Open Letter to Howard Stern.
January 11, 2010
First let me make something very clear. I am a HUGE Howard Stern Fan. Not a typical huge Howard fan…..I am someone who listens to the show every day, all the way through, multiple times per day. I love everyone on the show and do not know how I will spend my days once he retires. That being said, I am more than perturbed as to how the show is treating Artie Lange.
In case you weren’t aware, it was recently revealed that Mister Lange tried to commit suicide by stabbing himself 9 times, only to be found by his poor mother and saved. While I personally find it hard to feel sorry for someone so selfish and stubborn to refuse help, only to take the easy way out and harm all those around him. I understand that this is how our society operates and I can’t criticize anyone for feeling this way, especially people close to him. My problem is with you Howard!
For the first time in 20 plus years of listening and mostly agreeing with Howard (besides his borderline sociopathic view on what constitutes chubbiness), I cannot be more enraged by his view that “Artie’s Suicide attempt is a Private Family Matter”
“A Family Matter!?!?!” Really Howard?!?!? Do you not realize that when you’re chosen line of work is entertainment, you are in essence selling your privacy? Artie has spent most of his professional life (not including his year as a long shore man) trying to promote himself. Getting his name into people’s heads and into people’s homes. He has opened up about his personal problems, not because he had to, but because he wanted to. (and it bought him a shore house, a bunch of jet skis that he uses as exercise, oh and a stunning girlfriend) He has made a healthy living by selling his personal life to his fans (Too Fat to Fish anyone?). God knows that his prior standup career never came close to having such a payoff. My point is that Artie Lange, just like Howard Stern is a PRODUCT not a PERSON. We pay for this product and we have a right to know what is keeping this product from our ears. What you guys do in your personal time is your business…….unless it has something to do with the product I pay for with my very hard earned money, but even more valuable time!
What I am getting at is that no matter how serious a suicide attempt is, it is NOT a private matter. It is a matter that the people who pay your salary need to be made privy to! Not because our curiosity needs to be sated, but because we have the right to know what is the status the product we are paying for and not receiving.
I find it incredibly narcissistic and reprehensible for someone who sells a product then decides that they do not want to tell their customers and admirers why the product is no longer available. I love hearing entertainers who spend their lives trying to become famous so that they become rich; Selling their freedom and privacy on a daily basis; Hiring agents and publicists and assistants to make sure their “image” is spread out to as many people as possible…..only to one day decide “no I want everything I gave up back.” Give me my privacy back!!
Sorry guys you cant have your privacy back. I don’t think the “maggot” who leaked this info was doing anything wrong. If Artie wanted “family privacy” he should have stayed on the docks.
Feel better baby gorilla, but stop holding the greatest show of all time hostage!
January 11, 2010 at 5:40 pm
You really want to hear more about a suicide attempt!?!? That is a morbid fascination that I am unable to understand no matter how much you love the Howard Stern Show.
I understand Howard’s fans avidly consume any and all information about all the people that work on the show, but this guy tried to commit suicide. Are you expecting him to make fun of artie’s attempt? Debate the reasons for it? Honestly, I think that would be extremely insensitive. Now, if Artie gets better and goes on the show and wishes to discuss it, by all means. I’m sorry, but the line does need to be drawn somewhere and I think this is a valid place to draw it.
Separately, in your first post where you blame the media on the recession is a very simplistic view. Granted they did not improve the situation by heigtening people’s fears, the economy is affected by a set of complex forces. In this case, people thought housing would appreciate indefinitely, over-borrowed, couldn’t repay mortgages, mortgage underwriters went under and then all of the mortgage backed securities became worthless. This was not created by the media, but stupidity of consumers living beyond their means. In a way that triggered a dominoe effect across financial markets globally.
January 11, 2010 at 6:13 pm
The first part first: You misunderstood what i meant. I do not want or need them to discuss suicide on the show. My point was that Artie was gone for an entire Month due to this “mysterious issue” it turned out to be a suicide attempt. They tried to keep it a secret…fine. My issue is that once it broke Howard got so angry that it broke. And this is my issue. Artie has given up his privacy by becoming famous and we have a right to know why he hasn’t been on the show for over a month…..and furthermore, Howard has no right to expect this to be kept as a “family secret”
My issues is with Howards double standard not the witholding of information.
January 11, 2010 at 6:19 pm
Now your second point. I agree with some of what you say….but to infer that the entire global economy was thrown into an unprecedented recession simply because a bunch of people defaulted on their mortgages is very short sighted. yes people where living beyond their means and in this I feel that the consumer is much more to blame for this than big business.
The problem is that…a minor/medium real estate correction (which happens once a decade) was turned into a major recession/depression because of all the fear mongering the media perpetuated. No the media did not cause Lehman Brothers to fail, mortgage backed securities certainly helped…..but please dont tell me that one public company failing no matter how big, should signal the fall of all world markets in the span of two months!
If fear didnt sell so well this would have been no worse than the dotcom bust in 2001.