(WASHINGTON, D.C., 4/2/2009) – CAIR today called on a San Francisco, Calif., radio station to reprimand two talk show hosts for a recent segment in which they mocked Islam, misstated Muslim beliefs and cast suspicion on political participation by American Muslims.

KSFO 560-AM host Brian Sussman and co-host “Officer Vic” said during their Monday program: “Islamic finance is about living within your means and helping the needy – unless they’re Jews,” and “The great honorable qualities of that good old time religion: honor killings, female circumcision, not allowing women to drive…Jews are monkeys, pigs.”

Listen to the audio:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6gShjY_Nx4

CAIR is asking American Muslims and other people of conscience to contact KSFO officials and advertisers to express their concerns about the hosts’ anti-Muslim remarks.

“Radio hosts are free to hold bigoted views, but listeners have no obligation to subsidize those views by purchasing the goods or services of companies that choose to advertise on hate-filled programs,” said CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper. “So-called ‘honor killings,’ female genital mutilation and not allowing women to drive are not part of Islam. Muslims respect Jews and Christians as ‘people of the book’ who received earlier revelations from God.”

He cited the Quran, Islam’s revealed text, which states: “Those who believe (in the Quran), those who follow the Jewish (scriptures), the Sabians, and the Christians – any who believe in God and the Last Day and work righteousness – on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve.” (Quran, 5:69)

Hooper said this was not the first time Sussman made offensive remarks relating to Islam. In 2005, he asked a caller to prove he was not Muslim by saying “Allah is a whore.” In 2007, another host at KSFO warned “enemy” Muslim nations: “You keep screwing around with stuff like this, we’re going to kill a bunch of you – millions of you.”

CAIR is part of the Hate Hurts America Multifaith Community Coalition (HHA), a group of religious and civic organizations seeking to challenge hate speech in American society.

HHA was formed as a result of radio talk show host Michael Savage’s rhetorical attacks on religious and ethnic minorities. It waged a successful campaign to urge advertisers to stop running commercials on Savage’s program. The coalition includes public officials and civil rights advocates, as well as representatives of the Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Latino, and Asian communities.

SEE: Hate Hurts America

SEE ALSO: How Islamophobes Spread Fear, Bigotry and Misinformation

IMMEDIATE ACTION REQUESTED: (As always, be POLITE.)

1. CONTACT KSFO to express your concerns about the hosts’ anti-Muslim remarks and to ask that they be formally reprimanded.

CONTACT:

Mr. Michael Luckoff
President & General Manager
KSFO-AM
900 Front Street
Tel: (415) 954-8181
Fax: (415) 391-2795
E-Mail: mickey.luckoff@citcomm.com

Also e-mail the station: http://www.ksfo560.com/contactus.asp
Copy to: jack.swanson@citcomm.com, info@cair.com, anthony.licciardi@citcomm.com, briansussman2@yahoo.com, deidra.lieberman@citcomm.com, ken.berry@citcomm.com, leerodgers@abc-sf.com, ksfordb@abc.com

2. LISTEN TO THE STATION either in the San Francisco Bay area or online at: http://www.ksfo560.com/ Take note of the contact information for advertisers and contact them to express your concerns about the hosts’ anti-Muslim views.

-Leighton Woodhouse, Communications Director, Brave New Films

Media Matters

May 21, 2008

Following the announcement that Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) has been diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor, nationally syndicated radio host Michael Savage opened his May 20 show by interspersing audio of Kennedy singing “Ay Jalisco No Te Rajes” with clips of news reporters discussing Kennedy’s diagnosis and audio from the 1990 film Kindergarten Cop in which Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character says, “It’s not a tumor.” Later, Savage played the Dead Kennedys song “California Über Alles” after stating: “The poor guy’s been suffering for years, you know? Unfairly he’s been accused of alcoholism, but we see now that it was something much more deep-seated. And so, to cut this out in some respect for Ted Kennedy, here’s a tune coming at you from the Dead Kennedys. Go ahead and play it, please.”

After reading from the lyrics of “California Über Alles,” Savage said, “No gloating today, no laughter, all serious. You don’t joke about a man’s cancer. I do it, but I won’t do it today; it’s something I will not do.” At one point in the program, he told a caller, “You know I’m playing the Dead Kennedys not to mock Ted Kennedy. It’s just appropriate, that’s all.”

