Howard Stern Blasts Les Moonves as a ‘Shark’ With ‘No Humanity’
Howard Stern blasted Leslie Moonves throughout his radio show Monday, recalling his run-ins with the CBS chief and gloating over the current investigation into him for alleged sexual harassment.
“I know his true nature. He’s a shark,” Stern said on his Sirius radio show, adding that Moonves “had no humanity behind those shark eyes.”
Stern, who went through a bitter legal wrangle with former employer CBS Radio, was gleeful over the investigation underway into Moonves for alleged sexual misconduct, following an expose in The New Yorker. Stern replayed a segment from a show in 2001 in which he predicted that Moonves would get his comeuppance.
“Les is such a snake. He’s a snake in the grass….I hate him. I always have,” Stern said in the old segment. “He’s just a friggin’ snake in the grass….Big president of CBS, he’ll fall.”
In his usual profanity-laced style, Stern continued to criticize Moonves in his show Monday, calling him a “cold barracuda” who “tried to wreck me for no…reason.” CBS Radio sued the shock jock for $500 million in 2006, alleging that he violated his contract by promoting his move to Sirius while still doing his CBS radio show and that he “misappropriated millions of dollars’ worth of CBS Radio air time for his own financial benefit,” the lawsuit said.
During that legal battle, Stern appeared on David Letterman’s talk show wearing a T-shirt with a picture of Moonves’ face and the words “I Hate Les Moonves.” The two sides eventually reached a settlement that saw Sirius pay CBS Radio $2 million for the rights to 20 years of Stern’s shows on the terrestrial radio network.
“I didn’t do jack…to Les Moonves except make this guy money,” Stern said Monday. “It was only because I fought back like a…dirty ass that things worked out in my favor.”
Stern also criticized Moonves’ wife, TV talk show host Julie Chen, for supporting her husband while denigrating the women who have brought accusations against him.
“Julie should’ve said, ‘Listen, I’m a woman. Listen it’s obviously awkward. I’m married to Les Moonves, but I’m not going to come on the air and degrade what these women are saying,” Stern said. But Chen “blew off the whole discussion.”
Related: CBS Entertainment Exec Defends Network Amid Moonves Allegations
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