A Savage Response
At least one supporter of hate radio talk show host Michael Savage is getting the message that many people disagree with him.
Richard Poe, a far Right columnist, wrote an article defending Savage last year when a boycott of "Savage Nation" was kicked off by a coalition of governmental, religious and labor groups in Portland, Oregon. An intriguing aspect of Poe's viewpoint is that he blames criticism of Savage on more than mere liberalism.
Jew-Baiting Leftists Denounce "Hate Radio"
By Richard Poe
June 7, 2002
AN UNHOLY ALLIANCE of leftists, Democrats and Muslims has joined forces to muzzle talk radio. Its weapons are advertiser boycotts, smear campaigns, calls for repressive legislation and Jew-baiting.
Talk radio has always antagonized leftists. It allows grassroots Americans to speak out -- and grassroots America despises the Left.
. . . Unable to compete in the marketplace, the Left responded with political attacks. After the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, the Clintons blamed "hate radio" for the slaughter, and darkly implied that censorship might be needed.
Now a new coalition of Democrats, Muslims and leftwing activists has taken up the Clinton cause. They have targeted San Francisco talk show host Mike Savage, whose program airs on 350 stations nationally.
In April, a Portland, Oregon group calling itself the "Coalition Against Hate Radio" announced a boycott of Savage's advertisers and called on KXL radio to drop his show.
Unconvinced, some writers to Poe have suggested they have rights, too. Among them -- the right to apply economic pressure to media which carry Savage's broadcasts:
His right to hate, our right to boycott. . . .
After learning of your sponsorship of the Michael Savage (aka Michael Weiner) Radio Show, I and others in my organization will be urging all of the members of the Beverly Hills Coin Club to boycott Bowers & Merena. Michael Savage has a history of promoting hatred towards minorities, gay and lesbian people and demeaning women, stating that they are "too emotional too vote." In his ignorance, he erroneously asserts that "white homosexuals are part of the reason that California has been taken over by minorities who are reproducing like rabbits". . . We could go on and on about the many hateful untruths he speaks of on a weekly basis, but we will not support anyone who supports his show. Hateful language leads to hateful acts, one needs only to check history to be reminded of that. Your banner is found at: [link omitted by R.A.]
Regards, David Carter, President www.bhcoinclub.org
[originally posted January 2, 2003]
Poe mingles the false claim that opposition to free speech motivates people who don't like Savage with complaints of anti-Semiticism:
Some of Savage's critics have resorted to crude Jew-baiting.
One site, posted by the so-called Coalition for Human Decency, makes a point of calling Savage "Michael Weiner" and taunts him for hiding his alleged Jewish background.
Others question Poe's assertion that it is Savage's critics who are anti-Semitic:
Michael Weiner Panders to Antisemitic Sentiments
Like many, I find Michael Savage most entertaining. However, I am not amused by a curious pattern which I have noticed. Many of the people he vilifies (for good reason) are Jews. This observation would be innocent were it not for the fact that Savage points out this fact in a variety of subtle and not-so-subtle ways:
1. Senator Boxer - "the shrew from Brooklyn" (he would not dare say the "Jew from Brooklyn" but the similarity is clear) and he notes that she is fond of eating bagels;
2. Senator Feinstein- a "yenta";
3. Senator Schumer- pronounced with an ethnic Jewish accent as in "Schoomah";
4. Senator Lieberman- Savage impersonates him whining to his wife "Hadassah, Hadassah, Hadassah...." in an ethnic accent. Savage remarks that Mrs. Lieberman does the "synagogue circuit" in an effort to raise money.
5. Larry King - whom he refers to as "Larry Selzer," despite the fact that Savage does not use his birth name "Weiner" in order to likewise conceal his Jewishness. . . .
The person who wrote that letter was was banned from Poe's site.
Richard Poe's defense of Savage has shifted somewhat in recent months. He now focuses on a claim that people who oppose the shrill talkmeister do so because Savage is in favor of voting reform, specifically issuance of national identification cards. In the original column, Poe said:
It's plain enough why Muslim and leftwing religious groups would oppose Savage. But why the Multnomah County Democratic Party?
An April 26 article in NewsMax.com offers one theory. In a NewsMax column of March 8, Savage exposed Democratic Senators Chuck Schumer of New York and Ron Wyden of Oregon as the principal opponents of a bill requiring photo IDs for voters. Such a bill would deprive Democrats of one of their favorite political tools - voter fraud.
More recently, he said:
The point of my article is that the anti-Savage coalition appears to be a front for powerful forces who want to silence Savage for speaking out against certain Democratic senators who are blocking vote reform.
Poe has not recanted his endorsement of Michael Savage, but his retreat to the feeble claim that opposition to Savage is part of a Leftist conspiracy to protect voting fraud suggests that he has been 'reached' by the voices of those who disagree.
Update (3/1): Links added; sorry about that. -- R.A.
