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New York City - Remarks On Autism Kids By Radio Show Host Michael Savage Stirs Anger And Protest
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In response to his controversial comments about children with autism, Autism United and angry parents will hold a major protest outside WOR Radio studios in Manhattan on Monday afternoon.
They will be calling for the firing of the radio jock and asking for a boycott by parents of children with autism of all stations carrying his signal. Savage outraged the autism community recently by saying 99 percent of children suffering with autism are “brats” and “morons” on his national syndicated radio show.
Media Matters for America on Sunday condemned Savage for his comments.
“What Michael Savage said was foolish, mean-spirited, and hurtful,” said J. Jioni Palmer, spokesman for Media Matters. “It’s unfortunate he would use his radio program to make fun of and belittle these kids. Instead of ridicule and cheap shots, the children suffering from autism and asthma and their families need support and compassion.”
During the July 16 edition of his show, Savage claimed that autism is “[a] fraud, a racket. … 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? 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.’ ”
Talk Radio Network, which syndicates The Savage Nation, claims that Savage is heard on more than 350 radio stations. The Savage Nation reaches at least 8.25 million listeners each week, according to Talkers Magazine, making it one of the most listened-to talk radio shows in the nation, behind only The Rush Limbaugh Show and The Sean Hannity Show.
Over 2 million children and adults have autism. One out of every 150 children is diagnosed with autism today.
Savage talks many times about people with "ADD" and people using ritilin. In those cases doctors mislabel kids many times and just love putting kids on medicine instead of helping them through other means of diagnostics.
We all know that this is true in many cases and kids get away with many things.
I think all Savage was trying to convey is that there must be responsibility from a parent and from people in general.
When someone gets caught for murder we always hear how the person has "a.d.d" or how his mother abused him 45 years earlier....
Savage used the wrong analogy to get his point across. Again I am not defending him because he should be smarter than the dumb statements he made but we will hear about "freedom of speech" garbage this week!
07-20-2008 - 10:08 PM
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07-20-2008 - 10:40 PM
07-20-2008 - 10:44 PM
07-20-2008 - 11:04 PM
07-20-2008 - 11:07 PM
07-20-2008 - 11:07 PM
one in every 150. (guess what 150 times 2 million is?)
07-20-2008 - 11:10 PM
07-20-2008 - 11:11 PM
07-20-2008 - 11:12 PM
i wonder what experience hes had to cause this reaction
07-20-2008 - 11:15 PM
07-20-2008 - 11:16 PM
07-20-2008 - 11:18 PM
07-20-2008 - 11:18 PM
this has nothing to do with media matters, and savage has been screaming on the radio much longer than media matters has been in existence. how is this playing into their hands? they didnt say what savage said, he said it all by himself, much the same way he says everything else sickening that he says.
At least he an left wing talker Bill Maher actually agree on something. Bill Maher once likened handicapped kids to dogs.
The two (Maher and Savage) are the same animal. Vile disgusting human beings.
07-20-2008 - 11:20 PM
i do agree, as ive said, that over diagnosing happens but many of these kids do have issues that are very similar to mild autism & they do need help if theres ever a chance to be mainstreamed or make progress.
07-20-2008 - 11:40 PM
My nephew has autism, so I have 100% compassion to the genuine cases (which there are plenty). Michael Savage had an older brother who had autism, and died as a child, and he has great loving words when he occasionally describes the affection he had for him, and how he was so protective over him. He relentlessly attacked Howard Stern for his satire of autistic children, and went as far as saying that he should be fired just because of his exploitation of the autistic population (pointing out that they can not defend themselves).
For this liberal hack organization to use such a personal issue of his life against him is disgusting. He more then anybody has earned the right to be irked when he sees cases of "autism fraud" when as a child he had to deal with a real case (his brother was an autistic paraplegic). Don't forget that Dr. Savage is a yid, and is entitled to have limud zchus. He wrote a book titled healing children naturally, which further illustrates his affection for children.
Anybody has the right to disagree with his opinions, he's merely one man's opinion, and it's America, but this character assassination is un-American especially in light of what I pointed out earlier.
07-20-2008 - 11:47 PM
Which "liberal hack oprganization" do you refer to? The AUTISM society for which it is PERSONAL?
Where was saint savage when blowhard Rush Limbaugh mocked Michael J. Fox's suffering with Parkinson's Disease? Or when Mitt Romney caught on video intentionally snibbing a man in a wheelchair? or Rudy Giuliani's radio rant to a handicapped caller?
