Topic: WorldNetDaily
A July 22 WorldNetDaily article featured Michael Savage's spin of his assault on those with autism: that "In 99 percent of the cases, it's a brat who hasn't been told to cut the act out." WND repeated without challenge that "his assertion autism is a 'fraud' and 'a racket' was 'meant to boldly awaken parents and children to the medical community's attempt to label too many children or adults as "autistic"'" -- neither Savage nor WND offer any evidence that this is the case -- as well as his claim that he was "attack[ing] falsely diagnosed cases, the misdiagnosed and the outright fraud artists through a bold parody, and Media Matters rips the parody out of context, stirs up the autism community against me, and here we are!"
In fact, Savage's comments were not taken out of context by Media Matters (disclosure: our employer).
While WND noted that Savaged issued "statement on his website" regarding the controversy, it did not disclose -- as first reported here -- that WND hosts Savage's website, nor was it disclosed that WND published two of Savage's books. WND has a long history of failing to disclose the business and personal interests it has in the subjects of its news articles.
P.S. Speaking of our employer, we have an item up over there featuring WND's quote of Savage likening Media Matters to HIV.
