In a story bound to boost product sales for the energy drink, Rockstar, The New York Times reported this over the weekend:
The owner of a Portland, Ore. grocery chain has removed Rockstar energy drinks from the shelves. The founder of Rockstar, Russell Goldencloud Weiner, is the son of Michael Savage, the perpetually enraged talk radio host.
Brian Rohter, owner of New Seasons Market, told The Portland Oregonian that Mr. Savage did "his best to take apart the fabric of our society and to attack American values."
In 2003, MSNBC fired Mr. Savage after he told a caller he assumed was gay to "get AIDS and die." He continues to employ a similar tone on his syndicated radio show.
On www.rockstar69.com, Mr. Weiner talks about his father's experience as an "herbalist" and claims his caffeine-loaded beverage is "the perfect balance of vitamins and herbs." Major ingredients are high-fructose corn syrup and glucose.
We reported last spring about Seattle's only out-gay talk host and "liberal", Mike Webb's (KIRO m-f, 9p-1a) night after nightly plugs for RockStar. His repeated mentions can be translated into marketing dollars directly into the pockets of one of the most virulent and well-known homophobes in the country.
Read BlatherWatch's brilliant but snotty expose of this low-grade hypocrisy. (Note what insignificat pap passes for 'snotty exposes,' anymore) If Webb had good ratings, this would be a great story, but nobody much listens to him so file it under: "More BlatherWatch overreach." We don't know if it's product placement or Webb's lack of feck, but he still plugs the hipster drink in the little silver cans-- even after all our blathering.
Somebody oughta ask him about it on the air.
Savage's (KTTH m-f, 3-5p)is a more interesting story--at least if you don't have to listen to him.
He's a train wreck of bombasticity, political incorrectness and getting the full value of shock, though he lacks the awe-inspiration he strives for--he's just crazed-sounding and bellicose. He recently wrote a best-selling book saying liberalism is a mental disorder, but he proudly displays some pretty scary pathology each day on his show.
Conservatives are always mad at him--mostly for excoriating Bush on immigration and because he hasn't nuked Baghdad. Like any trainwreck, he draws a contingent of ghoulish lookee-loo's who sit breathlessly waiting to hear what he might say next.
For all his fag-baiting, there's a fascinating story of an affair he probably had with the openly gay beat poet, Allen Ginsberg. According to Wikipedia:
Some of his letters to Ginsberg are held in Ginsberg's archives and one of those letters describes an encounter with a young Fijian man. Savage denies writing the letter and called it part of a 'smear campaign' by 'gay fascists. Savage also once posed naked for a photograph with Ginsberg while swimming in Fiji.
They don't call it homophobia for nothing.
Click here for for America's Laziest Fascist, an hilarious account of a Rockstar event in California where an obnoxious and drunken Michael Savage bored and outraged a large crowd in Marin.
Savage doesn't do all that well in Seattle, he was 22nd in the market at the last book, pulling the same numbers as Mike Webb--a sad 1.3.
Heh..that explains the cases of it in the Eastlake lobby.
Posted by: Frank Shiers' #1 fan EVAH EVAH | October 18, 2005 at 10:09 AM
So Michael Hood, I read your smear of Savage (Weiner), and can only wonder what proof you offer of the drunken appearance or anything else you claim? You neglected to mention in your liberal slam, the he has written THREE best selling books in a row! As usuall, you cannot be specific in regard to which point you disagree with Savage or point out a better solution to the world crisis. Why I'll wager you don't even believe there exists any sort of crisis. Queers demanding special rights, Islamofacists vowing to destroy all "infidels", lawyers allowing car theft to be just a "Joke"! If you think this world is in fine shape in the hands of the lawyers, you deserve to perish at their hands. In any case, I agree that a nation is defined by its borders, language, and its culture. Which don't you agree with and why? I say that if we don't defend these basic ingredients to our society which made us so strong to begin with, then we will fall to those who don't respect our way of life. We don't need any more diversity. We have too much allready! Eric
Posted by: Eric T | October 20, 2005 at 09:26 PM
Eric: didja click on the link? or carry your lunch?
