Michael Savage Hangs Up on NPR

England has banned Michael Savage from entering the United Kingdom, along with 15 other individuals that include a Hamas extremist, a Jewish-Israeli extremist and Russian gang members.

Michael Savage appeared on NPR's Talk of the Nation with Neil Conan to defend himself. He opened by vigorously defending his right to free speech and showed outrage about what he perceived as British intolerance. But when the first caller to the show began criticizing Savage for some of his extreme views, seemingly angry Savage quickly put an stop to the caller's exercise of free speech, issued a ultimatum to the show host to stop accepting additional questions and comments from callers and hung up on NPR when Neil made it clear that he wasn't taking any orders from Savage.

It's quite ironic that someone like Michael Savage sees no hypocrisy in strongly defending his right to the First Amendment only to show outrage and intolerance a few minutes later toward the views of someone else he doesn't agree with.

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Comments

[sasidechick]

I wonder why Boss Hog hasn't made the list??

[FlamingLibrul]

You tell em Mr. Savage- you sure are somebody- somebody who's been exposed as a hate-mongering bigot exraordinaire. You're on a list with terrorists, which is where you belong. Hate-radio is dividing this country, and creating a festering underground of disturbed individuals who hate that we elected the black guy President. How much longer do reasonable, sane people have to put up with a minority of crazy, self-aggrandizing wingnuts yelling "Fire!" in the crowded room, day after day?

[BarryBonez]

Yes! We must tear down the dangers of radio until we can all finally rejoice in the shining brilliance of The Party and embrace The Way of our Dear Leader!

[Cinnamonape]

Weiner? In England it's pronounced "Whinger"!

[timinhi]

And by the way, Mr. Weiner ("Savage"): The First Amendment doesn't protect you in foreign countries, even the U.K., and they have every right to refuse entry to anyone their government pleases to. Although I don't listen to your stupid show, I'm sure you advocate refusing entry into the U.S. to all sorts of people based purely on their political or other opinions, as well as people who are simply poor, hungry and want a low-paying job to feed their children. Of course you don't see the hypocrisy of that, huh? With so many people in the media who voiced truly intelligent disagreement with Bush/Cheney, their ill-conceived illegal war and other crimes, they gave YOU a "Free Speech Award?" That doesn't even qualify as a joke. It's the product of some sort of Bizarro Universe.

[laocoon]

why?

[timinhi]

There were several weird ironies to this incident, which I happened to catch on NPR. They made a big deal out of the fact that Savage had received the "Free Speech Award" from Talk Radio Magazine. They even had the Editor of the Magazine as a guest too, and he claimed Savage won the award because he was a right wing talk radio host who actually "had the courage" to disagree with the Bush Administration on somel issues (as if it took some sort of courage when he's a widely syndicated multi-millionaire host on stations owned by Clear Channel and other ultra-conservative conglomerates who totally agree with him and control 99% of radio stations in the U.S.). He tried to take over Talk of the Nation and do what he & his show screeners do whenever someone calls in with a contrary opinion, which is to either not allow them on at all, or if they do get through, shout them down and insult them and not allow them to get a word in edgewise, or simply cut them off altogether. When Neil refused to go along with that, Savage petulantly hung up. Unfortunately, the caller never did get to finish his point, because Neil moved on to another caller.