Phil Donahue

Phil Donahue (2007)

Phillip John "Phil" Donahue (born December 21, 1935 in Cleveland , Ohio ) is an American journalist, author and television presenter. In particular, he is known in the United States for his program The Phil Donahue Show . This show ran on NBC television for 26 years before ending in 1996.

Life

Donahue was born in Cleveland in 1935. He attended St. Edward Catholic High School in Lakewood , Ohio. Donahue then studied at the University of Notre Dame and received a Bachelor of Business Administration in 1957 . In 1958 Donahue married his wife Marge Cooney, from whom he divorced in 1975. There are five children from this marriage. In 1980 Donahue married the actress Marlo Thomas .

Donahue began working as a production assistant for KYW radio and television in Cleveland in 1957 . He then became program director of WABJ-Radio in Adrian , Michigan . He joined CBS Evening News and later hosted the morning newscast on WHIO-TV in Dayton , Ohio , where he interviewed Jimmy Hoffa and Billie Sol Esters , among others . In Dayton, Donahue also hosted the Conversation Piece program on WHIO Radio from 1963 to 1967 and interviewed civil rights activists such as Martin Luther King and Malcolm X as well as opponents of the Vietnam War.

In 1968 Donahue left the WHIO broadcasters and relocated his broadcasts to WLWD (now: WDTN ) in Dayton. Donahue started his talk show The Phil Donahue Show , which ran until May 1996. From 1970 the program was broadcast nationwide in the United States. In 1974 he moved to Chicago to produce the show . The show's popularity rose nationwide in the mid-1970s. In 1985 he moved the production to New York City in the Rockefeller Plaza building of WNBC . In 1996, Donahue quit the talk show because audience ratings had dropped dramatically in the 1990s and other talk shows had gained greater popularity.

In 2002 Donahue returned to MSNBC as the host of Donahue . After initial success, the show was discontinued in February 2003. An internal NBC memo later leaked advising its removal from the program because it was believed that for economic reasons (in terms of advertising revenue), given the impending war in Iraq, an eloquent war opponent could not be afforded on screen.

Donahue appeared in the video "Stop Watching Us" during the course of the global espionage and surveillance affair.

In 2005 Donahue was a talk guest on The O'Reilly Factor , where there was a heated argument with the host Bill O'Reilly when he criticized the Iraq war opponent Cindy Sheehan . Donahue accused O'Reilly of making his show too superficial and of not taking enough position or too one-sided position on political discussion topics. Donahue also criticized the presenter Bill O'Reilly for dealing with talk show guest Jeremy Glick, the son of a victim of the 9/11 attack.

In 2007 Donahue was the producer of the documentary Body of War , which he directed with film producer Ellen Spiro . The film is about the Iraq war veteran Thomas Young . For this he won the National Board of Review's award for best documentary of the year .

Awards

• He received nine Emmy Awards and was inducted into the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame in 1993.
• National Board of Review Award for Best Documentary of Year for Body of War
• Body of War finished second in the People's Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival .
• Audience award for the best documentary at the Hamptons International Film Festival . for Body of War

Web links

Commons : Phil Donahue  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Body of War
• Donahue, Phil from the Museum of Broadcast Communications
• Interview with Phil Donahue on the state of the media from Democracy Now!
• Video interview from Archive of American Television
• Phil Donahue interview on The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos

Individual evidence

1. ↑ mediamatters.org
2. ↑ allyourtv.com Donahue ( Memento of the original from April 1, 2003 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
3. ^ The Hot Seat: Phil Donahue
4. ↑ TIFFReviews, 2007 edition ( Memento of the original from January 21, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed October 29, 2007. 
5. ↑ 2007 Hamptons International Film Festival Awards ( Memento of the original from October 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Hamptons International Film Festival Official Website. accessed on 10/29/07.