On August 16, nationally syndicated right-wing radio show host Michael Savage asked listeners to “tell me [him] the difference” between left-wing groups -- specifically the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and People For the American Way -- and Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden.

From the August 16 edition of Savage Nation:

Tell me the difference between Al Qaeda seeking to hurt us financially and the left of America. Tell me the difference between Osama Bin Laden and the ACLU. Tell me the difference between the ACLU, tell me the difference between the People For the American Way, tell me the difference between Elliot Mincberg, legal director for the People For the American Way, a radical leftist civil liberties group. ... Tell me the difference between those groups and Al Qaeda, in terms of what their intent is. I'd like to know.

As Media Matters for America has previously documented, Savage has repeatedly issued such smears. On May 14, Savage said, "[t]here is no greater friend of Al Qaeda" than the ACLU, Human Rights Watch, and the National Lawyers Guild. And on May 19, Savage called the ACLU “the most dangerous organization in the history of America” and advocated that “these big-mouthed, phony scum of the ACLU ... should be put into Abu Ghraib prison.”