It was clearly a "bit," Pollak was the "good guy" and Howard was the "bad guy." I felt like Howard was trying to emphasize his point with some stronger words and tone, but I think it (the bit) was pretty see-through.

I hope he doesn't have to come out and apologize for an "argument" that he made yesterday because he probably doesn't care one way or another, IMO.

I bet they had a pre-show meeting where they discussed who would take which side on each of those issues. That easily could've been Pollak making that argument yesterday because a producer wanted it that way.