It's not only not a hit piece, it's close to being a fan letter. Consider the following passage:
He quickly earned detractors.Peter Laufer of Sebastopol, author of "Inside Talk Radio: America's Voice or Just Hot Air" (Birch Lane, 1995), says in an e-mail, "He is vile, one of the worst of the worst. I still follow (talk radio), too often with the disgust that comes from hearing the predatory behavior of clownish performers like Michael Savage, a perversion of the radio art, as he panders to the corporate greed that currently grips radio in America."
Savage dismissed Laufer: "He's a schmuck . . . a real loser. . . . He's a crank. He hates conservatives."
Thomas Leavitt of Santa Cruz, an unemployed tech worker, maintains a Web site at www.savagestupidity.com. "He's a frothing right-wing nut case," Leavitt says. "All you have to do is listen to him for one show and there's an amazing wealth of lunatic absurdities."
In the face of criticism, Savage points to his success.
"I'm the only breakout show in the history of San Francisco," Savage boasts.
Walter Sabo, chairman of Sabo Media, an international radio consulting company in New York, says, "I think his success is just starting. His show is just reaching a critical mass of stations."
The writer of this is presenting Savage about as positively as he could. What's he doing on the SF Chronicle? There's not a single negative message in the story - even the anecdote about the police and film crew doesn't actually reflect badly on Savage IMO - in fact it tends to establish him and his wife as sincere and committed in their beliefs. It's indeed amazing that this story ran in that newspaper.