Hate-Speech Connoisseur Michael Savage Goes After Autism; Gets Pulled From Mississippi Airwaves

Posted by Steven D., Booman Tribune at 12:21 PM on July 23, 2008.

What does it take to get a racist, liberal hating eliminationist, right wing talk show by Michael Savage canceled in Mississippi? Well, you might think that "nothing" Michael Savage could say would get his program removed from the air there. But you would be wrong. Apparently all it took was for him to call autism a "fraud" and a "racket."

The Super Talk Mississippi radio network has canceled The Savage Nation because of comments syndicated host Michael Savage made about autistic children last week.

Steve Davenport, president and CEO of Super Talk's parent company Telesouth Communications, confirmed The Savage Nation had been dropped from the network's lineup as of Monday.

"It was just horrible what he said," Davenport said Monday.

"When you talk about people in politics, business people, that's one thing. But when you talk about defenseless children, that's another."

Savage, a controversial conservative commentator, said during the July 16 broadcast of his show that autism is a "fraud, a racket ...

"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.'"

Davenport said, after he had read an account of Savage's comments, "I made the decision that we weren't going to tolerate that.

Yes, they weren't going to tolerate calling poor defenseless children with autism frauds and brats. Now they did tolerate him playing a Dead Kennedy's song after Ted Kennedy was diagnosed with brain cancer. And they tolerated it when he called Nancy Pelosi "Nancy Mussolini." And they tolerated it when he called for sending homeless people to "work camps." Or when he said Obama had been "hand picked by some very powerful forces ... to drag this country into a hell that it has not seen since the Civil War". Or when he called women who wear burqas Nazis who want to "cut your throat and kill your children." Or when he called gay parents child abusers. Or when he said of the 9/11 attacks on America "That was God talking." Or when he called civil rights a "racket" to steal the birthright of "Christian, white males." ... , or when ... , or when ...

I guess there must be a few white, right wing conservative Christians who have kids with autism in Mississippi. I guess you never know what people won't tolerate if you really put them to the test. So thank you Michael Savage. You've finally taught us what turns even your most devoted listeners intolerant when they hear it from a right wing talk show host.

Full disclosure moment: I have a nephew who suffers from seizures and displays autistic behavior, though he hasn't been officially diagnosed with autism (because the seizure issue makes doctors reluctant to diagnose him as autistic). He's not a brat, he's a lovely, sweet child who has difficulty relating to people at times, and who dislikes environments which provide too much external stimulation. So, I agree, Michael Savage's comments about autistic children are despicable. I just find it odd that those comments are the only ones by Mr. Savage that "The Super Talk Mississippi" radio network found intolerable.

Actually, I just lied. I don't find it odd at all. Sad, disappointing, predictable, perhaps. But not odd.

Tagged as: nancy pelosi, mississippi, michael savage, autism, ted kennedy, hate-speech, right wing talk radio