Did Les Moonves Have a Magazine Article Pulled?



(image via ejeanlive)

The "I Hate Les Moonves Tour" continued, unabated; CBS brass, however, quickly moved in to do damage control. (Averted Gaze) They needen't have as Drudgereport notes, in all caps: "SIMON COWELL ON LENO EASILY BEATS HOWARD STERN ON LETTERMAN IN MONDAY NITE MEDIA MATCHUPS... NBC 'TONIGHT' 4.9 RATING/13 SHARE TO CBS 'LATE SHOW' 4.2 RATING/11 SHARE...'"

Comparing himself, rather quixotically, to Dan Rather, Howard Stern blasted Les Moonves, repeatedly, and on his own network.

So, last night -- flu-struck -- we watched as Howard Stern on Letterman proceded to tear Les Moonves a new, well, you know. On the show -- which had 3 segments of Stern -- Howard wore a t-shirt with an image of Les Moonves and Julie Chen partying at the Oscars entitled, ". This stunt was meant to highlight the supposedly cavalier attitude Stern believes Moonves has as the CBS Radio division is in jeopardy. David Letterman, in all fairness, did call Stern on the possibility that Moonves could, ostensibly, run a major media company and, on occasion, party it up a bit.

And this morning Howard Stern darkly hinted that Les Moonves may have used his clout to have an unfavorable article pulled from a major magazine.

According to Marksfriggin:

"Howard said he finds it funny that people like that get to run a network. He said he's going to have a story to tell soon about Les and how he had an article pulled that was supposed to run. He can't talk about it right now but he will be talking about it in a few days. He said he has the whole story about how Les had it pulled and which magazine he had it pulled from. There are some magazines out there that take a lot of advertising from CBS and that's the reason they would pull a story."

That would be a big no-no among the Chattering Classes, to whom Stern is clearly playing with this strategem. (Exaggerated cough suggesting feigned detachment) If this is indeed true, look to Romenesko's Letters for the resolution. As Howard Stern has said, repeatedly, he is playing a game of chess, and, as he describes it, he is always, "six moves ahead."

Les Moonves may also be playing his own elaborate multidimensional game of chess against Stern. As he mulls bringing in Howard Stern's radio arch-nemeses "Opie and Anthony," two young players who once modelled themselves on Howard now seek to destroy him, to terrestrial radio. This is intriguing. According to David Hinkley of the NYDailynews:

"XM Radio's Opie & Anthony said little yesterday about reports that they have signed for a syndicated CBS Radio show - even as a CBS spokeswoman reiterated, 'They have not.'
The reports had O&A potentially replacing David Lee Roth on WFNY (92.3 FM), after a week in which Roth accused his bosses of trying to dilute his show and warned that he might be fired.

"Yesterday, neither he nor O&A said much on the subject. Opie at one point said 'the rumors are true,' but didn't specify what rumors. Anthony joked about an autopsy, saying someone had died of boredom from listening to Roth."

Stern frequently jokes about Opie and Anthony on XL satellite radio having "an audience of 5," but, should they take over Howard's old slot, they could recapture much of the audience Howard lost moving off terrestrial radio.

Stay tuned.