Savage response over MSNBC hire
WASHINGTON — Michael Savage, the conservative radio host whose hiring by MSNBC has turned him into a national lightning rod, is threatening to lead a boycott against the "slimy, filthy groups" that oppose him.
Accusing them of "Nazism" and "economic terrorism," Savage has told listeners "these brownshirt groups" live in "mud puddles" and he may ask the Justice Department to investigate them.
Savage is responding to a letter-writing campaign by the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) aimed at pressuring MSNBC into dropping the Savage program, to debut Saturday. MSNBC executives have agreed to meet today with the group, whose effort is backed by the National Organization for Women (NOW).
Some media critics say the network, the third-place cable news operation that is in a news alliance with The Washington Post, is lurching to the right in an effort to compete with top-rated Fox News Channel. MSNBC in recent weeks has hired Savage and two former Republican congressmen, dropped liberal Phil Donahue and ended negotiations with left-leaning newsman Sam Donaldson.
MSNBC spokesman Alan Winnikoff, confirming that the network has received a slew of negative letters and e-mails about Savage, said: "We're asking people to wait and watch the show before jumping to conclusions."
The bearded, bombastic Savage, whose San Francisco radio show is carried on 305 stations, including KTTH-AM (770) in Seattle, is the author of "Savage Nation," a diatribe against "left-wing wackos" that is No. 1 on The New York Times' best-seller list.
In an interview, Savage said of his critics: "I don't know how they can censor a show that hasn't aired yet. They're trying to use me as a pawn in a bigger game. ... It looks like a shakedown to me. It may be a cooking show. How do they know what I'm going to do?"
Asked if MSNBC hired him to appeal to a conservative audience, Savage said: "No doubt about it. They know which way the wind blows."
Ironically, his book lambastes MSNBC as "More Snotty Nonsense By Creeps" and ridicules anchor Ashleigh Banfield as "the mind-slut with a big pair of glasses that they sent to Afghanistan."
Savage writes of "the degenerates on the left who want to sell Americans on the idea that homosexuality, bisexuality, transsexuality, even sex with animals is normal." He complains that a "minority of feminist zealots" has "both feminized and homosexualized much of America." He talks on his show about immigrants from "turd world nations" and called the Million Mom March for gun control the "million dyke march."
Said GLAAD spokeswoman Cathy Renna: "To associate what Michael Savage does with journalism is fundamentally wrong. He's into bullying and name-calling. It tarnishes the credibility of a network like MSNBC." Renna said 2,000 people have used her group's Web site to send protest letters to the network. At the same time, she said, her group has received letters from Savage fans charging "that we're censors and we're the sodomy lobby."
NOW President Kim Gandy said she was "flabbergasted" by what she calls Savage's "vulgarity" and "hate-mongering. ... He must be terribly intimidated by women to attack us so viciously. For a major cable network like MSNBC to give him a platform for this kind of hatred of women is more than disappointing. It's sickening."
The hiring of Savage, former House Majority Leader Dick Armey and former GOP congressman Joe Scarborough of Florida was announced as MSNBC was in the process of canceling "Donahue" after seven months. This has sparked criticism that the network, which has also signed former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura, is pandering to the right. Donahue said last week that he thinks MSNBC is trying to "out-Fox Fox."
An internal NBC memo, reported on the Web site AllyourTV.com, said Donahue presented a "difficult public face for NBC in a time of war" while "our competitors are waving the flag at every opportunity," because "he seems to delight in presenting guests who are anti-war, anti-Bush and skeptical of the administration's motives."
Winnikoff, the MSNBC spokesman, denied any effort to "become more like our unnamed competitor" — Fox — saying Ventura is a libertarian and "Hardball" host Chris Matthews is difficult to pigeonhole politically. "We're a big tent that encourages perspectives from all ends of the ideological spectrum," he said. Even afternoon host Pat Buchanan, "who's obviously a conservative, is not an establishment Republican," Winnikoff said.
Information from Seattle Times staff is included in this report.