idea of professional but alright, since you went public I guess this is the correct
forum to respond in.
I am sorry you felt hurried John but my view is that if you want a Host who will introduce you and then take a nap I know you know where to find him, not my idea of professional, or perhaps your own show where you can profoundly drone on till the cows come home. I know when a Guest is so interesting that I should just keep my mouth shut and do many times. That was not one of those nights.
DM is real Radio and I have no intention of allowing it to be hijacked by Guest’s who are unwilling to have a dialog. If you want to make a speech please run for office.
I try very hard to be polite to my Guest’s but I also have a responsibility to my listener’s if required, and it was. Sorry your feelings were hurt.
John houge:
Friends,
I wrote and posted a review of my appearance on Art Bell's new show Dark Matter (8 October 2013). I did it to clear the air and hopefully initiate a public debate between us. I am h...appy to announce that Art has sent his answer.
For the sake of clarity and continuity, I have inserted my point for point inserts into his letter (below).
I am hoping that Art will take my answers as both direct clarification and constructive criticism from someone who has been an equal collaborator as his guest for 19 years of radio shows on Coast to Coast AM.
Let me make something clear at the onset. My words in the following, though they may be intense and hard hitting, were not written in anger or in reaction. I love Art. Whatever happens to our professional relationship that Love will remain for me. Be warned, especially you astrologers reading this, that my words are written in a cool and centered space of someone who is a 12th House Double Scorpio so they are naturally intense.
I you find anything else flaring up out of them, I would cordially ask you to look at whether it is coming from me, or rather, it is coming from your reaction reflecting back from "my" mirror of words
Now to the letter:
******************************************************************
ART BELL
John Hogue has decided to blast me on his Facebook page AFTER the show was over, saying among other things that I was unprofessional and did not let him respond to profound questions with profound and never ending answers.
JOHN HOGUE
Art Bell is being inaccurate and the smarminess in this opening sentence resembles the unprofessional tone he sometimes used during our show on Tuesday night (8 October 2013).
ART BELL
You also kept saying “read my book” again and again.
HOGUE
For nearly 20 years I have provided Art Bell anywhere from 20 to 30 written questions per show. Although I have no issue with that, it has become ever more clear that Art Bell’s investigation into my work strays no deeper than those questions. That makes our discussions less prepared and effective when he goes on the attack. Further, his statement is inaccurate. I recall only asking him to “read my books” no more than three times in three hours on air, and I indicated why he needed to, which he does not address here.
ART BELL
Yes, I did try to move you along for the sake of our listener’s. If you felt slighted you could have sent me a private message or even called, perhaps a message here on Facebook because you are in my friends list, or responded on the spot since you were there on air, but no, none of that.
HOGUE
First off, I “did” respond on air in a number of “now Art…” moments. Moreover, I spelled it out loud and clear to you and to the angry listeners Art tried to work up to call in (unsuccessfully). I told both the callers and Art: be prepared, or I’ll go after you. Hard. “With my double-Scorpio stingers.”
Art Bell’s premise about Facebook is a little behind the times.
When Art last retired, Facebook was in its infancy. Since he’s been away, the media revolution has undergone “The Quickening” he wrote about.
Now Facebook is an Internet hegemon, a global public forum with an ever-changing understanding of what is private and public.
Networks of friends share with other friends who then share with their networks and so on…
It’s not that private anymore.
Yes, I am one of Art Bell’s Facebook friends.
I’m also a frequent guest appearing on Coast to Coast AM.
Art’s acidic barbs thrown at George Noory and Coast are also an indirect attack on anyone who regularly appears on Coast.
Long before I appeared on Dark Matter last Tuesday, what Art Bell has been writing against Coast had long gone viral all over the world and by his own promotion reached well beyond Facebook.
Art Bell went after Coast even in TIME Magazine last month!
Check out David Dickey’s article for The Culture section ("Take Back the Night: the king of insomniac radio is ready to reclaim his crown"):
“Bell says the decision to come out of retirement was entirely his,” reports Dickey, “a response to the direction that Noory has taken the show—closer to talk radio’s over-caffeinated political chat…than the open-minded exploration of the supernatural that defined Bell’s tenure. Noory, he says, has 'ruined' the franchise.” (TIME, September 23, 2013)
And he’s upset in the next passage because “I went public”???
Compared to the prodigious global spread of Bell's anti-Coast media spin listed above, I find the following protest about my lack of professionalism humorous to say the least.
ART BELL
Not my idea of professional but alright, since you went public I guess this is the correct forum to respond in.
HOGUE
Then comes a gooey putdown spiced with faux-apologies and bovine clichés…
ART BELL
I am sorry you felt hurried John but my view is that if you want a Host who will introduce you and then take a nap I know you know where to find him, not my idea of professional, or perhaps your own show where you can profoundly drone on till the cows come home.
HOGUE
Be honest, you are not sorry. You want more concise examples of unprofessional moments? For starters, the snide, pontificating tone you take in the above passage was often used on air last Tuesday.
