Richard Metzger

For several years Metzger hosted a talk show, The Infinity Factory, broadcast on Manhattan public-access television cable TV and distributed online through Pseudo.com. It was similar in tone and appeal to Art Bell and George Noory's paranormal Coast to Coast AM radio show, on which Metzger had also been a guest. Many of the interview subjects on this show would go on to be features in the Channel 4 series.

Metzger was the host of the TV show Disinformation, which aired for two seasons (2000 and 2001) on Channel 4 in the UK as part of their late night "4Later" programming block.Gibb, Eddie. [https://archive.today/20130131144406/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/smgpubs/access/69287414.html?dids=69287414:69287414&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Jan+09,+2000&author=Eddie+Gibb&pub=Sunday+Herald&desc=The+lies+are+out+there+if+you+want+to+believe+them&pqatl=google The lies are out there if you want to believe them], The Herald (Glasgow), Retrieved December 8, 2010Lipton, Shana Ting. [https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2004-jan-29-wk-staya29-story.html Willing to do odd jobs; Richard Metzger's British TV show on the bizarre branches into other media.], Los Angeles Times, Retrieved December 8, 2010 ("Metzger's stock line at the beginning of each episode: 'If you don't wonder if we made this stuff up, we're not doing our job right.'")

According to interviews, Metzger was told just twelve days prior to the first specials' air-date that he would have to cut 50% of the material from the show in order to pass the USA Network's corporate lawyers' scrutiny. Those four shows have subsequently been released on a DVD with a second bonus disc presenting highlights of The DisinfoCon, a 12-hour event featuring shock rocker Marilyn Manson via pre-Skype video chat, underground filmmaker Kenneth Anger, painter Joe Coleman, Douglas Rushkoff, Mark Pesce, Grant Morrison, Robert Anton Wilson, and others.

Metzger created the "Disinformation" website in 1996,Strausbaugh, John (30 July 2002). [http://www.nypress.com/article-6179-richard-metzgers-disinformation.html Richard Metzger's Disinformation], New York Press, Retrieved December 8, 2010Pelline, Jeff. (13 September 1996). [https://news.cnet.com/A-digital-guide-to-the-underground/2100-1023_3-227980.html A digital guide to the underground], CNET Networks, Retrieved December 8, 2010 and was able to regain control of the intellectual property rights and a $1.2 million investment by the site's original backer, cable giant TCI (now AT&T Broadband) after TCI CEO John Malone had demanded funds be cut off when news of Metzger's "anarchist bullshit" reached him.{{cite web|last=Farren|first=Mick|title=Los Angeles is home to the most dangerous publishers in America. Feral House and Disinformation spec |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090709163610/http://www.lacitybeat.com/cms/story/detail/?id=812&IssueNum=44|archive-date=2009-07-09|url-status=usurped|url=http://www.lacitybeat.com/cms/story/detail/?id=812&IssueNum=44|publisher=L. A. City Beat|accessdate=15 December 2020|date=4 August 2004}} In 1997 he co-founded The Disinformation Company, which joined with Avenue A/Razorfish, and became part of the RSUB Network until 2001.

Metzger has edited two books. Disinformation: The Interviews (2002) features unedited interviews with several of the characters and thinkers who were guests on the series such as Douglas Rushkoff, Joe Coleman, Paul Laffoley, Grant Morrison, Kembra Pfahler, Genesis P-Orridge, and Howard Bloom.{{cite book|last=Metzger|first=Richard|title=Disinformation: the interviews|year=2002|publisher=The Disinformation Company|isbn=0-9713942-1-0|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/disinformationin0000metz}} The Book of Lies: The Disinformation Guide to Magick and the Occult (2003) is an anthology of occult essays.{{cite book|title=Book of Lies: The Disinformation Guide to Magick and the Occult|year=2008|publisher=The Disinformation Company|isbn=978-0-9713942-7-8|pages=352|author=Richard Metzger}}

According to a footnote in Disinformation: The Interviews, Metzger is the uncredited male-voice interviewing Japanese pop singer Maki Nomiya of Pizzicato 5 on their song "This Year's Girl #2" (Matador Records EP CD: "5 x 5"). Metzger has also directed and produced several music videos in the 1980s for such New York "underground" luminaries as Bongwater(6 October 2008). [http://boingboing.net/2008/10/06/guestblogger-richard.html Guestblogger: Richard Metzger], Boing Boing, Retrieved December 8, 2010 (their animated "Power of Pussy"), John Sex and others.

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• [https://dangerousminds.net Dangerous Minds]
• {{webarchive |title=disinformation|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180827125552/http://www.disinfo.com/ |date=27 August 2018}}

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Category:Living people

Category:1965 births

Category:Writers from Wheeling, West Virginia