Is Howard Stern Censoring The Artie Lange Resignation?
Not to beat a dead horse, but the whole Artie Lange flare-up this morning continues.
Today Sirius played the Howard Stern Show from April 7 all day, instead of this morning's live show featuring co-host Artie Lange having a major meltdown, including a physical attack, after his assistant Teddy pissed him off. After listening to the audio of the fight I can see why Howard might censor this.
Artie is unhinged, Artie needs help. I still, after listening to this nasty, angry, filthy, dismissive and condescending diatribe, still like Artie. You know why? Because it's not Artie attacking Teddy, it's Artie's addiction, depression, anxiety and self-loathing attacking Teddy. Teddy for his part is a mooch, a leech and exceptionally unqualified to handle a job dealing with creative types who have emotional problems. Few people are. But Teddy shouldn't be borrowing money from his boss, seriously, that's really low class and tacky. Artie may be difficult to work for, but he's obviously a generous guy. Artie also seems to be having trouble distancing himself from his blue-collar beginnings and seems to think he has to surround himself by low-rent pieces of crap who are always hitting him up for dough. He's like the Britney Spears of radio.
Artie shouldn't have attacked Teddy physically, that was crossing a line, but Teddy is an ass for constantly sucking off of Artie.
Bottom line, Artie needs anger management, rehab, and to re-evaluate his priorities in this business. Howard needs to decide if having someone that volatile on his show is worth the risk. Robin needs to stop dropping the JC bombs, though I love her and she's the only sane person on the show. Fred get's major props for flying under the radar for years, YEARS I TELL YOU.
On some level, this is great radio because it's REAL. And in this world of fake "reality" TV the reality of how we really interact with one another is refreshing. Ultimately, Howard pulled this show because he cares about Artie and while it goes against all he believes in, in the end, Howard does what Howard wants. This is why Howard for years stated he would never get married again, including never marrying Beth O., yet, what's Howard doing? Marrying Beth. Why? Because he loves her and that means more to him than looking like a hypocrite. For this, Howard gets my respect.
