On the March 2 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, after he was reportedly dropped by Hollywood's Creative Artists Agency (CAA) following comments attacking singer and CAA client Melissa Etheridge for thanking her wife during her Academy Awards acceptance speech, Michael Savage continued his attack on Etheridge. As Media Matters for America documented, on the February 26 broadcast of his show, Savage asserted -- in response to Etheridge's speech -- that homosexual marriage “makes me want to puke” and said that married gay couples' raising of children amounts to “child abuse.” On March 2, Savage called Etheridge a “hack” and said, “I find it nauseating, the idea of a woman saying 'my wife.' ” He also repeated his attack on gay parenting: “I'll repeat it again: The idea of two women who are so-called married raising children, I think it's child abuse.” Savage also said of Etheridge: “She didn't have to rub it in our face. She had no obligation to make us all listen to her agenda.” Savage added, “Right now, the Caesars of Hollywood -- and I don't mean Sid Caesar -- the Caesars of Hollywood are so drunk with their power that they feel they've got nothing to lose by rubbing their agenda in everybody's face."
Although Savage did not mention the status of his CAA representation during the March 2 broadcast, he did portray himself as a victim of “this new McCarthyism”: “We live in a free country. And I will not cater, and I will not kowtow to McCarthyism. Right now, the radical left are the so-called McCarthyites of today. ... If someone does not conform to the standards of this new McCarthyism, they do not work in Hollywood. They do not write a script, the script doesn't get published, the movie doesn't get made. The people are thrown off the air because we're living in a new sort of McCarthyism, but much worse.” Savage added, "[The radical left] are the fascists that they feared all their lives, and they have become the fascists. And nobody will stand up to them. Nobody." He went on to say: “I stood up, and I stood up for you -- the people who feel the way I do. And that's all there is to it. And now we can move on.”
Savage later referred to the “Pink Hand of Hollywood” that “control[s] virtually everything that is heard in the media” -- a reference to the purported “homosexual mafia,” which Savage has claimed is responsible for “control[ing] virtually everything that you read, everything that you see, everything that you hear, [and] everything that you wear.”
The Savage Nation reaches more than 8 million listeners each week, according to Talkers Magazine, making it the third-most-listened-to talk radio show in the nation, behind only The Rush Limbaugh Show and The Sean Hannity Show.
From the March 2 edition of Talk Radio Network's The Savage Nation:
SAVAGE: Now, Hollywood, which consists largely of high school dropouts who are either pretty boys or slutty girls who have gotten very rich very fast, but they're idiots, they're Hollywood idiots, how can they know what's going on if they don't know who they are?
So they believe a guy like Al Gore. To him -- oh, Al Gore says it, it must be true. So then they get this hack, Maria [sic] Etheridge, whoever she is, who hasn't had a hit in years, to write a song for his pseudo-documentary, An Inconvenient Lie [sic: Truth]. And then they all give each other awards last Sunday night, and they love each other, with the lovefest.
That's all well and good. Any industry can have a lovefest. It can be a garbage man's convention, it could be a hooker's convention, or it could be the Academy Awards, it's all about the same. And it's a free country. If you want to give yourself an award, you can do so.
But when you see a nation filled with gullible fools, and you see this con man Al Gore selling global warming, and then he's setting up this thing called carbon offsets. And he owns the company. He's the CEO of the company that receives the carbon payments.
I can only think of P.T. Barnum, who said, “A sucker is born every minute.” So play the circus music now in honor of Al Gore-leone and the tens of millions of liberal fools who believe in him.
[...]
SAVAGE: Then there was this case of this woman, really, who I really have heard of from time to time -- who gets up and says she thanks her wife. I find it nauseating, and I said that. Play it again. Play this Etheridge [unintelligible].
ETHERIDGE [audio clip]: I have to thank my incredible wife, Tammy, and our four children --
SAVAGE: All right, I find it nauseating. Turn it off. Now, I said that on Monday, that I find it nauseating, the idea of a woman saying “my wife.” She didn't have to rub our face in it. She had no obligation to make us all listen to her agenda.
But, you see, the idolaters have gotten so emboldened in their power, and their power madness, that they exemplify Lord Acton's comment that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Right now, the Caesars of Hollywood -- and I don't mean Sid Caesar -- the Caesars of Hollywood are so drunk with their power that they feel they've got nothing to lose by rubbing their agenda in everybody's face.
Now, I'm one of the few people out there who see it for what it is. I'm not the only one who sees it, rather. I'm one of the few people in the media, maybe the only one, who will even mention what I find to be disgusting. I find it nauseating, and I'll repeat it again: The idea of two women who are so-called married raising children, I think it's child abuse.
And as far as I know, it's not illegal to have that opinion. In fact, everywhere that homosexual marriage was raised as an issue, it was rejected by the people. The only people who won't acknowledge that it's nauseating to most people are the folks pushing that agenda and, of course, the media and the politicians who are afraid of them.
But I fear nothing, to be honest with you. We live in a free country. We're not living in Iraq, where a temple is blown up by a man from the same religion. We live in a free country. And I will not cater, and I will not kowtow to McCarthyism.
Right now, the radical left are the so-called McCarthyites of today. Instead of the Black Hand, so to speak, instead of the red-baiting, what we have today is the pink-baiting. And what we have now is the Pink Hand of Hollywood and elsewhere controlling virtually everything that is heard in the media.
If someone does not conform to the standards of this new McCarthyism, they do not work in Hollywood. They do not write a script, the script doesn't get published, the movie doesn't get made. The people are thrown off the air because we're living in a new sort of McCarthyism, but much worse, for the reason that McCarthy was 100 percent right. There really were communists in the government and elsewhere, he was right about it, while these people are simply little mini dictators. They are the fascists that they feared all their lives, and they have become the fascists. And nobody will stand up to them. Nobody.
And unless you stand up to them as you have done at the polls -- you did so when homosexual marriage was put up before you. You said “no” to homosexual marriage. They're shopping it to a judge as I sit here. They're constantly swarming around the judges, trying to force it down your throat, and everywhere you turn, in every movie, the entire Oscar ceremony was given over solely to this agenda. They decided this was the time to push it down the throats of America.
I stood up, and I stood up for you -- the people who feel the way I do. And that's all there is to it. And now we can move on.