- Dr. Laura
Maybe Dr. Laura Schlessinger should have stuck to bashing gays and lesbians.
The right-wing radio talk show host announced Tuesday night that she won’t renew her contract, ending her radio talk show at the end of this year.
In the 90s, Schlessinger became one of the top radio talk show hosts by becoming increasingly homophobic in her rants against callers who were seeking advice.
When she was offered a TV contract, she finally ran into trouble when activists from Dallas reacted. The Metroplex was her No. 1 market nationally.
KTVT, the CBS affiliate in Dallas, signed on to air her show. Dallas activists staged the first protest against it. Protests spread to cities around the country. John Seelig of Dallas began going after her advertisers, calling corporate executives and convincing many to pull their advertising from her program.
The show debuted with little advertising, and it sunk after one season due to Schlessinger’s terrible TV personality. After three or four format revamps, it was canceled.
Over the past decade, she continued to broadcast on radio, but on fewer and fewer stations.
In her latest high-profile rant, Schlessinger was criticized for using the N-word repeatedly while giving advice to a woman who called with a question about her interracial marriage, upset by her husband’s friends’ racial slurs. Schlessinger attacked the woman, saying that if she was so sensitive about racial issues, she shouldn’t have married outside her race.
Schlessinger apologized for using the N-word, but not for her stupid advice. In her statement about quitting the show, Schlessinger said that she’s not retiring and told Larry King that she’s looking forward to regaining her First Amendment rights.
Presumably, she sees those rights as attacking, insulting and encouraging hate. While the Supreme Court has upheld free speech for hate groups such as the Fred Phelps clan, it has not upheld the right to incite violence against a target group using public airwaves.
Although Schlessinger’s program is an advice show and she uses the title “Dr.,” she does not hold a doctorate in counseling, psychology or any related field.
Ironically, it was also Dallas that *made* Dr. Laura also. This was the second market to carry her radio show outside of LA (it went national after being successful here). I worked at her Dallas affiliate back then, and the show put us in the top 10 radio stations in DFW. She came to the station for a visit in the spring of 1996, and I remember being told we were not to interact with her at all. Don’t talk to her, don’t look at her, don’t ask for autographs and the like–I remember at the time thinking to myself, who does she think she is?
It’s a pity that Dr. Laura started out as pretty gay-friendly. Sometime about 12 or so years ago she “got religion” and decided LGBT people were worthy of her scorn and little else. Glad her program is going away, one less voice of hate and intolerance on the radio!