A rebroadcast of The Savage Nation that aired on the program July 9 further undermines Michael Savage's claim that he was referring on July 16 only to misdiagnoses of autism, and not to the disease itself, when he characterized autism as "[a] fraud, a racket." During the rebroadcast, portions of which previously were included in a YouTube clip posted on June 30 -- more than two weeks before Savage made the “fraud” comments that he now claims were taken “out of context” -- Savage acknowledged having called autism “a phony disease.”

As Media Matters for America noted, on the July 16 broadcast of his program, Savage said in reference to autism: “In 99 percent of the cases, it's a brat who hasn't been told to cut the act out.” Media Matters further noted that in response to the extensive criticism Savage received, on his July 21 show, he recast those comments to claim that he was “take[n] out of context,” falsely suggesting that in his July 16 comments he distinguished between “the truly autistic” and those he described on July 21 as “the misdiagnosed, the falsely diagnosed, and the outright fakers in the autism field.” The comments he made that were rebroadcast on July 9 -- acknowledging that he called autism a “phony disease” -- further undermines his claim to distinguish between the “truly autistic” and those who have been misdiagnosed.

In the edition of his show that was rebroadcast on July 9, Savage said:

SAVAGE: Here, remember two weeks ago, I said to you that autism is a phony disease? Do you remember I said that to you? That how could so many children suddenly have it and there be an autism epidemic? In my day, if a kid was a troublemaker, he was a troublemaker. If he shot his mouth off in a classroom, he wasn't called autistic, he was called a pain in the neck. They sent him to a special school for pains in the neck. Now he needs medication. He's got autism.

He also said of autism:

SAVAGE: [A] lot of it [autism] is a racket to collect disability payments from the government, from basically poorer families who've found a new -- a new way to -- to be parasites on the government, which is if -- if you want to collect a little money and get free medical care, you want to get the kid to take tests with help where the answers are given to him before he takes it, just say he's got an illness -- ADD, DDD, ASA. To me, there is one disease that they all have; it's called S-T-U-P-I-D. That's the main illness most of these kids have.

From the July 9 rebroadcast of Talk Radio Network's The Savage Nation:

SAVAGE: Talk radio, if it's good, it's about social commentary. I don't know if you understand that. And it is. You have to be a pretty good social analyst to survive in this business. See, anyone could do politics, you know, read -- they read through the 18 papers in the morning, and the next thing is they're a great pundit that evening, or that morning -- read this -- a pundit.

That's easy to do. That's baby talk at talk radio. It's the social commentary and weaving it together in a political format that makes for interesting talk radio. And nobody can beat me at it -- nobody. Nobody. I'm the super heavyweight champion of social commentary in radio. Nobody comes near me; ask anyone who listens. I don't care if they're my detractor. They know I'm better than anybody.

But what I'm getting at is have you noticed that liberals laugh at herbal medicine. They laugh at homeopathy. They laugh at nutrition. They're all gung-ho, all of a sudden AMA-establishment medicine? How did that happen? That only conservatives -- we conservatives -- understand the value of complementary medicine, which is what it was once called, or alternative medicine, which is what it was once called. How can we understand it and these so-called liberals, who are into liberalism and freeing themselves, do not free themselves of the yoke of modern medicine? How come? You have an answer to that one? 'Cause I do, and I understand it very well. I know very well.

Here, remember two weeks ago, I said to you that autism is a phony disease? Do you remember I said that to you? That how could so many children suddenly have it and there be an autism epidemic? In my day, if a kid was a troublemaker, he was a troublemaker. If he shot his mouth off in a classroom, he wasn't called autistic, he was called a pain in the neck. They sent him to a special school for pains in the neck. Now he needs medication. He's got autism.

Today, they've done -- re-diagnosed -- redefined a troublesome children. And now they're calling him autistic all of a sudden. They all have a syndrome.

First of all, a lot of it is a racket to collect disability payments from the government, from basically poorer families who've found a new -- a new way to -- to be parasites on the government, which is if -- if you want to collect a little money and get free medical care, you want to get the kid to take tests with help where the answers are given to him before he takes it, just say he's got an illness -- ADD, DDD, ASA. To me, there is one disease that they all have; it's called S-T-U-P-I-D. That's the main illness most of these kids have.

Now you say, “Well, where do you come up with this? That is so cruel of you, Michael.” Guess what? I was right again. MSNBC, which is a super left-wing website, has a new article out, called “Autism 'epidemic' may be all in the label.” You hear this? Do you hear this finally again confirmed? Savage was right again.

Dateline: Atlanta, by Mike Stobbe, Associated Press: “A few decades ago, people probably would have said kids like Ryan Massey and Eddie Scheuplein were just odd. Or difficult. Both boys are bright. But Ryan, 11, is hyper and prone to angry outbursts” -- hey, the kid's a born talk-radio show host -- “sometimes trying to strangle another kid in his class who annoys him” -- maybe he's a born martial artist.

“Eddie, 7, has a strange habit of sticking his shirt in his mouth and sucking on it.” He's an idiot. That's a different story. “Prone to angry outbursts” and “hyper” means he's probably going to be a good -- either a lawyer or a good talk-show host. “Sometimes trying to strangle another kid” -- he's got to control it. He'd probably be a good martial artist or a good ring fighter.

The brother, though? Hopeless. “Sticking his shirt in his mouth and sucking on it” -- finished. Nothing will help him. Give him as many shirts as he wants.

“Both were diagnosed with a form of autism. And it's partly because of children like them that autism appears to be skyrocketing: In the latest estimate, as many as one in 150 children have some form of this disorder.” That's bullcrap.

There's not that many children. What it is, it's a racket. It's the drug companies trying to sell a disease. And the American Academy of Pediatrics, I oughta tell you -- the sickest, just the sickest doctors in the country is the American Academy of Pediatrics. They want every child screened -- screened by the age of 2. “Put them on this. Put them on that.”

See, there was a time that pediatricians were the lowest-earning doctors in the constellation of MDs because they didn't prescribe drugs. Then they got the idea that they could become just like the other drug peddlers in the medical industry if they could find diseases that they could sell -- peddle drugs to -- whoa, now they have it.

So, there's your answer. I see it all through the lens of correct -- clarity period. “Autism has always been diagnosed by making judgments about a child's behavior; there are no blood or biologic tests. For decades, the diagnosis was given only to kids with severe language and social impairments and unusual, repetitious behaviors.” OK, fine.

“Many children with severe autism hit themselves or others, d[idn't] speak and d[idn't] make eye contact.” Sounds like most liberals I've known. Most of the kids in Marin County sound like that. They hit themselves with marijuana once a day or they hit themselves with a spike in the night or they hit themselves -- they don't speak. No, they don't. They're like, hmm. And they don't make eye contact -- absolutely born liberals.

Here's another one: "[E]ight years, been in the day program with intense service, still doesn't talk. He's not toilet-trained" -- 19 years old? He doesn't talk. He's not toilet-trained? And “he has a history of trying to eat anything -- even broken glass”?

My friends, that is not autism, that's insanity. He belongs in a mental hospital. That's what they were built for: poor, unfortunate children like this, so that they could get the proper care that they need. They're not autistic. They need a mental hospital with attendants.

So, now, there it is. Now we got a spectrum of so-called illnesses -- autism. They're mentally retarded. It's a sad thing. It's not anything to laugh at. It's not something to laugh at, but stop diagnosing every idiot, moron, stupid kid with a disease to give them a justification. Somebody doesn't bang his head against the wall. Does that -- does that get you going on the right track? Or not?