SAN FRANCISCO—KNEW’s radio station was surrounded by more than a 100 autism activists Sunday July 27, 2008 after the radio station’s talk show host Michael Savage made some controversial remarks about autism on July 16, 2008.

The autism activists demanded Michael Savage’s firing after his controversial remarks on his talk show, in which he made this statement about autism, "[a] fraud, a racket. ... 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."

Michael Savage made no apologies for the comments he made on his show of July 16, 2008. But in response to the controversy that arose after the comments he made, Savage’s website read, “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.'”

According to Michael Savage’s website, he also claimed that his comments were taken out of context and that “A cartel of doctors and drug companies is now creating a national panic by over diagnosing autism. Many children are being victimized by being diagnosed with an illness that may not exist."

According to a report done in 2007 by the Centers of Disease and Control Prevention, their ADDME autism prevalence report stated that 1 in every 150 American children were diagnosed with autism.