Savage out
Michael Savage, host of the Savage Nation radio show, has been ousted from his second job hosting a show on MSNBC.
Two words: Finally.
I don't have a beef with about half of what Savage says (I listen to him sometimes on the radio here in Austin), but the half I do disagree with is pretty nasty. He's got a real contempt for various segments of American culture (he thinks we're on the road to total moral decay, the solution to which, of course, is more religion). For those who buy into political stereotypes, Savage is the classic enraged white American male -- like Michael Douglas in falling down, only loud and Italian, and a little more nuts.
Anyway, back to the point. I almost blogged about this last week when I heard his show on the radio after the Supreme Court ruling on sodomy. Savage had a guest host filling in, who was taking call after call who echoed the same point: Most Americans disapprove of sodomy, despite the poll data, therefore it is right that it is illegal. I was tempted to call in and play Spot the Fallacy, but it was pretty obvious that the tone of the show had been totally set; there was no reasoning with these people when it came to the supremacy of majority rule on this issue (but argue for majority rule when it's a liberal position, and they'll slam you, and wonder what ever happened to principles in this country). Anyway, the show was just the latest in a series of ill-reasoned positions Savage's show has taken -- conservative for the sake of preserving the old, not because it's necessarily right.
Read the excerpt from the show at the bottom of the above link and tell me if I'm wrong to celebrate this guy's removal from the MSNBC cable lines.
UPDATE: Lileks has more on the subject, using more adjectives and clauses and such.
Posted by Matt at July 7, 2003 6:37 PM
