AP on Schlessinger's disgraceful end to her radio career
Written by Media Matters Staff
Published
From an August 18 Associated Press article on Dr. Laura Schlessinger's decision to end her radio show at the end of the year due to the controversy surrounding her racially charged rant:
[Schlessinger] apologized a day after the Aug. 10 remarks, but Media Matters for America called for her removal from the talk show. The group encouraged its members to contact show sponsors and affiliates and urge them to drop “Dr. Laura.”
Schlessinger said Tuesday on CNN's “Larry King Live” that her daily talk show will end when her contract expires this year, with the last show probably around Christmas. She said she was wrong to say what she said, was sorry for it, but “there are people who won't accept my apology.”
“When I started in radio, if you said something somebody didn't agree with and they didn't like, they argued with you,” she said. “Now they try to silence you ... My First Amendment rights have been usurped by angry, hateful groups who don't want to debate. They want to eliminate.”
Media Matters' Ari Rabin-Havt said the apology wasn't accepted because his group was concerned about Schlessinger's overall attitudes toward race, more than just the N-word. And those attitudes weren't addressed in the apology, he said.
For Schlessinger to portray herself as a First Amendment “martyr” is an outrage, he said.
“She has the constitutional right to make her statements, and I have the same right to assemble people to challenge the statements,” he said.