Howard Stern gets owned

CNBC reporter Melissa Francis did a story on how Sirius stock has tanked since adding Howard and traffic to the Howard Stern Website is down 71%. Well Howard goes off on her and says shes a hack with a degree from a two bit college. Howard got owned. So funny. So right. Stern is a dope:

http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/...ers/P49501.asp

Francis earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from Harvard University where she also served as executive editor of the Harvard College Economist Magazine.

Howard's played out. You can only do the same shtick for so long before no one cares anymore.

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Originally Posted by Chainsaw_Willie

Howard's played out. You can only do the same shtick for so long before no one cares anymore.

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His response was so pathetic. A prrofanity laced tirade. People pay to hear that?

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Originally Posted by Chainsaw_Willie

Howard's played out. You can only do the same shtick for so long before no one cares anymore.

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He's done the same schtick for what 20 years? People are stupid.

I am not getting the video (audio?) from the link...help?

Yeah, economics degree from Harvard....two bit hack!!!

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Originally Posted by cj001f

He's done the same schtick for what 20 years? People are stupid.

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A lot of people have is bad taste, a few are stupid. The stupid ones are paying to hear him.

I don't have Sirius and I miss Howard. It might be more or less the same shtick, but it's still funny.

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Originally Posted by MeatPuppet

A lot of people have is bad taste, a few are stupid. The stupid ones are paying to hear him.

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Heh. Very, very true.

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Originally Posted by rideit

Yeah, economics degree from Harvard....two bit hack!!!

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i don't know her from adam, but i know that the presence of a degree from an institution is not an indicator of whether one is an idiot.

money (at least in the school i attended) covered up for much stupidity.

Good and Valid point.
Taken.


Look at our 'bumbler in chief'.


But does that make Stern right?
She seems like a straight shooter, analytically.

i grew up on the east coast, and it was always funny to hear stern saying the same stuff that he did so many years ago. it was almost comforting to tune in once a year or so -- kind of like an old friend that you have nothing recent in common with, but you can relive 'the old days' every once in a while.

stern cares about making money for stern. it's pretty simple. props to him for getting his. bottom line is that those satellite radio companies need more of a draw than one man can provide.

that's the trouble with long-term contracts. maybe sirius should have given him a one-year deal with incentives tied to subscribership or stock price....but there's no way he'd have taken that.

what happens when you sign the athlete to a 10-year deal and he stops performing after 2? same thing...

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Originally Posted by rideit

Good and Valid point.
Taken.


Look at our 'bumbler in chief'.

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i may not like him, bu ti think he's smarter than he lets on. he knows how to work it. no one gets to that level by being a complete idiot. he played the 'everyman' role to a T against some much "smarter" opponents.

now, cheney on the other hand....he's a total mastermind. evil, perhaps, but he's wicked smart.

I didn't listen to this, but I heard another report the other day that was talking about how Sirius numbers are up quite a bit since Howard moved and they attributed it largely to his move.

i think the movement of the stock price can be somewhat independent of the subscriber base.

sirius gambled that stern would bring subscribers and, presumably, the stock price would soar. (if we believe they are good corporate citizens.)

maybe what happened is the market said, "fine. subscribers will soar, but you paid too much per subscriber and we don't like your long-term prospects."

if you believe that sirius may not be a good corporate citizen, then perhaps the officers just wanted volatility so they could make cash for themselves.

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Originally Posted by MeatPuppet

A lot of people have is bad taste, a few are stupid. The stupid ones are paying to hear him.

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I think you just called me stupid ;) Each to their own, my friend

I wish I had a few bucks for every numbnuts I met from a "prestigious" ivy league school, I wouldn't be sitting in a cubicle right now. Sure there are top caliber folks from the high end schools but, I have met plenty that I wouldn't hire. I second UAN's comments, a fancy pedigree is only a single data point.

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Originally Posted by Chaka

I think you just called me stupid ;) Each to their own, my friend

I wish I had a few bucks for every numbnuts I met from a "prestigious" ivy league school, I wouldn't be sitting in a cubicle right now. Sure there are top caliber folks from the high end schools but, I have met plenty that I wouldn't hire. I second UAN's comments, a fancy pedigree is only a single data point.

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Additional data point:

"Executive editor of the Harvard College Economist Magazine"

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Originally Posted by 4matic

Additional data point:

"Executive editor of the Harvard College Economist Magazine"

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A now defunct undergraduatestudent run publication of uncertain publishing history. Is that to bolster your argument? You are another one impressed by fancy names on the CV, aren't you?

lets not forget we're talking a BA in econ....compared to Sterns BA in communications....not really Harvard Law vs. Princeton physics...

