Can You Guess Who Has Glad, the Catholic Church, and Autism Parents Mad?

Quote 1: “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.’ “

Quote 2: “Oh, so you’re one of those sodomites. You should only get AIDS and die, you pig; how’s that? Why don’t you see if you can sue me, you pig? You got nothing better to do than to put me down, you piece of garbage? You got nothing to do today? Go eat a sausage, and choke on it. Get trichinosis. Now do we have another nice caller here who’s busy because he didn’t have a nice night in the bathhouse who’s angry at me today? Put another, put another sodomite on….no more calls?…I don’t care about these bums; they mean nothing to me. They’re all sausages.”

Quote 3 “The Democrat Party is the minority party…..The membership is made up largely of minority blocs, the Hispanic caucus and the gay caucus — caucuses that are all against the white person……Now, the white women generally are not as hard-nosed about things as the white male, and so many white women don’t even understand that they’re being duped, and they vote for a Democrat, not knowing that they’re digging their own grave.”

Would you be surprised if this quote came from a man whose first job was as a social worker? Would you be surprised to know that the speaker of these quotes has made NY’s best seller list four times? Would you be surprised to know that he has 8 million ears listening to him daily, on 400 stations, placing him the third most listened to radio host- only behind Rush and Hannity? Would you be surprised that this award winning radio host has two masters degrees and a PhD? I know I was!

image source

The quotes belong to Michael Savage, host of the Savage Nation radio show on Talk Radio Network. Mr. Savage (I refuse to call him Dr.) has a long history in the public domain. He wrote a few books in the eighties, some of which were rejected by publishers for being too politically charged. He then started his radio career in 1994, on a local Ca radio station. His slogan was, “To the right of Rush and to the left of God.” By 1999 he was propelled to Talk Radio Network and here began a string on defaming, insulting, crude, idiotic, insensitive, intolerant comments…. you pick the adjective! He spewed everything from burning the Mexican flag to hoping protesters starved to death and die.

On March 8, 2003, despite protesters he had collected over the years, he started airing a show on MSNBC. However, by July he was fired for quote 2. He tried to excuse the comment by insisting that he thought he was on a commercial break and not live. As if that somehow makes the comment lighter! There was no pause in his radio, though. He went right back to airing his program and appeared to not loose any listeners.

He has been on the forefront of leading environmental causes, anti animal cruelty advocacy, etc.. but any admirable attributes are overshadowed by his bigotry filled rants and defaming via hate tactics. I mean, when you have GLAD and the Catholic church after you at same time, you can’t deny there is a problem somewhere.

image source

His most recent debacle is quote 1. Despite the call for his removal by the parents and advocates in June 2008, he still is on air today. He did loose a lot of big sponsors and here in MS, he was banned from the radio waves. This is simply a slap on the wrist. We do not tolerate this type of defaming insulting remarks from others. For example, Don Imus’s statement about nappy headed women resulted in his immediate termination. I guess it is just okay to defame children with illnesses and their parents? See the statement by Talk Radio Network as to why he was not fired and Mr. Savage’s excuses here- http://www.savageonautism.com/ . However, I warn you that all of the audio clips are from two shows following the comment, where he is trying to back track….it does not provide context, like he implies.

I am neither a liberal nor conservative. I am what I like to call a “Libublican.” I share views from both parties. I agree with some of the premises Mr. Savage argues. Though, I in no way condone or respect the way he verbalizes them. So, this isn’t about silencing a conservative. It isn’t about defending liberalism. It is simply about standing up for clean debate, free speech with common decency, and applying some standard to those that have the ear of masses. If you think that total free speech overrules decency, I urge you to consider one thing. Savages comment on autism will effect the way people see the disease. They will hear that he is a doctor, but not the he is a doctor of nutritional ethno medicine- rather than neurology. This will skew a person to think autism is simply bad behavior. The donation they might have made for a treatment will be lost to “what if.” The empathy toward a parent and child will be lost to “what if.”