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Posted on 04/09/2003 8:23:43 AM PDT by NorCoGOP
LOS ANGELES -- I thought it was safe to stop lambasting cable news for poor war coverage, but MSNBC has proved me wrong. I do not know what it is about war that brings out the drooling, shrieking ape in us, but the more I see of our television coverage of the war, the less faith I have in commercial broadcasting.
MSNBC, a news channel owned by General Electric and Microsoft, is a case in point.
Caught in a ratings war with CNN and Fox News Channel (and rather badly on the losing end of it), MSNBC has decided to take some drastic measures to broaden its conservative viewership, and to hell with fair-minded commentary.
They have hired a fellow by the name of Michael Savage, a radio talk-show host renowned for his unabashed bigotry and right-wing conspiracy theories. He will have his own weekly one-hour talk show, titled "The Savage Nation."
Why hire Savage? The answer is that Fox News Channel, the most conservative of conservative news channels, is way ahead in the ratings right now, and MSNBC wants a piece of the war-news-obsessed, right-wing pie.
MSNBC president Erik Sorenson justified hiring Savage by calling him "brash, passionate and smart." Add in "sexy" and it's an ad for a romantic comedy. Take out "smart" and it very nearly describes Savage.
Some words that would complete the description include: "misogynist," "homophobe" and "white supremacist." He hates women, homeless people, the Jews, East Asians (or "little soy-eaters," as he calls them) and every other minority under the sun.
Some highlights from his radio show include airing tapes of Hitler's speeches the night before Yom Kippur and calling for internment camps for Chinese Americans who do not sign loyalty oaths.
I simply do not have room in this column to display the full breadth of disgusting vitriol Michael Savage is responsible for, but I will display a few choice quotes that will give you the gist.
As reported by the San Francisco Bay Guardian (Sept. 20, 2000): Savage, talking about student volunteers distributing food to the San Francisco homeless, remarked, "the girls from Branson [school] can go in and maybe get raped ... because they seem to like the excitement of it. There's always the thrill and possibility they'll be raped in a dumpster while giving out a turkey sandwich."
From the same San Francisco Guardian story: "With the [Latino] population that has emerged, since they breed like rabbits, in many cases the whites will become a minority in their own nation ... The white people don't breed as often for whatever reason. I guess many homosexuals are involved. That is also part of the grand plan, to push homosexuality to cut down on the white race."
But the homosexuals aren't the only ones imposing themselves on the white race: "The next time you're in your backyard grilling hot dogs," he cautioned, "don't be surprised if your Korean neighbor is actually grilling his dog. That's the way things are done in Korea."
One can only imagine what his war commentary on MSNBC will be like. Perhaps we can glean some indication from one of his recent broadcasts, defending the use of dehumanization in the army: "We need racist stereotypes right now of our enemy in order to encourage our warriors to kill the enemy."
When left-wing intellectuals such as Noam Chomsky decry the lack of representation given to leftist views in the media, they are typically rebutted with the following argument: Mainstream news is for mainstream views, and your revisionism and social justice just do not cut it.
Fair enough, but where does our dear friend Savage fit in here?
A cursory visit to Michael Savage's Web site reveals a picture of Savage putting his hand down Barbara Streisand's blouse, a stupefying grin on his face, with the caption, "Savage visits wax museum of Hollywood idiots!"
The irony here is that compared to Savage, our Hollywood icons are actually somewhat intelligent and down-to-earth. Any radio host who would air vintage Hitler over a background of German military music is clearly not what most of us would call "mainstream."
Evidently it is OK to parade ignorant, bigoted political commentators in the mainstream news to boost ratings, but it is not OK to bring on commentators critical of the agenda of the American government.
Is it only coincidence that the hiring of Savage comes right on the heels of Peter Arnett's firing for "supporting the Iraqi regime," as Fox News reported it, or for having a personal opinion that is unprofitable to the station, as I would call it.
The message becomes: "Radicals on the news are actually OK, as long as it's our radicals on the news, and as long as it makes us money." And ultimately, isn't money what it always comes down to with sleazeballs like Sorenson?
Rather than be called the "Daily Trojan", it should be called the "Daily CONDOM"
ROFL
While we are on the subject: Hey KRLA- bring Hewitt back at 1700 hours!
I agree that Savage is biased, and right-wing. The only problem here is that idiots in the media declare Savage to be "unclean" because he's biased, and fail to see that Katie Couric is also biased. In their opinion, she's mainstream and objective. So, it's only the right-wing that actually has an "extremist" presence in the media. The left is nowhere to be found. (Hah!)
Liberals try like hell to avoid the stark truth that they are a fringe minority, as much as they would like to believe that they represent "the people", but they don't by and large. When faced with that awful fact, they usually respond with something like "how can Americans be so stupid?". Someone should buy these liberals a mirror.
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