Savage responds to "fascist, gay website named Media Matters"

Summary: On his radio show, Michael Savage responded to a Media Matters item noting that his website used the following headline in linking to an article: "BULL-DYKE FASCIST TASERS STUDENT WHO ASKS KERRY TOO MANY QUESTIONS." Savage asserted that "a fascist, gay website named Media Matters has attacked me for pointing out that it was a so-called feminist type who tasered the student who asked [Sen. John] Kerry too many questions."

On the September 18 edition of his nationally syndicated radio show, host Michael Savage responded to a Media Matters for America item noting that on the afternoon of September 18, Savage's website used the following headline in linking to an article: "BULL-DYKE FASCIST TASERS STUDENT WHO ASKS KERRY TOO MANY QUESTIONS." The article reported on a University of Florida student who was shocked with a Taser and removed by several campus police officers -- at least one of whom was female -- from a September 17 forum featuring Sen. John Kerry (D-MA). On his show, Savage asserted that "a fascist, gay website named Media Matters has attacked me for pointing out that it was a so-called feminist type who tasered the student who asked Kerry too many questions," adding: "They took the side of the Taser woman, of the policewoman."

In fact, Media Matters noted -- in the context of an item documenting Fox News host Bill O'Reilly's reference to the University of Florida student as "the biggest wimp in the United States of America" -- that the Department of Justice has launched several studies on Tasers, citing an increase in the number of reported deaths associated with them.

During his radio broadcast, Savage did not refer to the female police officer as a "bull-dyke." He did, however, characterize two female police officers -- both of whom Savage claimed were involved in the altercation during Kerry's appearance -- as having "extraordinarily large hips and small heads, of the type that you would have seen in a cartoon of Animal Farm."

As of September 19, Savage's website still included the headline "BULL-DYKE FASCIST TASERS STUDENT WHO ASKS KERRY TOO MANY QUESTIONS," with a link to the same article.

From Savage's website:

From the September 18 edition of Talk Radio Network's The Savage Nation:

SAVAGE: Well, you know, you probably heard this today. The fascist police -- and I've never used that phrase, I'm a supporter of the police -- but the fascist police of the University of Florida, including two women with extraordinarily large hips and small heads, of the type that you would have seen in a cartoon of Animal Farm, tasered this student -- who was a Democrat, by the way -- who dared ask John Kerry about the Skull and Bones society. Now, I don't know whether they were told to taser him the minute he said Skull and Bones, but I do know that Kerry has shown he has no character, because he's now saying that he didn't want it to happen, it shouldn't have happened. It's too late, John. You had an opportunity as a former presidential front-runner to say to the police, "Stop that. I will not have you taser a student in my presence. You are wrong." He didn't do that.

Now, that's Andrew Meyer, a student. He's a Democrat, probably a liberal, tasered while attempting to ask Senator Kerry a question.

[..]

SAVAGE: Chicago, [caller], you're on The Savage Nation. Go ahead, please.

CALLER: Good evening, Dr. Savage. I just wanted to let you know that within the last hour, a very liberal talk-show host on a very liberal network was already dumping on John Kerry as to why he didn't get involved and stop this incident in the lecture hall.

SAVAGE: Yes, but a fascist, gay website named Media Matters has attacked me for pointing out that it was a so-called feminist type who tasered the student who asked Kerry too many questions. They took the side of the Taser woman, of the policewoman. Do you know that?

CALLER: I didn't know that. And I am a police officer, as well as my whole family, and if what we saw on TV happened, it shouldn't have happened. They shouldn't have --

SAVAGE: Why did these cops feel it necessary to taser this kid?

Chris Seeger is an intern at Media Matters For America.