Posted on 07/22/2008 6:33:58 AM PDT by raccoonradio
Some call for firing of radio talk show host
The furor over shock jock Michael Savage’s autism rant intensified yesterday as parents of autistic kids called for his firing and at least one advertiser yanked its ads from his syndicated show.
About 40 parents and grandparents of autistic children protested yesterday outside WOR-AM (710) in New York City, one of the more than 350 radio stations - including (Boston's) WRKO-AM (680) - that airs his program. Another protest is planned for tomorrow at the San Francisco station where his show is broadcast.
“What he said is reprehensible,” said John Gilmore, executive director of Autism United and the father of an 8-year-old autistic boy. “We are asking for him to be fired and we want to make advertisers aware of what he is broadcasting.”
Aflac insurance pulled its ads from his show and issued a statement: “Aflac has a strong commitment to helping children through the Aflac Cancer Center and Aflac foundation. We understand that radio hosts pick on any number of targets however we found his recent comments about autistic children to be both inappropriate and insensitive.”
During last Wednesday’s show, Savage called autism a “fraud” and “racket.”
“Now the illness du jour is autism,” Savage said. “You know what autism is? I’ll tell you what autism is. In 99 percent of the cases, it’s a brat who hasn’t been told to cut the act out. That’s what autism is.”
“What do you mean they scream and they’re silent?” Savage added. “They don’t have a father around to tell them, ‘Don’t act like a moron. You’ll get nowhere in life. Stop acting like a putz. Straighten up. Act like a man. Don’t sit there crying and screaming, idiot.’ ”
Savage defended his comments in a statement that was posted on his Web site and issued by his syndicator, Talk Radio Network.
“My comments about autism were meant to boldly awaken parents and children to the medical community’s attempt to label too many children or adults as ‘autistic,’ ” Savage said.
Savage said his severely disabled brother suffered and died in a New York “snake pit” of a “mental hospital” and he knows “first-hand what true disability is.”
WRKO program director Jason Wolfe didn’t respond to a request for comment.
I think Savage’s comments have some merit. The only way disease advocacy groups can successfully lobby for more research money is to trump up the number of people who are suffering from a given disease. If it is true that for autism it is primarily a subjective diagnosis, then it becomes very easy to simply label people who exhibit symptomatic behavior as having autism even if there is nothing medically wrong with them.
Savage had one moment of clarity: “Liberalism is a mental disease.”
Beyond that, I can only tolerate his show in 60 second doses.
I can assure Mr. Savage, however, that autism is extremely real. More real than he might be able to likely deal with.
he’s partially right but very wrong.
autism is over-diagnosed, now especially since they’ve expanded the definition.
but savage is very wrong about genuine autistic children.
i know one; she’s the grand daughter of a friend of mine.
at 18 months it was obvious to her family that she was different. she would not make eye contact with other people.
also, as she’s grown older she feels no empathy for others; she cannot discern emotions in other people.
fortunately for her, she’s had a lot of professional help at her schools.
Mediasmatters, et al have unalienable rights to their opinions. We have equal rights to disagree with them
America is a supercollider of unalienable rights -- that's the way it is -- 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.
How could anyone who actually listens to Savage -- especially yesterday's show -- not understand what Savage really said IN CONTEXT! Even his guests agreed -- one represented the offended group.
Savage has jumped the shark with this one. I won’t listen anymore.
is that a great white shark?
/s
“Autism” certainly is a convenient excuse for the parents of a kid who’s just a weird,spoiled brat.Autism....as a biological/anatomical abnormality of the brain...may very well exist.Not having a degree in any of the biological sciences I can’t claim it doesn’t with any credibility.But I wouldn’t be at *all* surprised if it was grossly over-diagnosed in this country....to the delight of various groups (lawyers,for one) who benefit from it being the “disease du jour”.
This is a misrepresentation of what Savage said. I listed yesterday, and he was very clear that he acknowledged and had sympathy for truly autistic children.
What he was getting at is that there is a whole industry that depends on “autistic spectrum” diagnoses for things like special education funding.
The MSM as usual gets it wrong. The Medical/Pharma conglomerate is using the interpretive nature of the diagnosis of autism to inflate the ranks of the autistic so they can sell more drugs.
