...and hetero/homo sexual predator:
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Michael Savage is the pseudonym of Michael Alan Weiner (born March 31, 1942), a controversial<1> American conservative talk radio host,gasbag, author, and political commentator.<2> He holds master's degrees in medical botany and medical anthropology<3> and earned a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in nutritional ethnomedicine.<4> As Michael Weiner, he has written a number of books on herbal medicine and homeopathy.
As Michael Savage, he has written four New York Times bestsellers: The Savage Nation (2003), The Enemy Within (2004), Liberalism Is a Mental Disorder (2005), and The Political Zoo (2006). His nationally syndicated radio show, The Savage Nation, reaches more than eight million listeners on over 400 stations throughout the United States, ranking third in number of stations syndicated nationwide<5> and third in nationwide audience behind Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity.<6>
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In the early 1970s, Savage had more liberal views. Savage, then Michael Weiner, introduced himself to certain writers in the North Beach area of San Francisco.<10> He befriended and traveled with Beat poets Allen Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Neoconservative scholar Stephen Schwartz, also an acquaintance of Savage from this time, reported that Savage once posed naked in a photograph with Ginsberg while swimming in Hawaii and used the photograph as sort of a "calling card."<8><10> One such letter describes an encounter with a black man, interpreted by some as sexual in nature.<11> Savage has denied that the letter had homosexual overtones, claiming that it is part of a "smear campaign" by "gay fascists."<11> Another acquaintance of Savage from this time was poet and author Neeli Cherkovski, who says that Weiner dreamed of becoming a stand-up comic in the mold of Lenny Bruce.<8><10> During this time, Savage also worked for famous psychedelic drug advocate Timothy Leary.<8>
Around 1980, Savage's political philosophies became more conservative. An acquaintance, Dr. Robert Cathcart, says that in his private conversations with Savage during this time, he knew Savage to have conservative political views.<10> Schwartz stated that Savage became alienated from the North Beach scene in the early 1980s. His beliefs and lifestyle shifted so far from his liberal friends that intense arguments would erupt when he encountered them.<10> When Savage was asked about his shift in politics and other views, he replied, "I was once a child; I am now a man."<7>
In 1994, Savage began his talk radio career working as a fill-in on the San Francisco's news/talk radio station KGO. In 1996, he applied to be a dean at UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism as a political statement but was not granted an interview due to lack of qualifications. Savage filed a discrimination lawsuit that was eventually dismissed. The position instead went to historian and China scholar Orville Schell, whom Savage called a "front for the communist Chinese mafia."<10> In 2000, the Talk Radio Network took his show and syndicated it nationally.
Since Savage found his place in radio, he and his former friends and acquaintances from the North Beach area of San Francisco have traded barbs.<8> Savage now derides Ferlinghetti and calls Ferlinghetti's City Lights Bookstore "that once-famous communist bookstore."<10> Ferlinghetti claims that Weiner's "reincarnation" as Savage represents "total opportunism," the crowning achievement of someone who was "always looking to make a fast buck" and "always trying to think up new schemes to get famous."<10> Savage said, "I looked at
almost like a rabbinic figure. Little did I know that he was the fucking devil."<8>
<MORE>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Savage_(commentator)