She added: "The reason is, I want to regain my First Amendment rights. I want to be able to say what's on my mind and in my heart and what I think is helpful and useful without somebody getting angry, some special-interest group deciding this is the time to silence a voice of dissent and attack affiliates, attack sponsors. I'm sort of done with that."
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/17/AR2010081706418.html

'Dr. Laura' to end radio show over racial controversy

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Video: Dr. Laura to end radio show to 'regain free speech'
Talk show host Dr. Laura Schlessinger says she plans to end her radio show when her contract expires at the end of this year. Schlessinger recently apologized for repeatedly using a racial epithet on the air.
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Who's Blogging» Links to this article

By Paul Farhi
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Laura Schlessinger, the blunt-spoken, sometimes controversial radio talk-show host whose racially charged comments drew widespread condemnation last week, said Tuesday that she will end her radio career at the end of the year.

This Story
'Dr. Laura' to end radio show over racial controversy
Dr. Laura apologizes for saying N-word on the air
AUDIO: Listen to the exchange with caller
The announcement by the host of the "Dr. Laura" program was a stunning denouement after a week in which Schlessinger was widely criticized for describing an African American caller to her program as "hypersensitive" for taking offense at a neighbor's racial taunting. To illustrate her claim of a racial double standard, she said that black comedians often use the N-word on TV without criticism, but the word is forbidden for white people. She used the racial epithet, unexpurgated, 11 times in five minutes, despite her caller's protests.

Schlessinger later apologized for the remarks, saying she said "the wrong thing" on the air. On Tuesday she went further: During an interview on "Larry King Live" on CNN, Schlessinger said, "My contract is up for my radio show at the end of the year, and I've made the decision not to do radio anymore."

She added: "The reason is, I want to regain my First Amendment rights. I want to be able to say what's on my mind and in my heart and what I think is helpful and useful without somebody getting angry, some special-interest group deciding this is the time to silence a voice of dissent and attack affiliates, attack sponsors. I'm sort of done with that."

(More: Audio and analysis of what Dr. Laura Schlessinger said)

Schlessinger's advice program has been a fixture on talk radio for years and is heard on almost 200 stations around the country. (The weekday program was dropped by WMAL-AM in Washington several years ago.) In 2000, Schlessinger drew protests from a coalition of gay organizations after deeming gays "deviants" and "biological errors." She later apologized for those remarks.

During Tuesday's interview, she told King: "I'm not retiring, I'm not quitting, I feel energized, actually. Stronger and freer to say the things that I believe need to be said for people in this country."

Schlessinger didn't say what she intended to do after leaving her program.

The controversy over "Dr. Laura" is similar to one in 2007 involving veteran morning radio host Don Imus, who was roundly criticized for calling the players on the Rutgers University women's basketball team "nappy-headed hos" during his show. Despite Imus's apology, sponsors walked away during the controversy. He was let go by MSNBC, which televised his show, and his radio syndicator, but returned months later with a new cable TV deal and another radio show.


Although she said her sponsors and affiliates have backed her, Schlessinger, 63 -- who holds a PhD in physiology from Columbia University -- told King that she lived in "constant fear" that critics would attack them for her remarks.

"I never called anybody a bad word. I was trying to bring -- and obviously it has become a national discussion now -- I was trying to make a philosophical point," she said. "And I made it wrong, but I wasn't dissing anybody. I was trying to make a point, and for that to say that I should be silenced is the reason why I'm saying to you that I'm obviously losing First Amendment rights."

http://michellemalkin.com/2010/08/17/dr-laura-announces-end-of-radio-show/

Dr. Laura announces end of radio show
By Michelle Malkin • August 17, 2010 10:20 PM

She’s a broadcast and publishing legend. She’s battled political correctness for years. Tonight, the incomparable Dr. Laura announced that she’s ending her daily radio talk show — in order to allow her to speak her mind more freely.

More power to her.

Via E News:

The longtime AM radio fixture says that she will pull the plug on The Dr. Laura Program at the end of the year, a week after repeatedly using the N-word while taking a call on the air from a black woman who wanted to discuss her interracial marriage.

The made the announcement during an appearance on Larry King Live.

Here’s her rationale:

“My contract is up for my radio show at the end of the year and I’ve made the decision not to do radio anymore,” Schlessinger told King, who also happens to be on his way out this year (for less incendiary reasons).

“The reason is I want to regain my First Amendment rights. I want to be able to say what’s on my mind and in my heart and what I think is helpful and useful without somebody getting angry, some special interest group deciding this is the time to silence a voice of dissent and attack affiliates, attack sponsors. I’m sort of done with that.”

She’s not retiring or quitting, she added, but rather, hopes to be “stronger and freer to say the things that I believe need to be said for people in this country.”


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http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0810/WorldNet_dumps_Coulter_over_gay_event.html

WorldNet dumps 'right-wing Judy Garland' Coulter over gay event


The conspiracist conservative site WorldNetDaily has dropped provocateur Ann Coulter from its Taking America Back National Conference, it says, because of her plans to speak at the gay conservative group GOProud's Homocon.

"Ultimately, as a matter of principle, it would not make sense for us to have Ann speak to a conference about 'taking America back' when she clearly does not recognize that the ideals to be espoused there simply do not include the radical and very 'unconservative' agenda represented by GOProud," said WorldNet's Joseph Farah. "The drift of the conservative movement to a brand of materialistic libertarianism is one of the main reasons we planned this conference from the beginning."

Their dialogue:

Farah: "Do you not understand you are legitimizing a group that is fighting for same-sex marriage and open homosexuality in the military — not to mention the idea that sodomy is just an alternate lifestyle?"

Coulter: "That's silly, I speak to a lot of groups and do not endorse them. I speak at Harvard and I certainly don't endorse their views. I've spoken to Democratic groups and liberal Republican groups that loooove abortion. The main thing I do is speak on college campuses, which is about the equivalent of speaking at an al-Qaida conference. I'm sure I agree with GOProud more than I do with at least half of my college audiences. But in any event, giving a speech is not an endorsement of every position held by the people I'm speaking to. I was going to speak for you guys, I think you're nuts on the birther thing (though I like you otherwise!)."

Coulter, who's billed as the "right-wing Judy Garland" for the event, will keep her WND column, and the publicity is, I suspect, good for everyone.