Savage said Imus was "lynched," compared his firing to "what was done in Nazi Germany to Jews"

On the July 20 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Michael Savage said Revs. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson "lynched [radio host Don] Imus" over racially charged comments he made during his April 4 show. Savage, commenting on the subsequent firing of Imus, went on to say, "This is what was done in Nazi Germany to Jews." As Media Matters for America documented, Imus described the Rutgers women's basketball team as "nappy-headed hos."

Savage asserted that Sharpton and Jackson's public outrage over Imus' remarks was motivated by jealousy, saying: "[T]hey did it because Imus was a more successful talk-show host than they were. They have loser shows on the weekend that no one listens to. How do you move up if you're a talentless demagogue? What you do is you attack talented white men, and you say that we need to have fairness in America, in the American media. So put us in their seats."

Savage went on to compare this purported desire by Jackson and Savage to usurp Imus' radio success to the expulsion of Jewish professors from academia in Nazi Germany. Savage said: "Distinguished Jewish professors were thrown into concentration camps, and good, upstanding Germans took their jobs very happily, including a very famous psychiatrist who took Sigmund Freud's chair after Freud was driven out of Germany, and his name is none other than Carl Jung." Savage added that Jung "very happily accepted the spoils of racism in Nazi Germany, the same way that many so-called progressives have benefited through affirmative action in the United States of America."

As Media Matters has noted (here, here, here, and here), Savage often compares progressives and Democrats to Nazis. For instance, on the June 12 broadcast of The Savage Nation, Savage described the "progressive movement" as "the brownshirts of today" and "the same rabble that brought Hitler to power." Savage joins numerous other commentators who have claimed Imus was "lynched" for his comments, including MSNBC political analyst Pat Buchanan and radio host Michael Smerconish.

From the July 20 broadcast of Talk Radio Network's The Savage Nation:

SAVAGE: It's the same as what the Reverend -- the great Reverend, who nobody knows where he got his divinity degree from -- Al Sharpton, Reverend Sharpton, excuse me -- nobody knows where he's a Reverend or whether he's ever preached, or gotten a degree -- how he lynched the talk show host Imus. Him and the other wonderful, distinguished Reverend, Jesse High Jackson, demanded the hide of Imus. Well, they lynched him. They lynched Imus, as far as I'm concerned.

They didn't do so, so much for racial reasons, they did it for commercial reasons. They did it A, to shake down CBS, and number 2, they did it because Imus was a more successful talk-show host than they were. They have loser shows on the weekend that no one listens to. Now, how do you move up if you're a talentless demagogue? What you do is you attack talented white men, and you say that we need to have fairness in America, in the American media. So put us in their seats.

This is what was done in Nazi Germany to Jews. Distinguished Jewish professors were thrown into concentration camps, and good, upstanding Germans took their jobs very happily, including a very famous psychiatrist who took Sigmund Freud's chair after Freud was driven out of Germany. And his name is none other than Carl Jung. Carl Jung, who is revered by liberals because he was not Freud, and he was an anti-Freud -- he was Jungian, not Freudian -- very happily accepted the spoils of racism in Nazi Germany, the same way that many so-called progressives have benefited through affirmative action in the United States of America. Yes, it's akin. And I'll be back.

—M.J.M.

Michael J. Maio is an intern at Media Matters for America.