Andrew Potter at Mediaite took a serious swipe at Jon Stewart this week, dragging “The Daily Show” host over the proverbial coals for not doing his job in the wake of the Tucson massacre:

[Stewart] …instead of taking sides, placing blame, and ultimately doing the satirist’s crucial job of holding a mirror up to power, … took the safest route imaginable and blamed the media…

To quote Stewart: “Really? Really?”

Stewart did place the blame — on the deranged shooter himself, exactly where it should be. Unless he’s got some evidence to the contrary, Potter should come to the same reasonable conclusion. But it looks like he has other sampler platter items to fry, all while trying to shield what is perhaps the most pervasive entity in American culture–the media–from social criticism. Absurd.

The media represents significant power in this country and it is the last thing that should be exempt from scrutiny. In a classic conundrum, to fight power you must amass power. The media has been a powerful influence for a long time; it is not some romantic “truth to power” enterprise. Much of the media has descended into partisan cliques whose legitimacy erodes more each day. Has the media forgotten that with power comes responsibility, not an exemption from criticism? Do J-Schools teach this, or only as it relates to left wing agendas? Stewart did the safe thing … Really? I disagree; chugging the commentariat Kool-Aid is the safe thing, not going against it. Railing against the right, conservatives, Sarah Palin, guns… that’s the easy thing to do … telling your own that they are acting like buffoons takes much more conviction and a much larger pouch.

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By now, everyone knows that Michael Savage has been banned from Britain on the grounds articulated by disgraced former Home Secretary Jacqui Smith: “Considered to be engaging in unacceptable behavior by seeking to provoke others to serious criminal acts and fostering hatred which might lead to inter-community violence.”

Attorney Summary–Savage Appeals U.K. Ban:

This week, we found out that the supposedly conservative government of David Cameron is upholding the ban.  Savage’s lawyers initiated a review of the ban by sending a letter to new Home Secretary Theresa May.  In it, they lay forth the full history of the case, a selective prosecution which is mind-blowing in its moral blindness and suicidal impulse to kowtow to radical Islam.

When Savage was originally banned, as the letter states, he was placed on a list alongside terrorists, racists, a child-murderer, and the alleged leader of a violent gang “that beat migrants and posted films of their attacks on the internet.”  Savage, by contrast, has said some inflammatory things on the radio.  And by inflammatory, I mean generally correct, even if the left hates his passion and willingness to articulate the zeitgeist. (more…)

General Franco is still dead and after a year of legal wrangling popular radio-host Michael Savage is still banned (in Britain.) The new Conservative British government of Prime Minister David Cameron is sticking by former Labor Home Secretary Jacqui Smith’s decision from May of last year. “Coming to the U.K. is a privilege,” explained the Home Secretary at the time, “and I refuse to extend that privilege to individuals who abuse our standards and values and who foster extremist views as I want them to know that they are not welcome here. Mr. Savage engages in unacceptable behavior by seeking to provoke others to serious criminal acts and fostering hatred.”

The new British government informed Mr. Savage his exclusion stands because of “the absence of clear, convincing and public evidence that he has repudiated his previous statements.”

Instead of the false contrition, groveling and confessions that Stalin, Mao and Che Guevara demanded from the subjects they accused of “thought crimes,” (before murdering them) Michael Savage sought to repudiate his listing alongside terrorists and Nazis by resorting to the tenets of Western jurisprudence and presenting evidence to the contrary.

“His bad” some might quip regarding the strategy. In today’s Britain what’s left of the Magna Carta only work s in favor of actual Islamic terrorists. (more…)

The Washington Times reports the supposedly conservative U.K. government is going to continue Britain’s war on free speech (and Dr. Savage):

He’s still on Britain’s least-wanted list.

Talk radio host Michael Savage has waged a vigorous fight against the British government, hoping to have his name removed from a list of 16 “undesirables” banned from the country on May 5, 2009, by then British Home Secretary Jacqui Smith.

The list included Islamist terrorists, neo-Nazis and Russian gang members — and Mr. Savage says he’s still on the new version, despite his efforts to persuade British officials that his inclusion is unwarranted and unfair.

All governments are essentially amoral,” he told The Washington Times on Monday. “I had hopes but did not expect this ‘new’ UK government to restore sanity to Britain. They are still pandering to the Muslim masses. To continue to martyr me by including me on a list of known murderers and terrorists is bad enough but for the U.S. and Western media which considers itself ‘progressive’ to continue to ignore this outrage against freedom of speech is indicative that the media and governments are one and the same. This includes so-called conservatives. Has freedom of the press become greed-om of the press?” he concluded. (more…)

Last summer the British government banned U.S. radio commentator Michael Savage from setting foot in the UK.  “Fostering extremism and hatred ” was his crime, as explained by Britain’s Home Secretary of the time, Jacqui Smith. “Coming to the U.K. is a privilege,” she elaborated, “and I refuse to extend that privilege to individuals who abuse our standards and values to undermine our way of life. Therefore, I will not hesitate to name and shame those who foster extremist views as I want them to know that they are not welcome here.”

The following month, for a hoopla titled “Cuba 50,” Britain rolled out the red carpet for Che Guevara’s daughter, Aleida. The celebration was billed as “the biggest European celebration in this 50th anniversary year (of Castro’s Stalinist regime).”

This British celebration for a regime that jailed political prisoners at a higher rate than Stalin’s, murdered political prisoners at a higher rate than pre-war Hitler’s, created refugees at a higher rate than the Waffen SS and Gestapo created while conquering and subjugating France, and came closest of anyone to plunging the world into nuclear war—the festival for this regime was held in London’s luxurious Barbican Centre.

( All figures for the above murder, oppression, and war-mongering by the T-shirt idol of  “human-rights” and “peace” demonstrators are provided with full documentation in Exposing the Real Che Guevara, and Fidel Hollywood’s Tyrant.) (more…)

Starting Feb. 1, Michael Savage, host of The Savage Nation, returns to the air waves in the Bay Area on XTRA Sports 860 AM in San Francisco from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.

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