This is in regard to the Dart handed out to conservative radio talk show host Michael Savage in the July 24 edition of the Alligator for comments he made about autistic children.
To start, let me just say that I am a liberal, but I do listen to talk radio every so often, and I just happened to have been listening the night that Savage's "horrible" quote was uttered. I later heard the mainstream media vilifying him for the quote.
But the fact is that the quote was taken entirely out of context. Savage was merely commenting on how autism is being over-diagnosed and that the criteria for being diagnosed for autism is rather subjective, which I believe is true.
If the media actually aired the entire 30-minute discussion he had on the topic, then people would realize that the 99 percent of cases he was referring to was related to misdiagnosed cases.
Last I checked, one sentence doesn't tell the whole story. For the record, this is the last time anyone will ever hear me defend a conservative radio talk show host, but come on, people, let's not destroy someone for something that was taken out of context. There are plenty of other things he has said over the years that are actually offensive.
Mike Kesler
7EG
