MSNBC's Double Standard on Free Speech
"Turd World" is OK-- "anti-war, anti-Bush" is not

MSNBC's claim to be championing free speech by hiring hate-talk radio host Michael Savage is disingenuous in the extreme.

Defending its decision to give a weekly program to a commentator who specializes in diatribes against various groups, the MSNBC cable network called hiring Savage-- whose show will premiere on Saturday, March 8-- "a legitimate attempt to expand the marketplace of ideas" (Electronic Media, 2/25/03).

This was a response to critics of Savage's record of racism, misogyny and homophobia, which includes dismissing child victims of gunfire as "ghetto slime," referring to non-white countries as "turd world nations," calling homosexuality "perversion" and asserting that Latinos "breed like rabbits." (For more Savage quotes, see FAIR action alert, 2/12/03.)

The news channel-- co-owned by Microsoft and General Electric/NBC-- declared in its formal statement: "By bringing our viewers a wide range of strong, opinionated voices, MSNBC underscores its commitment to ensuring that its perspective programming promotes no one single point of view. We encourage debate and we would neither expect, nor want, our audience to agree with everything on our channel."