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Savage Stands by Autistic Remarks
NEW YORK TIMES ^ | July 21 08 | JAQUES STEINBERG

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 ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: autism; diagnosis; nofactsnecessary; notanexpert; nottepid; overdiagnosis; persimmons; perspicacity; savage; savvy; talkradio; weinernation
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To: DeLaine
and many of the libs “little darlings” can’t be crossed.

A lot of them claim to be conservative and frequent FR.

41 posted on 07/21/2008 11:44:40 AM PDT by Tamar1973 (Catch the Korean Wave, one Bae Yong Joon film at a time!)
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To: gracesdad
"Hey Savage, saying that 99 out of 100 kids with autism are faking it goes way beyond hyperbole."

No better nor worse than our use of the plural democrats, socialists and @$$hole$.

I suppose one category would fit them all .... hmmmm them ..... all.

42 posted on 07/21/2008 11:45:30 AM PDT by knarf (I say things that are true ... I have no proof ... but they're true.)
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To: camerakid400

You keep posting, we have your back.

see my tagline....


43 posted on 07/21/2008 11:46:07 AM PDT by DeLaine (Anything that offends 3 people must be banned. The 200 million just have to suck it up.)
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To: camerakid400

You stay classy, Weiner.


44 posted on 07/21/2008 11:47:00 AM PDT by SE Mom (Proud mom of an Iraq war combat vet)
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To: guido911

My neighbor is a teacher that works specifically with children that have autism. She calls the over diagnosis akin to the new ADHD fad. Unfortunately, the tons of children that have no parenting at home being diagnosed with it are crowding out the truly affected. Savage is right on. Talk to the front lines, forget the folks in pharmaceuticals pushing it and forget those in government pushing more programs and those parents looking for an excuse for children that don’t listen. It is all about the dollar. It had nothing to do with the actual affected.


45 posted on 07/21/2008 11:48:21 AM PDT by commonguymd (A de facto single party country is nigh. The partisan bickering is a mere bilking mechanism.)
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To: AnnaZ
I presented no definitive conclusions and I have confused nothing.
46 posted on 07/21/2008 11:48:32 AM PDT by isrul (Help make every day, "Disrespect a muzzie day.")
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To: gracesdad

Apparently the free PR he was getting for his battle with CAIR was quieting down and he had to find another way to get some press.


47 posted on 07/21/2008 11:48:49 AM PDT by HamiltonJay
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To: garbanzo

And just what does a three-year old know about “acting like a man”?


48 posted on 07/21/2008 11:49:04 AM PDT by Izzy Dunne (Hello, I'm a TAGLINE virus. Please help me spread by copying me into YOUR tag line.)
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To: camerakid400
Of course mediasmatters, et al and the Nytimese have unalienable rights to their opinions. We have equal rights to disagree with them

America is a supercollider of unalienable rights with so far a limited number of head-on collisions. But every day the anti-matter folks -- those who object to the right to express opinions contrary to theirs -- add more and more particles increasing the inevitability of an explosion.

Those folks are even threatening to drop the "Fairness Doctrine" particle into their stream. That will definitely be a head-on collision that will be felt coast-to-coast, border-to-border -- perhaps even felt around the world.

49 posted on 07/21/2008 11:49:05 AM PDT by WilliamofCarmichael (If modern America's Man on Horseback is out there, Get on the damn horse already!)
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To: nikos1121

Savage is just a fake out to make a buck.

He’s a liberal who pretends to be a conservative in order to make conservatives look stupid. He’s an intentional parody. He exists because he serves the purpose of creating “straw man” arguments for the Left.

His private life (and his campaign donations) reveal him to be just another liberal.


50 posted on 07/21/2008 11:49:31 AM PDT by MeanWestTexan ("Jesse Jackson was an important figure; paving the way for Osama bin Laden to appear" -- Dan Rather)
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To: gracesdad

Prove it.


51 posted on 07/21/2008 11:49:37 AM PDT by donna (Put glasses on him, and Barack could play Malcolm X in the movies. - Pat Buchanan)
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To: DeLaine

Savage obviously has little practical experience with autism. He really should meet with some autistic children face to face, he would change his mind on how easily treatable the condition is by purely behavioral means.

It really is an epidemic. And it is surprisingly underreported by the usually hyperbolic mainstream media.


52 posted on 07/21/2008 11:50:32 AM PDT by JmyBryan
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To: bluegirl

“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.”

You’re right, but his comments did suggest he believes that most children diagnosed as autistic can either will themselves into being normal or will get better if mom or dad just cracks the whip. That’s nonsense.


53 posted on 07/21/2008 11:51:21 AM PDT by gracesdad
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To: romanesq

I am the father of an autistic son who is now in his mid-20’s. He can talk, but rarely does, and is for the most part loveable and giving. However, when he wants to be left alone it is better that he be left alone as he can “go off” quite quickly. He will warn you, though, when he does not want to be bothered.

Additionally, he has the touch of the idiot savant about him: He can do mathematics in his head at lightening speed - usually writing down the answers, and he has damned close to a photographic memory of signs he sees, music he hears, and movies he watches.

He was diagnosed as autistic when he was very young and has been like this his entire life. We did not medicate him - just gave him as much love, support, and care as possible. He will never get noticeably better. But that’s okay, because his mother, sisters, stepmother, and I all love him dearly.

As the father of a autistic child, I would like to tell Michael Savage that he can go to hell.


54 posted on 07/21/2008 11:51:33 AM PDT by NCPAC
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To: cripplecreek

Exactly. And sometimes someones with an out of the mainstream opinion is shown to be an idiot and sometimes the mainstream comes to them. But shutting down out of the mainstream opinion does not change the facts whatever they are.


55 posted on 07/21/2008 11:51:54 AM PDT by JLS
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To: DeLaine

thanks


56 posted on 07/21/2008 11:52:08 AM PDT by camerakid400
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To: camerakid400

“Lots of Savage haters here!”

Nice rhetorical slight-of-hand, but it’s been done before: “You just hate Clinton!” (Or McCain ... etc.) so the onus is shifted/focus is changed from the subject’s purported outrageous conduct/statement to the critic.


57 posted on 07/21/2008 11:52:33 AM PDT by tumblindice (my achin' scroat.....)
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To: donna

“Prove it.”

Oh give me a break.


58 posted on 07/21/2008 11:52:49 AM PDT by gracesdad
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To: camerakid400

Think he’ll talk about this tonight?

LOL


59 posted on 07/21/2008 11:52:59 AM PDT by freedomlover (Make sure you're in love - before you move in the heavy stuff)
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To: MeanWestTexan

Correct. He’s a good man of business.


60 posted on 07/21/2008 11:53:23 AM PDT by Dr. Ursus (( commander of the simian host))
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