Michael Savage

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Right wing radio jock and climate change denier Michael Savage
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Learn more from the Center for Media and Democracy's research on climate change.

Michael Savage, whose real name is Michael Alan Weiner, has a nationally syndicated right wing AM radio talk show called Savage Nation. He is a climate change denier who has claimed that the greatest fraud in American history is the concept of man-made climate change.[1]

Education

Michael Savage has a Ph.D. is in the field of Nutritional Ethnomedicine.[1]

Savage Nation

Savage broadcasts denialism

Savage is best known for his sydicated radio show, which began in 1994 on San Francisco's KSFO, and moved to KNEW in 2003. The show is syndicated by Talk Radio Network.

David Gilson wrote in a Salon article published March 3, 2003,[2] that using his talk-show as a vehicle, Savage had

launched a one-man mission to save America from its enemies at home and abroad, which on any given day includes liberals, gays, academics, the homeless, the Clintons, immigrants, feminists, CNN, the American Civil Liberties Union, Muslims and other minorities. Broadcasting three hours a day, five afternoons a week, from a studio inside his home in the affluent San Francisco suburb of Larkspur, he gives voice to the right wing's darkest fantasies.

On May 18, 2004 a website that Savage had sued and lost, michaelsavagesucks.com, wrote an open letter to Savage, challenging his claims of radio popularity: "Michael, let us verify your 350 stations and Arbitron data proving you have 10.5 million listeners, and we will shut down this website." They never received a reply.

Savage has also written columns for NewsMax.com and WorldNetDaily.

Lawsuits Against Websites

One of Savage's favorite targets after politicians and illegal immigrants, is often attorneys, and not just the ACLU either. Just the same, Savage has shown himself to be litigious if he chooses.

In 1996, Savage filed a lawsuit against the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley, claiming that he had been discriminated against when he had applied for the position of Dean. What Savage's qualifications were to be Dean of a journalism school remain a mystery. At that time, he was a celebrated author in the niche field of botany and herbal lore, and had a total of one year as a talk-show host under his belt. The candidate chosen over Savage was a recognized journalist and China scholar named Orville Schell, whose awards had included a Page One Award, and a best article from the Overseas Press Club. Schell had also been awarded writing fellowships from several organizations, and had been published in many respected periodicals. Weiner claimed he had been overlooked because he is white, even though Schell is also white. David Horowitz came to the aid of Savage [3] but the lawsuit was later dropped.

As his popularity was at its apex and MSNBC had him under contract, many websites appeared criticizing him, and they joined in with an initiative started by The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) to boycott all sponsors of his MSNBC TV show, Savage Nation.

Savage took offense and sued, not GLAAD, but the owners of three small non-commercial websites in the federal court, and the two websites that used "Savage" in ICANN for their use of his name. savagestupidity.com and michaelsavagesucks.com In his filing, one Savage claim was that his fans could be confused if they visited these sites, and believe that they were visiting his site instead, immediately spawning sarcastic remarks regarding his fans' IQ upon the juvenile anti-Savage boards. Because of documented comments Savage had made on the airwaves towards the owner of michaelsavagesucks.com, he was allowed to use a shield of anonymity throughout the lawsuit. Both defendants won against Savage's suit, and the Federal lawsuit was dropped shortly after.

Savaging Television

MSNBC, as mentioned earlier, contracted a show with Savage, and broadcasted the debut of The Savage Nation on TV in March, 2003. The boycott effort gained steam and an aggressive letter writing campaign to sponsors was begun, causing many major corporations to remove their advertising on the show, but with very mixed results regarding smaller companies. Despite poor ratings, MSNBC kept the Savage Nation on until Saturday, July 5, 2003, when MSNBC broadcast its last Savage Nation show. On it Savage took a call from a prankster who claimed he was gay, to which Savage responded in part:

"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. Okay, 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 http://www.sfgov.org/site/bdsupvrs_index.asp?id=65727me another one. Put another sodomite on."

