Michael Savage

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Michael Savage

Michael Savage is the pseudonym of Michael Alan Weiner, PhD (born March 31, 1942). Savage is a controversial American conservative talk radio host, author, and political commentator. He holds masters degrees in medical botany and medical anthropology and earned his Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley in epidemiology and nutrition science. As Michael Weiner (Vī'-ner), he has written a number of books on herbal medicine and homeopathy. As Michael Savage, he has written four New York Times bestsellers: The Savage Nation (2003), The Enemy Within (2004), Liberalism Is a Mental Disorder (2005), and The Political Zoo (2006). His nationally syndicated radio show The Savage Nation reaches over ten million listeners on 377 stations throughout the United States, ranking third in nationwide ratings behind Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity.

Biography and education

The Savage Nation

Michael Savage was born Michael Alan Weiner in the borough of the Bronx in New York City to a Russian Jewish family. He grew up in Queens and graduated from Jamaica High School, a public high school in New York City. His family was not wealthy and he worked odd jobs that include ice cream factory worker, busboy and lifeguard.

After high school, Savage attended and earned a Bachelors degree from Queens College in education and sociology. He taught high school for several years in New York City. His first marriage in 1964 ended in divorce and he remarried after meeting his current wife in 1967. Following that, he earned two Masters degrees in ethnobotany and anthropology from the University of Hawaii. He then received a Ph.D. in Health and Medical Science in 1978 from the University of California, Berkeley. His thesis was titled "Nutritional Ethnomedicine in Fiji." Savage spent many years researching botany in the South Pacific and has a background in alternative medicine. In 1996 he applied to be a dean at UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism but was not granted an interview due to lack of qualifications. Savage filed a discrimination lawsuit that was eventually dismissed. The position instead went to historian and China scholar Orville Schell.

In the early 1970s, Savage had a different persona. He has stated that he considered himself a liberal. Savage, then Michael Weiner, introduced himself to part of the literary scene in North Beach, San Francisco, California. He befriended and traveled with Beat generation poets Allen Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Neoconservative scholar Stephen Schwartz, also an acquaintance of Savage from this time, reported that Savage once even posed naked in a photograph with Ginsberg while swimming in Hawaii and used the photograph as sort of a "calling card". Another acquaintance of Savage from this time was poet and author Neeli Cherkovski who recalls that Weiner had dreamed of becoming a stand-up comic in the mold of Lenny Bruce.

Savage began publicly espouing conservative views around the 1980s. An acquaintance of Savage, Dr. Robert Cathcart, says that in his private conversations with Savage during this time, he knew Savage to have conservative political views. Schwartz stated that Savage became alienated from the North Beach scene in the early eighties, to the point of carrying a gun and screaming at former friends and acquaintances when he encountered them. When Savage was asked about his shift in politics and other views, he replied "I was once a child; I am now a man".

In 1994, Savage began his talk radio career working as a fill-in on the San Francisco's news/talk radio station KGO. In 2000 the Talk Radio Network took his show and syndicated it nationally.

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Letter in the Stanford University archives to Allen Ginsberg dated March 8, 1970, in which the author describes how a "black brother looks at me, takes my hand gently, we do some old world lower-east side finger tucks and he peacefully kisses the back of my hand - I do the same for his hand."

After finding his place in radio, Savage and his former friends and acquaintances from the North Beach area of San Francisco have traded barbs. Savage now derides Ferlinghetti and calls Ferlinghetti's City Lights Bookstore "that once-famous communist bookstore". Ferlinghetti claims that Weiner's "reincarnation" as Savage represents "total opportunism", the crowning achievement of someone who was "always looking to make a fast buck" and "always trying to think up new schemes to get famous". Regarding Ginsberg, Savage now attacks his "lifelong communism" and association with NAMBLA. Savage said "I looked at [Ginsberg] almost like a rabbinic figure. Little did I know that he was the fucking devil." Letters from Savage to Ginsberg are in Ginsberg's archives at Stanford University and they contain letters of praise as well as passages that have been described as homoerotic. One of the letters allegedly written by Savage describes an encounter with a "black brother". Savage claims the letter is part of a "smear campaign" by "gay fascists". He told Jake Tapper, "I'm not going to deal with the salacious issues that these faggots come up with... If I know a gay, suddenly everyone's gay? It's disgusting! Should I drop my pants so you can take a look at my dick to see if I'm a Jew?"

