Denis Leary has blasted the press for its coverage of his new lifestyle book, insisting comments he made about children with autism have been taken out of context.

The Rescue Me star sparked outrage among activists for young autism sufferers when an excerpt from Why We Suck: A Feel-Good Guide to Staying Fat, Loud, Lazy and Stupid was printed in a U.S. newspaper on Wednesday.

In the book, Leary claims parents are using the brain development disorder as an excuse to explain their children's "laziness".

According to the New York Post, in a chapter titled Autism Schmautism, he writes: "There is a huge boom in autism right now because inattentive mothers and competitive dads want an explanation for why their dumb-ass kids can't compete academically, so they throw money into the happy laps of shrinks... to get back diagnoses that help explain away the deficiencies of their junior morons. I don't (care) what these crackerjack whack jobs tell you - yer (sic) kid is NOT autistic. He's just stupid. Or lazy. Or both."

But Leary has hit back at his detractors, insisting the journalist has failed to read his book in full because he actually supports those suffering from autism.

He says in a statement: "...If they have (read the book), they missed the sections I thought made my feelings about autism very clear: that I not only support the current rational approaches to the diagnoses and treatment of real autism but have witnessed it firsthand while watching very dear old friends raise a functioning autistic child."

(This news article provided by World Entertainment News Network)