Media-go-round

Savage Weiner: Can there be any doubt that conservative talk-radio host Michael Savage, né Michael Weiner, is the world’s most despicable human being? Bites says no, unless that uncertainty concerns this mouth-breathing knuckle dragger’s alleged humanoid status.

Last week, after watching Rosie O’Donnell compare radical Christianity to radical Islam on ABC’s The View, the imbecilic Savage found a new cause for what ills America: “lesbian fascism.” Hmm, Bites wondered, what might these lesbo-fascists want? Plenty, as it turns out!

“We want to wear comfortable shoes,” an anonymous leader of the local lesbo-fascist legion told Bites over coffee at Butch–N-Nellie’s. “And for crying out loud, quit making fun of our haircuts!”

Is that really too much to ask? By the way, if you really want to hit Savage where it hurts, besides refusing to listen to his radio program, stop drinking the energy beverage RockStar. The drink was developed by Savage and son of Savage Russ Weiner.

Radio daze: A couple of columns ago, Bites suggested acerbic progressive talk-radio host Mike Malloy was sacked by Air America for daring to criticize Israel’s recent invasion of Lebanon, not for business reasons, as Malloy and others insisted. Well, last week it looked like Bites might have to issue a mea culpa when the liberal Web site Think Progress reported that Air America was filing for bankruptcy.

Fortunately for Bites—and Air America listeners—the report was erroneous, and Think Progress has since issued a correction. However, while Bites’ record of spot-on criticism remains intact, Malloy’s on-the-air replacement on Air America remains, well, up in the air.

At local Air America affiliate KCTC 1320, “Sacramento’s Left Channel,” Malloy friend Peter Werbe has been filling in since mad Mike’s departure. That may be about to change with the announcement of Air America’s new fall lineup, according to Station Manager Charlie Weiss.

In Malloy’s stead, Air America offers up three new hosts to help fill in the 6-10 p.m. time slot: Rachel Maddow, David Bender and Betsy Rosenberg. Maddow is well-liked and soon may be worked into the schedule after local host Enid Goldstein’s show concludes at 7 p.m., Weiss said. Bender also may hit the local airwaves soon.

Meanwhile, next week, local hosts Scott & Sims of The Morning Retort (6 a.m. to 9 a.m.) take a well-deserved vacation. Filling in will be the Young Turks—Cenk Uygur, Ben Mankiewicz and Jill Pike—a 20-something trio who’ve made somewhat of a name for themselves on Sirius satellite radio with their mix of sex, pop culture and politics, in that order. Speaking of Sirius, rumor has it that Malloy soon may be making his satellite debut. Bites hopes so. Bites misses his anger and his hate for authority.

Paper trails: A watched stock never boils. At least, not if it’s McClatchy Co. stock, which remains as tepid as ever after the Sacramento-based newspaper publisher closed its purchase of Knight Ridder earlier this summer. The deal was engineered by McClatchy CEO Gary Pruitt, and with the price per share mired at $40, the natives on Wall Street are beginning to grow restless.

None more so than the investment newsletter The Motley Fool. After explaining that subjectivity counts when buying a stock—i.e., our intuition about how a stock will perform in the future can be just as important as its actual performance in the past—the Fool’s Dave Mock had this to say about McClatchy last month:

“It is through subjectivity that we have not, for example, owned shares of McClatchy and will not be buying. … We simply don’t—subjectively—think that people younger than 30 are going to subscribe to newspapers.”

Ouch! The Minneapolis Star Tribune’s Neal St. Anthony offered an equally bleak assessment about McClatchy and its industry golden boy, Pruitt.

“He has his doubters, and there is already speculation that Pruitt will have to take McClatchy private within a couple of years unless he can improve performance and the stock price by 2008,” St. Anthony writes.

By the way, the Star Tribune is a McClatchy paper, so don’t ever let anyone tell you journalists won’t bite the hand that feeds them.