Protesters ranging from La Raza Centro Legal and the Bay Area Lawyers Guild to representatives of public stations KPFA and KQED plan to demonstrate against right-wing talk show host Michael Savage outside KNEW radio on Friday (April 20), according to a report in the San Francisco Daily.
“To remove Don Imus from the radio and not remove people like Michael Savage is hypocrisy,” protest organizer Steve Zeltzer told the SF Daily. “Michael Savage is much more flagrant in his racist, sexist and homophobic comments.”
Savage (pictured), whose real name is Michael Weiner, has attacked Muslims, Jews, transgendered people, immigrants and many other goups, Zeltzer said.
“We support the First Amendment but we don’t support the public airways being used in this manner,” said Zeltzer, who hosts his own cable access program.
KNEW program director Bob Agnew said he had no comment about the demonstration. Savage’s show is based in San Francisco and is syndicated by an arm of Clear Channel Communications to more than 400 stations nationwide.
The protest is planned for 5 p.m. — during the middle of the Savage’s afternoon drive-time program — in front of KNEW’s studios at 340 Townsend St., near 4th Street.
The protest comes amid talk by Democrats of restoring what was known as the Fairness Doctrine, which required broadcasters to give opposing political points of view equal time. The FCC scrapped the rule in 1987. A year later, Rush Limbaugh started his national program, followed by a number of other conservative hosts.