Was Glenn Beck an asshole before he had a child with special needs?

Last week, Media Matters caught right-wing radio talker Michael Savage claiming that autism is a “fraud” and “a racket” where “99 percent of the cases, it’s a brat who hasn’t been told to cut the act out.” Parents of autistic children are outraged, saying Savage’s comments were “way, way, way over the line and cruel.” But Savage refuses to apologize. On Larry King Live last night, he told guest host Glenn Beck that he had simply been “taken out of context” by “men who specialize in hating families and children, namely Media Matters.”

Though Beck said he was sympathetic to someone being taken out of context, he told Savage that “as a dad with a child with special needs,” his baseless attack on autistic children “cuts right.”