Laura Ingraham defended her use of a “blow up” sound effect on her radio show to cut off audio clips, claiming it was “fun” and “teasing,” after receiving heavy criticism for using the sound effect to silence a recording of civil rights leader Rep. John Lewis' speech at the 50^th anniversary of the March on Washington. 

On her August 26 radio broadcast, Ingraham used an effect that sounded like gunshot to cut off a recording of the speech given by civil rights leader Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) at the 50^th anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s “I Have A Dream” speech. Lewis' skull was infamously fractured by a state trooper on “Bloody Sunday” in Selma, AL, in 1965, and many civil rights activists -- including Martin Luther King, Jr. -- were literally silenced by assassins' bullets during the civil rights movement of the 1960s and '70s.

Ingraham came under heavy criticism for using this sound effect to cut off Lewis, with Salon's Joan Walsh describing the move as "unusually vicious" and MSNBC's Steve Benen writing that it “was one of the more offensive things I've heard in a while.”

In response, Ingraham claimed the sound was not of a gunshot but instead a “blow up effect,” and claimed criticism of her using the sound effect on Lewis was an attempt “to crush free speech”:

My producers and I have used this blow up effect to interrupt windbags for 10 years of political and cultural persuasions.  The cannon or “blow up” sound is meant to convey the gaseous thoughts of a speaker combusting, but of course the bilious Joan Walsh of Salon.com knows that. (My producers have even blown me up when we play long clips from TV appearances!)  

[...]

This is absurd and venomous and the predictably pathetic work of people who mean to crush free speech as they advance a failing, progressive agenda.  If Joan Walsh or other left-wing loons give voice to their moronic, dishonest analysis, they might self-combust on my show, too.  Boom.

On her August 29 radio show, Ingraham appeared to double-down on these remarks, claiming that the “modern-day left” was shutting down debate by accusing conservatives of racism and fixating on “being politically correct.” She went on to argue that Americans should have a respectful debate but still be able to “tease each other” and “have some fun.”

As an example, she claimed that she occasionally gets “blown up on the show because I go on too long” and asked her producers to “please blow me up” when they played long clips of her:

See, I have this crazy idea that we should actually continue conversations. That the people should be able to debate, have a vigorous discourse, respectful, doesn't mean you can't tease each other. We've got to have some fun. Right? We can't be so politically correct that we can't tease one another. My staff teases me! Mike, you can't blow me up though, right? Well, sometimes I get blown up on the show because I go on too long. Especially if we play long clips from me on O'Reilly, please blow me up. But you have to be able to have a conversation without living in fear that the other side is going to call you a racist. But this is what the modern-day left does. They don't want a conversation. They want to dominate.

Ingraham concluded by accusing Democrats of “conflating the issues of race and the issues of civil rights.” At the time Ingraham employed the sound effect against Rep. Lewis on August 26, his speech had been playing for less than fourteen seconds.