Radio

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Savage's radio show is known as the "Savage Nation"

Michael Savage began his radio career on March 21, 1994 on San Francisco's #1 news/talk radio station KGO as a fill-in host for the liberal Ray Taliaferro. Less than a year later he was given a weekday show on KGO's sister station KSFO. He chose his "nom de voix" in "the Tonga Islands in the 1960s. I stumbled upon the name of a [19th-century] shipwreck who was locally infamous -Charles Savage. His exploits were legendary," he said. "So the name was bouncing around in my head." At the time, his slogan was "To the right of Rush and to the left of God." On January 1, 1995, he was given his own show during the drive-time hours. The show quickly became a local hit. During his time at KSFO Michael Savage soared to #1 in Arbitron ratings among both adult men and all adults 18+ during afternoon drivetime in San Francisco and to be top talk host in his timeslot in Northern California. In 1999, he came to the attention of the Talk Radio Network.

On January 17, 2000, he started doing an additional two hours of radio which was broadcast nationally. For the next eight months, Savage would spend a total of five hours a day just talking. His national experiment was a success, and on September 21, 2000, he stopped doing separate shows, beginning a full three-hour national show. After one year, he was in 150 markets. By 2003, he was in over 200 markets.

In June 2003, he had a salary dispute with his flagship station KSFO which refused to renegotiate his contract. He was off the air for three weeks. On July 1, 2003 he began his show on a different station: KNEW in San Francisco. Since that dispute, he speaks badly of KSFO and of "Vanity" or "Pretty Boy" Sean Hannity, whose show replaced his on the station. Savage also speaks pejoratively when referring to talk radio hosts or individuals with whom he disagrees. (Hannity is affiliated with Citadel Communications' ABC Radio Networks). Savage's program is syndicated by Talk Radio Network, based in Oregon.

As of 2005, Savage has between 8 million and 10 million listeners per week. This makes his show the third most widely listened to broadcast in the United States. Savage attributes his success in part to his listeners who he considers "literate callers with intelligence, wit, and energy". He says he tries to make a show that has a "..hard edge combined with humor and education....Those who listen to me say they hear a bit of Plato, Henry Miller, Jack Kerouac, Moses, Jesus and Frankenstein".

On July 19, 2006, Michael Savage officially became the #1 talk radio host, in his timeslot, in New York City. This is the first time in his 12-year career that Savage has ranked #1 in his hometown. Because of this, Savage now proclaims himself to be "The King of New York Radio". [2]

Introduction and music

The signature introduction to the Savage Nation is the beginning of Metallica's "Master of Puppets" followed by an announcer saying "Warning: The Michael Savage Show contains adult language, adult content, psychological nudity. Listener discretion is advised". This is followed by Mötley Crüe's "Looks that Kill", and Metallica's "The Shortest Straw" will finish off the introduction.

For bumper music, Savage has used "Eye of the Beholder", "Frayed Ends of Sanity", "Holier Than Thou", "Jump in the Fire", "To Live is to Die", "Battery", "Blackened", "Sad But True", "Ain't My Bitch", "Fuel", and "The Shortest Straw" by Metallica; and "Du Hast" and "Tier" by Rammstein. Other songs include "Smells like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana, "Big Gun" by AC/DC, and "Killing in the Name" by Rage Against the Machine.

