Maybe C-SPAN “blacklisted” Savage because he skipped the
ceremony.
Radio Equalizer blog has the following (all that follows
is by the blogger):
http://radioequalizer.blogspot.com/
Michael Savage, Freedom Of Speech Award
NO SHOW
Savage Skips Own Award Ceremony
by Brian Maloney
Again underscoring his ultra- reclusive nature, the “Savage Nation” host unexpectedly failed to appear at a ceremony where he was to pick up an industry honor.
Selected to receive this year’s Freedom Of Speech Award at the New Media Seminar held over the weekend in New York City, Savage instead substituted a hastily- made YouTube- style home video.
Overseen by Talkers Magazine, the event provides an annual gathering place for talk show hosts, programmers and syndicators. While Sean Hannity, Alan Colmes, Laura Ingraham, Mark Levin, Lars Larson, Ed Schultz, Stephanie Miller, Rusty Humphries, Michael Medved, G Gordon Liddy, Jerry Doyle and many others made the trip, Savage’s failure to appear was not announced ahead of the ceremony.
His non- appearance must have been a disappointment for Talkers publisher Michael Harrison, who generally uses the award presentation to generate publicity for his magazine and seminar.
As for the video (which your Radio Equalizer is praying will soon reach YouTube), it was so bad that it was actually good. While a few obvious non- fans in the audience snickered, Savage actually came across in a friendly, conversational style rarely heard on his radio show these days.
Filmed from his boat Patriot in an undisclosed Marin County location, Savage rattled off a number of points in rapid- fire style. Occasionally during the crudely- edited production, he appeared in front of his own “Mike’s Bar”, which appeared to be elsewhere on his property.
The syndicated radio host railed against Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, calling them “failed radio hosts” and “frauds”, while asserting that liberals have almost- universal control over the world’s ideas and images, with talk radio as one of the rare exceptions.
Also warning against a possible reinstatement of the Fairness Doctrine, which would regulate the content of talk radio, Savage said that it merely represents “censorship with a fancy name and has no place in America.”
Comparing Fairness Doctrine proposals by Democrats to Venezuelan thug Hugo Chavez’s recent shutdown of an opposition television network, Savage said he considers radio broadcasting here to exist in a “perilous state” that may not be that much more free than in the South American state.
While it’s not clear what kept Savage away from the event, his video presentation certainly kept the audience entertained, whether they were fans or not.
For what it’s worth (why do I keep hearing Paul Harvey’s
voice in my head when I type that?)—One comment that appeared on RadioEqualizer’s blog entry, by Bill Bowman:
“Savage is cleverly disguising the fact that he did not attend the event while bashing C-SPAN for not taping the playing of his video. He claims he’s being blacklisted. He’s playing snippets of the audio on his program, while enticing listeners to shell out $20 for the DVD version of it. Savage is the epitome of the bully. Always willing to call people out and call them names as long as he is hiding behind something.”