I think crazy Alice is pretty damn funny though...

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Originally Posted by cj001f

A now defunct undergraduatestudent run publication of uncertain publishing history. Is that to bolster your argument? You are another one impressed by fancy names on the CV, aren't you?

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Touche.. Although, I do think a Harvard degree is impressive.

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Originally Posted by Chaka

I think you just called me stupid ;) Each to their own, my friend

I wish I had a few bucks for every numbnuts I met from a "prestigious" ivy league school, I wouldn't be sitting in a cubicle right now. Sure there are top caliber folks from the high end schools but, I have met plenty that I wouldn't hire. I second UAN's comments, a fancy pedigree is only a single data point.

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maybe true, but the point he's making is that, regardless of the alumni you've come across, hah-vahd is hah-dly a "two-bit college."

/it's a two-bit university.

i switched from sirius to xm when stern came on.

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Originally Posted by 4matic

Touche.. Although, I do think a Harvard degree is impressive.

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why? undergrad degrees are not really an indicator of intelligence or accomplishment -- or that the individual actually did any work throughout school. there are folks who are brilliant at harvard, and there are also idiots and people who were the sixth from a family to go there. similarly, there are some brilliant people at eastern indiana silt basin college, just like there are idiots there, too. it's what you make of it.

at the school i attended for undergrad, a contingent of sons of wealthy s. american business owners had a network for cheating/getting exams. they literally did nothing and just needed the stamp that they survived the 4 years -- forget aboutthe fact that they never showed up to class for a single day.

then again, they would never have to use any of their own skills for survival or pay for their education.

maybe they are the smart ones?

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Originally Posted by steve

hah-vahd is hah-dly a "two-bit college."

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the undergrad portion is Harvard College..... /pedant

and uan - you can hardly deny a strong correlation between intelligence & accomplishment with better undergrad universities.....

I have two friends who hold Haahhhhvahhhd degrees. They both claim that the hardest part was getting accepted. Once enrolled, they claim it was nearly impossible to fail. One went on to earn a graduate degree at a fairly prestigous state school, and claimed the environment at the state school was more intense and required more self discipline...

I'm not bagging on Harvard. Sure, its a great school and its moniker on a CV can translate directly into a higher starting salary. What is my point again? Clearly I am not Harvard material. This thread is now offically extremely boring.

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Originally Posted by 4matic

Touche.. Although, I do think a Harvard degree is impressive.

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You voted for Bush.

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Originally Posted by Chaka

I think you just called me stupid ;) Each to their own, my friend

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Hehe:D

I knew there had to be somebody on here that was paying to hear Howard. Nothing personal, I'm just not a big fan of his. There are plenty of things I spend money on that have my friends shakeing their heads.

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Originally Posted by upallnight

why? undergrad degrees are not really an indicator of intelligence or accomplishment -- or that the individual actually did any work throughout school.

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I guess communications from any school; Florida State or Harvard is still communications, but there are some degrees that I do think are pretty good indicators of accomplishment and intelligence. Mechanical engineering at a top engineering school required both. There were a few students who knew how to get around both parts, but for the most part all the students that graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering from my school were both intelligent and hard-working. Freshman year weeded out the smart kids that didn't work. The following years required a good deal of intelligence to do well. You couldn't just work your ass off. Sometimes that wasn't enough.
I also know you can't get out of architecture school without working your butt off.

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Originally Posted by shmerham

I guess communications from any school; Florida State or Harvard is still communications, but there are some degrees that I do think are pretty good indicators of accomplishment and intelligence. Mechanical engineering at a top engineering school required both. There were a few students who knew how to get around both parts, but for the most part all the students that graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering from my school were both intelligent and hard-working. Freshman year weeded out the smart kids that didn't work. The following years required a good deal of intelligence to do well. You couldn't just work your ass off. Sometimes that wasn't enough.
I also know you can't get out of architecture school without working your butt off.

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good point. but a BSE is quite different from a BA. the softer skills are easier to fake; harder to fake a trade. ;)

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Originally Posted by TheDingleberry

You voted for Bush.

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Point taken but Bush to Yale. :)

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Originally Posted by cj001f

and uan - you can hardly deny a strong correlation between intelligence & accomplishment with better undergrad universities.....

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you're right, but it's not a one-to-one correlation, which is my main point.

just because one went to "a good school" does not necessarily prove one's intelligence, but there may be a higher chance of it than had they gone to a different school.

similarly, absence of a degree from one of those schools doesn't mean someone is not intelligent.

i know MANY intelligent people from "great schools", "regular" schools...and those who skipped school altogether.

so, um, you guys aren't going to post in my thread...fine ;)

anyway, my wife won't let me discuss Howard at dinner parties.

