Show Rundown: June 03, 2005
TV Time
Bad Sam
Bad Sam
Howard said that Sam Rubin was calling in today to apologize for reporting a bogus story about Howard on TV.
The other day the NY Post falsely reported that Howard had an editor at FHM fired for comments he made about Beth Ostrosky and saying that she was only on the cover of the magazine because she’s Howard’s girlfriend. At the time Howard said on the air that he and Beth both agreed with that statement but he thought the guy who said it was being pretty thoughtless and made Beth look dopey.
The next day he was fired from FHM and the Post said that was because of Howard. Howard said that was absolutely not the case and he never wanted the guy fired. He never called the magazine and ask that they fire the guy nor did he call for the guy’s firing on the air. And in the Post, in their last paragraph, they even wrote that FHM denied that Howard had anything to do with his firing. But later that same day Sam Rubin did the report on WGN in Chicago which made it sound even worse than the Post did. He said that Howard made the call himself and everyone in the TV studio groaned, saying the “truth must hurt” for Howard.
Sam also never mentioned that FHM denied the story. Howard was really pissed about that because people take news like that seriously and it’s not true. He thought it was pretty lazy and irresponsible of Sam to, on a news show, just read someone else’s story. So Howard had a pretty big bone to pick with Sam and couldn’t wait to talk to him.
Sorry Sam
To his credit, Sam Rubin did call in to argue his case with Howard. He started off by saying he’s a really big fan of the show and has publicly supported it during all the FCC troubles.
He also thought that all the things Howard had done with the Pat O’Brien voice mails Howard were brilliant. Howard explained to Sam that the original NY Post report about this was embarrassing to him because he hates people who do the kind of things they were accusing him of doing.
Howard said getting a guy fired out of spite like that is something Don Imus would do and represents everything Howard hates about certain people. Howard told Sam that he swears on the life of his kids that he never picked up the phone, called FHM, and demanded that the editor be fired.
Sam said he really appreciated this call because it put everything out on the table and now he’s going to go back on his show and report all of this. Howard thanked Sam for at least calling in, something Richard Johnson from the Post has yet to do.