Donahue was fired in 2003 for airing antiwar voices when most of the corporate media was cheerleading the drive for war.
The pioneering TV host Phil Donahue, who revolutionized daytime television by tackling major social and political issues in front of a studio audience, has died at the age of 88. The Phil Donahue Show, later renamed Donahue, ran from the 1960s through to 1996, and the affable host won 20 Emmy Awards and received a Peabody Award throughout his career. In 2003, Donahue was fired from his primetime MSNBC talk show for airing antiwar voices during the run-up to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, when most of the corporate media was cheerleading the Bush administration’s drive for war. Donahue spoke with Democracy Now! about his firing in 2013, describing it as a decision “from far above” in the network. “They were terrified of the antiwar voice,” he said. Donahue is survived by his wife Marlo Thomas, his four children and his grandchildren.TRANSCRIPT
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And in breaking news, the pioneering TV host Phil Donahue has died at the age of 88. The Phil Donahue Show, later renamed Donahue, ran from the 1960s through to 1996 and tackled major social and political issues, including women’s rights, child abuse in the Catholic Church, prisons and racism. Among his notable interview subjects was Nelson Mandela, whom he spoke with shortly after his release from a South African prison in 1990.
