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.
Anyone trying to get him off the air will only make him a martyr.
I thought the comments were deplorable. But I can always change the channel if I don’t want to listen.
Second it!
Me, I'll continue to ignore him, and parent my own way.
Absolutely spot on. Savage plainly has no idea what he is talking about. Furthermore, the more he clings to this idiocy of a position, the more he loses whatever credibility he has.
Is it at all possible he got autism confused with ADHD?
He’s 99.9% dead on. Autism is seriously overdiagnosed as are many mental disorders.
...and has written several books on the subject too
He’s the one out of 100. I have had a friend with a completely disabled autistic child. And I’d go so far as to say that many autistic children are just poorly parented, I have no idea how many that could be.
I also have friends with mildly autistic children who are pretty fair behaved.
So he’s exaggerating. No surprise. I wouldn’t take this personally if I were you.
Guess he wanted to go one better on the "ADHD is made up" theme. Sorry but when "conservatism" gets involved in saying kids' medical conditions don't exist, count me out. Autism is not even a close call. My wife's school has a whole class of autistics they are severely disabled.
Maybe they aren’t there to serve the conservative movement.
Why? Savage comes from a generation where three-year olds were routinely told that and most of them turned out fine. It's only in our "progressive" generation that never telling anyone "no" is a mortal sin.
Exactly.
It’s the “mildly autistic” children that probably aren’t even autistic at all. They’re pigeonhold so the drug companies, schools, etc. make a few $$$ off them. I was barely saved from a diagnosis of autism with a simple hearing test when I was 3 years old.
The bottom line is that what Savage said is insensitive, harsh and lacking in any compassion. But he's essentially correct. All autistic kids need extra attention, but most of it is the attention of time and disclipline which a loving parent or caring teacher could deliver. A minimal amount of medication can also be helpful, but not in the frequencies and quantities pushed by the "funky kid" industry.
“Is it at all possible he got autism confused with ADHD?”
My initial thoughts as well.
I am shocked at the percentage of my young patients that are on some form of “attention-enhancement” medication.
Some take this so personally. Hear the “i know of one (or several) and therefore he’s just wrong and I’m deeply offended!! crowd.
It IS overdxed.
and many of the libs “little darlings” can’t be crossed.
Or "Nutritional Ethnomedicine" or something. A degree he's so proud of he never fails to go even one 3-hr segment without mentioning his "physician" and "scientist" creds. Savage would last less than a week in a real medical school.
Maybe I shouldn’t have posted. Lots of Savage haters here!
Do you honestly believe that we've had an order of magnitude increase in autism over the course of one or two generations or just more and more broad definition of a condition based on vague clinical diagnosis?
Autism is a real thing. Probably it is overdiagnosed. There is no cure but some get over it anyway.
I think that perhaps both you and Savage have confused autism with ADD (or ADHD).
A lot of them claim to be conservative and frequent FR.
No better nor worse than our use of the plural democrats, socialists and @$$hole$.
I suppose one category would fit them all .... hmmmm them ..... all.
You keep posting, we have your back.
see my tagline....
You stay classy, Weiner.
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.
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.
And just what does a three-year old know about “acting like a man”?
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.
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.
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