After Media Matters for America documented comments made by Michael Savage on his July 16 radio show, on which Savage described autism as "[a] fraud, a racket," Savage said on July 18 of the organization he called “the homosexual mafia group Media Matters”: “They're a fascist, homo-- goes out of their way to misquote me, take me out of context, and try to get me in trouble with people who love me. I stand by my words. Media Mat-- and that's it. And that's where I'm going to leave it.”

As Media Matters noted, Savage said on July 16: “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.' ”

On July 21, The New York Times reported in a story posted on its website that “in a telephone interview Monday morning,” Savage “stood by his remarks and had no intention of apologizing to those advocates and parents who have called for his firing over the matter.” From the Times:

“My main point remains true,” Mr. Savage, whose radio audience ranks in size behind only those of Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, said in an interview on Monday. “It is an overdiagnosed medical condition. In my readings, there is no definitive medical diagnosis for autism.”

[...]

Asked Monday if he actually believed that 99 out every 100 cases of autism were misdiagnosed, Mr. Savage conceded that figure was “a little high.” He added, “It was hyperbole.”

In addition, Savage posted the following statement on his website:

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.

From the July 18 edition of Talk Radio Network's The Savage Nation:

SAVAGE: All right. We'll go to the callers now on The Savage Nation. You know where I am, philosophically and politically, and you certainly don't agree with everything I say, and I understand that. Certain things I say offend people, for obvious reasons. You know, it depends upon whose ox is being gored and why and what they have at stake and what's personally involved. And there are so many issues, you can't please all the people all the time, but you can try to please yourself all of the time. Because I believe in the adage “To thine ownself be true.”

Now, I don't know when it became illegal to be a skeptic, but apparently, it's illegal to be a skeptic in America today. For example, anyone who's skeptical of Al Gore's con with global warming -- when I started being skeptical of him two years ago because I'm actually trained in science -- I was called every name under the sun. And the big guns in global warming business started to attack anyone who dared attack their theory that all of global warming was induced by man and that we'd all die if we didn't stop it by giving up our life to Al Gore and his carbon machine.

But as time went on, more and more scientists came forward and said, “Wait a minute, now. A, the threat is not that great, and B, we're not causing it.” In fact, the founder of The Weather Channel has challenged Al Gore to a debate. He won't debate him. In fact, thousands of reputable scientists have now stood up to Al Gore and his machine. And you see a certain movement, a little bit teenier away from that global warming hysteria of even a year ago.

There are other areas, and I don't want to go into them now, but when you gore someone's ox and you're the first one to do so, you're called every name under the sun. But I was trained in science. I'm skeptical of many claims, including claims about diseases that are tied into drug companies and tied into federal programs, and I think the overdiagnosis of certain diseases is an epidemic unto itself in this country. And it's all tied into treating children, in some cases, for illnesses that don't exist.

For example, how many years have I told you -- for how many years have I told you that ADD is a faulty diagnosis in a large percent of cases? How many years have I told you that, in England, for example, the medical establishment rarely accepts ADD as a diagnostic criteria -- in other words, it doesn't exist. It was invented primarily by the drug companies who wanted to sell the dangerous drug called Ritalin to control children.

Now, when I said these things, I was called every name under the sun. And of course, I wrote the book Healing Children Naturally to try to show you alternatives for -- to using drugs. Then I wake up two weeks ago and find out that the criminal pediatricians -- they're not all like this, but unfortunately, their guild, the American Academy of Pediatrics, which is a guild, is now pushing cholesterol-lowering drugs for children as young as 8. There's no science to show that lowering cholesterol, to begin with, reduces the actual number of heart attacks, let alone death. It lowers cholest-- they lower cholesterol for sure, but of course, there's some liver damage in adults, there's muscular damage in adults. What effect will lowering cholesterol -- using anti-cholesterol drugs in children have? Well, they don't know. All that matters is that the American Academy of Pediatrics, so-called, is now pushing more drugs for children. So now when I attack that, I'm called every name under the sun, primarily by the guilds involved in pushing the drugs by increasing people's fears. But I was raised to be a skeptical scientist.

In 1982, I wrote a book called The Skeptical Nutritionist, where, even though I was trained in the field and have a first-rate degree in the field, I myself wrote a book called The Skeptical Nutritionist, published by Macmillan. It's actually still an excellent book. It's not available, nor am I trying to sell it to you. What I'm saying is, be careful before you let people diagnose your child with an illness. It may not be an illness, it may be a faulty diagnosis. And it may be guilds or doctors or pharmaceutical companies trying to push treatments upon you for your child.

And nobody has personally suffered more from a sibling, in my case, my brother, who was born brain-damaged. So please, I don't want to hear that I'm insensitive from people who are making these false accusations, because many of them have no children of their own and they're connected with the homosexual mafia group Media Matters, none of whom have children of their own. They're a fascist, homo-- goes out of their way to misquote me, take me out of context, and try to get me in trouble with people who love me. I stand by my words. Media Mat-- and that's it. And that's where I'm going to leave it.