Tame the Savage Beast

I'm going to continue on a streak of two politically charged posts in a row, and attempt to assist in a groundswell to get the Michael Savage character off the nationally syndicated airways. If you haven't heard his comments, here is what he said on his radio show a few weeks ago:

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.

Originally I thought, let it slide, he's a nobody looking for publicity. Then I found he is the third most listened to talk show host in the US. This guy has to get thrown out into the street. So we all started our letter writings to the various sponsors. I got to writing to Anheuser Bush and I got stuck:

Dear Sirs...nah that's sexist
To Whom it May concern:
As a lifelong consumer of your product...WAIT what am I? A confessed former underage drinker?
As a consumer of your product...nah, sounds like I'm drunk right now.
As a current user of your product...same problem.

I hate copying and pasting the form letter into these internet 'send us your comments' things, once they see that pattern aren't they going to just throw it into the virtual trashbin?

OK, here it is:

As a user of you product, I would like to call to your attention that one of your outlets for advertising, The Michael Savage radio show nationally syndicated has taken a severe and disturbing turn. Recently, Michael Savage saw fit to disparage all individuals suffering from the disorder autism, calling them everything from brats to idiots and claiming that parents of
autistic children are involved in a 'racket' to bilk the country out of services.Of course, if you ask people at your company with autistic children (there are statistically more than 1 out of 100) you will find that they are in serious need of help in their day to day lives, and these comments by Savage are not only hurtful to them personally, but also perpetuate a decades old prejudice
that will cause children who desperately need services to not receive them.

I implore you to reconsider advertising on his show. Realize that, with the rate of autism climbing from 1 in 150 (my state of NJ has an autistic rate of 1 in 94), he is offending at least 10 percent of the population indirectly or directly, as well as much of the rest of the population, especially those with disabled children. I trust that you will arrive at the right conclusion and
pull your advertising from the show, thank you for your consideration,
livsparents
NJ
Father of two wonderful autistic children

I hope that we can create enough noise to get this guy thrown off the air. Apparently, he was thrown off of MSNBC a few years ago for attacking the gay community. Let's hope he's on the street in no time...