How about this guy's free speech rights?
Think the T-shirt guy's supporters will come to Savage's defense?
MSNBC Moving Ahead With Shock Jock Show
By DAVID BAUDER
The Associated Press
Wednesday, March 5, 2003; 4:57 PM
Before it even debuts this weekend, talk-radio star Michael Savage's new MSNBC show has attracted more attention than anything else the struggling news network has on the air.
Advocacy groups, led by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, have launched a letter-writing campaign to keep Savage off the air. The syndicated radio personality fought back by calling his critics "stinking rats who hide in the sewers."
His show, "The Savage Nation," will air at 5 p.m. EST on Saturday despite the furor, said Alan Winikoff, MSNBC spokesman.
The brash, tough-talking Savage, who broadcasts out of the San Francisco area, is probably the second hottest talk-radio host in the country after Sean Hannity, said Michael Harrison, editor of the trade magazine Talkers.
"He is, in many ways, the quintessential shock jock," Harrison said. "He's a very aggressive, clever, street smart everyman. He flies in the face of political correctness. He's what works on talk radio."
A group Savage formed, the Paul Revere Society, advocates closing borders, deporting illegal immigrants, mandating health tests for immigrants, eliminating entitlement programs and making tax cuts permanent.
GLAAD claimed Savage spews "hateful, defamatory rhetoric" against virtually everyone except white men. He has referred to gays and lesbians as perverts, said Joan Garry, GLAAD's executive director.
"Read what he's written and listen to some of the things he's said and you can't sit idly by," Garry said. "You have to raise concerns. You have to question why a news channel would give this guy a platform."
Winikoff would not comment on why Savage was hired. Savage, rehearsing his debut, was not immediately available to speak.
"What people are forgetting is the show hasn't been on the air yet," Winikoff said. "What Savage says he wants to do on this show is focus on serious issues. Stuff that people are complaining about won't be a focus of the show. Just give the guy a chance before jumping to conclusions."
Liberal talk-show host Phil Donahue, abruptly fired last week by MSNBC, said the network was trying to "out-fox Fox" News Channel, the top-rated cable news network that employs Hannity as a daily talk show host, by appealing to conservatives.
GLAAD organized a tenacious campaign against conservative radio host Laura Schlessinger when her syndicated talk show debuted in September 2000, urging an advertiser boycott. When the show was cancelled after six months, Schlessinger blamed the boycott.
GLAAD hasn't called for a boycott against MSNBC. Garry said she wants to meet with NBC executives before deciding on a next step.
A boycott is less likely to be successful in this case, Harrison said. MSNBC's advertisers are more used to controversy than those sought by Schlessinger, he said. And Savage hasn't been as outspoken against gays as Schlessinger, who several years ago labeled homosexuality "deviant" and "a biological error," he said.
Harrison said Savage also will fight harder, as evidenced by his comments last week on his radio show.
"You stinking rats who hide in sewers!" Savage said. "You think you can go after my income? You think you can kill my advertisers? You think I'm Dr. Laura? You think I'm going to roll over? ... You're wrong!"
He said his show "is about liberty, it's about free speech," and the campaign against him is "liberal fascism."
Savage threatened to launch his own campaign against people who fund groups like GLAAD, perhaps appealing to the U.S. Justice Department to see if his rights have been violated.
"You keep this up and I tell you, until the last breath I breathe, I'll cut your sources of funding off," he said. "You'll be serving muffins in cafes if you're lucky."
Savage's radio commentary "scared me," Garry said. "It felt very threatening."
Garry said she doesn't dispute Savage's free speech rights, but said "MSNBC has a responsibility because there are and should be boundaries to what you can and can't say on television. Savage has a history of crossing those boundaries."
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