Posted by: blathering michael | October 20, 2005 at 09:34 PM
Blath Mike, Do you have the wherewithal to express your disagreement in an intelligent manner, or are you truly the knuckle-dragging fool that you libs call sensable intellectuals with whom you cannot either understand nor debate! Come on propeller head! Borders, language, culture. Which description of a country don't you agree with? Come on Blithering Mike, which is it. Where do you stand when you send your slutty 12 year old daughter to school? Don't have one? Well it really doesn't matter, because the other people who still have their brains left know what I'm speaking of. Liberalism is a failed insidious proposition of which you unenlightened individuals have no inkling of its origins. Want to know more? Buy the book fool! Eric
Posted by: Eric T | October 21, 2005 at 09:40 PM
Mike the blithering idiot. Should I sign up for this "Salon" crap? Send money for more socialistic propaganda? You still offer no proof of your allegation regarding Savage being "drunken", allthough I see no problem with enjoying a cocktail or two or three now and then. Of course, you Starbuck sipping, reefer toking, opera loving, artsy types are soo much more sophisticated than those patriotic, war minded defenders of the liberty that allows you fools to act and speak the way you do! Who is your supplier for the smoke? Care to share that? Well it doesn't matter anyway since pot is really legal here in Seattle. It does however, illustrate your hypocrasy. In any case Blithering fool, again I ask, which part of Borders, Language, or Culture do you not agree need preserved in order to maintain our countrys' sovereign status? This will take extra time since liberals have been brainwashed by their single mothers or other liberal influences for so many years. However, I can assure you that there are many of us who are ready to teach their grandchildren the errors of their foolish liberal collegues for the past twenty or thirty years. My daughter looks forward to this new enlightenment for her children as she and her husband are tired of this immoral march toward destruction. We intend to take the country back and away from your type of backward thinking. The media is the first target and has allready been identified as a major impedance towards the future of the world. They will be the first to be brought to justice. The law profesion will be next. All must pay in the end for their errors. The pendulum has swung! You are now the old hat! Come on. Jump on the band wagon! Thats what you sheeple do. I'll get back to you later on what you should do next! Eric the Barbaric
Posted by: Eric T | October 21, 2005 at 10:12 PM
You give the Erics of the world a bad name.
Posted by: chris | October 21, 2005 at 10:26 PM
All wrong on the ratings and the Rockstar. Company is owned by his son. Should he be guilty by "association" or a family he can't choose?
You can't measure my ratings without looking at the midnight hour which always completey re-weights the book -- always in double digits. By next week, we will know my numbers. What crystal ball is your 12 year old daughter staring into to discover my ratings?
-Mike Webb
Seattle's Number One Talk Show Host - 710 KIRO
Posted by: Mike Webb | October 21, 2005 at 11:38 PM
Welcome Mike: I always see you lurkin' around here, I'm really glad you stopped to talk. I'm afraid you're wrong about RockStar--according to the famous and excellent Salon piece, "America's Laziest Fascist" the old homophobe, helped formulate the RockStar. Most believe he gave seed money for young Russell's endeavor and has a large interest in the company.
"The 30-something Weiner is the founder of RockStar, an energy drink that he developed with his dad, drawing on Savage's previous career as a Marin County herbalist and ethnobotanist named Michael Weiner. RockStar's herbal liver-cleansing formula is supposed to enable drinkers to "party like a rock star," which presumably means drinking and doping."
KIRO did really awesome this Book--not sure about you, yet----send those hourlies on over when you get'em.
xo Michael
Posted by: blathering michael | October 22, 2005 at 12:49 AM
Rockstar is a family business. Russ formulated the drink with the help of his herbalist father Michael Savage. His motherJanet Weiner handles the company's finances. Russ Weiner has never disavowed his father's anti-gay agenda. Russ once loudly proclaimed, "Who's heterosexual and proud?" "If you're not, hopefully you will be soon!"
The Weiner family are virulent anti gay bigots. Webb supports a company owned by people who would just as soon see him nailed to a fence.
Posted by: umo | October 22, 2005 at 12:56 AM
I absolutely love the guy.
Posted by: Doug | January 27, 2007 at 03:52 PM
mike savage is the best i've ever heard and if i could listen to hime 24/7, i would!!! more people should have his passion for our country and for simply what is right and what is wrong. we need many more like him, only in power instead of on the radio. he'd fix what's wrong with this country within a year!
Posted by: tracy | March 14, 2008 at 07:09 AM