FAIR ACTION ALERT:
GE, Microsoft Bring Bigotry to Life
Hate-talk host Michael Savage hired by MSNBC
http://www.fair.org/activism/msnbc-savage.html
February 12, 2003
The latest hire by the cable news network MSNBC– co-owned by General Electric/NBC and Microsoft– is Michael Savage, a radio talk show host noted for his unabashed bigotry. Savage is scheduled to have his own weekly one-hour show on MSNBC beginning in March.
Savage routinely refers to non-white countries as "turd world nations" and charges that the U.S. "is being taken over by the freaks, the cripples, the perverts and the mental defectives" (San Francisco Bay Guardian, 9/20/00). In a recent broadcast he justified ethnic slurs as a national security tool: "We need racist stereotypes right now of our enemy in order to encourage our warriors to kill the enemy," he explained (San Francisco Chronicle, 2/6/03).
"Turd world" immigrants are a frequent target of Savage's anger: "You open the door to them, and the next thing you know, they are defecating on your country and breeding out of control" (Oregonian, 4/24/02).
At times Savage's arguments echo the conspiratorial scapegoating of the white supremacist movement: "With the [Latino] population that has emerged, since they breed like rabbits, in many cases the whites will become a minority in their own nation… The white people don't breed as often for whatever reason. I guess many homosexuals are involved. That is also part of the grand plan, to push homosexuality to cut down on the white race" (San Francisco Bay Guardian, 9/20/00).
Commenting on the "Million Mom March" in favor of gun control (which he dubbed the "Million Dyke March"), he dismissed organizers' reference to American children killed by guns (5/15/00): "They're not kids, they're ghetto slime… they're the same kids that are in Sierra Leone toting AK47s."
Misogyny and homophobia are staples of Savage's show as well as racism. In his book Savage Nation, he argues that Sen. Hillary Clinton and Supreme Court justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sandra Day O'Connor have "feminized and homosexualized much of America, to the point where the nation has become passive, receptive and masochistic."
Discussing student volunteers distributing food to the homeless in San Francisco, Savage declared that "the girls from Branson [school] can go in and maybe get raped… because they seem to like the excitement of it. There's always the thrill and possibility they'll be raped in a dumpster while giving out a turkey sandwich" (San Francisco Bay Guardian, 9/20/00).
In announcing the hire, MSNBC president Erik Sorenson described Savage as "brash, passionate and smart," and promised that he would provide "compelling opinion and analysis with an edge."
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From the Minority Media and Telecom Council:
AN AGGREGATION OF WHITE SUPREMACY IN THE PAPER TRAIL OF MICHAEL SAVAGE
http://www.mmtconline.org
* On the day before Yom Kippur in 1999, Savage played tapes of Adolf Hitler's speeches over German military music.
* Savage suggested that homeless people are "living rats" who should be run off the streets and put in state hospitals.
* Referring to Asians as "little soy eaters" and Chinese people "little devils," Savage called for dropping nuclear weapons on China and said that Chinese-Americans should be put in internment camps if they wouldn't sign loyalty oaths.
* Savage declared that "the next time you're in your backyard grilling hot dogs, don't be surprised if your Korean neighbor is actually grilling his dog. That's the way things are done in Korea."
* Pronouncing Trent Lott's endorsement of Strom Thurmond's 1948 presidential candidacy "innocent comments," Savage nonetheless labeled the members of the Congressional Black Caucus who voiced opposition to the comments "a lynch mob" — even though it was Thurmond's campaign that opposed antilynching laws.
* Savage referred to the National Council of La Raza as "a racist group," the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF) as "an Anti-American racist group," and the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund as "an antiwhite pressure group." He used the term "radical front group" to attack the League of Women Voters and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights.
* Savage is reported to have said that the "liberal media" was covering up the fact that James Byrd, the black Texan who was murdered and then dragged behind a truck, was a coke dealer and his murder was an attempted sale gone bad.
* Savage has characterized Mahatma Gandhi as a "diaper-wearing moron" who was responsible for the 1947 split between India and Pakistan (which Gandhi actually opposed).
* On CNN's "Talkback Live," Savage told Charles Barkley, who was considering a bid for the Republican nomination for Governor of Alabama, "You're a dumb basketball player. Go dribble a ball. Go dribble a ball. You couldn't shine my shoes, buster."
* Discussing the government's use of media during World War II, Savage declared "we need racist stereotypes right now of our enemy in order to encourage our warriors to kill the enemy."
* According to Savage, Muslims "created nothing in a thousand years. They cut throats and blow things up….The women just want to have mustaches and wear veils."
* Savage routinely refers to non-white countries as "turd world nations," and declared that "[g]eese are like immigrants. You open the door to them and the next thing you know, they are defecating on your country and breeding out of control."
* Savage expressed this opinion of nonwhites: "as long as they [non-whites] are uncomfortable in a clean environment run by 'uptight' white people, there's going to be racism. But as soon as America starts to look and stink like the Third World, they'll feel more at home."
* Commenting on the May, 2000 "Million Mom March" in favor of gun control (which he characterized as the "Million Dyke March") he dismissed organizations' references to American children killed by guns: "They're not kids, they're ghetto slime…they're the same kids that are in Sierra Leone toting AK47s."
* Savage expressed this opinion of Hispanic Americans: "with the [Latino] population that has emerged, since they breed like rabbits, in many cases the whites will become a minority in their own nation…The white people don't breed as often for whatever reason. I guess many homosexuals are involved. That is also part of the grand plan, to push homosexuality to cut down on the white race."
Sources: San Jose Mercury News, the San Francisco Chronicle,
Los Angeles Times, and Fairness and Accuracy in Media (FAIR).