Savage fired after anti-gay remarks to Yolo County man

By J. Freedom du Lac -- Bee Pop Culture Writer - (Published July 9, 2003)

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.

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