Shock Jock Savage Spews Hate at Autistic Kids; Are His Enablers Ready to Abandon Ship?

By Rory O'Connor, AlterNet. Posted July 25, 2008.

Angry citizen reaction to the latest cynical, cyclical outpouring of hateful speech over the public radio airwaves -- top-rated talk show host Michael Savage's despicable attack on autistic children as "brats, morons and idiots" -- has once again injected America's talk radio problem back into the mainstream news cycle. But why did it take a full week of protests, pressure, pickets, pullouts by advertisers, and stations dropping the program -- Savage's remarks occurred on the July 16 edition of his nationally syndicated radio show -- before the legacy media finally responded to the latest outrage? Is it because they are part of the racket? Savage claimed on his program "The Savage Nation" that autism is a "fraud, a racket." He also stated that the ongoing asthma epidemic is "a money racket" staged by "the minority community" to get "extra welfare." Here's how the racket works, according to the hatemonger Savage: "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."

As should be obvious now to all but the most biased observers, the real money racket at play here is the shock jock racket. Everyone involved is getting rich: from top shock jocks like Savage, Rush Limbaugh (who recently signed a new $400 million contract) and Sean Hannity (who recently signed a new deal in excess of $100 million) to local radio stations like New York's WOR (which expressed "regret" over Savage's remarks but took no "responsibility" for them) to national syndicators like Premiere, ABC Radio Networks and the Talk Radio Network (which pushes Savage out to more than 350 radio stations -- and whose CEO, Mark Masters, trumpets the "fearless entrepreneurial environment at TRN" while he fearfully ducks reporters' calls) to advertisers and sponsors (like Home Depot and Anheuser-Busch, which, unlike the estimable AFLAC, continue to advertise on "The Savage Nation"). And let's not forget about the shock jocks' elite enablers, drawn from the upper echelons of the corrupt nexus of Big Media and Big Politics, who sell their political platforms, books and souls in exchange for audience access.

Although children's advocates are calling for his head and demanding that Savage apologize and retract his statements -- and calling for a boycott of stations that air his show -- Savage is offering in lieu of an apology an absurd explanation that his remarks were merely intended to stimulate a dialogue. "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," he claimed.

Equally absurd is the statement that WOR Radio posted on its Web site: "The views expressed by Michael Savage are his views and are not those of WOR Radio. As Michael Savage is a syndicated show, the content is the responsibility of the syndicator, which is Talk Radio Networks. Unfortunately, it is impossible for WOR Radio to know the subject matter in advance of airing. WOR is in the business of serving the community in which we broadcast. That is our stated goal, and we will continue to do so. We regret any consternation that his remarks may have caused to our listeners."

See more stories tagged with: michael savage, hate speech, shock jocks, autism

Filmmaker and journalist Rory O'Connor is the author of Shock Jocks: Hate Speech and Talk Radio (AlterNet Books, 2008). O'Connor also writes the Media Is A Plural blog.

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