Savage: Most "Ph.D. experts on children are either gay or crazy ... if they were married, they either tried to kill their wife or were in rehab"

From: Media Matters For America
Mon, Nov 17, 2008 1:53pm ET

Summary: Discussing "children" on his radio show, Michael Savage stated: "I'm as good an expert as any. I have found in my life that most of the Ph.D. experts on children are either gay or crazy and were never married. Or if they were married, they either tried to kill their wife or were in rehab for a few years, and then came out and went into psychotherapy to find out why they killed, or attempted to kill. And then they washed it all away, and suddenly they're experts on childrearing."

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Discussing "children" on the November 14 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Michael Savage stated: "I'm as good an expert as any. I have found in my life that most of the Ph.D. experts on children are either gay or crazy and were never married. Or if they were married, they either tried to kill their wife or were in rehab for a few years, and then came out and went into psychotherapy to find out why they killed, or attempted to kill. And then they washed it all away, and suddenly they're experts on childrearing."

As Media Matters for America documented, Savage previously claimed that autism is "[a] fraud, a racket," and went on to say, "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.' " Savage also said: "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."

Talk Radio Network, which syndicates Savage's show, claims that Savage is heard on more than 350 radio stations. The Savage Nation reaches at least 8.25 million listeners each week, according to Talkers Magazine, making it one of the most listened-to talk radio shows in the nation, behind only The Rush Limbaugh Show and The Sean Hannity Show.

From the November 14 broadcast of Talk Radio Network's The Savage Nation:

SAVAGE: And I wanna talk about children -- I've got two minutes here, I'm gonna -- cause a young man called earlier, and he asked me to talk abut children. Now, suddenly I'm the resident expert on children. But you know what? I'm as good as any, 'cause I have children who are adults, and they're both wonderful people, and fine people, and the fact of the matter is I'm as good an expert as any. I have found in my life that most of the Ph.D. experts on children are either gay or crazy and were never married. Or if they were married, they either tried to kill their wife or were in rehab for a few years, and then came out and went into psychotherapy to find out why they killed, or attempted to kill. And then they washed it all away, and suddenly they're experts on childrearing.

I mean, I'll tell you, that's what I've found. So, I'm as good a source as any on how to raise a child. You wanna hear the number one rule? It's really simple. I remember when I had my first child. I had been living in the islands at that time. I flew all the way home, 6,000 miles, when my father died, to the funeral. And I had -- I took my little baby with us. I mean, you know, it was like an infant. It was terrible. What a reason to come home to that, but you can't pick things in life. Things happen.

So, after the -- the, the -- whatever -- you know, you go to the house and you, whatever, drink, and we're sitting and talking. I remember asking one of my uncles, who, incidentally, did not have children himself, but he was not a bad guy. Somehow I loved him and thought he knew everything, but he never had kids himself.

So, I said, "Well, really, I don't know the rules. How do you raise a child? What are you supposed to do?" I didn't know how to raise a child. What -- do you think you know? I didn't know. I was -- I was not a baby. I mean, I was like 28 at the time, but I was still, by today's standards, I was like an infant. They don't have children today till they're 60 in Los Angeles. The guy is bald, he's got one foot in the earth, and he marries his masseuse, or his Viagra provider, and then they have a baby, and the baby is 12 when he drops dead. I don't know how these kids are all gonna survive with these fathers -- 60 years. All right, that's a second story.

So, I asked my uncle, "How do you raise a child? I mean, what's the rules here?" My uncle said something to me that I remember to this day. He said, "You know what? There are no rules except one that you have to remember: Love them. If you love them, everything will work out." And you know something? He was right.

—H.D.