Savage's History of Threatening Behavior

Michael Savage (née Weiner) has a long history of threatening retaliation against his critics. His threats have extended beyond simple rants and threats of lawsuits, to implications that he would facilitate harassment and bodily harm by releasing the names and addresses of his opponents to his rabid listener audience should he be driven off the air. In his latest outburst, he threatened to use the "political clout" deriving from his audience of 6 million listeners to induce U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft and the Federal Justice Department to investigate his critics and cut off their funding.

Spring 2002: Reaction to Boycott Efforts in Oregon

The Knights of Englightenment created a Stop Hate Radio PSA (in MP3 format) for their Internet Radio Station that used selections from the diatribe below (click on "Stop Hate Radio PSA" to listen to it).

Thursday, June 13th, 2002; first hour of his nationally syndicated radio talk show, "The Savage Nation":

"Now I'm going to say something now and I won't say it ever again on my program, perhaps. There are a group of people try to drive me out of the radio business. They are working around the clock with lies and hate. They are the true haters, they are the neo nazis of our time. I doubt that they will succeed, they haven't damaged me at all. I haven't lost one iota, not one station or one advertiser. But they're slurring me."
"If they should succeed in damaging my career, if they should succeed in driving me away from radio; I'm going to ask you to go on to Michael Savage .com and have your name put on to a master directory for me. I will release their names and addresses at that time. I will release their names and addresses to you and I will disappear from public life. But I can guarantee you that what goes around comes around and that's all I'm going to say right now. If you haven't gotten it yet, get it."
"I'm more powerful than you are you little hateful nothings. You call yourself this for that and that for this. You say you represent groups, you represent nobody but the perverts that you hang around with and I'm warning you if you try to damage me any further with lies, be aware of something: that which you stoke shall come to burn you, the ashes of the fireplace will come and burn your own house down. Be very careful, you are living in incendiary times. You can't just throw things at people and walk away thinking that you had a little fun. I warn you; I'm gonna warn you again, if you harm me and I pray that no harm comes to you, but I can't guarantee that it won't."

Source: http://www.michaelsavagesucks.com/

Also, according to AP, Savage threatened (and, as the lawsuit against this site demonstrates, eventually followed through with):

"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.

Source: Associated Press

Winter, 2003: Reaction to Nationwide Boycott Efforts

GLAAD, NOW, and other activist and minority organizations attempted earlier this year to persuade MSNBC to not provide Savage with a forum for his hateful rants; while they did not succeed in getting his show dropped, they convinced just about every major national advertiser to drop him like a hot potato, and for the first time, drew the attention of the nation's mainstream media to his history of truly "out there" statements.

"You rats! You stinking rats who hide in the sewers! 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 gonna roll over like a pussy? You're wrong. I'm going to find out where you get your money from. You live by handouts, all of you. You live off grants, all of you. You're a bunch of beggars, but you don't know how lucky you are. If you continue this, we're going to go after your funding sources. And we will do everything we can within the legal realm to cut off that funding! We are also going to go to the U.S. Justice Department under John Ashcroft! What you are doing is illegal! You think it's 1965 and I'm South Africa? I've got news for you: it's not 1965 and it ain't South Africa! I'll cut your funding off, and if you break the law any further, I'll put you in jail!"

"I have millions of people who vote. Mr. Bush wants to get re-elected, and just consider me a politician at that point. I'm going to ask for a trade in favor. If they keep it up, my favor is going to be I want these groups investigated. If they're doing nothing illegal, fine. If they've crossed the line, then put 'em out of business."

Source: GLAAD Press Release: Michael Savage Threatens Critics in Radio Diatribes, February 27th, 2003

March, 2003: Comments to Salon.com Writer by Janet ?

Apparently Savage fosters a similar attitude in the people around him.

Savage's office said he was too busy preparing for his TV show to be interviewed for this article. Earlier interview requests by phone and e-mail prompted an irritated phone call from a woman named Janet, who announced that Savage would not speak with me. Asked if she was his wife -- who happens to be named Janet -- she said she was not. "I am not affiliated with him," she insisted. "I'm just a fan." After a few minutes of testy back and forth, she suggested that it would be unfortunate if my e-mail address and phone number were somehow posted across the Internet.

Source: Salon.com Article by Doug Gilson, Michael Savage's long, strange trip

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