Jello Biafra (AKA Eric Reed Boucher) is known, to the extent that he is known, for being an “anarchist” and the former lead singer for the punk band Dead Kennedys. In 1986 Biafra was put on trial for obscenity due to the liner art for their album Frankenchrist. It ended in a mistrial, and since then Biafra has drawn on that harrowing experience to make a second career as an anti-censorship advocate.

Well, he just threw all that out the window. He’s now calling for the censorship of insane radio talk show host Michael Savage, who recently played Dead Kennedy’s anthem “California Über Alles” as part of a sick “tribute” to Ted Kennedy’s cancer diagnosis:

I haven’t read the details yet, but I’m aware of what Michael Savage did. Obviously he took my song way the hell out of context and did it deliberately…

It scares the s*** out of me that the most popular radio talk-show hosts are all foaming-at-the-mouth, ultra-bigoted blabbermongers whom only North Korea or the Nazis could love.

But like it or not, Savage is the third-most popular radio-talk show host in this country behind Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. Nobody from the other side is represented or promoted well enough by the big right-wing-owned radio networks to compete…

The real issue here is why aren’t the big candidates calling for media reform? Once upon a time there was a law on the books called the Fairness Doctrine, and it said that if somebody like Savage or Limbaugh or that skull woman Ann Coulter said something completely f***** up and dishonest on the air, somebody else was allowed to come on the air and reply to them without being told to shut up every 15 seconds by a power clown like Bill O’Reilly.

That’s right: The free speech advocate wants the government to intervene in the free speech of others. Censorship is completely wrong, unless it’s being levied against someone you disagree with! Then it magically transforms into “media reform.”

Whatever you might think of Savage (I don’t like him either), he has the right to be stupid, sick, and mean. He has the right to offend people. Just like Biafra had the right to put out album art that offended people. The government should stay out of it in both cases, and Biafra is a complete hypocrite for wishing it on somebody he doesn’t like.

Not to mention that he named his band Dead Kennedys. That pretty much revokes his right to be offended by any Kennedy-related humor whatsoever. I did like the “power clown” line, though…

(Hat tip to the Radio Equalizer)

P.S. Click here to listen to Jello vs. Tipper Gore and the PMRC on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 1990. He was still against censorship back then, but I guess it was a long time ago.