Michael Savage fired by MSNBC
July 7-- Michael Savage’s MSNBC show, Savage Nation,
was cancelled today because of homophobic remarks made by the host on
the July 5 edition of the show, according to an Associated Press (AP)
report. Those comments — labeling a caller “a sodomite”
and telling him to “get AIDS and die” — were the subject
of a FAIR action alert earlier today.
MSNBC spokesperson Jeremy Gaines told AP, “His comments were extremely
inappropriate and the decision was an easy one.”
Over the past five months, FAIR activists have written more than 2,000
individual letters to MSNBC expressing their concerns about Savage’s
record of bigotry and hate, and criticizing the network for hiring a
host who routinely traffics in slurs while firing host Phil Donahue
over his anti-war views.
Savage can still be heard on some 300 radio stations across the country.
When Savage was given his own show by the cable TV channel MSNBC, network
executives said that the new show should not be judged by Savage’s
previous hate-filled remarks, but by what he said on the TV show itself.
A recent outburst by Savage, however, suggests that the host’s
prejudice and hatefulness have not been constrained by his new venue.
The incident started when a caller to Michael Savage’s July 5 MSNBC
show, Savage Nation, apparently tried to get some kind of prank on the
show. Savage responded with a homophobic tirade. Here’s the transcript
from the Nexis news media database:
SAVAGE: So you’re one of those sodomists. Are you
a sodomite?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I am.
SAVAGE: Oh, you’re one of the sodomites. You should only get AIDS
and die, you pig. How’s that? Why don’t you see if you can
sue me, you pig. You got nothing better than to put me down, you piece
of garbage. You have got nothing to do today, go eat a sausage and choke
on it. Get trichinosis.
OK, do we have another nice caller here who’s busy because he didn’t
have a nice night in the bathhouse who’s angry at me today? Get
me another one, put another sodomite on. No more calls out of —
let’s go to the next scene. I don’t care about these bums.
They mean nothing to me. They’re all sausages. Next scene; onto
the next scene on the Savage Nation.
This does not seem to be the first time Savage has made
such comments; the San Jose Mercury News reported (2/27/99) that “Savage
has apologized to gay activists after saying he wished they would get
AIDS.” Such homophobia has long been an integral part of
Savage’s routine; when he wanted to insult the pro-gun control
Million Mom March, for example, he dubbed it “the Million Dyke
March” (5/15/00).
He has spoken of “the grand plan, to push homosexuality to cut
down on the white race” (San Francisco Bay Guardian, 9/20/00).
In his book Savage Nation, he complained 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.”
When critics pointed out these earlier remarks to MSNBC — a cable
channel co-owned by General Electric and Microsoft — they were
dismissed by MSNBC president Erik Sorenson, along with similar attacks
on women and people of color. “He hasn’t said anything bigoted
or hateful on MSNBC,” Sorenson told the St. Petersburg Times (3/7/03).
“His main thrust for us is going to be national security. I’m
going to watch his show...and I’m going to give him the benefit
of the doubt.”
Asked about specific slurs made by Savage, like references to “homosexual
perversion,” Sorenson said: “Those statements as quoted by
GLAAD and FAIR are not appropriate for MSNBC.... Those kinds of statements
will not be permitted. And if they do happen, they won’t happen
more than once.”
Now that Savage has denounced a caller as “one of the sodomites”
who “should only get AIDS and die,” will Sorenson admit that
Savage says things that are bigoted on his network? Or does he
still describe Savage as someone “brash, passionate and smart”
who’s providing “compelling opinion and analysis with an edge”?
Source: FAIR (Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting)
