The Ignoble Savage

Shock radio and TV jock Michael Savage, who since March has had a talk show called "Savage Nation" on MSNBC, regularly calls homosexuals "perverts;" women "whores;" Asians "little soy-eaters;" progressives "filthy slime;" and immigrants or people of color natives of "sacred Turd World nations."

So it doesn't seem like Savage would be one to complain about a lack of freedom of speech.

But suppression of Savage's freedom of speech is one of the allegations made in a lawsuit filed against four individuals and one company that run three separate Web sites. Savage claims the sites criticized or parodied him and supported boycotts of sponsors of his programs that had been called for by another organization not named in the suit.

Specifically, Talk Radio Network Inc. (TRN), an Oregon-based company that syndicates Savage's hate-filled right-wing talk show, "The Michael Savage Show," to 305 radio stations around the country, is suing Julie Sigwart, co-founder of the Web site TakeBacktheMedia.com (TBTM); Thomas and Gunilla Leavitt and Leavitt Enterprises, who produce www.savagestupidity.com; and unknown individual "John Doe," who produces www.michaelsavagesucks.com.

The suit charges that by endorsing a boycott of advertisers called for by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), the groups are causing Savage financial damage by unjustifiably interfering in his business relationships with program advertisers, specifically by causing Illinois-based Culligan International Company, which makes water filters, to pull its sponsorship from the show.

The suit also charges the defendants with violating the US Copyright Act by rebroadcasting his shows without permission and illegally trading off "The Michael Savage Show" likeness and image to sell merchandise; among other things, the suit describes one of the sites displaying a retouched photo of Savage wearing a KKK hood. The suit also charges the defendants with spreading "false and malicious" information about Savage.

The suit, which was filed May 12 in district court in Illinois, asks for injunctive relief and at least $500,000 in compensatory damages and an unspecified amount in punitive damages.

Suppression of Dissent

While TRN is claiming Savage is the victim of efforts to suppress his free speech, ironically the defendants themselves see the suit as a chilling attack on their free speech, especially in an era of increasing media conglomeration in which independent media voices like theirs are ever more marginalized.

"They're trying to chill free speech and freedom of expression," said Julie Sigwart. "They're trying to ruin my life to punish me for speaking out. And I think these kind of lawsuits will become more and more common with the consolidation of the media."

"The right wing isn't satisfied with their overwhelming dominance of the corporate media in this country," added Thomas Leavitt. "They now want to systematically suppress all dissent, in all media, because they know that only one thing will defeat them: the truth. And that is all my site is about -- the truth about Savage, about what he has said and continues to say on the air and elsewhere -- statements that place him far, far outside the mainstream of American opinion."

Sigwart, who founded TBTM along with her husband Michael Stinson, aka "Symbolman," and Don Waller, aka "The American Stranger," points out that Savage has actually made it a point to threaten his critics with lawsuits and other harassment. On his radio show he called the defendants, GLAAD and other critics of his show "stinking rats" who "hide in sewers."

Savage said: "You live by handouts, all of you. You live off grants, all of you. You're a bunch of beggars... If you continue this, we're going to go after your funding sources. And we will do everything we can within the legal realm to cut off that funding. We are also going to go to the Justice Department under John Ashcroft."