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The Saga of the British Banning of Michael Savage

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Arcadianmemories
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« on: June 03, 2009, 09:53:23 pm »

Britain's Ban on an American Talk Show Host is An Outrage

Matt Towery
Thursday, May 07, 2009

It's been decades since I was a student at England's Cambridge University. Since I graduated in 1984, I have returned only a few times to this wonderful country, which I love so dearly and whose people so warmly embraced me.

So I admit to shock over British Home Secretary Jacqui Smith's publication of 16 names of persons now banned from the United Kingdom for allegedly fostering extremism or hatred. My surprise and dismay was in the odd mixture of names on the list. On the one hand, there's a Hezbollah militant who served 30 years in prison for his role in the killing of four Israeli soldiers and a 4-year-old girl. On the other, there's American talk show host Michael Savage, who, among other provocative commentary, has called the Koran a "book of hate."

So militants who advocate or glorify terrorism are now somehow the equivalent of one of the most listened-to talk radio hosts in America? Surely this can't be coming from the great British nation I came to love; a country where great universities such as Cambridge and Oxford educated generations going back to the 1200s, urged students to explore and express divergent theories and views, even when some of those views were at the time generally considered to be unconventional, extreme and even dangerous.

I have a unique perspective on the situation, both because of the intense value I place on the intellectual contribution the British have made to our civilization, and because I listen on a regular basis to Dr. Savage's syndicated show.

I hope listening to "The Savage Nation" doesn't cause Britain to add me to its list of nefarious characters! But I'll run that risk because this is a situation that deserves an expression of true outrage on the part of all Americans, whether they agree with Savage's comments and positions or not.

Let's take a quick look at Savage. He was born under another name, but adopted the surname Savage, as is not unusual in the entertainment industry. National media generally try to ignore his existence, even though Savage has one of the three largest talk-radio listenerships in the nation.

Most likely media disdains him partly because he is both well educated -- he holds Master's degrees and a Ph.D. from Berkley -- and because his on-air personality is often gruff and cantankerous. Savage is prone to take on controversial social and political issues, often pushing things to the edge of opinion.

While some may find Savage's opinions offensive -- for example, he often acidly comments on what he refers to as his hometown of San Francisco's obsession with gay and lesbian issues -- he to my knowledge has never urged listeners to incite riots, harm other humans, commit terrorism or advocate other acts of hatred. Indeed, more often than not he bemoans the ineffectiveness of both Republicans and Democrats. He often drifts from political and social issues altogether to discuss everything from the food he ate the night before to some funny story from his childhood.

My purpose here is not to defend all of Michael Savage's opinions. Like many, there are times when I both agree and disagree with his views. Sometimes he makes me laugh, and sometimes he makes me cringe. But I will defend his right to speak freely, and I will passionately vouch for Savage that he is no threat to either America or Britain -- or to the nearest fly, for that matter.

I'm not alone in this opinion. Even prominent members of the American Civil Liberties Union bemoan the situation. They compare Britain's action with our own Patriot Act, under which the ACLU claims that the United States has banned some foreign nationals from America because of their ideologies and not because they are threats to our security.

As for Savage, he seems more interested in living a quiet personal life and spending time with his dog than he does with agitating for rallies and protests, much less to do physical harm to anyone.

Even if my judgment of Savage is off, the question remains: What does this British list say about a longtime allied nation to America when it decides to take unjustified measures based on expressions of free speech made in another country? Are we treading now on a slippery slope? Will there come a day when those who opine for a living find their words of commentary labeled "hate speech" by their own government? Talk of lists compiled by our own Department of Homeland Security suggests a hint of just such a risk.

It pains me to say this, but it appears that in this unfortunate instance, the true Savage Nation isn't Dr. Savage, but the United Kingdom, for its equating of a talk-show host with killers and advocates of terrorism.

http://townhall.com/columnists/MattTowery/2009/05/07/britains_ban_on_an_american_talk_show_host_is_an_outrage
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Arcadianmemories
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« Reply #1 on: June 03, 2009, 09:54:48 pm »

here is an interesting story and the relationship between the Savage banning the an upcoming election in the UK

http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=47768

UK Minister Who Blacklisted American Talk Show Host May Lose Her Post

Thursday, May 07, 2009
By Patrick Goodenough, International Editor


 – The senior British government minister who included U.S. radio talk show host Michael Savage on a list of people banned from the U.K. for “stirring up hatred” may lose her post in a forthcoming cabinet reshuffle.
 
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has courted controversy in her position, which focuses on law and order, but the threat to her cabinet career stems from a dispute over housing expenses claims, according to reports in Fleet Street tabloids Wednesday.
 
The expenses row was exacerbated earlier this year by the embarrassing revelation that her husband, Richard Timney, had included the cost of two pornographic pay-per-view movies on Smith’s parliamentary expenses claim.
 
Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s Labor Party anticipates a pounding in local government and European Parliament elections to be held on June 4.
 
In the local election, all 27 county councils in England are being contested. Labor currently holds only four of them, compared with 19 controlled by the Conservatives, and those four Labor seats are expected to change hands in what some experts are predicting will be Labor’s worst showing in 30 years.
 
A cabinet shake-up will almost certainly follow quickly as the embattled prime minister tries to restore credibility ahead of the next general election, which must be held by June 2010 but could take place this year.
 
Several newspapers, citing unnamed government sources, put Smith at the top of the list of ministers expected to get the boot.
 