Someone claiming to be Metallica's lead guitarist Kirk Hammett called in to Savage's show to say, "We support what you're doing", but it is unlikely that it was actually Hammett as he expressed disgust for George H.W. Bush and Pat Buchanan in the 1992 documentary A Year and a Half in the Life of Metallica and contributed $1,000 to the Democratic National Committee during the 2004 elections.

While Savage has criticized the rock and roll culture before on his program, he still says he is a fan of rock and roll music. On his July 19, 2006 show, Savage stated that he is a huge fan of the German heavy-metal group Rammstein. He also stated that he often drives around in the middle of the night blasting their music. When challenged by a caller to explain why he likes Rammstein, Savage said that they are "the only true form of poetry and music that reflect the real world nowadays". Savage spent a large amount of time playing their music during that specific broadcast.

Ratings

Michael Savage has the third largest syndicated radio talk show in the nation according to his syndicator.

MSNBC

Savage was hired by MSNBC president Erik Sorenson to do a one-hour show starting March 8, 2003, despite previous disparaging references to the network in his book The Savage Nation, where he calls it "More Snotty Nonsense By Creeps" and calls anchor Ashleigh Banfield "the mind-slut with a big pair of glasses that they sent to Afghanistan...She looks like she went from porno into reporting." Reportedly, NBC anchor Tom Brokaw objected to hiring Savage, asking NBC executives, "Is this the sort of man who embodies the values of NBC?"

On July 7, a mere four months later, he was fired for making homophobic remarks in response to a caller, later identified as prank caller Bob Foster. Savage was doing an "Airline Horror Stories" piece, when Foster called in to his show to talk about undercover security guards smoking in the bathroom. His next words were, "half hour into the flight, I need to suggest that Don and Mike should take your show so you can go to the dentist because your teeth are really bad". The words after "should" were bleeped out by an MSNBC executive. Savage then asked if Foster was a "sodomite", to which the caller answered "yes". Savage then said to the caller: "Oh, so you're one of those 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 to do than to put me down, you piece of garbage, you got nothing better to do today, go eat a sausage and choke on it. Get trichinosis. Now 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? Put another, put another sodomite on....no more calls? I don't care about these bums, they mean nothing to me. They're all sausages". The show then cut to a video of two people grilling sausages to the tune of "The Marines' Hymn". In his own defense, Savage later stated on his radio show that he believed he was off the air during the entire conversation with the hoax caller and had been tricked by employees of the network, who he claimed set him up.

Personal views

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The Enemy Within

Michael Savage calls himself an "independent-minded individualist" and says he "fits no stereo-type". Savage criticizes "big government" and what he characterizes as liberal bias in the media, and champions the environment and animal rights. He believes there are three aspects that define a society: "Borders, Language, and Culture." He founded The Paul Revere Society to protect these aspects of American society.

Immigration

Savage asserts that America needs stronger immigration controls and borders to protect itself from rampant illegal immigration which he claims, undermines national security and the economy. In March 2006 he asserted, "Clinton opened the door to Mexico, but Bush has taken it off its hinges!" He also advocates English as the official language of the United States. In The Enemy Within, Savage compares earlier generations of immigrants to the United States who learned to speak English, with more recent immigrants, who he says are placated by the government because "they don't bother to learn English".

Savage says illegal immigration is an invasion and that there is a racial element to it. He believes whites are being erased from America and people should be worried that Europeans are projected to become a minority. Savage doesn’t believe that non-whites will treat Europeans as well as they are being treated now when they seize power and that Americans should worry about the future for their grandchildren.

On April 11, 2006, Media Matters, a liberal watchdog group, reported that in his radio program of the previous day, Savage had described recent illegal immigrant protestors as "vermin who are trying to dictate to us how we should run America" and added that feminism and homosexuality are "destroying America". Savage's reply in a following program was that "vermin" referred to "...the leadership behind them... and I have described to you who they are. They are the communist Marxist bloc of International ANSWER".

