Howard Stern fans everywhere have consistently complained about how Stern blatantly dodges the Artie Lange topic. Since Lange’s suicide attempt, Stern suspiciously changes the subject every time Lange’s name is mentioned, which outrages fans. On today’s Show, Stern finally addressed the elephant in the room (no pun in intended). He said that he remembers how he felt when he first heard about Lange, and he “did a lot of self examination” about whether he contributed to his demise. He therefore tries to “be extremely careful” when mentioning Lange. Though Stern didn’t blatantly say this, I think he takes a lot of responsibility for Lange, because he continued to employ him and make fun of him at the height of his drug abuse. Stern still insists that he had no idea Artie was using drugs, but I’m not sure I believe it. First, Artie admitted to using drugs, and though he said he was getting clean, Stern always questioned his sobriety on the air. The staff even called Stern a hypocrite for letting Artie show up late or not at all, while holding the rest of the staff to a higher standard. In fact, Norm MacDonald called Stern an enabler on the air, and Stern said he liked Artie and wouldn’t fire him over his drug abuse. Artie ultimately left the show because Sirius kicked him out — not Stern. They basically forced Stern’s hand. I’m not blaming Stern, though I do think he should have fired Artie long before Sirius did.
Is it really an employer’s job to cobble together an intervention for an employee? Say Stern had fired him. Then you would have had a more broke, more despondent, still very addicted Artie Lange with a lot more time on his hands. Would that have helped Lange?
Isn’t the entire idea of beating addiction that you have to hit bottom
before you start to get help? The problem with celebrities is that there
are so many enablers in their lives they never get the chance to hit
bottom. They just die instead. I think Stern enabled him. He continued to
give him a paycheck, which he spent on drugs. I mean Stern’s not a bad guy,
but that doesn’t change the fact that he made the wrong choice.
No, the idea that people have to hit bottom to recover from addiction is a contrivance.
See the book recommended in this article: http://philalawyer.net/2010/12/twelve-days-of-christmas/