Michael Savage Clashes With Council on American-Islamic Relations and Media Matters: Savage Nation Targeted in Advertisement Boycott

Michael Savage is well-known as a far-right winger with very strong ideas on immigration, Islam, the Democrats, the degradation of American culture and other conservative topics that he talks about on his nationally syndicated radio program, the Savage Nation.

There are times that he's a rabid wolverine, going after a subject and not letting it go until his target is destroyed.

On his October 29th show, he lit up and went after Islam, which caused the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) to began a campaign to get advertisers to stop supporting the Savage Nation. One company has pulled it's advertising so far; others are considering their courses of action. NOTE: the link above goes to his rant. You have to hit the play button; adjust your volume accordingly. He's quite an expert at screaming at the top of his lungs.

His Wikipedia entry is quite interesting too. I hadn't realized that he founded the Paul Revere Society. I do think that Savage goes too far sometimes. His criticisms are at times unfair, while other valid points that he makes are lost by how he presents it. He's his own worst enemy.

I think he needs to breathe a little bit.

But I'm also concerned about the line between free speech and bigotry/hatred, which sometimes gets blurred. Savage hasn't helped matters in this regard. In exercising his Constitutionally-guaranteed free speech in this particular way, he's helped to make it possible for groups like CAIN and Media Matters to target those with a right-wing bend in their views, with free speech suffering major collateral damage in the process. This is not good.

Here's an example of Savage's using a sledgehammer to kill a mosquito: during his brief tenure with MSNBC in 2003, someone called Savage's program (a prank caller) and commented on Savage's teeth. The conversation went thus (this is also in Savage's Wikipedia entry):

Savage then asked if the caller was a sodomite, to which the caller answered, "Yes."

Savage then said to the caller, "Oh, so you're one of those 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 to do than to put me down, you piece of garbage? You got nothing to do today? Go eat a sausage, and choke on it. Get trichinosis. Now do we have another nice caller here who's busy because he didn't have a nice night in the bathhouse who's angry at me today? Put another, put another sodomite on....no more calls?...I don't care about these bums; they mean nothing to me. They're all sausages."

Savage can say what he wants on his radio program; but I think his delivery of his content can be greatly improved and polished. And he can keep anti-conservative groups like CAIN and Media Matters at bay.

I'm not going to comment on his rant against Islam. I think he did raise some valid points, but his points were lost at about 120 decimals.

Harry Potter Synopsis Posted to Wikipedia Before New Book Went on Sale Across U.S.: Wikipedian Locked Article to Prevent Deletion/Alteration by Fans

This post contains no spoilers.

Someone spilled the beans on what happens in the new Harry Potter book (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows) in a clever way: they posted a chapter-by-chapter synopsis to Wikipedia, then locked it to prevent changes or deletion. It was posted before the book went on sale one week ago at 12:01am local time across the U.S.

The explicit curses found in various chat rooms about the Wikipedian responsible were hilarious, and unsettling at the same time. Lots of screaming about the book's contents being spoiled and the ending being given away by those fans stupid enough to read the Wikipedia entry before reading the book.

It's their own damned fault.

I think that someone in Europe posted the information to Wikipedia as they had hours to read the book and post the article to Wikipedia before the book went on sale over here. Hey, don't look at me, I didn't do it. I read the Wikipedia entry at 12:05am EST.

Hope the Wikipedian covered his exterior posterior because some Potter fans are looking for someone to throttle. Morons.

Police Seize Computer Belonging to Wikipedian Who Posted News of Chris Benoit's Wife's Death 14 Hours Before Bodies Were Found

Police seized a computer belonging to a Wikipedian who posted news of the death of Nancy Benoit, wife of former World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) wrestler Chris Benoit, fourteen hours before police found the bodies of the Benoit family in Atlanta.

They're trying to figure out if the posting was an incredible coincidence, or if there's another angle to the double-murder/suicide that has been in the headlines for a week now.

The Wikipedian posted a follow-up message on Wikipedia a couple of days later, apologizing for posting unconfirmed information and saying that he heard a rumor of what had happened and posted it as fact.

The name of the author of the post has not been released, but his IP address put him in Stamford, Connecticut, where WWE's headquarters and corporate offices are located. The police in Georgia who are investigating the case are not happy, saying that this phase of the investigation is a huge distraction.

Wikipedia Controversy on Benoit Murder/Suicide Case Laid to Rest: Wikipedian Apologizes

Something of a mystery that popped up in the last 24 hours over the Benoit double-murder/suicide case was resolved today.

Someone altered Chris Benoit's profile on Wikipedia and announced that Benoit had missed the WWE Vengeance pay-per-view because his wife had died--some 14+ hours before authorities found the bodies of Benoit, his wife, and his son in their Atlanta home. This lead to a huge number of conspiracy theories that the three were murdered--which is, of course, not the case so far--and widespread media coverage.

Today, the Wikipedian wrote this in the discussion page to explain himself:

"... Hey everyone. I am here to talk about the wikipedia comment that was left by myself. I just want to say that it was an incredible coincidence. Last weekend, I had heard about Chris Benoit no showing Vengeance because of a family emergency, and I had heard rumors about why that was. I was reading rumors and speculation about this matter online, and one of them included that his wife may have passed away, and I did the wrong thing by posting it on wikipedia to spite there being no evidence. I posted my speculation on the situation at the time and I am deeply sorry about this, and I was just as shocked as everyone when I heard that this actually would happen in real life. It is one of those things that just turned into a huge coincidence. That night I found out that what I posted, ended up actually happening, a 1 in 10,000 chance of happening, or so I thought. I was beyond wrong for posting wrongful information, and I am sorry to everyone for this. I just want everyone to know it was stupid of me, and I will never do anything like this again. I just posted something that was at that time a piece of wrong unsourced information that is typical on wikipedia, as it is done all the time.

Nonetheless, I feel incredibly bad for all the attention this got because of the fact that what I said turned out to be the truth. Like I said it was just a major coincidence, and I will never vandalize anything on wikipedia or post wrongful information. I've learned from this experience. I just can't believe what I wrote was actually the case, I've remained stunned and saddened over it.

I wish not to reveal my identity so I can keep me and my family out of this since they have nothing to do with anything. I am not connected to WWE or Benoit at all in anyway. I am from Stamford as the IP address shows, and I am just an everyday individual who posted a wrongful remark at the time that received so much attention because it turned out to actually happen. I will say again I didn't know anything about the Benoit tragedy, it was a terrible coincidence that I never saw coming.

I hope this puts an end to this speculation that someone knew about the tragedy before it was discovered. It was just a rumor that I had heard about from other people online who were speculating what the family emergency Chris was attending to. I made a big mistake by posting this comment on his page, since all we had were what we thought was going on and nothing about what actually was going on yet, and sadly what happened turned out to be my speculation at the time. I assumed wiki would edit out my information, which they did, so thats why I didn't go back to edit it out myself.

I know I keep repeating it but I feel terrible about the mainstream coverage this has received, since it was only a huge coincidence and a terrible event that should of never happened. I am not sure how to react, as hearing about my message becoming a huge part of the Benoit slayings made me feel terrible as everyone believes that it is connected to the tragedy, but it was just an awful coincidence. That is all I have to say, I will never post anything here again unless it is pure fact, no spam nothing like that. Thank you, and let this end this chapter of the Benoit story, and hopefully one day we will find out why this tragedy ever actually happened."

This was a case of someone posting a rumor online, which turned out to be accurate. Hopefully this settles this particular question permanently. The situation is bad enough without sideshows going on too.