Michael Alan Weiner (aka Mike Savage) Barred From UK...

[Big Orange]

It seems like Mike Savage (a mainstream, best selling political commentator and media personality in the US) has been lumped in with the nutball Neo-Nazis and Islamofascists, officially getting barred from entering Britain:

Talk show host Michael Savage - real name Michael Weiner - is also excluded. His views on immigration, Islam, rape and autism have caused great offence in America.

BBC

[Flagg]

It seems like Mike Savage (a mainstream, best selling political commentator and media personality in the US) has been lumped in with the nutball Neo-Nazis and Islamofascists, officially getting barred from entering Britain:

Talk show host Michael Savage - real name Michael Weiner - is also excluded. His views on immigration, Islam, rape and autism have caused great offence in America.

BBC

I don't know how "mainstream" this particular nutbag is, but good for Britain. If only we could deport his ass...

[Slacker]

Mainstream by *what* definition, exactly? Limbaugh's?

[CaptainChewbacca]

He's the #3 or #4 radio talkshow host in America. Conservative, of course, kinda like that crazy uncle that rants about 'dirty mexicans' at thanksgiving.

[Coyote]

Somalia hasn't banned him; it's a Libertopian paradise. Let's send him there!

[Darth Wong]

You've gotta love the American conservative mindset which says "if someone is popular in America, then what he's saying can't possibly be hate speech!" Nice non-sequitur.

[Glocksman]

He's the #3 or #4 radio talkshow host in America. Conservative, of course, kinda like that crazy uncle that rants about 'dirty mexicans' at thanksgiving.

Savage is positively tame compared to Mark Levin, at least as far as delivery is concerned.
Whenever I have the misfortune to hear Levin on the radio I can almost see the spittle flecking from the speaker.

[CaptainChewbacca]

You've gotta love the American conservative mindset which says "if someone is popular in America, then what he's saying can't possibly be hate speech!" Nice non-sequitur.

I wasn't arguing it wasn't hate-speech, my post was in response to the question of 'how mainstream is he?'

[Chardok]

He has so many listeners not because people think he's right, or even intelligent, they listen because he's completely off his rocker insane and hilarious (That's why I listen). If he truly believes some of the things he says, then he is easily the worst person ever to exist. I recall one show in 2005 which he advocated finding being suspicious of every single apparent muslim in America and stringing up suspected terrorists from telephone poles as a warning. I'm not even a little bit joking, he actually said that on the air. This wa followed by sputtering on about rounding them all up and other gems.

All this in addition to his now-famous television broadcast where he told a caller to get AIDS and die. Yeah, totally mainstream.

[El Moose Monstero]

It seems like Mike Savage (a mainstream, best selling political commentator and media personality in the US) has been lumped in with the nutball Neo-Nazis and Islamofascists, officially getting barred from entering Britain:

Talk show host Michael Savage - real name Michael Weiner - is also excluded. His views on immigration, Islam, rape and autism have caused great offence in America.

BBC

What's your actual position here, BO? Are we supposed to be sorry that he's been banned? Your OP makes it sound like you're coming down on that side. The hate speech laws aren't just there to stop neo-nazis and "Islamofascists ( )", there's also a jewish extremist on that list, as well as the Phelps', who are banned for almost the same reasons that Savage is banned for. Neither are listed as 'inciting terrorism', but rather 'fostering hatred' and 'inciting inter community violence', which certainly for the former sounds about right. Admittedly, reading the wikipedia page for Savage, I'm not seeing anything that seems dramatically worse than any of the other extremist US commentators who we get stories about on SDN, but I'd probably wouldn't lose any sleep if they weren't allowed in either.

[Elfdart]

He's the #3 or #4 radio talkshow host in America. Conservative, of course, kinda like that crazy uncle that rants about 'dirty mexicans' at thanksgiving.

Savage is positively tame compared to Mark Levin, at least as far as delivery is concerned.
Whenever I have the misfortune to hear Levin on the radio I can almost see the spittle flecking from the speaker.

First time I heard Levin's show, I thought the Savage Wiener had gotten a botched vasectomy.

[Big Orange]

What's your actual position here, BO? Are we supposed to be sorry that he's been banned? Your OP makes it sound like you're coming down on that side.

What? What?! I apologise for not properly explaining myself in my opening post, but I never said that I endorsed Michael Alan Weiner nor sorry to hear that this crank has been barred from entering Britain, since he has said some ignorant and disparaging things about autistic children.

However, what I do find disconcerting is that a political commentator who is a notable emissary for a mainstream media corporation, instead of a subversive hate/terrorist group, is contentious and obnoxious enough to be officially banned by a Western government, highlighting how dysfunctional the American Right really is. But Britain already has its fair share cranks in the form of Richard Littlejohn and Melanie Phillips.