re: So how come no one wanted to cancel Art Bell?

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He said that he and his family were subjected to repeated intrusions on his property in Pahrump, Nevada. The intrusions included gunshots, and he was in fear for his family's safety. He chose to leave the air and along with it public life because he believed that the intruder or intruders wanted him off the air.

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“In order that you all understand the gravity of the announcement I’m about to make,” Bell began “It’s going to be necessary for me to repeat some very painful events that have occurred to my family over the past several years.”

Bell explained how, in 1997, his son, then 16, was kidnapped and raped by a substitute teacher from his high school. The teacher, who is now serving a life sentence on sex and drug counts, is HIV positive.

“As our family was working through this trauma in private, an event beyond all bounds of decency and humanity occurred,” Bell continued. “On Dec. 9th of 1997, just a few months after my son’s ordeal, my own began.

“Ted Gunderson, a retired FBI agent, along with David Hinkson and the assistance of others, aired a broadcast which… accused me of committing the very same crime my son had suffered, child molestation.”

Bell said that during the course of the broadcast, which aired on WWCR, a worldwide shortwave radio station based in Nashville Tenn., he was accused of covering up a child molestation indictment in Nye County, Nev. Listeners were encouraged to call Bell “on air” and ask if he had indeed ever been indicted.

“Besides the unrelenting accusatory calls, others repeated this false rumor,” Bell said.

“The reality that after suffering the fate of my son’s own molestation, I now stand destined to be tainted for life as a child molester, has proven simply too much to bear. God knows I have tried.”

He said his last show would be on April 26.

Bell retired once before, in October 1998, because his son “came to a crisis point, a situation so critical that only my full-time attention would help.” However, he was convinced by friends and colleagues to return.

The 54-year-old broadcaster has sued WWCR for the defamatory statements and said on the air that a major moment in the litigation process will occur later this month in Nashville.

Bell’s show has more than 6 million listeners nationwide and is broadcast early mornings in New York on WABC.

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Because, there are real conspiracy theories and then there are fantasies. Art Bell peddled in fantasy that at times got labeled as conspiracy theory. They were harmless and did not impact peoples' income stream so no one cared.

But if you talk about real world conspiracies, like how pharmaceutical companies literally conspire with the federal government to make profits, that's off limits.

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