I had never even heard of this guy until MSNBC fired him. They sure are lousy at picking hosts. I am surprised his Radio program in San Francisco has not been bombed.
Raging 'Savage' could use a fix from his New Age books
Dave Ford
Friday, July 11, 2003
©2003 San Francisco Chronicle
URL: sfgate.com
Radio talk shock jock and, now, former MSNBC talk show host "Michael Savage" is a little man who appears to have a big split in his personality.
Indeed, the pint-size piker -- whose daily afternoon drive-time show, "The Savage Nation," originates from San Francisco's KNEW-AM -- is not even "Michael Savage." He is Michael Alan Weiner, a nice Jewish boy from Brooklyn who received a doctorate from UC Berkeley and has written 18 books on herbal healing.
Dr. Weiner is a mystery wrapped in the armor of a "Savage" who blames America's ills on women, gays and lesbians, nonwhite people, "liberals" and immigrants. (This last is odd: Weiner's father immigrated to America from Russia.)
The bullying "Savage" persona is rampaging id personified. In his winsome radio universe, this city is "San Fran Freako," its homeless people "living rats." Single career women over 40 are "human wreckage in high heels." Asians are "little soy eaters," Chinese people "little devils" and Koreans dog- grillers.
He once suggested that female students at a high school in Marin (Weiner lives in San Rafael) participated in a volunteer feed-the-homeless program in San Francisco because of the titillating thought that they might be raped. "Savage" once celebrated Yom Kippur a day early by playing tapes of Hitler's speeches to the accompaniment of German military music.
He has suggested dropping nuclear weapons on China and putting Chinese- Americans who don't sign loyalty oaths into internment camps. He believes that "radical homosexuals" promoted the "diversity myth."
"Savage" understands invective pays. Although no doubt enthralling, it's likely Weiner's herbal books failed to land on the best-seller lists. Talking to a million people at a crack no doubt beats speaking at New Age seminars.
Indeed, this being America, "Savage's" silly spoutings earned him a book contract. "The Savage Nation: Saving America From the Liberal Assault on Our Borders, Language and Culture," released in February, perched atop the New York Times best-seller list for weeks.
In March, he debuted his TV show, "The Savage Nation" (so-named, one assumes, for easy cross-promotion purposes). Executives at MSNBC, which is jointly owned by Microsoft and NBC (the latter is owned by General Electric), apparently hoped to stem viewer slippage by hiring someone who makes Robert Novak appear sane and left-leaning.
But critics "savaged" the show, a ratings dog. The Gay and Lesbian Alliance against Defamation and other groups successfully lobbied large corporations to refrain from advertising on it.
Perhaps not altogether coincidentally, it was an anti-gay rant that got "Savage" fired by MSNBC on Monday: "Oh, you're one of the sodomites," he said to a caller. "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."
As we've seen, this is hardly unusual invective. Often, however, when responding to perceived attackers -- there are many in his quasi-paranoid world -- "Savage" hides behind others. He has threatened to sic his listeners - - and, weirdly, the U.S. Department of Justice -- on those who cross him.
He's like the obnoxious kid who makes schoolyard taunts, then calls in the bullies to do his dirty work. You could challenge "Savage" to a winner-take- all back-alley brawl and doubt he'd show up without a camera crew. If a "Savage" raves in an alley with no million-plus audience, does he make a sound?
Moreover, just as something that bills itself "world-class" ipso facto is not, something "Savage" fairly reeks of puffed-up wishful thinking, a trait endemic to little men. (Sad to say, the name change also suggests Dr. Weiner knew his right-leaning, largely Christian, white male audience would balk at guidance from a Jew.)
So here's my question: Who, and where, is Michael A. Weiner? A man this angry either has a severe personality disorder or has been deeply hurt.
"Savage" knows no pain; what about Weiner? (He has written that his father psychologically tortured him.)
A man who lays blame outside himself is ashamed of something within. "Savage" knows no shame; what about Weiner? (In an excellent Salon piece, David Gilson reported that, in Weiner's 1983 fiction collection, "Vital Signs, " Weiner-like narrator Samuel Trueblood says his father berated him with anti- gay taunts such as, "You're not a fag, are you, Sam?" Trueblood also notes that, although attracted to "masculine beauty," "I choose to override my desires for men when they swell in me, waiting out the passions like a storm, below decks." Thus psychological nakedness in service of bad prose, and vice versa.)
Michael A. Weiner appears to have been bullied into submission by "Michael Savage," who makes money -- and grasps for social status and fame -- by bullying others. Michael Weiner may be a big man with a good heart and a fine personality. I wonder if we'll ever find out.
Probably not. I'm counting the days until Fox picks up "Savage." The odds that will happen? Split -- not unlike the host.
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