Later in the program, Savage aired a clip of Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) offering a tribute to Kennedy on the Senate floor before describing Byrd as “a senile senator” and “a walking psycho.” Savage went on to assert, “For years now, Byrd has been blubbering on the floor of the Senate. For years, I mean, to be honest, Kennedy didn’t seem sane to me.” He continued, “Forget about the drunk stories and all that — anybody can drink. The guy sounded like he was off for years, I’m sorry.”

Savage subsequently aired a clip of Kennedy singing “Ay Jalisco No Te Rajes” before he asserted, “This is running America. No wonder [Iranian President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad’s racing ahead with a nuclear weapon. He’s afraid of these old men? He’s afraid of these men who don’t know what they’re talking about? They don’t know what they’re talking about. No wonder Al Gore can receive a prize — a Nobel Prize for something that doesn’t exist. No wonder. Nobody knows what’s going on.” Savage added, “Either they’re senile, or they’re bought out, or they’re corrupt, or they’re crazy, or they’re on medication. And we the people are sitting here saying, ‘The king has no clothes,’ and the king says, ‘Off with your head.’ Play ‘California Über Alles’ by the Dead Kennedys for me. I’m not going to get too worked up right now — lunch is coming up for me anyway.”

In February, discussing the death of Rep. Tom Lantos (D-CA), the only member of Congress to have survived the Holocaust, Savage stated, “You’re not supposed to talk badly about the dead. I generally wouldn’t do it. But in the case of Tom Lantos, I’ll make an exception. I think he was one of the most — he was a scoundrel. And I’ll tell you why I detested Tom Lantos. The man survived the Holocaust of World War II and used it as a weapon the rest of his life.”

Talk Radio Network, which syndicates Savage’s show, says that Savage is heard on more than 350 radio stations. The Savage Nation reaches more than 8.25 million listeners each week, according to Talkers Magazine, making it one of the most listened-to talk radio shows in the nation, behind only The Rush Limbaugh Show and The Sean Hannity Show.

By Edward M. Eveld and Lynn Franey

The Kansas City Star

May 18, 2008

Bearing petitions and prayers, about 70 people gathered Sunday to protest the “hateful utterances” of national radio personality Michael Savage, whose talk show is carried locally by KCMO 710-AM.

Representatives from several faiths, including Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism and Sikhism, were meeting for the first time as the Interfaith Coalition Against Bigotry at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

The group has collected hundreds of signatures on petitions protesting Savage’s statements last fall, “which included a call to deport Muslims from the United States without due process of law,” the group said.

“We have become sometimes saddened and sometimes angered by what Michael Savage has said,” Arif Ahmad of the Islamic Center of Johnson County said Sunday. “We have to tell everyone, you become a star by bringing people together, not by dividing them.”

The group wants to see KCMO drop Savage’s show, the Savage Nation, put on a disclaimer saying the show’s views do not match those of the station, or give Muslims or interfaith groups air time to respond and explain Islam, said James Everett, a longtime interfaith activist in Kansas City.

The station also could switch to music, he said, if Savage launched into offensive language.

Mahnaz Shabbir, a Muslim who led Sunday’s meeting, said radio station managers have agreed to meet Tuesday with representatives of the group. The group plans to present the petitions to the station after the petition drive ends on June 15, she said.

Shabbir said the group defends free speech but thinks all speech must be responsible.

Josef Walker, a community chaplain with the Center for Religious Experience and Study, said the danger of incendiary speech is that it not only can seep into the wider culture, public policy and business practices, but it can spur violence.

And children must be protected from such speech, he said.

“We have to be concerned about the little ones, about their hearts and their minds and their souls,” Walker said.

The controversy began last fall, when Savage made statements on his nationally syndicated radio show that Muslim and interfaith groups saw as anti-Muslim.

For example, Savage told millions of listeners: “What kind of religion is this? What kind of world are you living in when you let them in here with that throwback document in their hand, which is a book of hate? Don’t tell me I need re-education. They need deportation.”

Everett said such comments make Muslim people living in America seem sub-human.

“I am angry at the potential results of this type of hate,” he said.

The statements garnered the attention of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a nonprofit organization that works to promote understanding of Islam and protect civil rights.

The council has called on advertisers to stop advertising on Savage’s show.