Right wingers don't have a particular liking to people with diabilities, its just that simple.
07-20-2008 - 11:58 PM
07-20-2008 - 11:59 PM
I have a disability too. I'm not as smart as Bill Gates. There are some legitimate cases of disability such as down syndrome. But every wheel chair bound person, just because they have a challenge, does not make them disabled. Yes, they are disabled from running, but not from having a normal job. Not every challenge and misfortune is the responsibility of the general population.
Unless of course, you believe in Leninism. No one is entitled to a car and a laptop and TV. These are luxuries. Very few people are genuinely disabled from earning a meager income if they tried to get a job.
07-21-2008 - 12:08 AM
Media Matters. I also wouldn't be surprised if The AUTISM society has a political liberal agenda. There are many right wingers that have autistic children, and to say that there is a single organization that represents autism, is preposterous.
07-21-2008 - 12:11 AM
07-21-2008 - 12:33 AM
Having listened to him before I expect outrages comments from him. But this has gone too far even for a nutcase like Savage.
I guess if he'd have an autistic child he'd beat the hell out of him/her.
07-21-2008 - 12:45 AM
07-21-2008 - 12:59 AM
those that treat autism with behavior modification are the people you should protest against.
07-21-2008 - 1:14 AM
Savage does an enormously important service for America. He is extremely important in an era in which our culture and social values have been upended ranging from the indoctrination of homosexuality as on par with a relationship between men and women, to the anti-Semitic media that supports terrorists - and while what he said may have been offensive rightly or wrongly -lets not throw the baby out with the bathwater.
We need Savage in a time in which to many are asleep at the wheel.
At least he wakes you up!
And more than that - he defends the values that made America great and a democracy under threat from alien forces that seek its demise.
07-21-2008 - 1:30 AM
07-21-2008 - 2:10 AM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Savage_(commentator)
He holds master's degrees in medical botany and medical anthropology and earned a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, in nutritional ethnomedicine. As Michael Weiner, he has written books on herbal medicine and homeopathy.
Thats not to say he is a expert at anything, but dont write the guy off as a nut so fast.
And the fact that he is into homeopathy says alot about his distaste for modern medicinal practices!
Is he meshuga ? no.. he just does not like the trend of doctors pumping kids with meds.
As a example, I had bad temper tantrums as a kid.. I was also impulsive.. the cure ? I went to a ton of shrinks who gave me every drug known.. I think it made me worse.
Now, i'm bh grown, I rarely if ever lose my temper, I dont do impulsive things.. YET I am unfocused at least according to a family member who us of the opinion that I need drugs.
Now, I bh live alone, pay my bills, own and run a very large and successfull business bh.. I am healthy, clean, eat well etc.. so on and so forth.
My complaint ? its sad that society has reached a point, where anyone that has less then accepted behavior needs medication!!
If I procrastinate, I need medication ? So every frum yid that waits till right before licht bentchen to go to mikva needs medication? oy gevalt.
Sorry chevra, in judaism we call it self control.. in chasidus we call it "itkafiya" the mind controls the body.
Children need to be educated right, yes there are cases where they need medication.. But sometimes they need good petch too! (g-d forbid would a "physiologist" admit a kid needs a spanking)
If your kid talks bad, he should be taught that a jew does not talk that way and be given soap.. if he misbehaves you tell him that a jew does not act that way and zetz his tuches!
I fail to see how medicating a child will mold him into being a mentch.. rather it makes him into a zombie.
07-21-2008 - 3:08 AM
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07-21-2008 - 8:27 AM
07-21-2008 - 8:30 AM
comments - arrow This guy is a prick! As a parent with a child with an Autism Spectrum Disorder, I can assure you that if all it would take is a good "petch" or some firm talking to, I would have done that. What a shmuck! BTW, my son has a very hands on father who is very involved and I am Canadian where therapies are NOT covered by the government so at this point I've paid about $25,000 in the past two years! This guy should drop dead!
07-21-2008 - 7:47 AM
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first take a chill. he didn't say every kid is a brat, it's very possible that you have a legitimate case of autism. the point he made and he is very correct is that the world is very hyper in diagnosing non sick children and then not being mechanech them because their "sick".
07-21-2008 - 8:33 AM
07-21-2008 - 8:56 AM
YOURS: THE GOLEM
07-21-2008 - 9:00 AM
Nu, so who told you there are 2 million? I don't believe that for a second, and you wouldn't either if you had any sechel.