Culture

Savage asserts that American culture has always centered around a strong family life and Judeo-Christian ethics. He considers that failure to maintain these aspects will result in the decline and "disintegration" of the United States and often discusses these subjects on The Savage Nation.

Savage claims that he coined the phrase "compassionate conservative" in 1994. The slogan later became a pillar of George W. Bush's election campaign in 2000. Savage also frequently accuses the national political parties of sharing identical philosophies and not having any real differences, and he uses the coined terms "Republicrat and Democan" to describe their members. Savage had claimed to have coined the term "Islamofascism", although it was used in 1990 by Malise Ruthven.

Savage has also advocated the reintroduction of the repealed Sedition Act, accusing mainstream media sources such as ABC, CBS, and NBC of being "mouth pieces for the enemy". On the January 19, 2006 broadcast of his radio show, he called for the internment of roughly 380,000 radical fundamentalist Muslims for the length of the war on terror, comparing the action to measures taken by Abraham Lincoln during the American Civil War. He included Hillary Clinton, Howard Dean, Ted Kennedy, and all non-citizen Muslims in his list of those to arrest. In closing, he mentioned that we should not get ahead of ourselves (with regards to just imprisoning everyone) and that we should deal with such things when the time comes. This is an example of what fans say is Savage's sometimes satirical, over-the-top style of hyperbole. On March 28, 2006, Savage encouraged his listeners to burn Mexican flags to counter protests of pro-illegal-immigration groups during which American flags were burned while Mexican flags were waved.

Judaism

Savage rarely discusses his Jewish heritage. However, Savage is very vocal about Jews who he believes are causing damage to the Jewish people through what he sees as liberal actions. For instance, Savage frequently criticizes liberal activist George Soros, a Jew, for his liberalism, and has expressed his belief that he is causing damage to the Jewish people. On June 12, 2006, Savage said that Soros should "shut [his] mouth and understand the damage [he's] doing to this world and to the Jewish people", calling Soros among other things a "satanist" and a "freak" and saying that people like Soros "brought about the Holocaust".

Savage has also criticized non-Jews for perceived anti-Semitism, including former U.S. President Jimmy Carter. On May 15, 2006, Savage accused Carter of being a "Jew-hater through and through", called him a "war criminal", and compared him to Hitler.

Savage has also criticized former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon for withdrawing from certain lands that Israel had been occupying, however, and has frequently scoffed at the term "Zionist" on his program.

Views on Religion

Although Savage was born a Jew, he states that he is a Universalist. In a radio interview with Jerry Falwell on April 29, 2004, he opposed Falwell's view that people will go to hell if they do not believe in the doctrine that Jesus is the unique son of God. He refuses to believe that good people who do not accept Jesus will go to hell, while unrepentant, sinful Christians will go to heaven. Savage believes that religion is "a wheel". At the center of the wheel is God, and the five "spokes" of the wheel are the world's major religions: Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam. He believes in Universal reconciliation, which means that everybody will eventually go to heaven.

On his July 18, 2006 show, Savage expressed some tolerance for atheism. He said that he respects people who don't believe in God yet still choose to be moral and kind more than people who believe that they have to be moral and kind in fear of going to Hell.

Controversies and Criticism

Critics such as GLAAD, FAIR, and Dave Gilson of Salon.com accuse him of fascist leanings, racism, homophobia and bigotry, because of his controversial statements about Islam, homosexuality, feminism, and immigration. Critics point out various controversial statements that he has made, including calling for the licensing of journalists and the arrest of liberal activists, as well as proposing responding with force to violent protests. In April 2006, Savage called for the killing of 100 million radical fundamentalist Muslims, saying, "Intelligent people, wealthy people...are very depressed by the weakness that America is showing to these psychotics in the Muslim world. They say, 'Oh, there’s a billion of them (Muslims) and 10 percent or so are radical (Muslims).' I said, 'So, kill 100 million of them (radicalist Muslims); then there'd be 900 million peaceful Muslims left.' I mean...would you rather us die than them?...Would you rather we disappear or we die? Or would you rather they disappear and they die? Because you’re going to have to make that choice sooner rather than later."

