NY- Howard Stern took his battle with CBS straight to the network last night – lashing out at its “jerk” chairman on “The Late Show With David Letterman.”
He walked onto the stage of the Ed Sullivan Theater and used CBS’ airtime to blast a lawsuit the entertainment giant has filed against him.
“I’m not going to let [CBS Chairman] Les Moonves do to me what he did to Dan Rather,” Stern told Letterman. “I’m not going to be bullied by him.”
CBS recently filed the suit against Stern, charging him, his agent Don Buchwald and Sirius Satellite Radio with multiple breaches of the shock jock’s contract with CBS Radio.
CBS maintains Stern had a secret deal to pump up Sirius subscriptions while he was still working for CBS, essentially stealing commercial time.
Stern appeared on the Letterman set wearing a T-shirt featuring a picture of Moonves and his wife, CBS “Early Show” anchor Julie Chen.
Letterman, who has had some beefs with Moonves himself, told Stern, “Me and Mr. Moonves, we’ve never been happier.”
But Stern told him, “I believe you are working for one of the biggest jerks on the planet.”
Stern claims CBS allowed him to broadcast for 14 months after he announced he was leaving the company.
A CBS spokesman said no effort was made to block Stern’s Letterman appearance.
“We believe his appearance was his desperate attempt to distract attention from the facts of the case,” the spokesman said.