But Savage maintains that under freedom of speech, he has the right to share his opinions.

He also has said on the air before that not all Muslims are extremists. His show has the third-largest talk radio audience, behind Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity.

Community leader Alvin Brooks closed the meeting, encouraging the group to speak up “even if they turn the mic off or shout us down.

“It’s a climate we’re in across this land that breeds these kinds of hate-filled utterances that divide us,” Brooks said. “We have a lot of healing to do, brothers and sisters, a lot of healing.”

Savage’s producer and the program director at KCMO could not be reached for comment Friday. The station’s offices were closed over the weekend.

To reach Edward M. Eveld, call 816-234-4442 or send e-mail to eeveld@kcstar.com. To reach Lynn Franey, call 816-234-4927 or send e-mail to lfraney@kcstar.com.

MOTEL 6 REFUSES TO AIR ‘SAVAGE NATION’ RADIO SPOTS
Growing list of companies reject host’s bigoted rhetoric

(WASHINGTON, D.C., 4/25/08) – The Hate Hurts America Community and Interfaith Coalition (HHA) today announced that Motel 6 (http://www.motel6.com), part of the Accor North America chain of more than 950 hotels, has joined a growing list of companies that have stopped advertising or refuse to place their ads on Michael Savage’s “Savage Nation” radio program.

A company representative told HHA the chain will not air commercials on Savage’s program “in any market.”

HHA, a group of religious and civic organizations seeking to challenge hate speech on talk radio, was formed as a result of Savage’s rhetorical attacks on religious and ethnic minorities. Coalition members are calling on advertisers nationwide to stop airing commercials on his nationally-syndicated program.

SEE: Hate Hurts America
http://www.hatehurtsamerica.org

Advertisers that have already stopped airing or refuse to air commercials on “Savage Nation” include Choice Hotels International, Sam’s Club, ITT Technical Institute, Chattem, Inc. (owners of Gold Bond, Icy Hot, and Selsun Blue), Union Bank of California, Intuit (parent company of TurboTax and QuickBooks), and GEICO Insurance, US Cellular, Sprint Nextel, Sears, Universal Orlando Resorts, AutoZone, Citrix, TrustedID, JCPenney, OfficeMax, Wal-Mart, and AT&T.

SEE: National Radio Host Goes on Anti-Muslim Tirade (CAIR)
Savage has a long history of rhetorical attacks on a variety of minority groups. He says he has lost at least $1 million in revenue because of the advertiser campaign.

SEE: Michael Savage (Media Matters)
The Hate Hurts America Community and Interfaith Coalition includes public officials and civil rights advocates, as well as representatives of the Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Latino, and Asian communities.

- END –

CONTACT: Hate Hurts America Community and Interfaith Coalition Coordinator, E-Mail: coordinator@hatehurtsamerica.org

By Extra!

July/August 2003

Though racism, sexism and immigrant bashing have long thrived on American radio, one had to go back to the days of Father Coughlin and Gerald L.K. Smith in the 1930s to find mainstream broadcasters railing against the Jewishness of their political enemies.

But no longer. Welcome to the Savage Nation, the radio show hosted by Michael Savage.

Well-known for his bigotry against non-whites, immigrants, women, gay men and lesbians (see Extra!, 3-4/03), Savage is virtually the only national talk jock targeting progressive Jews with ugly ethnic slurs and stereotypes.

Consider Savage’s December 6, 2002 attack on Jerry Springer. Best known for his trashy TV show, Springer, a liberal Jew who was once mayor of Cincinnati, has been mentioned in recent years as a possible Democratic senatorial candidate from Ohio. This was Savage’s response to that idea:

When you see a guy, when you see a filthy, degenerate human being like Larry, what’s his face, Jerry Springer, and I’ll say it like it is, I think he’s one of the lowest human beings I’ve ever seen in my life, when he puts a television show on, and invites the lowest white trash he can dig his hands on . . . and he makes a mockery of them, and makes a living on it with his hooked nose, what do you think that does for the rest of the world?

“Hooked nose”? Savage’s description of Springer is the classic anti-Semitic physical stereotype of Jews throughout the ages. (Words like “filthy” and “degenerate” are also staples of the anti-Semitic lexicon.) All too often, when Savage’s political enemies are Jewish, his invective takes on a disturbing ethnic edge–disturbing and puzzling, given that the talkshow host was himself born into a Jewish family.

