Michael Savage: Who 'dat?

[Smarmie Doofus]

Tell me what you can about this guy.

I wikied him:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Savage_(commentator)

And I've heard him on the radio machine .... verrrry infrequently.

Let me explain: I know he's shorthand for evil/crazy but I generally tune out stuff about RW media morons. There are so MANY of them and they generally sound the same to me. Also... I got other stuff to do.

BUT... I made a reference to him this week in an email at work....to make a point. And I want to make sure the reference was pitch-perfect.... and at the same time didn't go "over the line".


So...... I see from wiki that he's not stupid and used to be a "60's era leftist". And a Tim Leary devotee. And a hanger-out w. Ginsberg, Ferlinghetti, and the gang.

Hardly the first 60's radical to swing over to the opposite extreme. The inclusion ( perhaps) of him in the sexual goings on in his Beat phase... and the (perhaps) connection between that and his way-later wild radio rants against sodomites are esp. interesting to me. ( It relates to the email; and my need to write it. )

Sorry to be a bit indirect. Can't help it. Hope I'm at least clear.

So, tell me about Savage.

And.... A Happy LGBT Pride from NYC to DUers of all persuasions. (Yes it's as important for you as it is for us.)

[vi5]

1. Is this guy even still around?

I mean I know maybe close to 10 years ago he was a big presence among the right wing wackos and right wing talk radio. He was also some natural healing type huckster too wasn't he? But honestly I haven't heard a peep from or about him in at least 5 years. Probably even more than that. Is he still on the radio even? Or did Glenn Beck steal his thunder?

[Smarmie Doofus]

3. Someone at work quoted him, approvingly, recently.

So I'm thinking he's still on some stations. There's something in the wiki piece about a GLAAD boycott. Which I sorta remember but it was a long time ago.

[RebelOne]

11. My thought exactly. I haven't heard much about him in the past few years. n/t

[dionysus]

15. he was a botanist before he was in radio. wierd eh?

[Ed Suspicious]

2. He's a total big-mouthed nut job.

I think a lot of his rage and bad manners is ratings based. A "If you're gonna be a bigot on the radio, be the most extreme bigot there is" kind of thing.

[pipoman]

4. Didn't he have a TV show

on Fox or CNN which he went over the line and was fired...maybe 5 or 6 years ago?

[UTUSN]

6. It was on: -- ta-da, our very "own" MSNBC

The epitome of cable floundering around to "keep up" with Faux Propaganda Network, him and slIMUS, decisions based on pure exploitation.

Yes, he insulted Ashley BANFIELD, will have to Google for the details. IIRC, the misogyny didn't get him fired, it was a later (not too much later) flaming of a caller about AIDS that finally did him in.

I called him "the Savage WIENER."

[DrDan]

10. exactly - he did for a while

One of the best episodes was when he showed up in this black leather coat - bragging of the advice he had just received regarding his apparel. He was just totally clueless as to how ridiculous, disheveled and un-credible it made him appear.

He is exactly the opposite of what a television host should look like.

[pipoman]

21. Kind of the Gene Scott of the pundits?

:rofl:

[Aryo]

5. His real last name is Weiner

[ThomWV]

7. He is a very dangerous man, spouting his relentless message of hatred to delusional followers

Never underestimate the power of hatred to poison a society once it gets a foothold.

[sharesunited]

8. It really is difficult to tell what he genuinely hates and what he hates "just for show."

I don't listen to him for his hate rants or political opinions. They are usually offensive and irrelevant.

However, he does talk about his personal interests, memories, tastes, hobbies, idiosyncracies, and his dog in a way which I find very entertaining.

[petronius]

14. His on-air emotions are transparently fake - it's laughable to hear him

suddenly get angry, or melancholy, or (his interpretation of) thoughtful as the topic demands. But I also think he's genuinely a bit off-balance mentally, so I have trouble making fun of him.

Of course, anyone who looks to him for insight or guidance is dangerously deceived...

