Banning Michael Savage

“I must confess to wholesome glee,” said Michael White in Britain’s The Guardian, at seeing that rightwing American shock jock Michael Savage has been banned from entering the United Kingdom. Savage is one of 16 people banned from entering the UK for fomenting hatred and extremism. Savage is a “nasty” radio blowhard who got rich dishing out vitriol, and he’s “squealing like a stuck pig” now that someone has tweaked him back.

The British government has every right to decide who gets into the country and who doesn’t, said Philip Johnston in Britain’s The Telegraph. Britain’s Home Office says Savage, provokes violence with his “abhorrent views on immigration, Islam, rape, and autism.” OK, so the guy is offensive, “but are we now banning people because we don't like what they think or say?”

What the British government is really doing, said Allahpundit in Hot Air, is handing Savage a “blockbuster publicity coup” on a silver platter. It’s ludicrous to suggest that Savage belongs on the same list as “Jihadists, neo-Nazis,” and a “child-killing savage from Hezbollah.” Savage says the move painted a target on his back for real extremists—“one publicity-stirring lawsuit, coming up.”