NEWSHoward Stern 'Couldn't Give A F**k' After Ex-Staffers Claim He's 'Worse Than Ellen'
Clapping back! Howard Stern responded to the criticism former staffers made last week and is unbothered by the harsh claims.
"The New York Post wrote an article that I’m a scumbag," Stern said on Tuesday, December 15. "I swear to you, I don’t spend a minute worrying about it. I couldn’t give a f**k what people think about me. You don’t like me, you don’t wanna work for me. Go f**k yourself. I don’t care. I, at the end of the night, sleep fine."
Stern also said that in any organization there are people who are "disgruntled."
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This came after former employees told the outlet that Stern was cheap, among other things. Longtime show engineer Scott Salem detailed an incident when he asked for permission to set up a GoFundMe to help finance his late wife’s steep medical bills after he died of cancer, but Stern didn't do anything to help out.
"This has really bothered me. It’s really sad. His wife ends up dying. Howard doesn’t even go downstairs and offer Scott his condolences," John "Stuttering John" Melendez said. “Everyone falls from grace with Howard.”
Salem reportedly was moved to another floor of the studio, and Stern wasn’t happy when he was questioned about why he didn’t help out Salem with the bill.
"For the record, Scott never bad mouthed Howard to me. Prob cuz he’s afraid & classy. But I’m Unafraid & classless So I say. Shame on u Howard," Artie Lange tweeted in 2018. "Ask yourself why all of ur ex loyal servants hate u! Just sad."
Other employees said that Stern was "worse than Ellen DeGeneres," while Steve Grillo stayed on the show after his college internship was over and "from 1992 until 1997, I was just working for free still as an ‘intern.’"
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"That’s what my title was. But I was definitely a producer. The amount of responsibilities I had was through the roof," he said. "That’s slave labor. I was a slave. You can’t have people work 60 hours a week and not pay them."
Melendez, who was also an unpaid intern for the first several years he worked on the show, said that his "jaw dropped" when Stern said on air that DeGeneres should keep treating her staff poorly after allegations surfaced.
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"If anybody should own it, it should be him. All the abuse he gave us and all the bullying. You take what is given or you’re gone," Melendez said. Melendez is currently suing Sirius for using his old material without permission.
The whispers of Stern not being the best employer are nothing new. In 2009, when criticism was made about Stern by an ex-employee, he labeled them as a "backstabbing c**t" on air.
Stern recently extended his contract with SiriusXM for another five years — weeks before his previous one was due to expire and is reportedly worth over $100 million per year.
"I’ve been proven right about satellite radio over and over again," Stern said when he announced the extension. "With this contract renewal, I can’t wait to see what else I’ll be right about."
