This Morning: From Racist to the Baby’s Daddy

Howard began this morning taking a call from a man who claimed he voted 341 times for Sanjaya on “American Idol” last night, while Howard added he got through about 10 times and Robin voted for him five times.

When the caller went on to ask Fred to repeat the name of Don Imus’ wife, Deirdre, over the guitar riff on “Smoke on the Water” by Deep Purple, Artie pointed out a number of politicians were now making negative statements about Imus, and Robin also noted Imus’ show had already lost some of its sponsors. After Artie said he thought Imus was in trouble because of the number of racist remarks he’d made in the past and therefore couldn’t insist his comment about the Rutgers women’s basketball team was a slip, Howard played a tape of Imus appearing on yesterday’s “Today Show.” In the clip, Imus referred to the host, Matt Lauer, as “Mark,” which led to Gary coming into the studio to report the controversy was a seven-minute lead story on yesterday’s “CBS Evening News.”

Gary then brought up that Larry Birkhead was named the father of Anna Nicole Smith’s baby following DNA tests, and Howard mentioned he felt Howard K. Stern ruined his life by dedicating it to Anna only to be completely left out of her will. Howard then acknowledged he was happy for Larry, explaining he must’ve known from the start that he was the father of the baby, yet still had to put up with Howard K. Stern saying he was.

Howard proceeded to turn the discussion back to Imus, with Robin recalling how he once called her the n-word while she was talking to his girlfriend when they worked at NBC together. Howard added he heard Imus use the same word when talking to an African American secretary at the station as well. Howard then played a prank call Richard and Sal made using Imus’ voice from his apology on Al Sharpton’s radio show calling a man named Sharpton.