Michael Savage got served

Apparently, turnabout is not fair play for Michael Savage.

According to the Associated Press, the conservative talk radio host and all-around loudmouth is suing the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) for their use of his one of his broadcasts on their website, which encourages a "letter-writing campaign directed against talk radio advertisers." The 4 minute segment in question includes the following rant, which the lawsuit describes as "provocative and strongly worded," but which might be better described as being outright racist: "What kind of religion is this? What kind of world are you living in when you let them in here with that throwback document in their hand, which is a book of hate...Don't tell me I need reeducation. They need deportation."

Savage claims that the excerpt from the show was taken out of context (he was actually "talking about Iran president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his dangerous and violent brand of Islamic extremism, not about the religion in general," according to an interview with the AP) and that the CAIR's use of it without permission constitutes copyright infringement. CAIR and Savage appear to be in agreement that the campaign has resulted in advertisers pulling their spots from his show, which Savage claims has cost him at least $1 million in revenue.

As you might imagine, I am not a regular listener of Savage's show, although I have heard it before and remember thinking that, even among right-wing blowhards like Bill O'Reilly and Joe Scarborough, Savage was particularly reactionary and obnoxious. Honestly, I would love it if this situation cost Savage $1 million, but I have trouble believing that the kind of advertisers that would support his show would really care what the Council on American-Islamic Relations has to think.

I'm also not a lawyer, so I can't really comment on the legal issues here, but I can say that I find the whole thing kind of ironic. It seems to me that Savage was using his radio show as a platform to denounce an entire religion and the people who follow it (as far as I know, the president of Iran is not subject to deportation since he isn't a resident of the United States), so I don't see why those people shouldn't have the recourse of using his own hate-filled words against him. The suit also alleges that CAIR "is not a civil rights group, but a political organization funded by foreigners with ties to Hamas and other terrorist groups" (which, according to Wikipedia, is a charge that the group has been struggling with ever since its conception though, from what I read, the evidence doesn't really support it), but I'm not sure what bearing that has on his case.

In any event, I personally think it's nice to see one of these talk radio demagogues get what's coming to him because, in my admittedly limited experience of listening to their shows, they tend to toe the line between offensive and downright sickening. One can only hope that, next time, Michael Savage will take a moment and think really hard about what he's going he say before he blasts an entire religion on the air. Sadly, though, I have a feeling that's little more than wishful thinking.

Sources:
Radio Host Sues Group That Quoted Him [Associated Press]
Council on American-Islamic Relations [Wikipedia]
Michael Savage sues Muslim group campaigning for ad boycott [SF Chronicle]