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Michael Savage (commentator)
BiographyMichael Alan Weiner was born to a Russian Jewish family [1] in the borough of The Bronx in New York City. He received a Ph.D. in Nutrition and Epidemiology from U.C. Berkeley, and has a background in alternative medicine. He claims to have been a liberal at one time. Weiner was an associate of beat poet Allen Ginsberg, offering to arrange readings for Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti in 1972. [2] Some of his letters to Ginsberg are held in Ginsberg's archives. [3] In 1996 he applied to be a dean at UC Berkeley's School of Journalism. When he was not granted an interview, due to lack of qualifications — less than two years of experience in radio, with a Ph.D. in epidemiology and nutrition science — Savage filed a discrimination lawsuit that was eventually dismissed. The position instead went to China scholar Orville Schell . Radio
On January 17, 2000 he started doing an additional two hours of radio which was broadcast nationally. For the next eight months, Savage would spend a total of five hours a day just talking. His national experiment was a success, and on September 21, 2000, he stopped doing separate shows, beginning a full three-hour national show. After just one year, he was in 150 markets. By 2003, he was in over 200 markets and is currently the number 3 radio host in the world. In June 2003, he had a salary dispute with his flagship station KSFO who refused to renegotiate his contract. He was off the air for three weeks. On July 1, 2003 he began his show on a different station: KNEW in San Francisco. Since that dispute, he speaks badly of KSFO—and of "pretty boy" Sean Hannity, whose show replaced his on the station. MSNBCSavage was hired by MSNBC to do a one-hour show starting March 8, 2003. On July 7, a mere four months later, he was fired for making anti-gay remarks in response to a caller, later identified as prank caller "East Coast Bob," posing as a gay man. Savage said to the caller: "you should only get AIDS and die, you pig [...] go eat a sausage and choke on it," also referring to the man as a "sodomite," "bum," and a "piece of garbage." [4] Gay rights group GLAAD applauded the decision to fire him. Savage responded that he did not realize he was on the air when he made the comments and that he did not intend any offense to homosexuals but was merely angry at the caller, who had been, according to Savage, making "vicious personal attacks" on him (the caller had ridiculed Savage's teeth). He apologized for any "pain" his comments may have brought to anyone. Before the show was canceled MSNBC was replaying his show during primetime hours Saturday night; many believe the show would not have been canceled if it were not for his comments. Many of Savage's fans believe that MSNBC was simply looking for an excuse to cancel the program due to pressure from special interest groups. Savage's show was growing to be more popular than Bill O'Reilly's No Spin Zone on FOX PoliticsSavage claims to have coined the phrase "compassionate conservative" in 1994, though conservative scholar Marvin Olasky has also been credited with the idea. The slogan became a pillar of George W. Bush's election campaign in 2000. Savage, however, frequently accuses the national political parties of having identical philosophies and no real differences, and he uses the coined term Republicrat to refer to them. Savage also claims to have coined the phrase Islamofascism although many credit that phrase to Christopher Hitchens. [5] Savage's radio program, The Savage Nation , often returns to the subject of closing U.S. borders to illegal immigrants as a way of solidifying American identity . He advocates stronger immigration controls and the reassertion of English as the official language of the United States. His mantra is "Borders, Language, and Culture". He believes that in order for the United States of America to survive as a nation, its citizens need to maintain the country's borders, have English as a uniting language, and promote traditional American culture. His political opponents, however, accuse him of racism, homophobia, and bigotry (including Anti-semitism) due to his controversial statements on Muslims, gays, feminists and illegal immigrants (His opponents sometimes fail to note he is the son of Russian immigrants, and Jewish. However, many opponents, such as Sam Seder of the Majority Report , who is also Jewish, do take this into account.). Recently, Savage has been extremely critical of his fellow conservative talk show hosts, in particular Rush Limbaugh, whom he has called "Hush Bimbo", for what he views as their blind support of the Republican Party and President George W. Bush. He has also attacked Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly (whom Savage has dubbed the "Leprechaun"), as well as William Bennett, as hypocrites and phony conservatives for advocating morality while living what he views as immoral lives. Savage has also broken from traditional conservatives by showing strong support for the environmental and animal rights movements, and calling any right-winger who opposes such movements "ignorant" and "knee-jerk" conservatives. WritingsIn 1980 Michael Weiner saw the publication of Weiner's Herbal: The Guide to Herb Medicine, which advocates the therapeutic use of marijuana [6]. He has authored a number of other books on various herbal medicine topics under this name. More recently, Savage's books are political in nature and published by WND Books, a partnership between the conservative website WorldNetDaily and Thomas Nelson, a publisher of Christian books. In January 2003 Weiner published The Savage Nation: Saving America from the Liberal Assault on Our Borders, Language and Culture, his first book under the pseudonym Michael Savage. The book quickly reached the top of the New York Times bestseller list earning Savage, as noted above, a commentary show on MSNBC. The controversial book takes on the "liberal media," the dominating culture of "she-ocracy," gays, and liberals. Critics have faulted Savage for making a number of assertions in the book that he often fails to substantiate with facts or resources. Exacerbating this condition is the fact that the book itself has no index. The book is divided into two to four page sections, many of which are near-exact replicas to columns he published on the conservative site NewsMax.com. In January 2004 Savage published his second political book, The Enemy Within: Saving America from the Liberal Assault on Our Schools, Faith, and Military. As of 2005, Savage is currently working on a new book titled Liberalism is a Mental Disorder to be released on April 12, 2005. QuotesOn America:
On MSNBC which led to his firing:
On Liberals (whom Savage dysphemismally calls "Red Diaper Doper Babies"):
On Terri Schiavo:
On Al Gore:
On Women:
On Islamic terrorists:
On Minorities and Immigrants:
On gays
On torture in Iraq:
On Hillary Clinton:
On the ACLU:
On the tsunami in the Indian Ocean:
TriviaThe current opening theme to Savage's radio show is "Looks That Kill" by Mötley Crüe; and "The Shortest Straw" and "Master of Puppets" by Metallica. At times it has been "Du Hast" by Rammstein. Interestingly, most of the bands who've been featured in the bumper music are politically opposed to Savage (being either socialist or liberal), although Metallica's Kirk Hammett has called into the show saying "We support what you're doing." External links
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