July 22, 2008
Savage Calls Autism a "Fraud," Protest Ensues
Last week conservative radio host Michael Savage blathered on air about every child with autism being “a brat who hasn’t been told to cut the act out,” and today is still standing by his remarks, which were plentiful and included calling the disease “a fraud and a racket.” The NY Times noted that Savage's audience "ranks in size behind only those of Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity," and you can bet all of those listeners--and then everyone else who hears about this--have opinions.
Yesterday a group of New York autism advocates were calling for his termination at a protest in front of WOR 710 AM, which airs his show locally. They gathered on lower Broadway holding signs that said: "Fire Savage." Meanwhile, Savage stood by his remarks saying that "there is no definitive medical diagnosis for autism” but it's an epidemic created by "greedy, corrupt medical/pharmaceutical establishment." It was during his July 16th broadcast that he stated “99 percent of the cases” were due to lax parenting and the kids needed to be told "don’t sit there crying and screaming, idiot."
Last night he claimed his remarks were "taken out of context." One protester, Evelyn Aim -- a spokeswoman for the National Autism Group, is one of many speaking out, and said: "I would trade my son being autistic for being a brat any day." And while the company that syndicates his program (Talk Radio Network) hasn't commented yet, WOR simply said, "The views expressed by Michael Savage are his views and are not those of WOR Radio. We regret any consternation that his remarks may have caused to our listeners.” The AP poined out that Savage's "brief MSNBC show was canceled after he told a caller he should 'get AIDS and die, you pig."
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I think rather than demanding he be fired or calling for a boycott, the best thing might be a sustained PR campaign in which people just point out what a moron he is. Use Savage as an easy lightning rod for autism awareness. Run an ad with a photo of him with the word WRONG in big red letters, and then argue "Contrary to what some people might wish, autism is all too real..." etc. etc.
As far as I understand it, many psychological disorders have no physiological definition. There's no blood test you can take which proves you are schizophrenic, for example. This is because, for most practical purposes, scientists still don't know that much about how the mind works on a physical level. It doesn't mean that psychologists are all frauds.
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"I would trade my son being autistic for being a brat any day"
So its okay to find something to blame or attribute psychological and/or behavioral issues?
Of course Savage's remarks are bad. It's just interesting to see that quoted.
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I think her point was that, in the case of a severely autistic child (it's a spectrum disorder so "symptoms" can vary in severity), her child might not even talk. Therefore, she'd willingly take "bratty" behavior, because that's normal childhood behavior.
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Hmm..that makes sense. I was just surprised to see it at first.
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@handsomedevil, I agree--considering that former GE chairman Bob Wright started charity Autism Speaks (after his grandson was diagnosed), I imagine there could be a big concerted push.
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He's a jerk, so consider the source. Jerks say stupid things. Does he really have an influence on anyone, anywhere?
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Gotta love Special Interest groups. Limiting your free thoughts and policing your airwaves... day after day.
Besides, it's becoming the new ADD to be "uniquely autistic." There's some psychotic pride that Aspergers kids are falsely believe themselves to be the next evolutionary step for humanity. Hyper-advanced geniuses who have difficulty coping with simple social situations.
Y'know, as opposed to what Autism used to imply: "retarded."
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According to Arbitron's website, the July Peoplemeter book closes tomorrow. He's playing everyone so that he gets a bit more $ out of the advertisers.
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Ahem, lets make that:
"There's some psychotic pride that Aspergers kids falsely believe themselves to be the next evolutionary step for humanity."
And yes, not proofreading was a "retarded" mistake to make.
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AFAICT most of the 'psychotic pride' crowd doesn't even have Asperger's. They just read too much slashdot.
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For more douchebaggery see his awful website. It looks like it was put together in 1995.
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Damn right. Politburo is 100 PERCENT CORRECT.
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The whole "neurodiversity" pride thing is a fringe movement at best - though getting an 8 page spread in NY Mag in May would make you think otherwise.
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damn those nappy-haired autismites!
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The funny thing is that Savage himself may well be autistic.
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But where is the good Rev Al? I thought he was the hate speech police?
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"I think her point was that, in the case of a severely autistic child (it's a spectrum disorder so "symptoms" can vary in severity), her child might not even talk. Therefore, she'd willingly take "bratty" behavior, because that's normal childhood behavior."
also, bratty children grow up and can become "normal" adults.
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@theevilone
True, but you could say the same thing about the whole Anonymous vs. Scientology controversy.
When major news outlets cover a fringe subject like that, it gains significant weight in society.
When they make it seem like a swelling underground lifestyle/community, it certainly seems like a huge ordeal that everyone should be concerned about... as opposed to a few housebound lunatics with a questionable grasp on what constitutes a "worthwhile cause."
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I guess I'm not following some of the arguments being made here. Savage says some incredibly moronic and ignorant things. The people he directs his idiocy towards protest his hateful ignorance. Commenters here take the opportunity insult the protesters for reasons that have nothing to do with their disagreement with Savage?
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Michael Savage is a disease.
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Why is anything Savage says a surprise? He has a huge audience because he plays to the lowest common denominator. Ignoring this asshole would be a much better strategy. That's what he's really afraid of.
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he appeals to the dumb people who still don't know this admin is against their best interest.
all they complain about are welfare queens with benzs', 40oz malt liquor, universal healthcare, foodstamps, the pledge of allegiance, the flag pin, I can go on and on.
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Why doesn't the US government take all the autistic children and use them as human supercomputers? Then we can immerse them in a enyzymatic pool and use them to predict what pre-crime will happen before it occurs and then arrest those criminals before they commit the crime and then the world will be a better place.
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Sure, Savage is a jackass pundit. That's pretty much the nature of punditry. Why bother even addressing his obvious attention-whoring when there are other, more interesting/exciting matters up for debate?
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"also, bratty children grow up and can become "normal" adults."
Actually, Temple Grandin is a good example of someone who has managed to do something very positive with her life despite being autistic, though the process doesn't sound particularly easy. I'm just sayin', it's not entirely hopeless.
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My dad was diagnosed as a jerk for years. Then two years ago he finally got diagnosed with Asperger's.
We always knew there was something up with him (we used to wonder if he'd hatched out of an egg or something), and had learned to tolerate his oddballness as some unnamed hopeless mental thing by the time we all grew up, but I have to say that he's pretty annoying now that he's so proud of his Asperger's and is always belittling everyone and trying to show us all how much smarter he is than everyone else, which makes him autistic and possibly still a jerk too.
I'm just saying: I KNOW my dad would have agreed with Savage before his own diagnosis! (For all we know, this Savage has a form of autism himself, which makes him totally lacking in empathy for people with autism or for people who have kids with autism.)
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Last week: "What? Who's Michael Savage?"
This week: "Hey, did you hear about that radio talk show host?" "Yeah, Michael Savage's all over the news! Let's tune in to see what the ruse is all about..."
Michael Savage: Win.
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Michael Savage sounds just like the resident trolls here.
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It's amazing that it takes a group of angry parents of autistic kids to finally get people picketing against this hatemonger.
Imus says one sentence and gets fired because of public pressure. Savage says stuff like this every day and gets away with it.
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Why are morons so popular? I would think even morons would get bored with them after awhile.