Michael Savage, at Odds With the Science
Reader Comments
Michael Savage
I have listened to Savage for 7-8 years. He is a passionate, intelligent and provocative talk show host. While I don't always agree with what / how he states his case, he brings up topics that are important to our society as a whole and are not discussed in the main stream media. We need freedom of thought and expression, if we stiffel controversal speech, we loose our ability to think for ourselves. It use to be that if you didn't like something you didn't listen, now we want them fired, this is Political Correctness gone amock.
Shock Jock Again
Mr. Weiner is actually gay and has a retarded brother. This can be readily confirmed in published factual sources. He changed his name and has a 'shock jock' act that pays millions. He says "99% of autistic kids aren't" then back pedals. His supporters excuse this by comparing it to overprescribing for ADD or ADHD. Whatever psychological inadequacies lie at the bottom of his rude, idiotic comments we can only guess at -- did daddy tell him to act like a man too many times? Was the shame of a retarded sibling too much?
Whatever the reason, he has gone too far. Has he or his defenders ever met a child with autism or Asperger's, for example? My heart goes out to their parents, and so should his.
Savage encourgages child abuse
If one parent or extended family member believes what Savage says then the child will be physically and verbally abused. This isn't about his latest ratings and making headlines to increase viewers for radio. It is about abuse on vulnerable chldren and parents who have been attacked by a man who is uneducated and has no experience with and about autism. It is about family members and friends who disappear and take this same idiotic attitude because it is easier and it doesn't cost them any money. Government financial help, please, what a joke!
Boycott the sponsors. If you have no experience with autism then as Savage how can you comment. I am a grandmother to a now 4 year old beautiful girl with Autism. Her name is Briana. She is a human being with her own fingerprint and deserves respect and compassion. She has two wonderful parents, one set of grandparents and one Aunt Chris. We are 5 together while the others pretend it will all go away. She will reach her full potential because of us and therapist who are angels on earth.
Unbelievable Savage
I feel that anyone commenting on such a topic as autism should at least have some general first-hand knowledge of the subject before getting on a soapbox about it. As the parent of three children, a teenager with autism who must be taught practically EVERY social behavior that comes naturally to most children, an adult son with autism in addition to more co-morbid diagnoses of epilepsy, mental retardation, cerebral palsy, etc. who must have total one-on-one care and cannot communicate, and an adult daughter in the middle with no medical problems, I can honestly say that I would much prefer that my children all be perfectly healthy in every way. We (my husband and I) worked hard all of our married lives to pay for the things that insurance did not cover (and there has been a lot). In addition to having a vast pool of family, friends, teachers, physicians, therapists, and others who had a great desire to help and have helped tremendously - the necessity has presented itself for us to educate ourselves to be advocates, lawyers, teachers, administrators, reasearchers, and any number of other professions that we don't get paid for - but had to learn nonetheless. We have worked endlessly to try to improve all of our children's lives and will continue to do so until our dying breath. We do not appreciate the fact that someone who evidently has no experience with autism spouts off and tries to degrade the hard and repititious work that parents, teachers, and other school personnel, therapists, and medical personnel do to try improve the lives of these citizens. My story is not unique to countless others and I am sure that they feel as I do that Michael Savage needs to stick to topics that he might know something about. Get a life - Savage!
Autiism
You need to do more research and read the articles you find. Find Miriam Greenspan's works. She has made a compelling case for just what Savage argues. That is, society cannot fix mental health patients so we instead medicate so that they are not a burden on the rest of us. There is a tendency for mental diagnoses to follow the latest pharmeceutical wonder drug. More anti depressants means more depression; more drugs to control our of control youth means more ADD/ADHD, more lithium meant more schizophrenics. Even the AMA recognized in a study they sponsored that doctors will prescribe over 70% of the time, the medications their patients heard or read about in the media. No, autism is not a clear case of "sucking it up" but it amazing how many suburban, white children have been disagnosed with it and it is even more amazing that it has increased 11% nationally and over 23% in California. Someone is making a buck off of this condition of unknown origins with a multitude of symptoms.
Autism / Add
There is no such thing as a kid with ADD..only a kid that is BAD!! I think this guy Savage has got it half right. No one diciplines these kids... they treat them with kid gloves. It's in my family and everything he has said...I have toyed with in my mind... I wonder why NJ has the highest rate of Autism? Someone got the word out that we have the best schools for it and they all flock here!!
Autism
I congratulate Mr Savage on sparking off such a huge amount of interest and comments from his latest remarks about autism. He was obviously intending to do this. He has caused outrage amongst parents of autistic children, such as myself, and shown a complete lack of understanding when it comes to this incredibly complex disability. Yes, it is a disability. Like it or not, my child along with thousands of others, are diagnosed as being disabled due to their autism. And we are proud of our children. They cannot be cured. They can only be helped. Obviously Mr Savage has no idea what being proud really means. I pity him. And if he truly realised the hurt he causes, he should pity himself.
www.savageonautism.com
who is being nasty..."advocacy" groups that do great damage by pushing for more errant diagnoses or those people who call them out for it?
"Mark Masters, the Network's CEO, notes that:
'...My observations of Michael's consistent opposition to what he viewed as abuse or disrespect of persons dealing with special challenges, and of his interest in children, as well as his 1982 book, Healing Children Naturally, are completely inconsistent with Michael attacking children who are truly autistic. In contrast, his belief that misdiagnosing children as autistic will damage those children who are misdiagnosed and stigmatize them for life, his aversion to what he sees as improper medication of young children, and subjecting them to a lifetime of chemical straight jackets, and his recent sharing of his belief that the medical profession failed to properly care for his brother prior to his brother's death, do explain his passion in challenging what he sees as improper efforts by some in the health care industry to brand and treat as autistic persons who are not.'"
Michael Savage shows his ignorance (meaning lack of knowledge) about the subject of autism by his remarks. Anyone who knows anything about children with autism knows that they can't just suck it up and get over it. Michael needs to get more knowledge about a subject before he tries to act like an authority on it.
Subject
Thank god someone has the balls to attack the f'd up pharmaceutical industry. While I don't agree with all of what Savage says, I don't think this should be controversial at all. Savage advocates eating healthy and trying alternative medicines before reaching for powerful pharmacueticals... to get offended at this is just plain ignorant. Don't forget that Savage's brother is actually autistic so he should know a few things about this. If you want to attack Savage find something else... it shouldn't be that hard!
