Posted on 07/09/2003 8:17:37 AM PDT by republicofdavis
Bob Foster, the rural Yolo County man who has taken to terrorizing TV and radio shows with prank phone calls, says his hobby "is all about getting a reaction."
But this may be more than he bargained for. On Saturday, Foster called Michael Savage's live MSNBC show to mention a favorite radio duo, Don and Mike.
Savage was apparently not amused and made a series of homophobic comments to Foster on the air.
On Monday, news broke that the controversial broadcast personality had been fired by MSNBC. And it wasn't long before Foster began to feel the wrath of Savage fans, who have taken to the Internet to spew invective his way.
"I've been getting so much hate e-mail from the Savage Nation," Foster says. "It's kind of frightening, actually. People are saying, 'Look behind your back.' And they're making anti-gay statements.
"I'm not gay. But they're calling me derogatory gay names. It goes on and on. They're disregarding what Savage said and putting the blame on me for him losing his job. It's ridiculous.
"I don't like to see a guy lose his job. But he made a mistake. His comments were way out of line."
The comments in question came after Foster called and began telling Savage about a flight he took from New York.
"Half-hour into the flight," Foster is heard saying on a tape of the incident, "I need to suggest that Don and Mike take your (inaudible) ... 'cause your teeth are real bad."
Savage fumes at the remarks and says:
"Oh, you're one of the sodomites. You should only get AIDS and die, you pig. How's that? Why don't you see if you can sue me, you pig? You got nothing better than to put me down, you piece of garbage? You've got nothing to do today? Go eat a sausage and choke on it. Get trichinosis."
Savage then asks to speak to a caller who "didn't have a nice night in the bathhouse who's angry at me today. These bums mean nothing to me."
During the exchange, somebody off-camera in Savage's studio can be heard gasping.
MSNBC spokesman Jeremy Gaines says Savage was fired immediately after the broadcast.
"In reaction to a hostile caller, Savage made an extremely inappropriate comment," Gaines says. "The decision to cancel the program ('Savage Nation') was not difficult."
Savage remains on the radio, where his show is syndicated in more than 200 markets -- including Sacramento, where it airs on KSTE (650 AM).
KSTE's operations manager, Ken Kohl, could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
Savage, too, has been unavailable for comment.
But Foster was readily available to talk about Savage, whose TV show he'd phoned once before.
"I called him a racist that time, and he went off," Foster says. "It was such an overwhelming reaction, I had to do it again.
"Some people think I was out to get him. But I wasn't. I'm a talk-radio fan. I appreciate what he does, despite his opinions. But he was taking phone calls on national TV, and I wanted to mention Don and Mike."
Foster, who has prank-called everybody from Larry King to Don Imus, says while the response from Savage fans has been brutal ("They hate me," he says), he's also received more than a few words of support.
"I've actually gotten more mail in favor of what I did," he says. "I've been getting a lot of thank-you mail from gay-rights advocates.
"Savage definitely has issues with the gay-rights movement. What I said had nothing to do with gays. He just interjected that. He has a lot of gay protesters, and I think that was on his mind."
Cathy Renna of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation says that with gay issues in the forefront of the national news, "Savage's behavior and his attacks violate even the minimal journalistic standards and have no place on a reputable news network like MSNBC."
Savage was hired by MSNBC in early March. His Saturday talk show boosted MSNBC's ratings marginally in the 2 p.m. time slot, but in 14 outings it still ran a distant third to shows on Fox News and CNN.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
About the Writer ---------------------------
The Bee's J. Freedom du Lac can be reached at (916) 321-1115 or jdulac@sacbee.com. USA Today contributed to this report.
No, I don't see anything about the missing comments, except the post I initially responded to. And frankly, by your comments so far, I don't see how you "hoped he'd do well". Was that before you listened to him? In that case why would you hope he'd do well; you didn't know anything about him? Was it up until his comments on TV, after listening to him on radio? In that case, he says the same type of thing on radio. 
My point there is Kindergarten is too young for that.
What about if he had simply said, "I hope you eat a sausage and choke on it?" Would that be as bad as get AIDS or worse than the long walk on short pier?
