On July 21, nationally syndicated radio host Michael Savage recast comments he made about autism in order to claim that he was “take[n] out of context.” Savage falsely suggested that his July 16 comments -- which have generated widespread media attention and sparked protests -- 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.”

In fact, in his July 16 comments -- the relevant portions of which Media Matters for America documented with transcript and audio -- Savage said: “Now, you want me to tell you my opinion on autism, since I'm not talking about autism? A fraud, a racket. ... You know what autism is? 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.”

By contrast, on July 21, Savage said that “true autism is extremely heartbreaking” and later said: "[I]t's ironic that people who hate families and children -- a group called Media Matters, filled with anti-family individuals who do not marry; they're men who like men -- would take out of context comments that I made last week directed at the misdiagnosed, the falsely diagnosed, and the outright fakers in the autism field and try to make you, the parents of the truly autistic, attack me."

From the July 16 broadcast of Talk Radio Network's The Savage Nation:

SAVAGE: Now, you want me to tell you my opinion on autism, since I'm not talking about autism? A fraud, a racket. For a long while, we were hearing that every minority child had asthma. Why did they sudden -- why was there an asthma epidemic amongst minority children? Because I'll tell you why: The children got extra welfare if they were disabled, and they got extra help in school. It was a money racket. Everyone went in and was told [fake cough], “When the nurse looks at you, you go [fake cough], 'I don't know, the dust got me.' ” See, everyone had asthma from the minority community. That was number one.

Now, the illness du jour is autism. You know what autism is? 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.”

Autism -- everybody has an illness. If I behaved like a fool, my father called me a fool. And he said to me, “Don't behave like a fool.” The worst thing he said -- “Don't behave like a fool. Don't be anybody's dummy. Don't sound like an idiot. Don't act like a girl. Don't cry.” That's what I was raised with. That's what you should raise your children with. Stop with the sensitivity training. You're turning your son into a girl, and you're turning your nation into a nation of losers and beaten men. That's why we have the politicians we have.

From the July 21 broadcast of Talk Radio Network's The Savage Nation:

SAVAGE: It is The Savage Nation. The autism controversy is very important because true autism is extremely heartbreaking. I have devoted my entire life, even as a child, to defending the helpless, mainly the helpless children because of a tragedy in my own family, and it's ironic that people who hate families and children -- a group called Media Matters, filled with anti-family individuals who do not marry; they're men who like men -- would take out of context comments that I made last week directed at the misdiagnosed, the falsely diagnosed, and the outright fakers in the autism field and try to make you, the parents of the truly autistic, attack me.