Dog the Bounty Hunter: Big Rumblings from the Rumor Mill

There has been no news on the Dog the Bounty Hunter. All the news lately has been of the different efforts of the Dog's fans in their quest to get the Dog the Bounty Hunter show back on the airwaves.

So, we scoured and called and wrote. What we came up with was rumblings and rumors.

But, several of the rumors we heard, we heard in more than one place--from more than one source. So we thought that we'd present some of the things we heard and let the readers decide what they thought.

Maybe some of you have heard the same thing, or have information that we don't have.

Here's some of what we heard after a day of Dog info hunting and what we think about it. We know the readers won't be shy about what they think.

[Truth-O-Meter Ratings: 0 (it's probably a lie) to 10 (bet the ranch)]

* The Dog's been laying low.
Not much of a rumor here. It's a fact. Duane "Dog" Chapman has been out of the spotlight for several weeks now.

This is not very surprising, either. In Dog's case, "No News is Good News" right now.
[Truth-O-Meter Rating: 10.0]

* The Dog will be back in the public eye soon..
Again, this bit of information is easy to believe. The Dog won't stay hidden forever and has got to surface again sometime.

How soon is soon?

For many fans of the Bounty Hunter, it can't be soon enough. One of the common themes, in both comments left at this site and emails we've received, is that people feel a hole has developed in their regular TV viewing habits without their weekly 'dose of Dog'.
[Truth-O-Meter Rating: 8.5]

* The 'Dog the Bounty Hunter' show will not in the future and may never return to the airwaves.
We don't believe this. We don't believe anything in the world of TV, driven as it is by ratings, is set in stone. Duane Chapman's show was popular and a mainstay in the A & E Network's line-up.

This was one rumor we heard only one time. And we don't even like the guy who said it.
[Truth-O-Meter Rating: 3.0]

* There has been a "reaching out" to Dog by Afro-American groups.
This one we can believe. From the amount of email and comments we've received from ordinary black folk, there is a great rolling of eyes about what Dog said: but no acrimony, and certainly no hatred.

A great majority of our mail begins, "I'm non-Caucasian and you can tell that Dog is not a racist. He shouldn't have said what he said, but he didn't say it in anger." Or some variation of those thoughts.

If memory serves, there was no outcry against Dog and what was said during his private cellphone conversation by Black America.

Make no mistake: they were not happy, but judging from what we read, they shrugged their shoulders and shook their head at a man using ill-considered bad language.

The outcry came from certain White Americans eager to throw another person under the Political Correctness bus. This outcry came from the same quarters that attempts to stifle speech on college campuses, shout down disagreeable opinions and speakers and regulate Internet bloggers.

To them, this had nothing to do with Dog the Bounty Hunter; many of them wouldn't know Dog Chapman from a carburetor. Duane Chapman was only a means to an end.

Muzzling the Dog was their way of flexing their PC muscles.

Thankfully, those people are a small, if noisy, segment of the American population.

This rumor has substance because: Black or White, no one likes to see a person get railroaded. And Duane Chapman got railroaded.
[Truth-O-Meter Rating: 7.5]

* Duane Chapman hasn't so much as swore in the last month.
As unbelievable as this might be when first heard, we heard this from multiple sources. Dog is trying hard to clean up his whole language act.

We smiled the first time we heard this; our eyes opened wide, the second time; but the third time, well, what could we say?

As one source told us, "the Dog causing hurt and heartache among some of his fans really hit home with him on the need to clean up his language. He kept saying he was going to clean it up, but I'd heard that before."

"But this time--he accepted the challenge. I'm not saying he won't ever slip up ever again--he's human--but I haven't heard him swear in over three weeks."

One source even told us the Dog's swear-free and said "I swear it!"

After hearing this from three different people, we tend to believe it: after all, if it wasn't true, the National Enquirer would have had it on their front page by now.
[Truth-O-Meter Rating: 8.0]

* The Dog and Beth are getting a divorce over this whole mess.
I think this guy got Dog confused with another TV show star.
[Truth-O-Meter Rating: 2.0]

So that's it. After a whole day spent on the phone, this is what we dug up.

There was a few other things, but we're going to be doing some more checking on those items over the weekend.

Has anyone heard any of these? Does anyone have any additional information to offer? We'd like to know!

In the meantime, one source had this to pass on to Dog's fans: "Keep your chin up and your ears open."

by Mondoreb

[NOTE: We'll have a follow-up to our "Bring Back Dog" Petition to A & Network in the next 48-60 hours.]

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