Savage has said again and again that there IS such a thing as Autism but that the diagnosis has been mightily abused to fatten wallets... and the real victims here are the kids who are being misdiagnosed and medicated unnecessarily.
Of course the Lame Stream Media doesn’t care. Why should it?
You may find this interesting.
http://health.dailynewscentral.com/content/view/0001987/51/
Savage said they are the ones who need the attention and treatment. You got a problem with that?!
The over-diagnosed ones are taking resources away from those who need it. Sounds right to me.
Those were his original points and they were emphasized again yesterday.
the left has been trying to find a way to get Savage off the air. the muzlims have sued him. So what?
the man is entitled to his opinion regardless of who agrees or disagrees with him. His rant was far more reaching than just singling out autism. We are becoming a nation of disabled, government subsidized whiners and the medical community is complicit in the considerably relaxed definitions of what a true disability is.
Needless to say, autism, like other legitimate disabilities, is real for many people, and a free ride for others. Who are WE to QUESTION the medical community and government about what a real disability is?
We are supposed to just shut up and open our wallet some more.
Savage is not the first to make this claim. Previously, it was more centered on the over use of drugs in treatment of the autistic.
The man has more trouble making a decision and sticking to it than any person of any age we ever met. He holds two college degrees: one in Police Science (of all things!); one in theology (OF ALL THINGS!!). Married to a great gal and has three children. His wife is a frustrated wreck over it.
There are many unusual symptoms too numerous to recite here. But several American doctors reading of his case suggest adult autism as the probable cause.
Savage said. “You know what autism is? I’ll tell you what autism is. In 99 percent of the cases, it’s a brat who hasn’t been told to cut the act out. That’s what autism is.”
that is clearly false.
America will accept picking on Liberals and gay activists and Illegals. We will not accept picking on the handicapped.
I hope they fire him from my local station, not because of this, but he is simply boring and repetitive. I would like them to put a conservative in his place.
Typical Savage gold: “I went out to eat last night. I don’t know why I bother. HAVE YOU SEEN WAITERS THESE DAYS!! The soup was cold. Cold soup, that’s what you get today. I shouldn’t bother. I’m getting depressed. WHO WOULDN”T BE?! Thank God for my dogs. We’ll talk about my dogs after this.”
interesting, but not enough information.
he could be something else.
Then the next step is to perform the scan in question on all kids diagnosed as being autistic and see what percentage demonstrate this difference.
ML/NJ
i don’t listen to savage.
never did because the few times i did i hadda take a shower afterwards.
he sounds like a clinton psychopath.
My daughter described having an autistic kid in your room is like have a smoke alarm with a short in it. Every now and then during the day, it will just go off. The cookie-cutter. teach-to-the-test format of public school is just not a good fit for autistic kids.
No one, including Savage, deny that there is such a thing as autism - the kind where the kids can't socialize, can't tolerate noise or light, they perseverate, rock, make repeated motions to soothe themselves. These kids are for real.
What I saw in my hearings is, for the most part, what he said - bratty kids who were getting a lot of attention for being a pain in the butt, parents who wanted boatloads of special attention, tutoring, etc. for their children and on the flimsiest of evidence claimed autism. These children were CLEARLY working the adults. When the 'bribes' were right, the children could and would behave.
The definition of autism has expanded to include behaviors that many, many normal school boys exhibit. Everyone profits - the schools get more special ed money, the parents get their child extra attention, the lawyers get to sue school districts on behalf of the parents.
Follow the money. Savage was referring to the fraudulent diagnoses of autism, not the real cases.
Savage is going nowhere.
LOL
But, again, Savage did not attack the truly autistic; he was talking about the over-diagnosis of "autism spectrum disorders." One woman called in and said that she had been bullied, not by a doctor, but by school administrators, to sign an affidavit that her child suffered from autism.
I’m with Savage. We used to just call them retards. But now we have new, improved ailment definitions, and, ironically, a bevy of new medications arriving in the nick of time. I am constantly amazed that whole new maladies are discovered, i.e., ADHD, fibromyalgia, autism, chronic fatigue syndrome, and the victim class line up to appear on 60 Minutes and Dateline with their tales of woe. And the pharmas are all over it with new research and meds. No irony there!
