Mr. Mike Elder

Program director

WRKO Radio (AM 680)

Dear Mike:

I read with interest your comments to the Boston Globe on Wednesday that you expect you’ll soon lift the suspension of nationally syndicated talk-show host Michael Savage.

You noted that though you personally believe Savage is " probably a homophobe, " you were careful to observe that the remarks that got him fired from MSNBC — referring to a caller as a " sodomite, " telling him that " you should only get AIDS and die, " and making a crude oral-sex joke — were not delivered on his radio show.

Mike, perhaps you never listen to Savage (can’t blame you there!), but surely you know that his outburst last Saturday differed little from what he’s been saying on the radio and in his writings for the past several years.

Have a look at a compilation put together by Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting (www.fair.org/activism/savage-homophobia.html). As far back as 1999, according to the San Jose Mercury News, " Savage ... apologized to gay activists after saying he wished they would get AIDS. " He also reportedly referred to the Million Mom March as the " Million Dyke March. "

FAIR also dug up quotes in which Savage referred to " the grand plan to push homosexuality to cut down on the white race, " and he’s written that Supreme Court justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sandra Day O’Connor, as well as Senator Hillary Clinton, have " feminized and homosexualized much of America, to the point where the nation has become passive, receptive and masochistic. "

The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) and the Human Rights Campaign have documented Savage’s homophobia as well. Take this, from a column that he wrote: " Your children’s future is what we’re talking about, a matter of life and death for their future. The gay and lesbian mafia wants our children. If it can win their souls and minds, it knows their bodies will follow. Of course, it wants to homosexualize the whole country, not just the children. This is all part of the war that is going on. "

And here’s what Savage wrote about the post-election fiasco in Florida two and a half years ago: " Were the ballot machines homophobic because some weak-wristed types had insufficient strength to press hard enough to register a vote? (This coming as close to them making anything pregnant for as long as they live.) "

Then there was the gay-bashing outburst he delivered to his radio listeners — including those on WRKO — when GLAAD had the temerity to try to talk MSNBC out of giving Savage a show last February. You can listen to it yourself, Mike, at www.glaad.org.

In your remarks to the Globe, you seem genuinely concerned about Savage’s homophobic remarks — more concerned than I would have expected from someone whose star local host, Howie Carr, has made seventh-grade-level tee-hee gay-bashing a staple of his program (see " Don't Quote Me, " News and Features, June 27).

So maybe you’re coming around. If so, I hope you’ll find this useful. Hey, I’m only trying to help.

Sincerely,

Dan Kennedy

For more on Michael Savage, see Media Log at BostonPhoenix.com