Savage likes to single out progressives with Jewish-sounding names and ridicule them with an exaggerated Brooklyn accent. Thus Rebekah Wolf of the People’s Law Collective and Donna Lieberman of the New York Civil Liberties Union were mocked as “Communist lawyers” (pronounced “loy-yahs”) and “verminous, left-wing garbage . . . with law degrees” (1/9/03). Savage has even invented a fictional ACLU whipping boy, a “loy-yah” tellingly named “Mark Nobodyberg.”

Jewish politicians Savage perceives as left-of-center, such as Sen. Joseph Lieberman, are routinely subjected to crude stereotypes. (Never mind that the conservative Democrat is a co-founder with Bill Bennett and Jack Kemp of the right-of-center Empower America think tank–from Savage’s far-right perspective, Lieberman is on the left.)

“Now he’s throwing his bagel into the ring to be president,” Savage commented about Lieberman’s current political bid (12/16/02), before declaring the senator a “weakling” whom only “fools” would vote for. The bagel reference is routine when Savage is discussing the man he calls “Joey Boy Lieberman”; once, while playing clips of a Lieberman speech (1/13/03), Savage asked his engineer to play some Jewish folk music: “I wanna hear some more merry Klezmer music to go with the Lieberman speech.”

Savage makes similar ethnic references when talking about other Jewish targets. Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is “the brisket baker,” whom North Korean dictator Kim Il Jung honored with a “Bat Mitzvah party” (1/9/03). Elsewhere Savage dubs senators Diane Feinstein and Barbara Boxer “yentas” (4/8/03) and complains that Dustin Hoffman speaks like he has “matzah” in his mouth (2/24/03).

“I smelled corned beef”

Savage uses these references to Jewish culture to highlight the ethnicity of Jews he doesn’t like. His use of code words and indirection was on display in his June 4 discussion of Chief Charles Moose (6/4/03), the Maryland police official who was back in the news for trying to publish a book about the sniper hunt.

And who is his lawyer, here we go, are you ready for it? Ronald A. Carp. Ronald A. Carp. Ronald A. Carp. A guess–a red diaper doper baby. Just a guess. No idea who he is–an RDDB.

“Red diaper doper baby” is one of Savage’s favorite phrases–as indicated by the fact that he’s condensed it to an abbreviation. Ostensibly it refers to the leftist atmosphere in which people Savage hates were supposedly raised. But Savage’s fixation on this lawyer’s name–which is not a name that particularly evokes the left, let alone any drug subculture–suggests that it’s not just a lifestyle he’s honing in on.

Later in the broadcast, Savage returned to gloat that his suspicions were correct:

And I have a real keen nose for this. We just looked up who the lawyer is representing Chief Moose suing the ethics commission. Can you believe this? I was right–Brooklyn, New York, born February 1945. I smelled seltzer all over this one; I smelled Fox’s U-Bet all over it; I smelled corned beef; I smelled it all.

So Carp’s being born in Brooklyn in 1945 means that his parents were reds? Or that he took drugs? No. To Savage it means that they likely consumed items (like Fox’s U-Bet, a chocolate syrup used in egg creams) associated with Jewish culture. That’s what Savage was boasting of being able to “smell.”

In one of his more bizarre routines, Savage contrasted the teams of lawyers the Bush and Gore campaigns sent to Florida to contest the 2000 election results. The Gore lawyers, according to Savage, were “NYU red diaper doper babies,” but also “curly-haired boys from NYU,” “little guys from NYU with big glasses” (12/10/02; 12/24/02). Savage made it clear these exotic creatures were no match for the Bush lawyers (12/10/02):

But then, as Republicans called out the high-powered WASPy lawyers . . . guys I hadn’t seen for years, guys that gave me a chill. . . . The guys they got looked like they could pose for dollar bills. You know, fifties, hundreds . . . the WASP establishment! And I love these guys. I mean, they built a great country; it’s a great nation. I don’t like little guys from NYU with big glasses. I don’t want them on my fifty-dollar bill. You know what I’m saying?

Some people think they’ve figured out what Savage is saying. Fox News commentator Alan Colmes (Hannity & Colmes, 1/6/03) remarked on Savage’s attacks on Jewish liberals, including the imagined “Mark Nobodyberg”: “There are some people who might infer anti-Semitism from those comments.”