The interest of the autism activist group is obvious, and it's the same as that of every medical activist group - to inflate the numbers for their particular disease or condition, in order to attract funding; and in order to build public sympathy which they hope will translate into jury sympathy when they sue someone for some made-up reason, claiming that they somehow caused the plaintiff's condition.
07-21-2008 - 9:24 AM
07-21-2008 - 9:44 AM
Amazingly just about every apartment in the building with kids had at least one child with "autism". (In those projects there are usually more than one family living in each unit.)
Eventually my wife and the other therapists discovered the children were misdiagnosed with autism and that their handicap was caused by their mothers and babysitters propping them up on blankets or in swings for 12+ hours every day in front of a TV.
While my wife will definitely agree that there are many real cases of autism; the vast majority, probably close to 99%, of those diagnosed with autism in the lower income neighborhood where she worked are misdiagnosed.
07-21-2008 - 10:02 AM
Obviously, Savage understands the issue. There is more to this than meets the eye. I note that the CBS story does not quote Savage directly, but only includes an INTERPRETATION of what he said by the left-wing anti-Conservative goup Media Matters.
I'm certain that Savage's words were twisted out of context to mean something he didn't intend.
There is an ongoing campaign by Arabs (CAIR), MushChoSim, and Liberals to get this effective Conservative talk-show host off the air.
07-21-2008 - 10:06 AM
07-21-2008 - 10:06 AM
Actually, I (and most researchers) prefer to use the term ASD - autism spectrum disorder. This better conveys the concept that ASD is a SPECTRUM DISORDER. You will meet some verbal kids with such mild problems that you may not even realize that they are on the spectrum, and then you will come across a kid who is non-verbal and prefers to sit under the table.
ASD is behaviorally diagnosed: there are deficits in communication, socialization, and repetitive behavior issues. ASD has only recently been defined (~1994), so only recently have we been able to truly measure the prevelance of this puzzling disorder. I have come across several cases where children with an auditory processing disorder have been misdiagnosed with ASD, so there may be kids with an ASD Dx who do not have it.
If this story accurately conveys Michael Savage's comments, then Savage is 40 years out of date. Bettleheim came up the the "refridgerator mother" theory in the 1960s and he has been discredited. We now know that ASD is a neurological disorder with multiple etiologies.
07-21-2008 - 10:08 AM
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Had any of you kvetchers actually heard him say it live - as I did - would know that he's being taken out of context by some group to further their own agenda.
07-21-2008 - 10:09 AM
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07-21-2008 - 10:41 AM
07-21-2008 - 10:55 AM
Bettelheim HIMSELF has been discredited, if we are to believe a book published about him a number of years ago. Seems like he made stuff up and didn't have credentials. But this is just an aside.
07-21-2008 - 11:04 AM
The rest is pretense to get him off the air. These liberals, who happen to succumb to fascist tendencies, have exploited the autism issue to attack the right. This is a about politics, not about an inconsequential sound byte. Autistic kids are not exactly a persecuted group that need marches or protests. I doubt any kid will get more treatment or care if Savage is fired.
I have a sibling who has one of these disorders, and I think 99% of the protesters are brats and morons.
07-21-2008 - 11:24 AM
But, that being said, I choose not to turn him on.
Whereas Media Matters monitors all conservative talk show hosts, looking to shut them down for any comment that they believe will offend enough people to create a large enough ruckus that the sponsors of the program will pull out and silence their nemesis.
Unless someone is calling on people to do crime or harm others they have the right to talk as long as people are willing to listen.
07-21-2008 - 12:39 PM
07-21-2008 - 12:56 PM
The Autism Controversy
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."
Just as some drug companies have overdiagnosed "ADD" and "ADHD" to peddle dangerous speed-like drugs to children as young as 4 years of age, this cartel of doctors and drug companies is now creating a national panic by overdiagnosing "autism, for which there is no definitive medical diagnosis!
Many children are being victimized by being diagnosed with an "illness" which may not exist, in all cases. Just a few weeks ago doctors recommended dangerous anti-cholesterol drugs for children as young as 2 years of age! Without any scientific studies on the possible dangers of such drugs on children, corrupt doctors made this controversial, unscientific recommendation.
Increasingly, our children are being used as profit centers by a greedy, corrupt medical/pharmaceutical establishment. As the brother of a severely disabled person who suffered and died in a New York "snake-pit" of a "mental hospital," I know first-hand what true disability is.
To permit greedy doctors to include children in medical categories which may not be appropriate is a crime against that child and their family. Let the truly autistic be treated. Let the falsely diagnosed be free.
