Savage and Leary: dumb and dumber

Michael Savage, a conservative radio talk show host, upset the autism community last July when he called children with autism "brats." Now actor Denis Leary has taken a swipe at the parents of children with autism. In his new book, Why We Suck: A Feel Good Guide to Staying Fat, Loud, Lazy and Stupid, Leary blames autism on "inattentive mothers and competitive dads."

I don't have to trash Leary for making such insensitive and inaccurate remarks. He does it himself. In the chapter, "Autism Shmautism," posted in its entirety on United Autism's website, Leary writes, "...it don't get much more white trash than me."

How true. Leary's research into autism amounted to what came off the top of his head. If he had bothered to research autism, he would have learned that the scientific community disproved the hypothesis that unloving moms caused autism in their child more than 50 years ago.

But let's not blame Leary for publishing this misinformation. What about Viking Adult, his publisher? And his editor, if he had one. From the quality of his writing, he needed several.

Moreover, he grossly misstates other facts, writing that a "truly autistic child may be able to reproduce music he or she hears with perfect pitch—entire classical pieces, the rock opera Tommy, the latest hit Broadway musical—over and over again." 

He bases this on his acquaintance of two autistic children. Unfortunately, children with autism who possess exceptional talents are the exception to the rule. Research shows that about half of children diagnosed with the disorder are mentally retarded and 40% or more never develop functional speech.

I confess, I didn't read the whole chapter because I didn't see the point other than to ignite an uproar to generate sales.  As a comedic effort, I didn't find his remarks funny or enlightening.

Leary has since apologized. But he should do more, such as support families in crisis by donating some of the profits of his book to autism nonprofits.

Comments

[Jon Gilbert]

I know this is an older post, but I see you have no comments: let me be the first. I wrote an article about this very subject (and I don't normally provide commentary). Here's the article: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1370817/denis_leary_upsets_the_autism_community.html?cat=9. Let me know what you think.