Yeah, but John from Queens has been similar that for years. He said it ages ago on the Bob Grant show.
Childhood "impairments" and welfare fraud seem to go hand-in-hand; I honestly do not know of anyone who denies that it exists.
Too bad you did not listen to yesterday's show. One of the guests, a very informative and polite lady who represented the outraged parents of children who are in fact autistic, and Savage pretty much established the TRUTH.
No surprise, the Truth ain't nothing like mediasmatters, Savage's enemies (and I do mean enemies!), embarrassed conservatives, and all who want him off the air ("When do we want it? Now! "When do we want it? Now!) folks.
I realize that it was hyperbole, but the amount of exaggeration and the vitriol in the delivery blew it right back at him. Savage should be used to this. Hell, he probably loves the publicity. It’s his shtick.
AT least half of the children diagnosed with autism,
don’t have it.
And I wasn't suggesting that it isn't real. My co-worker's son is case in point. But among the general population, where there isn't much inbreeding, my impression based upon personal experience is that the instances of true autism are relatively uncommon.
ML/NJ
Much of what is considered fact and science and perpetuated in the media and entertainment is junk science, myth, in many cases even politically or profit motivated exploitation. Bad parenting or a lack of parenting is dealt with by a magic pill and a TV. Feeling guilt or regret (normal feelings) are dealt with by another magic pill. Anxiety in situations where it is normal to have anxiety is dealt with by yet another little magical pill.......and dare you question it!!!!!!!!!! Then you'll hear all the psychobabble, the phrenologists, the victims of terrible psychological disorders collecting disability, or the shrinks charging $200 an hour to hear you talk about your feelings....... We Americans love our magic pills.
Savage stepped in one of those psuedo-scientific areas that's in reality accepted largely by main stream America and is about as scientific as those studies and scientists proving African Americans are mentally inferior years back, or the Germans studying the shape of a skull and determining character and intelligence off that. Savage ventured into an area that is part culture, part political, and while right, he'll get slapped around if he don't watch it. Before long you'll hear how he's a heartless evil man that hates children..... bla bla bla
I wasn’t disagreeing with you. I do think true autism is relatively uncommon. I was just providing some additional information.
bump that!
I agree completely.....perhaps he and Jim Cramer could co-host a show on mental disoraders.
The liberals have formed a lynching party, and have seized on this as their issue. Disgusting.
Your proof is what exactly?????
“autism is over-diagnosed, now especially since they’ve expanded the definition.”
It isn’t just autism- it’s all the conditions that have fallen into the Special Ed IEP purview. And while genuine Autism, ADD, etc. are real, there is no doubt that many are frivolously using federal legislation (IDEA et al.) to sue the public schools for the parents’ own failures at proper child rearing.
A lot of students with ADD just havent been taught proper behavior boundaries, so they act out in school and get special attention. I kinda understand where he is coming from on this.
Bullspit. We're not talking about ADD, autism is the severest disorder on the neurological spectrum. Its like saying a grapefruit is an orange thats misbehaving.
How else do they get research money, if they don’t advertise?
If only Savage wasn’t so crude in his commentary.
He could have engaged in an intelligent discussion about the broadening of the definition of ‘autism’ to include so many real and imagined childhood deficits, instead he chose to act the madman.
Too bad he was such a poor messenger because the diagnoses are suspect and need to be discussed rationally.
“In 99 percent of the cases, it’s a brat who hasn’t been told to cut the act out. That’s what autism is.” “
Sounds like a pretty moronic statement to me. I hope he does get canned.
“I’m with Savage. We used to just call them retards.”
Yeah, that’s progress. By the way, I have a friend who’s a negro.
Anecdotely, my wife’s nephew is autistic. He’s 12 now and very sweet. Nothing like the wild, unruley kids described here. He has trouble with relationships and making eye contact, but he’s brilliant and has a scientists mind like his father. He was a premature baby, 1.5 lbs when born.
He’s sweet and smart, but he’ll never live on his own.
True. He could have. But then we wouldn't be conversing about it right now would we?
Not a clnton psychopath. He sounds like a 90 year old man at an early bird supper in Boca Raton.
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