I have a friend who works in senior management at Sirius and I recently got a tour of Howard's studio - the company's stock might be a pretty good buy despite the premium that they paid for HS.

Check out the sternfannetwork message board - now that is a fucked up place...

Howard was daring in the early nineties. His schtick is boring now.

However,

MELISSA FRANCIS RULES!!

Stern got his start on the radio here in DC. He was fired after the Air Florida plane crash (the one that hit the 14th St. Bridge and went in hte Potomac in the snow and ice, where like 80 people died and Lenny Skutnick was a hero for a while for jumping in the river to help when no one else would).

Like the next day he called Air Florida reservations on the air and asked when "the next flight to the 14th St. Bridge" was. The person on the other end broke down crying, he got fired but went on to riches. I've always hated that bastard though.

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Originally Posted by shmerham

I guess communications from any school; Florida State or Harvard is still communications,

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Harvard, along with a lot of other good schools, doesn't offer communications, probably for the reason you're alluding to. I think a lot of good football players have majored in communications, though.

And Howard sort of sucks, although I haven't given him a good listen in many years (heard him briefly a few times at the end of his free radio tenure, pretty stale).
And I think some people here lost track of the fact that he referred to Harvard as a two bit hack college (according to the first post), which is a pretty moronic thing to say (or, more likely, he was just talking out of his ass).

I heard Howard talking about the interview. He did say she probably went to a two bit school. Read in a bio that she went to Harvard and then added that she must have had family connections. That is quick thinking on his part if you ask me (also explains the President and Yale). His main points were that the number of hits on the Sirius website have grown and also basing popularity on the number of web searches only is a mite silly. The two guests on the show never said that Howard was done either even though the reporter was asking leading questions to get them to say that.
As for the education arguments, smart and entertaining are not the same, I listen to Howard because he can be both at times(listen to the news and his off the cuff remarks). I know some mechanical engineers and they may be smart but the weeding out proccess does seem to also filter a sense of humor. Communications may be a cheap degree but it is no BA(BS) in recreation from Chico State with a semester internship at your favorite ski area for credit.

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Originally Posted by barney

Communications may be a cheap degree but it is no BA(BS) in recreation from Chico State with a semester internship at your favorite ski area for credit.

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From my wife, a senior consultant w/JPMorganChase, whose job has taken her all over the world: CHICO STATE REPRESENT!

I think that any school you only get as much edumication as you are willing to put into it. Was your wife a recreation major? Mine was beer drinking, wiffle ball and pick up basketball.

From what I've heard, the class work at any undergrad school is about the same. It is the admissions requirements that set the schools apart. Mech. Engineering is hard no matter where you take it, and comm is cake.

Although having to compete for grades with kids at Harvard is certainly harder than at community college.

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Originally Posted by barney

I think that any school you only get as much edumication as you are willing to put into it.

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this is absolutely true.

i may or may not have attended one of these 'ivy league' schools, and i can testify that what is amazing is the level of resources you have available to you...but whether you take advantage of the resources or not is largely dependent upon the individual.

think of your mindset at 18. having the best resources around you maybe increases the likelihood you'll take advantage of them, but there are plenty of people who didn't. i think it's more a factor of maturity than anything else.

if college were deferred 10 years (i.e., entering @ 28 instead of 18), i'm sure we'd all get a *huge* deal more out of of it.

keep in mind that some schools have prestige for their research. this often means that the undergrads are, comparatively, neglected. professors in these schools focus more on getting published & getting tenure than they do on the quality of their teaching. (sad but true. some of the most caring & best-teaching profs i had failed to get tenure; the ability to convey information to students wasn't a priority for the university.)

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Originally Posted by Dexter Rutecki

Harvard, along with a lot of other good schools, doesn't offer communications, probably for the reason you're alluding to. I think a lot of good football players have majored in communications, though.

And Howard sort of sucks, although I haven't given him a good listen in many years (heard him briefly a few times at the end of his free radio tenure, pretty stale).
And I think some people here lost track of the fact that he referred to Harvard as a two bit hack college (according to the first post), which is a pretty moronic thing to say (or, more likely, he was just talking out of his ass).

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I think you're confusing "speech communications" with communications. Speech communications is basically public speaking. Communications would cover TV/Radio/Film/Journalism schools. Harvard offers a PHD in Mass Communications since I had a professor who had one of those degrees.