[DrDan]

9. loopy as the day is long - bigoted, brain-fried - I can think of no redeeming quality

Ph.D. in Physiology (I think) - or some related field

[proud2BlibKansan]

12. He's so nutty the rw radio station in my area kicked him off

Wasn't he the guy who claimed autistic kids just needed parents who would beat the shit out of them?

[Brother Buzz]

17. He's so nutty his Flagship station, KSFO, dropped him

[Smarmie Doofus]

19. Indeed. Or something close to that. Which makes his....

... appearance in the , ummm.... *dialogue*... at our workplace ... even more unsettling. (i.e. We have lots of autistic kids in the school where I work.)

[MilesColtrane]

13. He is vile.

The most xenophobic hate monger on radio.

Refers to immigrants, muslims, and basically anyone else who isn't white and speaks English as "vermin" who should be "exterminated".

[JHB]

16. Just how "leftist" was he?

I don't want to opine too strongly based on something as malleable as a Wikipedia bio, but that doesn't stress any political activism, more of a role as fanboy and hanger-on to poets and Leary and persons involved with cultural matters and not really grounded in poltical principles. "Left" by association, as it were, not by an active choice.

It may or may not be true of Weiner/Savage, but it's something I've seen repeatedly with "liberal who got mugged"-type conservatives. Their "liberalism" was something they picked up mostly by going with the flow, or to tweak their parents, or because that was the easier way to get laid and high, or whatever, and in general didn't have any deeper foundations for the truisms they took for granted. So when a contradiction in the truisms slapped them personally (the proverbial mugging, in the example given for Weiner having to deliver a welfare check to furnish an apartment when his own place was furnished with cardboard boxes (I have to wonder if the check recipient was just out of college, as he was. I expect not)) they react angrily and jump to the "anti-liberal" flow.

[Smarmie Doofus]

18. Point(s) taken. +1

There was a lot of retrenchment is the early/ mid 70s on the part of people who had mouthed left-wing rhetoric ... which was fashionable in the period , say 67-73, ..... but later decided that they had more to gain, professionally and politically, from the system ( social, economic, political) as it *was* than from a system that was thoroughly democratized ( including.... *ESP.* including) affirmative action.

Savage/Weiner seems to have been of this cohort.

[Bozita]

20. Savage sued DU's Symbolman a few years back

Symbolman and his wife, Demobabe, were running http://www.takebackthemedia.com/ at the time.

IIRC, they got some bigtime legal help and the case was thrown out.

It was something called a SLAPP suit.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_lawsuit_against_public_participation

A strategic lawsuit against public participation (SLAPP) is a lawsuit that is intended to censor, intimidate and silence critics by burdening them with the cost of a legal defense until they abandon their criticism or opposition.<1>

The typical SLAPP plaintiff does not normally expect to win the lawsuit. The plaintiff's goals are accomplished if the defendant succumbs to fear, intimidation, mounting legal costs or simple exhaustion and abandons the criticism. A SLAPP may also intimidate others from participating in the debate. A SLAPP is often preceded by a legal threat. The difficulty, of course, is that plaintiffs do not present themselves to the Court admitting that their intent is to censor, intimidate or silence their critics. Hence, the difficulty in drafting SLAPP legislation, and in applying it, is to craft an approach which affords an early termination to invalid abusive suits, without denying a legitimate day in court to valid good faith claims..

[LiberalAndProud]

22. Two hours of hate filled radio every day on our our megawatt station.

Vile. I'll waste no more time on him here or elsewhere.

[Politicalboi]

23. He's an angry closeted gay man

Who is a loud mouth asshole.

[Ed Suspicious]

24. Just a bit of a side note

I think I heard he has a son who owns Rockstar energy drink. I've heard him pushing it on his show when I lived in the middle of Missouri and the only talk radio you could get was poorly produced public radio and 24 hour conservative talk (it was excruciating listening but I guess keep you friends close, your enemies closer).