Michael Savage
07-21-2008 - 1:00 PM
07-21-2008 - 1:42 PM
07-21-2008 - 2:00 PM
Michael Savage (from his website)
I hope all of you who mindlessly accepted the left-Liberals attack on Savage now feel foolish, now that he clarified what he actually said, not what the Liberals said he said.
07-21-2008 - 2:31 PM
you must not think at all. the entire verbatim quote is out there for all. the entire recording is out there to hear. how the heck does that become a misquote taken oiut of context? why defend him just because you dont want him to be wrong or bad? face the music for once and admit when someone is a jerk.
07-21-2008 - 3:19 PM
07-21-2008 - 3:19 PM
not true. They only posted the eighty second sound bite. Why not post the entire segment that people can hear it in the context that it was said? They could of posted the entire thing and then indicated which exact time portion of the audio clip he says the "offensive statement". They don't give a #$%^ about a autistic children. They believe autistic children ought to be euthenised. While savage has a stellar pro life record and has genuine compassion for the genuine autism cases. He knows first hand the pain of autism. His own brother was an autistic paraplegic which he dearly loved.
I faced the music. Yehupitz, you are a jerk. He lived with that pain of losing an autistic brother, and you write him off as an autistic- child attacker. Shame on you. When someone has no shame he attacks someone who has intimate knowledge of a certain life challenge. He holds those credentials, which actually makes him even less tolerant of the hoax cases, with the phony diagnosis to yield some social benefits.
07-21-2008 - 3:54 PM
"During the July 16 edition of his show, Savage claimed that autism is "[a] fraud, a racket. ... 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? 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.'""
One person who took exception to this commentary was Martin Schwartzman, the father of an autistic child. He opined:
"I couldn't understand why someone could be so heartless and so insensitive, and also so ignorant for a national talk show host . . . . It was so hurtful to all individuals with disabilities, particularly those with autism, but I really think he should be removed from the air."
For all I know, Mr. Schwartzman may be a very decent man, but evident is that he has never listened to Savage's show. If he had, there are a few things he would probably understand.
First, Michael Savage grew up with a brother who suffered from severe retardation, one whom he loved very much and has spoken of on numerous occasions with the deepest affection and emotion. Listening to Savage, it's apparent that this experience instilled in him a respect for human life that doesn't end where mental impairment begins. It is why he was livid when Howard Stern mocked people so afflicted some years back; it is why he has taken up the cudgels against euthanasia on their behalf.
It is also why — and I'm inferring here — Savage is no doubt more offended than most when an irresponsible psychiatric community diagnoses normal but ill-behaved children as mentally impaired. It bothers me as well for a number of reasons, and I'll explain.
Some today have a nasty habit of labeling ambiguous sexual encounters (e.g., a woman who, after a consensual sexual experience, gets jilted and then claims she was an unwilling participant) as rape. Many people genuinely concerned about real rape are outraged by this, as such a practice diminishes the crime. After all, if you bastardize the term, lumping in the category that which is less serious or even innocent, people will take it less seriously. This hurts actual rape victims, as they then may not receive the consideration, care and redress they deserve.
It's no different when those who are merely ill-behaved are misdiagnosed as mentally impaired. By labeling these less serious or even non-existent problems as mental conditions, it causes society to take authentic ones less seriously. And when Savage bemoans this fact, he speaks for millions who have had to care for legitimately mentally-ill/impaired individuals. I myself know such a caregiver, and she has lamented the fast-and-loose psychiatric diagnoses so common today. She has seen firsthand how they take attention, consideration and resources away from people such as her truly mentally-ill family member.
So, getting back to Mr. Schwartzman, maybe I can assuage his feelings. Michael Savage is not saying autism doesn't exist; he is simply pointing out that the condition is over-diagnosed. Thus, Mr. Schwartzman, if your son is legitimately autistic, Savage isn't talking about you. He is not diminishing your son's travails but railing against those who are.
This is the spirit and meaning of what Savage said. Sure, it's very easy to cherry-pick extemporaneous radio commentary for the purposes of twisting a host's meaning. Talk radio is a real-time, fast-paced medium where one speaks off the cuff and often uses hyperbole to drive home concepts. Does Savage believe that the autism-misdiagnosis rate is actually 99 percent? I don't know — maybe he does, maybe he doesn't. If he does, maybe he's right, maybe he isn't. If literalism matters to you, I suggest you ask him. But do you really believe the condition is never misdiagnosed? Do you really know what the misdiagnose rate is? Well, we're not going to find out by silencing those who dare say the therapist has no clothes.