Recently, Savage has been extremely critical of talk show hosts such as Rush Limbaugh, whom he has called "Hush Bimbo", and Sean Hannity "Pawn Vanity", for what he views as their blind support of the Republican Party and President George W. Bush. He has also attacked Bill O'Reilly (whom Savage has dubbed the "Lepre-con" and "Loofa-Man" in reference to Bill O'Reilly's shortlived sexual harassment scandal) and William Bennett as hypocrites and "phony" conservatives for advocating morality while living what he views as immoral lives.

Savage has called Bush and most neo-conservatives in government and elsewhere in talk radio "checked-pants, country club Republicans." Savage presents himself as a "Goldwater Republican," part of the traditional conservative movement, and opposed to government largess and globalism.

Savage has also broken from the present conservative stereotype by showing strong support for the environmental and animal rights movements and describing any right-winger who opposes such movements as "ignorant" and "knee-jerk" conservatives. He has also questioned the existence of global warming, however, and has spoken out against PETA.

In July 2005, Bernard Goldberg included Savage in his book 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America as number 61. Goldberg wrote that "Savage's brand of over-the-top bile...puts him right in there with the angriest haters on the Left..."

In March 2006, Savage verbally berated the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church in America, accusing them of breaking federal law by giving assistance to illegal immigrants (in response to statements by Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles, calling it "pastoral support"). He angrily denounced its leaders as "pigs" and "molestors" (in reference to the Roman Catholic sex abuse cases) and called the Church "rotten from the top to the bottom". On other issues however, Savage has shown himself to be a great supporter and defender of the Catholic Church, especially with regard to Pope Pius XII, whom he praised as being "one of the great men of all time" for his efforts in saving the lives of hundreds of thousands of Jews during the Holocaust.

On April 17, 2006, Savage stated, "...we're going to die as a nation. I swear to God that's what people are saying to me. And these are intelligent people, wealthy people. They are very depressed by the weakness that America is showing to these psychotics in the Muslim world. They say, 'Oh, there's a billion of them.' I said, 'So, kill 100 million of them, then there'll be 900 million of them.' I mean, would you rather die -- would you rather us die than them? I mean, what is it going to take for you people to wake up? Would you rather we disappear or we die? Or would you rather they disappear and they die? Because you're going to have to make that choice sooner rather than later." Later in the same show, Savage referred to the alleged Duke University rape victim as the "Durham Dirtbag" and a "drunken slut stripping whore".

Trivia

• On his February 10, 2006 show, he proclaimed that the online encyclopedia Wikipedia is "full of crap" and that most of his entry is untrue. The subject was brought up because of a recent report that aides to politicians have been tweaking their bosses' bios to make them come across more favorably. During his show on May 24, 2006, Savage stated that he believes those who edit Wikipedia have finally gotten it somewhat right. He would later recant this statement.. On his July 28, 2006 show, Savage once again pointed out inaccuracies in his Wikipedia article. Savage cites the fact that it says he was born in Brooklyn AND the Bronx in the "Biography and Education" section. Savage also pointed out that the article states that his program was licensed under Clear Channel, which it never was.

• Savage once criticized the Mortal Kombat series of video games, despite having previously used a sound clip of the game's villain Goro bellowing with rage to return from a commercial break. Given the generic nature of the sound, it was unlikely that Savage was aware of this, and the initial use of that clip has been attributed to an intern fooling around with the audio library.

• Russell Goldencloud Weiner, Savage's son, is the founder and CEO of Rockstar, Inc., the manufacturer and marketer of Rockstar energy drink.

• Michael Savage's fill-in guest hosts include former U.S. congressman "B-1" Bob Dornan, Rick Roberts and Douglas Urbanski (movie producer/manager of actor Gary Oldman.)

