Michael Savage Issues Inane Clarification To His Inane Autism Commentary

As many of you likely already know, right-wing radio freakazoid Michael Savage recently garnered a helping of the bad sort of attention when he referred to autistic children as "brats" who, "in 99 percent of the cases... [haven't] been told to cut the act out." Well, since then he issued a "clarification" on those remarks, claiming that he spoke out only because he wanted to - get this - raise "awareness."

His statement, in part, reads:

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.

Well, if there's one thing I know about the HuffPo community is that they don't take kindly to the malefactions of people like Savage. And if there's a second thing I know about the HuffPo community, it's that they like the refreshing commentary of my wife, Caroline, a special education professional who has years of experience working with the autistic. [This is an inside joke from the Sunday Morning Liveblog, which - ha, ha - I guess you'll all have to start reading now! --Ed.]

Anyway, she read Savage's statement, and later clarification, and offers the following professional insights.

1. "How anyone can observe autistic children and conclude that they are "brats" completely eludes me. A great many autistic children are actually perfectly sweet, compliant children."

2. "'Drug companies' do not 'diagnose' people, let alone 'overdiagnose' people. I'm a little shocked that I actually need to explain this."

3. "Autism does not have a 'definitive medical diagnosis?' Really? Really. I'm going to have to bet Michael Savage a smack across the face with the DSM IV that there totally, totally is."

4. "In my professional opinion, I feel it's likely that this Michael Savage fellow has failed to arrive at, or at the very least, complete the formal operational stage of Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development."

Anyway, there you have it. Tune in next week, when Michael Savage raises awareness of fire safety by burning down a Berkeley, California bathhouse.

Comments

[onelife1]

Mr. Savage (perfect name)

you are toast.

goog-by

[Forester]

We are all so proud of our Marin county, homeopathic radio hate monger Alan Weiner ("Michael Savage") from NYC. Just one more nutjob in the bay area.

[TurgidCaterwauling]

Clearly, this guy generates ample profit to keep him on the air. That he speaks for anyone and has an audience is scary.

[SeriousBlack]

"Michael Savage Issues Inane Clarification To His Inane Autism Commentary"

Hunh - I see some similarities here.

Maybe John McCain should make Savage his veep pick.

[DaOne]

Why this d i p s h i t is still on the air is beyond me.

[seenitall]

Kind-hearted conservative christians love his kind of bigoted and hate-filled speech.

[HarveyArdman]

Anyone who has ever listened to Michael Savage for more than five minutes knows that he is a sociopath.

[HarveyArdman]

Anyone who has listened to Michael Savage for more than five minutes knows that he is a sociopath.

[joanno]

I periodically listen to all the right wingers on radio so I can know my enemy. Savage is one of the most disturbed ones out there. He spews pure hate but emerses it in a rambling personal monologue about his family...very bizarre. He also touts his education, loving it when his callers refer to him as Dr. Savage, while ripping the educational community along with everything else. He has his followers as crazies always do. The best way to fight his ilk is through advertisers....it might be time for organized communication with them...he was silenced a few years ago after an egregious comment about gays. He is at the extreme of the extremes and spreads a poison we could do without.

[AlphaMutt]

Savage's real last name is "Wiener". That's just about all you need to know about this fat load.

[2sleepy]

I listen to Michael Savage on our local 'right wing' radio station for only one reason, to catch the most egregious remarks and contact local advertisers. I have actually had some luck, one of the biggest advertisers was a local casino who decided that with 60-70% of their staff being hispanic, they would do well not to advertise on the Savage show after he stated that: "Mexicans breed like rabbitts".

[jerryfromcalifornia]

THIS MAN IS A FOOL.
REMOVE HIM FROM THE HUMAN RACE.

[Ira7]

Part 5:

The Zoloft worked wonders, but after 6 months, we felt guilty about it, so we stopped giving it to him. The depth of his obsessions fortunately minimized as he grew older, we lived with them as they came and went, and we had a "drug-free" kid.

But damn if I'm going to tell another family that they're evil for giving their child something to make life more fulfilling for the family as a WHOLE. And damn if I'm not reasonably intelligent enough to know that so many families have it so much WORSE than we do, and that drugs are the only way to assure both physical and mental health for EVERYONE in the family.

In conclusion, I would love to see the statistics, but I suspect that teachers probably first recognize autism in a child before anyone else, including the parents. (That's how we learned about Jamie, and boy, were that teacher's suspicions a bombshell to us. But those suspicions were right.)

Teachers interact with so many kids that they're simply more able to identify a young child who has problems and seems "odd." And Savage--that's the whole point:

That's not called overdiagno­sing--that­'s just called helping a kid lead a better life..

[Ira7]

Part 4:

Obsessions are common to Aspergers, and different ones come and go, but they can last for several YEARS! Do you have any idea what life can be like walking through a mall and you have to stop every 3 minutes so your son can lovingly admire a fire extinguiser? And that's all your kid wants for Christmas, a fire extinguisher?

Anyway, the fire extinguisher talk had my wife and me at wit's end, and at a very prominent Autism center here in South Florida--Dan Marino's Chilren's Center--the neurologist could see we were ready to kill ourselves. (Figuratively, not literally.) He recommended Zoloft to save our sanity, but he certainly didn't PUSH drugs on us. He just knew that the stress we were under was not healthy for ANYONE in the family (including my younger son), and that Zoloft would help. Jamie also exhibits some OCD behaviors, but they're very minor and really don't upset the balance of his life.

[Ira7]

Part 3:

Jamie is brilliant in a million ways, and taught HIMSELF to read by the time he was around 4. He would never hurt a fly, take a penny that didn't belong to him, or get out of control or violent. (This last point is an especially important one demonstrating most people's ignorance of autisim. It comes in all shapes, flavors, and colors.) And most importantly, Jamie is full of love:

How many 17-year-old boys want to hold their father's hand while walking around DisneyWorld? Yeah, it used to be embarrassing, but this has helped ME grow as a man, and now I just enjoy it. (Keep in mind that I'm a shrimp--just 5' 3"--and he's taller than me! So it REALLY looks funny!)

Anyway, that's the son I love, and none of Savage's comments mean anything because I know they come from ignorance of the disorder. I also want to point out a very brief period of time of about 6 months, when he was 8 or so, that his obsession with fire extinguisers was driving us crazy, and that's all he would talk about --night and day. This is relevant to Savage's "drug crazy" point of view.

[LORISNJ]

Thank you Ira7 - I have only had very limited experience with autism and your explanation of your son's condition helps me to understand at least in part what this condition is and the effect it has on the family.

I am curious as to the cause of your son's disorder, do you believe that innoculations and/or enviromental pollution could have caused this? Hopefully some day we can eliminate this as we did with small pox and polio. Your son is very lucky to have you as a parent.

I have no comment on Savage's mean comments or his incoherent reason for making them.

[Ira7]

Part 1:

I don't think anyone should get fired for saying these kinds of things on the airwaves. That's simply too slippery a slope, and there's no end to it. (Heck, 99% of the stuff said on Fox News is just as bad, hateful, and ignorant.)

Unfortunately, a lot of Americans believe what Savage said as well, because they don't have experience with autism and autism spectrum disorders. And it's not their fault, because without that personal experience, how do you learn?

The fact is, most people thing an autisitic kid doesn't speak or only grunts, and wears a helmet to protect his head while he's banging it against the wall. They don't know my 17-year-old son, Jamie: