Nathaniel

Shockey

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January 21, 2008

How is Michael Savage On the Air? Oh, That’s How

Michael Savage, the occasionally loud, usually offensive radio personality who is deliberately ignored by every major media outlet in America, is the sort of person you’d be better off knowing about.

Originally Michael Alan Weiner, he grew up in the Bronx. He currently lives in San Francisco, or as he sometimes refers to it, “San FranFreako.” But his thick, Italian New York accent, coupled with his love of Italian food and his certainty about everything he sets his mind to, make his roots as evident as ever.

He has a master’s degree in medical botany, a master’s in medical anthropology and a PhD in nutritional ethnomedicine. He published about 20 books before taking on the name “Savage,” and has since written four books directly concerning politics, all of which were bestsellers.

It would seem a bit strange that he is not more prominently mentioned in the media. But when you listen to him speak, the mystery all but vanishes. One might say he’s a bit rash.

He is fiercely critical of practically everyone and everything outside his radio booth (including his producer when he messes anything up). Bill O’Reilly is “the leprechaun,” Sean Hannity is “Pawn Vanity” and Rush Limbaugh is “Hush Bimbo.” He has a love/hate relationship with President Bush, usually leaning towards hate. But compared to his utter loathing for anything and everything he deems liberal, his feelings towards Bush could almost be described as lukewarm.

If you listen to his show, you’ll soon realize that he yells a lot. And the question beckons, is he really that angry, or is he just aiming for shock value? His show is the self-proclaimed “most exciting radio show” in America, so it wouldn’t be crazy to allege that he occasionally goes out of his way to make sure his show lives up to its advertising.

He actually had a show on MSNBC for a while (weird, huh?), which lasted an impressive four months, until he respectfully told one of his callers, “Oh, so you're one of those sodomites. You should only get AIDS and die, you pig; how's that?. . . Go eat a sausage, and choke on it. Get trichinosis. OK, got 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 sodomite on . . . I don't care about these bums; they mean nothing to me. They're all sausages.”

I still can’t believe they fired him.

So now he’s strictly on the radio. The thing is, he is not simply going for shock value. I think his heart rate actually doubles when he gets excited about certain issues, and I think he probably does lose sleep over his utter incredulousness with society in general. I’ve heard him say things, very recently, as offensive as or worse than the above quote. The man cares passionately about America, and perhaps even more passionately about exposing everyone and anyone he believes to be harming it.

He complains repeatedly about racism toward whites, homosexuals in general, and please, please, don’t get him started on “tahhh-lerance” (his pronunciation of the word, “tolerance”). So how is he still on the air?

I guess the problem is that he has the third-largest nationwide audience in radio, with about 8 million to 10 million listeners a week.

Evidently, not everyone automatically yells “unclean” upon hearing someone speaking against homosexuality, the massive increase in Spanish-speaking in America or sympathizing with the white male.

Michael Savage has found an incredibly unlikely and probably impermanent niche in American political discussion.

For one, the mainstream media completely ignores him. Even Fox News wants nothing to do with Savage or his paltry 10-million-listeners-per-week radio show. Hannity, O’Reilly and Limbaugh all leave him alone because they’re afraid to mess with their shared audience. In a way, Savage is like a poisonous snake who will strike fiercely at anyone who gets too close.

Without any mention from the mainstream media, the majority of Americans have never even heard of him. And so Michael Savage carries on with his incessant mantra, “borders, language, culture,” quoting great poets and authors and actively teaching the relevance of all history, yelling at liberals (and even most conservatives) and frequently telling stories about his pet dog, Teddy.

I think that, a long time ago, Michael Weiner realized something that perhaps the rest of us are beginning to learn. What the media teaches us about all things “taboo” is absolute bunk.

The official book of all things socially or morally acceptable has yet to be accepted by everyone. Considering Savage’s enormous following, there actually seem to be quite a number of dissenters.

A lot of what Michael Savage has to say ought never to be said. Most of the time he comes across as incredibly arrogant and self-absorbed. He seems to think most people are really quite unintelligent, and when you listen to his show, you have to wonder if it is possible to speak with him on-air without getting yelled at, whether one thought they agreed with him or not.

But the truth is that Michael Savage is a rebellious voice worth noticing. Listen to his show and ask yourself, how can this man possibly be on the air?

Then keep listening. Chances are, you’ll be able to answer that question before too long.

© 2008 North Star Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.

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