Coalition wants station to drop talk radio show

April 25, 2002

Coalition wants station to drop talk radio show

By JOHN ENDERS
The Associated Press

PORTLAND - Michael Savage's nationally syndicated radio show is so filled with hate and bigotry that it could incite violence against immigrants and minorities, a coalition of area church and civic leaders contended Wednesday.

The coalition demanded an end to what they call ``hate radio'' and called on station KXL, owned by billionaire Paul Allen, to drop Savage's show, called ``Savage Nation.''

``We urge those who have the privilege of shaping public opinion that ... words can indeed hurt and can incite people to actions that result in injury and even death,'' said David A. Leslie, director of Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon, one of the coalition's members.

Tom Nelson, another spokesman for the coalition, called Savage Nation's contents ``an unbroken stream of hate and chauvinism directed against women, people of color, liberals, immigrants and in particular people of Middle Eastern heritage and people of the Muslim faith.

Savage said the coalition's descriptions of him as a racist and a bigot are nothing but an attempt to shut him up.

``If they are calling me these names ... they are interfering with my ability to earn a living, and I may sue them,'' he said in a telephone interview from his home in northern California.

``I don't cave in,'' Savage said.

The Coalition Against Hate Radio consists of the Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon, the Interfaith Councils of Greater Seattle and Greater Portland, the Islamic Societies of Southwest Washington and Portland, the Multnomah County Democratic Party, the Muslim Educational Trust, Oregon Friends of the Middle East, Jews for Global Justice, the Catholic Archdiocese of Portland, Centro Cultural and several other churches and groups.

Wajdi Said, executive director of the Muslim Educational Trust, said the coalition would hold Savage legally responsible if any views broadcast on his show incited listeners to acts of violence.

Savage called his critics ``radical leftists'' who themselves are filled with hate.

``They have every right to hate what I say. That's what talk radio is all about: disagreement,'' Savage said. ``That's what the Bill of Rights is all about: disagreement.''

Savage, who has worked as an ice cream factory worker, busboy, lifeguard, writer and scientist, is the most popular radio talk show host in the San Francisco Bay Area, and is heard on more than 350 radio stations across the nation. He would not say how old he is.

His Web site, www.paulrevere society.com, says he holds master's degrees in medical botany and medical anthropology and earned his Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley in epidemiology and nutrition science. He has written 18 books, including The Savage Nation and Herbs That Heal.

In Portland, Savage's show is featured on KXL during afternoon drive time. KXL broadcasts news, talk, weather and traffic 24 hours a day to an audience from northern Oregon to southern Washington.

Tim McNamara, the station's general manager, said he had received seven letters of complaint about Savage's show, along with hundreds of letters of support.

``I have absolutely zero advertiser resistance,'' he said.

McNamara said he offered Savage's critics air time but they declined.