Books and other writings

Liberalism Is a Mental Disorder: Savage Solutions

Along with his four best selling political books The Savage Nation, The Enemy Within, Liberalism is a Mental Disorder, and The Political Zoo, Michael Savage, as Michael Weiner, PhD, is the author of the book Herbs That Heal and 17 other books.

The publication of Weiner's Herbal: The Guide to Herb Medicine in 1980 raises some controversies. The book states the medical benefits of marijuana. However he recently stated that the chemicals in marijuana make it too dangerous to be used as medicine. On his program, he strongly cautions against the recreational use of marijuana, occasionally devoting his show to "marijuana horror stories" and its claimed potential to ruin lives. He has authored a number of other books on various herbal medicine topics as Weiner. More recently, Savage's books are political in nature and published by WND Books, a partnership between the conservative website WorldNetDaily and Thomas Nelson, a publisher of Christian books.

In January 2003 he published The Savage Nation: Saving America from the Liberal Assault on Our Borders, Language and Culture, his first book under the pseudonym Michael Savage. The book quickly reached the top of the New York Times bestseller list, earning Savage, as noted above, a commentary show on MSNBC. The book directs attacks at "liberal media bias", the "dominating culture of 'she-ocracy'", gay activists, and liberals.

In January 2004, Savage published his second political book, The Enemy Within: Saving America from the Liberal Assault on Our Schools, Faith, and Military. His next book, Liberalism is a Mental Disorder, was released on April 12, 2005. Unlike The Savage Nation, both of these books cited sources for some of the more controversial claims made.

In January 2006, Savage announced that he would be releasing a new book The Political Zoo in mid-April. The book contains satirical profiles and cartoons of different people in politics as animals in the Political Zoo, including one of Savage himself, who is portrayed as the zookeeper. Savage has remarked that the book will be "easier to digest" than his previous political books.

Bibliography

Books as Michael Weiner

• Plant a Tree, New York : Collier Books, 1975
• Bugs in Peanut Butter, Boston : Little, Brown, 1976.
• Man's Useful Plants, New York: Macmillan. 1976.
• The Taster's Guide to Beer: Brews and Breweries of the World, Macmillan, 1977.
• Earth Medicine, Earth Food, New York : Macmillan Pub. Co., 1980.
• The way of the skeptical nutritionist, New York : Macmillan, 1981.
• The Art of Feeding Children Well, Warner Books, 1982
• Nutrition Against Aging, Bantam books, 1983.
• Secrets of Fijian Medicine, Quantum Books, 1983.
• Vital Signs(the book), Avant Books, 1983
• Getting Off Cocaine, Avon Books, 1984.
• Maximum Immunity, Boston : Houghton Mifflin, 1986.
• Reducing the risk of Alzheimer's, New York : Stein and Day, 1987.
• The Complete Book of Homeopathy, Garden City Park, N.Y. : Avery Pub., 1989.
• The Herbal Bible, San Rafael, CA : Quantum Books, 1992.
• Healing children naturally, San Rafael, CA : Quantum Books, 1993.
• Herbs that heal : prescription for herbal healing, Mill Valley, CA : Quantum Books, 1994.
• The Antioxidant Cookbook, Mill Valley, CA : Quantum Books, 1995.

Books as Michael Savage

• The Savage Nation, WND Books, 2003.
• The Enemy Within, Nelson Current, 2004.
• Liberalism is a Mental Disorder, Nelson Current, 2005.
• The Political Zoo, Nelson Current, 2006.

External links

• Michael Savage's website (WARNING: graphic material such as images of beheadings on the main page)
• Michael Savage bio from the Talk Radio Network website
• Template:Nndb name
• Michael Savage / Savage Nation Discussion Forums
• Michael Savage on Media Matters
• Savage Stupidity
• The Savage Underground
• Michael Savage Neologisms
• "Savage Hate", Ron Russell, East Bay Express, July 19, 2006