Regardless, trigger-happy diagnosticians are legion in psychiatry. The most egregious example of their handiwork is ADHD, a mythical condition that has become a handy excuse for bad behavior. I addressed it in this piece, in which I point out that head shrinkers are now prescribing Ritalin for children as young as two years old. I also quote a rare, common-sense psychologist named John Rosemond, who said (I'm paraphrasing):
"All children 'have ADD' up till age two, but if they're socialized properly, it's bred out of them."
I won't elaborate further here, but if you're interested in my full analysis, read the piece I cited.
Something else in my article is also relevant. Many may scoff at Savage's assertion that a child diagnosed with autism might just be ". . . a brat who hasn't been told to cut the act out." C'mon, could it really be an act? Well, consider an anecdote I presented:
. . . I think of a very charming friend I had many years ago. The son of a psychologist, he was diagnosed with a learning disability in the 1970s, before such designations were fashionable, and attended a special school for children so afflicted. Here is what he told me about himself and his fellow students (it's close to verbatim): 'We thought it [the 'conditions'] was all nonsense; it was just a way to get out of doing work.'
So such children do exist, and they're aided and abetted by "mental-health professionals" who are content to be fooled — and to be foolish. Psychology is the only field wherein the practitioners invent, or exaggerate the prevalence of, diseases and conditions so they'll have ready diagnoses. It isn't just Autism and ADHD. Consider what I wrote in "The Hard Truth about a Soft Science: Why Psychology Does More Harm than Good":
. . . I recently read about psychiatrists who are labeling the desire to engage in excessive text messaging a mental disorder. Then there is "Muscle Dysmorphia," or the obsessive belief that one isn't muscular enough; "celebriphilia," the strong desire for amorous relations with a celebrity; "Intermittent Explosive Disorder," or road rage; "Sibling Rivalry Disorder"; "Mathematics Disorder"; "Caffeine Related Disorder"; and "Expressive Writing disorder" . . . a defiant child or employee isn't ruled by pride but has "Oppositional Disorder," a person with a lack of gratitude isn't just that but one who suffers from "Chronic Complaint Disorder" . . . .
Now, in light of the above, don't you think that maybe, just perhaps, misdiagnosis and over-diagnosis might be a problem? Isn't suspicion of psychiatric determinations warranted?
Then there is the reason why the psychiatric profession suffers from what I'll call "Chronic Disorder Invention Disorder": Money. Every time it labels what was formerly called a sin as a disease or condition of the brain, its market grows. "Hey, I just thought of a new category."
Ka-ching.
ADHD?
Ka-ching.
Over-diagnosing Autism?
Ka-ching, ka-ching, ka-ching.
"Can you diagnosis me, doctor?" "Why, yes, patient, you're $30,000 sick."
So, you folks who care for the truly mentally impaired should be upset, but not at Michael Savage. He has been there; he has carried that cross. Direct you ire at those afflicted with a "disorder" lamented since time immemorial.
It's called greed.
07-21-2008 - 4:24 PM
True Autism is a tragedy that destroys whole families, all the parents time is spent running after one child to the detriment of others. Yes, by the way, we did not have any children after the autistic so do not start that lecture.
Come visit any School and group home, there may be one within 1000 feet of yours. These kids are locked up so you hardly see them.
The only racket is the frum therapists that pretend to provide speech therapy at very high reimbursement. After getting your case they will combine sessions to make it less travel for the same hours. Remember, autistic kids can not focus for a double session but they do it anyway.
07-21-2008 - 5:37 PM
07-21-2008 - 8:06 PM
07-21-2008 - 9:53 PM
oh wait bill maher has said the same exact thing as savage!
oh wait but he is a liberal so when he did it it must be bad but for savage it must be ok
07-21-2008 - 10:25 PM
GIVE THE GUY A BREAK
07-21-2008 - 11:32 PM
THATS a laugh. Of course has political motive. didnt he even eant to run for president? he is a neo con blowhard . a ranting raving lunatic
07-21-2008 - 11:40 PM
07-22-2008 - 8:25 AM
GIVE THE GUY A BREAK"
Is 100% correct! anyone who listens knows!
07-22-2008 - 12:24 PM
hsi voice should make anyone human being cringe.
07-22-2008 - 7:10 PM
07-22-2008 - 8:33 PM
Blessed Be
Ps try and have a good day .. Think before you speak and get your damn FACTS straight...
07-28-2008 - 12:30 PM
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