Subscribe to RSS feedMontel Williams “blows up” at High School student asking about drug prices
The Savannah Morning News reported on Saturday that Montel Williams verbally threatened three of its reporters following a Partnership for Prescription Assistance event in Savannah, including a high school student intern:
Television talk-show host Montel Williams threatened to find and “blow up” the homes of three Savannah Morning News reporters Friday while he was in town promoting free prescriptions for poor people.
The incident took place at the Westin Savannah Harbor after an event in Johnson Square for the Partnership for Prescription Assistance’s “Help is Here Express.”
Before the event, Williams took exception to a question asked by Morning News high school intern Courtney Scott and abruptly ended a videotaped interview.
Later, Scott, web content producer Joseph Cosey and intern Phillip Moore went to the Westin for an unrelated assignment featuring gingerbread houses at the hotel.
Williams and his bodyguard were in the lobby, too.
“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,’ ” Cosey said. “At this time he was pointing randomly at all of us.”
The incident is a huge embarrassment for Montel Williams, for the Partnership for Prescription Assistance (PPA), and for PhrMA, the Pharmaceutical Researchers and Manufacturers of America, which created the PPA. What’s surprising about the whole incident is how innocuous the student reporter’s initial question was. Watch the video below to see the offending question.
The question was whether Montel thought that drugmakers would be discouraged from research and development if profits were restricted. This is not even a softball question. In fact, it’s practically an engraved invitation to regurgitate one of PhRMA’s most overused talking points. PhRMA responds to any attempt to do anything at all to reduce drug prices by saying that reducing drug industry profits will hurt R&D, and thus by implication, prevent lifesaving new blockbuster drugs from reaching the market. This answer, of course, is completely absurd and belied by numerous facts — such as the fact that the pharmaceutical industry still spends about twice as much on marketing and administration as it does on research and development, and earns on average as much as or more in profits than they spend on R&D.
So why was Montel so angered by this question, a question which arguably invited a stock answer that PhRMA reps repeat dozens of times a day? It’s not as if the reporter asked “Why doesn’t the pharmaceutical industry make its Guiding Principles on Drug Advertising mandatory and enforceable?” And it’s not as if the reporter asked some obscure question on some obtuse point of, say, patent law or the issue of follow-on biologic drugs. It’s surprising that the industry’s main spokesperson for its patient assistance program was so poorly prepared to answer such an easy question.
But perhaps all this is beside the point. Does it ultimately matter if Montel Williams answers questions about the industry’s priorities and policies, or any questions beyond the mechanics of this patient assistance program?
The answer is, yes, it does. Montel Williams has become one of the most visible spokespeople for the industry. He lends his name and his credibility to the cause of burnishing the image of America’s pharmaceutical companies, and is paid (presumably handsomely) to do so. So it’s entirely fair that he be asked questions about the industry. Although perhaps Ken Johnson, PhRMA’s Senior Vice President of Communications, is the better person to ask this kind of question, Montel is fair game as well — by accepting the industry’s money, and acting as his spokesperson, he has to take what comes with that — including fair questions about the industry’s misplaced priorities.
Hat tip: Pharmalot
December 4th, 2007 at 2:37 pm
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?
December 7th, 2007 at 12:34 pm
[...] incentives. In the age of YouTube, this story is even juicier. Read all about it at Prescription Access Litigation blog, Pharmalot, or WSJ [...]
January 5th, 2008 at 11:10 pm
On a recent episode of the Montel Williams show, Montel seemed to let it slip that he is getting some sort of MS treatment that “average Joe” patients DON’T get. He mentions to the audience that he “has to inject [him]self three times A DAY” (emphasis mine). Of the known, publicly available MS drugs on the market, there is not a SINGLE ONE that is injected 3x a day. Copaxone is injected once daily. Rebif is injected subcutaneously 3x a week. Avonex is delivered via an intramuscular injection once per week. Betaseron is once a day. Tysabri is delivered via IV infusions (definitely not 3 times a day). The question I posed on my own blog was this: “What magical, special MS drugs, exactly, does Montel Williams get that regular Multiple Sclerosis patients DO NOT get?”
To view Williams’ comment about his injection regimen in its original context, please consult the embedded video contained in the following blog post: http://idontknowhowtodie.blogspot.com/2007/12/what-medication-does-montel-get-that-is.html
June 9th, 2008 at 9:18 pm
My stepmother told me about this free drug program Montel fronts and she was all enthusiastic and I told her that it might be a marketing/positive image program, a tax write off, or they figured out a way to purchase these drugs from some foundation AT NO DISCOUNT. Heh heh, I was right – the bait has a big sharp hook in it.
Do you think Obama’s cabinet is going to have the guts to confront pharma and end their days of outrageous profit and literally life or death control of US citizens? Who has the potlical will to do this thing? We pay 300% more than the rest of the world, we are prohibited from buying out of the country, we have this gift to Big Pharma called Plan D that is going to bankrupt the system, a big thank you gift from Bush…..It has to be rewritten to allow discounts – that’s a no brainer!
I am sick of being owned by the pharmaceutical industry. I’m sick of being owned by the health insurance industry. Look at us – over 55 million of us are out in the cold, regardless of working. This must cease!
I hope Obama hires Ralph Nader and people from this site to reform Big Pharma.
I can’t wait.