What is the standard? Is there a standard for rhetoric? Is there an objective way to determine which insult is worse?
Can we rank the insults?
"Take a long walk on a short pier" would be least bad.
Then, "East sausage and choke to death" would be a worse, except in the case that the person on the receiving end actually did eat a lot of sausage making the remark conceivably possible. Then it'd be worse.
"Get AIDS and die" would be the worst. Why? Because it might seem to most realistic given that the individual ostensibly partook in activity that could cause the scenario Savage hoped for.
You see how absurd this all is? Take a long walk on a short pier is not seen as bad because it is obviously figurative. But the get AIDS and die was just as figurative.
Can people say "drop dead" to crank callers? Is that bad and not tolerable.
Think about it.
But, getting paid after they cancel your show is money in the bank.
So then did Savage make "homophobic comments"? AIDS is not a gay disease (or so the homosexual lobby has tried to persuade us).
He asked if the caller was a sodomite to which he responsed "yes".
Sounds like the called was a politically incorrect clymer too. "Fronting" at being a homosexual.
The media doesn't care, they got their story and Mike got fired.
Meanwhile Nina Totenberg still has her respect and job. She wished AIDS on Jesse Helms and on his grandchildren. I guess since they aren't "gay" it is just postmodern irony and perfectly acceptable.
"I think he ought to be worried about what's going on in the Good Lord's mind, because if there is retributive justice, he'll get AIDS from a transfusion, or one of his grandchildren will get it." -- Reacting to Senator Jesse Helms' claim that the government spends disproportionately on AIDS research, July 8, 1995 Inside Washington.This is the oldest game in the book, don't fall for it.
Michael Savage would be willing to make himself available. Why don't they call his show where he's been talking about this subject (on radio)? He was upset that O'Reilly found it an issue to discuss on his program yet he did not make an effort to get a comment from Savage.
But Foster was readily available to talk about Savage, whose TV show he'd phoned once before.
This loon talkes about how he got "hate email". How did anyone find out who he was? He stepped forward someplace. Did he boast of his actions?
What insults? AIDS, rejection at the bathhouse, sodomite?
He also was eating sausages on his show and told the caller to choke on a sausage and even to get trichinosis (parasites from undercooked meats, such as pork).
He lobbed a bunch of insults at the caller. The insults were determined to be politically incorrect. Is AIDS a politically protected disease? Is it somehow more worse than other terminal diseases such as brain cancer?
Is sodomite an incorrect term especially considering there were laws termed "sodomy laws"?
Is talk of bathhouses verboten?
Certainly trichinosis is not an illness that only hits the homosexual community.
Unlikely, his stepmom, Susan Sarandon was a part of the campaign to prevent Dr. Laura from getting a tv show.
I normally don't listen to his radio show (and I don't have cable, so I didn't watch his MS-NBC series) but I have been listening since he got fired. No other media outlet is giving his side of the issue (they don't bother to ask him (questions). There is nothing to prevent a journalist from just asking him to explain what happened (as a concerned caller to his show). Not interjecting their spin, just asking.
Mike said that one of the things he was proud of was showing shots of the gassed Kurds in Iraq on MS-NBC to show some of the horrors of the Saddam regime.
I don't know what else he accomplished or what negative image he put forth. That is irrelevant.
His foes wanted him off the air and siezed this opportunity to reach that end. It is a double standard that has not been applied to liberals though and certainly seems to be an overreaction.
MS-NBC is under no obligation to keep them. If I were to boycott NBC it would mean giving up my occassional watching of Conan O'Brien's show (which was a program that aired Alec Baldwin's comment that Henry Hyde and his family should be stoned to death). That one program is the only NBC show that I even marginally watch.
NBC cheifs are hypocrites though and that bears noting.
He's proud of what he did. That's why he's boasting online.
If he weren't such a LOOSER he might be engaged in more productive ventures.
He's no different than the DirtyUnderwear trolls who come to FR, launch a thread, get banned, and then boast of their suspension on DU.
Should FReepers not insult these trolls anymore?
ZOT threads would seem to indicate that there is support for taunting trolls.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.