Here’s another example. It happened around the end of the second hour. You said, if I recall, something to the affect of: “John Hogue will actually make a prediction…”
I had “actually” delivered many predictions by then, which I made you acknowledged on the air after that cheap shot.
Here’s another example. A caller asked me to make distant future predictions. Trying to help you get me concise, I said I could quickly take everyone forward, down 1,000 years of future human political evolution. Then you jumped on my lines. I was ordered to keep it real short. I can’t recall if this was when you hurled one of your “three words only” bombs. There was even a shout for a one-word answer too, which I gave you.
Then there’s the best example: the shouting meltdown. That’s something you never did on the air with me in 19 years! I like to call it “Art Bell’s Thousand-Year Prophecy Meltdown”.
You went into an apoplectic fit—mixed-up memory and all.
The tape will show that I had to blow it back, then calm you down and help get your questioners issue straight.
Then, once chastened, sullenly mumbling I was right, I heard no apology.
ART BELL
I know when a Guest is so interesting that I should just keep my mouth shut and do many times. That was not one of those nights.
HOGUE
You’re right. It wasn’t one of those nights. Nights I cherished being your guest. You were off your rhythm. Now the good news. It’s the only crappy show we did, so take heart, Art.
You know, I have a unique and ongoing experience since 1987. I keep taking the measure of many hundreds of talk show hosts and counting on five continents. I’ve also taken the measure of interviewers in over 100 television spots and documentaries: Discovery, History Channel, NBC, FOX, BigSky TV (London), RAI TV (Italy)...
Do the math. I must be an interesting guest.
Otherwise, why was I on ABC’s the View, CNN International, BBC International Radio, just recently on Russia Channel One, and last but certainly not least, a string of popularly rated interviews with George Noory on Coast to Coast AM?
I’ve taken my measure of a lot of hosts in 26 years.
Maybe, just "maybe", if I say Art Bell was off his game last Tuesday, it might have some merit?
Let go of your Noory-Coast grudge, Art. Coast and you are history.
Move on.
Let’s talk about the future and your new show Dark Matter.
You want to make our DM shows more adversarial and gritty dialogues?
Great! I’m in.
I have no problem doing “fight radio” with Art Bell, but after the last show, there’s going to be, as Bill Maher would say, New Rules.
1.) Art Bell prepares his own shows. The days of propping him up with my 20 to 30 questions per show since 1994 is over.
2.) Let’s switch the game. Art Bell will send me 20 to 30 hard-hitting questions that “I” must concisely answer—feet to fire, with no BS.
3.) As a flustered Dolores Cannon and Shaun Hannity found out the hard way, ignoring this caveat: back up your barbs. Know what you’re talking about or my counter punches will be swift and devastating.
No more sucker punching the guest like last Tuesday.
ART BELL
DM is real Radio and I have no intention of allowing it to be hijacked by Guest’s who are unwilling to have a dialog. If you want to make a speech please run for office.
HOGUE
The one who is being political is Art Bell and I would add, he’s a little confused. One day I read him in cyberspace publicly say he doesn’t want politics on his show. Yet on my appearance we did some political predictions.
He’s on XM Radio but he doesn’t want any cussing.
OK, no problem. Then I hear from his and my connected Facebook friends that he recently cussed on the air about the government shutdown. (Understandable, but again, at cross purposes with forcefully declaring rules on the air not to cuss.)
In my experience, Art Bell last Tuesday doesn’t sound like he knows yet what he wants DM to be and he carried me along on his confusing ride. I hope he'll soon find his voice and his rhythm, but I think this lingering "grump" about Coast to Coast these days pulls him back into grudges from the past, and keeps his creative energies muddy, mean and muddled about Dark Matter's future. I predict Dark Matter will not be a success until he can let Coast go and move forward into a new future clean.
(Now there's a concise prophecy. See, Art, I'm getting better)
ART BELL
I try very hard to be polite to my Guest’s but I also have a responsibility to my listener’s if required, and it was. Sorry your feelings were hurt.
HOGUE
That again smacks as insincere apology, masking a lot of passive-aggressive anger.
Art Bell’s response to my review ends as it began, with a tone of oily distain, under which sleeping barbs lie, wearing expressions of apologetic masks.
This is not our first dance together on the airwaves, Art.
We did this dance of ideas two to three times a year starting in November 1994 up to at least 2006 or through 2007.
I know well your responsibilities as host for 19 years and counting.
I number you among the most gifted hosts when it comes to moving a show and changing the tempo. Over the years, you skillfully conducted my equally important contribution to those shows, many of which are classics.
I am fifty percent of this classic radio ensemble. My input and review of the last show has some depth of experience behind it:
Tuesday was not among your best performances as a host.
Want to try it again?
I suggest we return to this point in six months. Let’s let time lower the temperature level between you and me and also let time cool the savage missives of your more abusive and threatening fans.
You now know my new rules for the boxing match.
Want to take a ride?
It’s your show.
It’s your call.
Whatever your decision, thank you Art Bell for the great times past and potential times, future.
John Hogue
(Hogueprophecy.com)
14 October 2013