Savage's Savaging of Sufferers from Autism

By this time there is perhaps no percipient adult in America who has not heard of Michael Savage's obnoxious remarks about autistic individuals in his radio show two weeks ago and his subsequent attempt to mount a full-court retreat by blaming his opponents, claiming he was taken out of context and filling his website with more "balanced" autism interviews he has done over the past few years. Clearly this controversy posed a problem for Savage and his network, and their effort to rehabilitate Savage will probably enable him to keep his job--but at some expense. The expense? His denial/defense was so transparently hypocritical and untrue (that he was only talking about the "false diagnoses" of autism and that, in fact, he supports the "truly autistic," whatever that means) that I, who have never heard a word he previously said, will have no occasion to listen to anything he says.

This, I believe, is unfortunate because the man has a Ph. D. from a major university, obviously had the capacity at one time to think critically and carefully about a subject, but has, no doubt because of the glitz and fame associated with shock-jocking in our day, thrown that all aside for the mess of pottage which is ratings and money. There is one way, I think, to "redeem" what he has said, and I propose to do so after I first quote his words, from his July 16, 2008 radio show.

His Words

I don't know the "full context" (however broadly we want to define that) of his remarks on July 16, because I don't spend time listening to him. But a transcript of his words is here:

"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."

On more than one occasion in the ensuing days, he tried to put out the fire that these patently incendiary comments created, first by saying that his words were taken out of context and second, by claming that a historic adversary of his program had orchestrated an attack piece on him. If he was proud of his original comments, however, and if he had nothing to be ashamed of, why aren't they posted on his website when you click on the entry on autism? Why are the only things listed there some "context-giving" pieces which patently are meant to rehabilitate "poor" Michael Savage. After all, he had a brother who was disabled, so he couldn't have attacked disabled (autistic) people. But there is such a thing as self-hatred and repressed guilt, and Michael's brief narration of his older brother's sad death in a Staten Island mental facility 50 years ago has, no doubt, not been "dealt with" very well by Michael....

Where Do We Go From Here?

So, his comments were inexcusable, ignorant and uninformed. But where do we go from there? His comments pointed, unwittingly, to two issues which the autism community is aware of and has to address in a more straigtforward fashion. The first has to do with the mode of diagnosing autism. What "counts" for autism? How is it diagnosed? Is there a uniformity in diagnosis so that autism is as predicatably diagnoseble as, say, a cold or lung cancer or a broken leg? What is the process of diagnosis, where are the problematic areas, etc? Because the DSM-IV-TR (2000) lists a number of behavioral criteria that lead to a diagnosis of autism, we have to have a certain number of these behaviors demonstrated in order for a diagnosis of autism to "stick." Are we satisfied with this procedure? Is there a better way to diagnose? I think it is because of the uncertainty of diagnosis and the possibility of "conceptual slippage" that the autistic community is vulnerable to the charge of overdiagnosis. Certainly we can point to the statistics from the Center for Disease Control (1 in 150 have full-blown autism, and are not simply on the "autistic spectrum"), but we need to be more aware of the problems of diagnosis.

The second issue has to do with the reality that when you have a vulnerable population out there, there are always people waiting around to take advantage of their vulnerability. Sometimes people genuinely want to help, but one is deluded to think that the world of autism is a "political free zone." I saw the following phenomenon when I attended an autism conference: when the statistic of 1 in 150 was announced (and 1 in 94 in some places in England), I couldn't tell really whether the majority of conference goers wanted to weep or break out in applause. They might weep because they recognized instinctively what this diagnosis meant for the families of one so labeled. But there also was the sense among many that, strangely enough, this ratcheting up of the numbers was good for them. Indeed, it would result in greater media attention, the possibility of more children/grandchildren of prosperous people being afflicted, the resultant power in legislatures as the numbers grow, the possibilities of increased influence and reach for their groups, etc.

Conclusion

A few weeks ago Phil Gramm, another guy with a Ph.D., but this time in economics, embarrassed the floundering McCain campaign by saying that America is a nation of whiners, and that all we needed to do in this time of economic distress for many is tighten our belt and shut up. Michael Savage's remarks on autism, when seen in this light, are remarkably similar. If you were just manly enough, he is saying, your problems would just go away. But his definition of manliness comes from a time and a sentiment that has, or should have, long since died. Phil Gramm was asked to leave McCain's campaign, and no one has missed him. However, Savage still brings in quite a bit of money for his sponsors and network, and so they are rushing to defend him.

At one time, it seemed that Savage had something to say; now, however, he has abdicated that role, even as he continues to blabber away...

3659