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LES MUNVES HAS A DICK UP HIS ASS
LAWSUIT FILED AGAINST KING OF ALL MEDIA...
BULLSHIT LAWSUIT >
Stern to CBS: 'I am not going to be bullied'
By Peter Johnson, USA TODAY
Just as Howard Stern was settling into his new gig at Sirius Satellite Radio — and falling off most media radar screens — a lawsuit by former employer CBS has put radio's bad boy back squarely in the public eye and in a position he relishes: the underdog.
Howard Stern is being sued by his old employer for plugging his new one.
By Robert Deutsch, USA TODAY
In an interview Thursday with USA TODAY, Stern said he plans to keep up his public rant against CBS and his old boss, CBS chief Leslie Moonves, just as he did for years with the Federal Communications Commission. The agency repeatedly sanctioned him for indecency and ultimately drove him from terrestrial to uncensored satellite radio.
Stern said his lawyers are preparing a response to CBS' accusations. But he wouldn't talk about whether he and his agent, Don Buchwald, who also is named in the suit, might countersue CBS.
"This is about a huge corporation having sour grapes against someone who used to work for them, and bullying and intimidation by Les Moonves — and I am not going to be bullied," Stern said. The suit was filed this week.
"I'd say to Katie Couric (the NBC Today star whom CBS is eyeing for The CBS Evening News), you'd better check out everything you sign and everything you do. Watch your butt. I'm not kidding."
In a statement to USA TODAY, CBS said Thursday, "This is a very serious matter, and we intend to pursue it not in the media but in the courts. We expect to prevail."
In its lawsuit, the network charged that in his last 14 months at CBS Radio (formerly Infinity), Stern continued to plug Sirius on the air — while he hid a clause in his Sirius contract that accelerated subscriber incentives which were worth more than $173 million as of Wednesday. Those stock options, which Stern has yet to exercise, were announced in January.
But Stern said everything involving his deal with Sirius was filed publicly, known to CBS and reported in the media, and that the lawsuit is to detract from how poorly CBS Radio, and the DJs who replaced Stern, have been performing since he left in January.
"I am the most honest person on the air and the most honest business person," Stern said. "I wouldn't take a penny that I didn't deserve — from anyone."
Michael Harrison of Talkers magazine said CBS faces a tough battle against Stern.
"He wins in the court of public opinion because he operates as an individual who, the more colorful and the more media attention he gets, the more he benefits. This is fraught with risk for CBS, and it further enhances Stern's ability to hurt them by virtue of the high profile they have given the case."
Stern "thrives on controversy, whereas Moonves and CBS are more restrained by public reaction because they are a public corporation," Harrison said. "If this was between Sirius and CBS it would be a different story, but because it's an individual whose sole stock in trade is being the show, he definitely has the advantage."
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