while the "Sodomite" comment probably didnt help, wishing a horrible death on a listener is not what station managers and more importantly advertisers want associated with their stations or products.
Such comments are part of Savage's "schtick". Like I said, he's said worse on his radio show. What did MSNBC expect. Again, I think that he only got in trouble because he picked on a "politically protected class" of people. If he had told a white male pro-life Christian to go blow himself up in front of an abortion clinic he wouldn't have been fired, he would have probably been awarded an Emmy and his show promoted to a better timeslot on MSNBC.