I’ve only ever heard Howard Stern a few times while visiting my brother, so I’m not a fan or anything. You seem to be saying that he’s a hypocrite because he claimed to have a strong marriage when really he didn’t. But you also say that this is something he wrote two years before his marriage ended - and since most books take a year to publish, he probably wrote it three years before. Three years seems pretty sufficient for a relationship to change and I just googled and there doesn’t seem to be any particular indication that he cheated on her.
Oh, one more thing…what the heck was that flap with Jay Leno about? Something like, yes, Leno took a pay cut, but he wasn’t really trying to be generous or whatever? Don’t see any reason why he’d want to stir things up on that front, even if he doesn’t need the money from AGT. It’s just baffling to me.
No he is a hypocrite much more often than that. He railed constantly about people trying to silence and censor him. He fought against the FCC. He fought against other jocks. He fought against his own company. He paints himself as a champion of free speech. But behind the scenes anytime he felt threatened by any on air talent in the company he would run to Mel Karmazan behind the scenes and have a gag order put in place. He admitted to his hypocrisy on the Sean Hannity show when he was promoting his Sirius gig. I lost all respect for him then.
Jay Leno has stolen ideas from Howard’s show. Jay did this bit called “Jaywalking” where he’d have a guy on the street’s of NYC ask people basic questions to see how dumb the people are. Howard did the same thing years before and Jay refuses to admit it wasn’t his idea. Jay also “forces” some of his guests to do stunts before he will let them plug their latest projects. Another thing Howard has been doing for years. Still another rip off is Jay’s bit of using a chicken to pick the winner of football games. Again, Howard did this years before.
Jay hired Studdering John right off of Howard’s show. He never mentioned anything to Howard about wanting John to come work for him. Howard, being the nice boss that he is, told John he could go, but never will forgive Jay. And what did Jay first ask John to do for his show? Go down to the Red Carpet and ask celebrities goofy questions. Exactly what John did for the Howard Stern Show
Another thing. ANYONE that has not listened to Howard’s show on a regular basis for a long period of time, (At the very least several months of listening to most of the show- 2 or 3 hours daily) has no idea what the show is really like. I so often hear people say that they hate Howard or that the show is sexist, racist, homophobic, etc. only to admit they have NEVER listened to the show. They say they heard about it or read about from other people who also probably aren’t regular listeners. If you don’t want to listen to the show, that’s fine with Howard. He often tells people that they are forbidden to listen anymore when they call and complain about something that happened on the show.
Almost from his beginning on radio, Howard has had a huge audience. People today actually pay to hear him on Sirius. What other radio personality could bring millions of listeners to Sirius and virtually destroy XM? Siruis gave him a 500 million Dollar contract and they thought so highly of him and thought it was such a good deal for them that they renewed his contract at the end of the 5 year agreement.
I’m not saying everything that Howard does is funny or entertaining. I thought the Miss Butterface Contest was over the line, but for the most part I think he’s head and shoulders over anyone other entertainer in radio and make my work day go faster.
Stern is not being censored on TV. He’s been on TV before and knows not to curse or talk about a female’s contestant’s boobs. He is censoring himself, he’s not stupid.
NBC tried to get Howard to stop bad mouthing Jay Leno on his radio show, and Howard’s response was to tell NBC to back off and then he ripped into Jay more. NBC, (or anyone else) is not going censor Howard.
Why do you think he was depressed when he first started at AGT? I heard his radio show at the time and he was clearly happy and up beat about the whole AGT experience. He’s “lashing out” ??? When, where?
Perhaps the reason Howard hates the term “shock jock” is because when people here him called that name, they decide he is sexist and racist and they hate him - all without ever listening to his show.
Well that’s just more Stern hyperbole. He in no way invented any of that. Most of that stuff was done by Steve Allen. Stern does what he does very well. He pushed the envelope on content. But pretty much everything he did has it’s roots or was taken directly from someone else. Stern’s biggest talent is self promotion. Don’t believe the hype. And the Leno thing has more to do with the fact that Leno refused to have Stern back on. Stern pulled a stunt with having a couple of girls making out when he was on with Leno. Leno won’t have him on again. Stern got pissy. Simple as that.
It doesn’t matter if they are in direct competition or not. The interview was a few years ago so I don’t remember it all. But hannity asked him if he went to Mel Karmazin and bitched about Opie and Anthony and had Mel put a gag order on them. Stern admitted that he did. Hannity asked him if he was a hypocrite since he pretends to be an advocate of anything should go free speech. Stern admitted that he was a hypocrite. This was a show working for the same company and not competing for the same time slot. He is an advocate for free speech when it’s him talking but when it’s someone else he’s not. His personal life is off limits except in the most superficial way but he rips apart others personal lives on the air without a problem.
I went from being a huge can’t miss a show fan for decades to not being able to stand him. It helps that he is only phoning in the shows a couple times a week. As for AGT I wouldn’t be watching anyway. I don’t like those sorts of shows.
I just watched the interview on Youtube and I didn’t catch any of that. To be fair, I wasn’t listening intently the entire time, so maybe I missed something, but I didn’t catch a hint of any of that.