When you have the opportunity to inform people on certain subjects, the worst thing to do is to give your opinion without giving strong arguments in order to sustain your point of view. While some TV and radio hosts know what they’re saying and defend their position, others just drop the bomb regardless of who might get hurt.

Michael Savage, radio talk show host, said Wednesday on his show “The Savage Nation,” that children with autism were just kids who hadn’t “been told to cut the act out.” He went even further and said that “in 99 percent of the cases” a child who was diagnosed with autism needed a father to tell him: “don't act like a moron. ... Act like a man. Don't sit there crying and screaming, idiot,” adding that autism was a “fraud, a racket.”

On Monday, Michael Savage maintained his point of view, saying that he did exaggerate the percentage. “It was a hyperbole,” said Savage. He continued the discussion, saying that autism was “an overdiagnosed medical condition.”

Although his usual targets are Democrats, lawyers representing prisoners at Guantánamo, homosexuals, undocumented immigrants, feminists and Islamic groups, this time he focused on autism. Of course his remarks didn’t go unnoticed as the radio show is heard by more than 8 million listeners each weekday on more than 350 stations.

Parents and protesters gathered before WOR's office holding sings which read “Fire Savage,” reported Newsday.

“He characterizes children with autism who are very, very ill — disabled children — as essentially bad kids; the only thing wrong with them is they have parents who don’t discipline them,” said John Gilmore, executive director of Autism United and the father of an 8-year-old with a diagnosis of autism.

Aflac, the insurance company, said that it withdrew all advertising from Michael Savage’s show. Paul Siebold, a spokesman for WOR, stated in an e-mail that Savages’s views were “not those of WOR Radio,” adding that the station regretted “any consternation that his remarks may have caused” to the listeners, reported The New York Times.

Michael Savage made a statement on his Web site saying that some children were misdiagnosed, adding that there were few cases of real autism.

“My comments about autism were meant to boldly awaken parents and children to the medical community's attempt to label too many children or adults as ‘autistic.’ Many children are being victimized by being diagnosed with an ‘illness,’ which may not exist in all cases. ... Let the truly autistic be treated. Let the falsely diagnosed be free. There is no definitive medical diagnosis for autism, none. It's all subjective,” said Savage.

The radio talk show host also talked about his behavior when he was a child, saying he used to line up shoes and count bathroom tiles, activities which are now linked to autism.

Michal Savage was born Michael Alan Weiner in 1942 in the Bronx. He wrote “The Political Zoo,” “Liberalism is a Mental Disorder,” “The Savage Nation” and “The Enemy Within.”According his website michaelsavage.com, he has master’s degrees in medical botany and medical anthropology and earned his PhD from the University of California at Berkeley in epidemiology and nutritional science.