For years, Howard Stern has puffed out his chest and defiantly claimed that he feared no one in the radio business, and would openly challenge anyone on the air because he believed in free speech. Due to his fining by the FCC on numerous occasions, no one really gave it any thought.

Well, almost no one.

Opie and Anthony have been saying, for years, that Howard Stern went to Mel Karmazin while they were at Infinity in New York, and had them gagged so that discussing him at all was off limits. Howard has been deflecting this claim for years, and his mindless zombie fans have been bitching that Howard wouldn’t do something like that because he isn’t afraid of two “copycats” like Opie and Anthony.

Crow is a dish best served warm.

After years of denying it, Sean Hannity confronted Howard with this information, and he defiantly admitted, not only that he did it, but that he didn’t care about free speech, just his free speech.

In other words, all his on-air bravado about taking anyone on and fearing no one was bullshit because the second he caught wind that someone else was doing well in New York City (O&A were #1 in afternoon drive in NYC, Philly, and Boston and other cities I can’t remember), he had to make sure they couldn’t make fun of him or even mention him. Instead of openly taking them on like a man, he snuck behind the scenes to the boss, gagged them, and then denied it for years.

The sad part about this audio and this revelation is that Opie and Anthony fans have known it for years. Howard is not the honest and fearless man he claims to be, no is he the champion for free speech that people have painted him as. He’s nothing but a raging hypocrite with a tired shtick who doesn’t have the balls to take on anyone that’s actually successful.

Consider who he has taken on publicly over the years… Bubba the Love Sponge (who’s now his butt-buddy over at the little doggy company) and Mancow (the one-market wonder). Oh, and Mark and Bryan. Whoopdeedoo. He wouldn’t take on anyone with a decent listening audience publicly because he just hasn’t got it in him.

I’m not expecting this story to change much as far as people’s opinion of Howard. Most of his zombies are probably already hard at work coming up with excuses, rationalizations, just like they did after O&A let slip that they were gagged by the station.

Keep chuggin, Howie. It’s okay. I’m sure Sirius is thrilled that their stock has plopped in half since you signed your deal in October of 2004. That $700 million was certainly money well-spent.

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