. He regularily comments on popular culture such as his love of the movies. He will also provide analysis of television shows such as The Sopranos, as well as daily news stories covered (or not covered at all} in the media.

SF Supervisors Motion on Savage Comments

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors sought to pass a resolution condemning Savage for comments he made on his show on July 5, 2007 regarding illegal immigrants. A group of students were protesting in the manner of a fast and Savage remarked, "...let them fast until they starve to death." [4]

Author

Michael Savage is the author of at least 25 books, most of which were under the name of Michael Weiner and on botany and nutrition. The most recent ones have been attacks on what he sees as liberal politics.

Books as Michael Weiner

  • Plant a Tree, New York : Collier Books, 1975, ISBN 0471571040
  • Bugs in Peanut Butter, Boston : Little, Brown, 1976, ISBN 0316928607
  • Man's Useful Plants, New York: Macmillan. 1976, ISBN 0027926001
  • The Taster's Guide to Beer: Brews and Breweries of the World, Macmillan, 1977, ISBN 0026256002
  • Earth Medicine, Earth Food, New York : Macmillan Pub. Co., 1980, ISBN 002625610X
  • The way of the skeptical nutritionist, New York : Macmillan, 1981, ISBN 0026256207
  • The Art of Feeding Children Well (with Kathleen Goss), Warner Books, 1982, ISBN 0446978906
  • Nutrition Against Aging, Bantam books, 1983, ISBN 0553236423
  • Secrets of Fijian Medicine, Quantum Books, 1983, ISBN 0912845023
  • Vital Signs(the book), Avant Books, 1983, ISBN 0932238203
  • Getting Off Cocaine, Avon Books, February, 1984, ISBN 0380679000
  • Dr. Weiner's High Fiber Counter, Pinnacle Books, May, 1984, ISBN 0523422113
  • Maximum Immunity, Boston : Houghton Mifflin, 1986, ISBN 0395379105
  • Reducing the risk of Alzheimer's, New York : Stein and Day, 1987, re-published under the name Michael Savage, Ph.D. in 2007, ISBN 0946551537
  • The Complete Book of Homeopathy, Garden City Park, N.Y. : Avery Pub., 1989, ISBN 0895294125
  • The Herbal Bible, San Rafael, CA : Quantum Books, 1992, ISBN 0912845066
  • Healing children naturally, San Rafael, CA : Quantum Books, 1993, re-published under the name Michael Savage, Ph.D. in 2007, ISBN 0912845104
  • Herbs that heal : prescription for herbal healing, Mill Valley, CA : Quantum Books, 1994, ISBN 0912845112
  • The Antioxidant Cookbook, Mill Valley, CA : Quantum Books, 1995, ISBN 0912845139

Books as Michael Savage

UK Entry Ban

In May 2009, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith made public the names of 16 people banned from entering the UK. Included in the list of the 16 "least wanted" was talk show host Michael Savage. "This is someone who has fallen into the category of fomenting hatred, of such extreme views and expressing them in such a way that it is actually likely to cause inter-community tension or even violence if that person were allowed into the country," Smith told BBC Breakfast. [5] As of December 2009, Savage remained on the list and as a result, Texas Rep. John Culberson is asking Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to intervene, citing Savage’s need to tend to his “rare medicinal plant specimens from Fiji and Tonga” in Kew Gardens. [6]

Other SourceWatch resources

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Global Warming Debunking, Junk Science, Hoaxes. savage-productions.com (2008 [last update]). Retrieved on November 30, 2011.

External links

Articles

MMfA Links

Media Matters for America has an extensive database of Savage's hateful remarks. These are some of his from 2006:

ICANN Lawsuit

University Libraries

  • The Allen Ginsberg Papers, 1937-1994
    • Department of Special Collections and University Archives
    • Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, California
    • Collection number: M0733
    • Series 1. Correspondence, 1942-1994
    • Correspondence, 1970-1979
    • Weiner, Michael , Box189, Folder40

Websites

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