Apart from the expenses row, Smith has become a lightning-rod for unhappiness over government security policies that critics say will threaten civil liberties. They include an unpopular and costly scheme to issue Britons with identity cards and plans for a database that will keep DNA records of convicted criminals – as well as records of people who are arrested but never convicted – for years.
 
The issue of excluding undesirable visitors has brought the government more unwelcome controversy.
 
Last October, Smith announced the tightening of regulations to allow the government to bar entry to foreigners who provoke extremism and hatred.
 
She came under fire in February when, invoking those new rules, she denied Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders a visa. The move to bar Wilders, a critic of Islamist radicalism, sparked a diplomatic row with the Netherlands.
 
The opposition Conservative Party then noted that no such restrictions had been placed on a spokesman for the radical Lebanese group Hezbollah, who was due to address an academic seminar in London in March. Facing accusations of employing double standards, Smith then banned Ibrahim Moussawi too.
 

 On Tuesday, Smith for the first time published a list of people she said had been banned from the U.K. for fostering hatred or extremism since the regulations were tightened last October.
 
“Coming to the U.K. is a privilege and I refuse to extend that privilege to individuals who abuse our standards and values to undermine our way of life,” she said. “I will not hesitate to name and shame those who foster extremist views as I want them to know that they are not welcome here.”
 
Of the 16 names released, half are Islamic radicals or terrorists while the rest include Russian skinhead gangsters, white supremacists, a militant Israeli settler, anti-homosexual activists – and the host of the nationally-syndicated “Savage Nation” talk show.
 
Smith said she was publicizing the names to signal what type of behavior Britain was not prepared to tolerate. She said the full list currently stood at 22, but cited “public interest” reasons, without elaborating, for not releasing the other six names.
 
(Having been barred in March, Moussawi is evidently one of the six, although the reason for not disclosing his name is unclear. Britain last March said it was re-establishing official contacts with Hezbollah’s “political wing.” The Shi’ite group expects to do well in Lebanon’s general elections next month.)
 
‘Backfired’
 
In its statement listing the “hate promoters excluded from the U.K.” Smith’s Home Office described Savage as follows: “Considered to be engaging in unacceptable behavior by seeking to provoke others to serious criminal acts and fostering hatred which might lead to inter-community violence.”

Michael Savage hosts a nationally syndicated talk-radio show, "Savage Nation," which is heard throughout the United States on Talk Radio Network. The provocative talk show host hit back at his inclusion on the blacklist, threatening during his show on Tuesday to sue Smith.
 
“They linked me up with Russian skinheads who had murdered 10 people, Islamists who had smashed in the heads of Jewish children with rifle butts [a reference to Lebanese terrorist Samir Kuntar, released from an Israeli jail last year],” Savage said. “How could they put Michael Savage in the same league with mass murderers when I have never avowed violence?”
 
“This lunatic Jacqui Smith, in my opinion, has defamed me, and if possible, I will sue her personally,” he said.

British media outlets have picked up on Savage’s remark that he had not even been planning to visit Britain. Similarly, the two Russian skinheads listed are both serving 10-year prison sentences. The Home Office was unable to say how many of the 22 people listed actually wanted to visit.
 
The conservative Daily Mail opined that Smith’s initiative “appears to have backfired spectacularly at a time when her job is already hanging by a thread after a string of expense scandals.”
 
In the left-wing Guardian, a commentator wrote that Smith was evidently planning to use the exclusion of Savage, who has criticized Islam, as “a fig leaf” when faced with future complaints about the banning of a Muslim figure.
 
In 2007, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) complained after Savage on his program called the Koran a “book of hate” and a “document of slavery and chattel.”
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« Reply #2 on: June 03, 2009, 09:59:29 pm »

I still dont understand why Savage? he said something on his radio show about a dispute with Napalitano...do you know anything about that?

he seemed to think the banning was because of that...that he was being targeted by the government...which with THIS government I wonder!
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« Reply #3 on: June 03, 2009, 10:05:57 pm »

I still dont understand why Savage? he said something on his radio show about a dispute with Napalitano...do you know anything about that?

he seemed to think the banning was because of that...that he was being targeted by the government...which with THIS government I wonder!

my suspicions focus on Soros and his "Media Matters" group, and that organization's links to Rahm Emmanuel in the White House. Janet Reno Napolitano is a shallow hack who is ONLY going to do what Rahm tells her to do, just as Rahm is only going to do what Soros tells him to do.

And I guess the "teleprompter" is at the top of the food chain.
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« Reply #4 on: June 03, 2009, 10:46:01 pm »

my suspicions focus on Soros and his "Media Matters" group, and that organization's links to Rahm Emmanuel in the White House. Janet Reno Napolitano is a shallow hack who is ONLY going to do what Rahm tells her to do, just as Rahm is only going to do what Soros tells him to do.

And I guess the "teleprompter" is at the top of the food chain.

 Cheesy Cheesy
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« Reply #5 on: June 03, 2009, 11:11:34 pm »

Arcadianmemories, right on. You got it. Before Savage is done pealing back the onion, Gorge Soros and his gang of financial, fascist terrorist will be fully exposed, along with their beneficiaries in the administration.

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« Reply #6 on: June 04, 2009, 04:44:35 pm »

Arcadianmemories, right on. You got it. Before Savage is done pealing back the onion, Gorge Soros and his gang of financial, fascist terrorist will be fully exposed, along with their beneficiaries in the administration.



I sincerely hope that we are correct! Savage has announced that his UK attorneys are pressing for full discovery before trial, so we can only hope that the rotten snake at the heart of this attempt at intimidation and censorship is found.
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