Posted on 07/21/2008 11:23:49 AM PDT by camerakid400
Michael Savage, the incendiary radio host who last week characterized nearly every autistic child as “a brat who hasn’t been told to cut the act out,” said in a telephone interview Monday morning that he stood by his remarks and had no intention of apologizing to those advocates and parents who have called for his firing over the matter.
“My main point remains true,” Mr. Savage, whose radio audience ranks in size behind only those of Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, said in an interview on Monday. “It is an overdiagnosed medical condition. In my readings, there is no definitive medical diagnosis for autism.”
On his program lastWednesday, Mr. Savage suggested that “99 percent of the cases” of autism were a result of lax parenting. He told his audience: “They don’t have a father around to tell them, ‘Don’t act like a moron. You’ll get nowhere in life.“ He added, “Straighten up. Act like a man. Don’t sit there crying and screaming, idiot.’ ”
Asked Monday if he actually believed that 99 out every 100 cases of autism was misdiagnosed, Mr. Savage conceded that figure was “a little high.” “It was hyperbole,” he said.
But he said he was proud to have prodded discussion on the subject, and planned to give over his entire show on Monday — broadcast live from northern California from 3 to 6 p.m. Pacific time — to parents and other callers who wished to disagree with him, and to educate him.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Savage in hot water!
If there is one thing that frightens me about the way things are going, it’s the way people are being “shut up” for imagined and unimagined slights and comments.
I believe in freedom of speech. I believe in the freedom to sound and look like an idiot, as long as you are not threatening anyone.
Go Savage. Say what you want. Let your audience decide.
Throw it all against the wall.
Hey Savage, saying that 99 out of 100 kids with autism are faking it goes way beyond hyperbole.
Where can I sign the “shun the stupid bastard” petition?
That's what happening here, isn't it? His audience is deciding that he's an ignoramus on this issue.
But he has a college degree in food!
Savage, savage, savage!!!!
Savage, in my opinion, is definitely a man with a bipolar disorder untreated, or else he’s a recovered alcoholic still on a dry drunk. I agree with much that he says, but he’s an angry, hateful man. He bullies his listeners. His comment on autism is off base and hurtful.
Maybe Savage should change his name to Idiot-Savant.
Really my friend’s son is autistic. No one would want to see it if it wasn’t true.
The little guy is so out of it. There’s no way to get him to be measurably better by hope and discipline.
And really, I wonder what is to happen to all these poor children. They can improve but they can not be normal. It’s terrible.
I’m sure parents of “autistic” children will go ballistic. But there are also a lot of parents who willingly accept their kids being doped up with Ritalin. And they support that too.
I tend to agree. Let the audience decide.
I say that as someone who quit listening a long time ago. He’s just too negative and left me wanting to slit my wrists.
Exactly, and his “punishment” shouldn’t be some lefto-wing legislation clamping down on freedom of speech, it should be the audience dropping from listenership and affecting his revenues. THAT’S how it’s done.
Nothing against Savage, just that’s the way capitalism works.
He didn't say there were faking it. He said it was a behavior problem, not a medical condition.
I think there is some truth on both sides. I think autism is a real medical condition, but I also agree that the criteria have become too vague and it has been over-diagnosed.
“Savage, in my opinion, is definitely a man with a bipolar disorder untreated, or else he’s a recovered alcoholic still on a dry drunk. I agree with much that he says, but he’s an angry, hateful man. He bullies his listeners. His comment on autism is off base and hurtful.”
I’ve never been able to decide whether he’s real sick or whether he’s just somewhat sick AND a shrewd buck grabber pretending to go off the deep end.
Well, if anyone needed any further proof that Michael Savage is a bombastic idiot, here it is....
At least Mark Levin is slowly catching up to him.
Per the thread, the problem is not that Savage is denying the existence of autism, it’s that he’s simply observing (in his usually caustic manner) that an awful lot of those diagnosed as such are not - which actually is helpful by trying to shine the light on the imposters/whiners, and get the over-diagnosis back down to those tragic true cases thereof.
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