“I like seeing crosses”

Other people might infer an anti-Jewish hostility from Savage’s penchant (as in his riff about Bush v. Gore) for comparing members of other faiths unfavorably to Christians. He routinely reminds listeners that few of the gravestones in U.S. military cemeteries are topped with Jewish Stars of David or Muslim crescents (11/19/02): “And when you look at the graves, could you tell me what percentage of the graves have crosses on them, what percentage have Stars of David, and what percentage have a crescent on them?” Savage clearly relishes making this contrast (11/18/02): “I like seeing crosses on our war memorials. You know why? Because 99.9 percent of those who died were Christians!”

Savage praises Christianity in a way that suggests that he’s talking about himself: In his bestselling book The Savage Nation, he plays coy about his religion, writing in a chapter titled “Christophobia: In Praise of Christianity”: “Isn’t it time for us, the liberty-loving people of the world, to demand that those of us who are being assaulted because of our religious and cultural beliefs demand that the attackers be called ‘Christophobes’?”

Despite his reference to “our” religious and cultural beliefs, Savage was born Michael Wiener into a Jewish family in the Bronx, New York, in the 1940s. Savage adopted his new name when he began hosting his first radio show in 1994. On-air and elsewhere, “his Jewish upbringing is strictly taboo,” reported Salon.com writer David Gilson in a March profile (3/5/03). Brad Kava, a radio columnist for the San Jose Mercury News and himself a Jew, told Salon, “He’s Jewish, but he always acts like he’s Christian.” Gilson reported that when Kava noted that Savage was Jewish, Savage reported him to the Anti-Defamation League.

Is Savage a Jew-baiter who believes his Jewish background inoculates him from charges of anti-Semitism? Mark Potok, editor of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Report, a magazine that tracks racism and anti-Semitism, told Extra!, “Whatever is in his head, he clearly makes statements that are anti-Semitic; if he’s Jewish, he needs to see a psychiatrist.” But more importantly, says Potok, Savage’s brand of profitable bigotry resonates with some listeners: “Savage operates in a milieu where it pays to be provocative and where his messages can reach Christian nationalists and anti-Semites.”

Another reason Savage may not be criticized for his Jew-baiting outbursts is that he militantly supports the Israeli government, a position mistakenly believed to be incompatible with anti-Semitism. And talk radio frequently flies below mainstream media radar–a point that Savage seems to understand and exploit in a way that suggests that he knows his remarks about Jews are unacceptable. In Savage’s more visible vehicles–his best-selling book and his MSNBC show–he prudently steers clear of anti-Jewish slurs.

Finally, there may be another reason why Savage’s slurs and stereotypes escape mainstream media examination: Many of the media outlets we depend on to inform us of such things–ABC and NBC, to name two–profit from Savage’s radio and television shows. If those suspicions are valid, it should give pause; Savage is hot these days. The Savage Nation is heard on over 300 radio stations–many of them owned by Disney/ABC; his book of the same name spent time at the top of bestseller lists in early 2003; and, in March, MSNBC gave him his own national cable show–also called the Savage Nation.

Note: As Extra! went to press, on July 7, 2003, Savage was fired by MSNBC after calling a caller a “sodomite” and telling him to “get AIDS and die.”

Email him at:
michaelsavage@paulreveresociety.com

Or

Call his radio show between 6-9PM ET here:
800-449-8255

This website has hosted a number of shows discussing Michael Savage. If you click on the link below it will take you to their You Tube site were Videos about Savage have been posted.

About the Website:

“Media Matters for America is a Web-based, not-for-profit, 501(c)(3) progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media.

Launched in May 2004, Media Matters for America put in place, for the first time, the means to systematically monitor a cross section of print, broadcast, cable, radio, and Internet media outlets for conservative misinformation — news or commentary that is not accurate, reliable, or credible and that forwards the conservative agenda — every day, in real time.

Using the website www.mediamatters.org as the principal vehicle for disseminating research and information, Media Matters posts rapid-response items as well as longer research and analytic reports documenting conservative misinformation throughout the media. Additionally, Media Matters works daily to notify activists, journalists, pundits, and the general public about instances of misinformation, providing them with the resources to rebut false claims and to take direct action against offending media institutions.”