Laura Schlessinger says she will end her radio show after all the blowback she received from her repeated use of the n-word during a conversation last week with an African-American caller. End her show, she said, but not her career.
"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 told Larry King. "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."
Dr. Laura emphasized that she is "not retiring" but rather just ending her radio show.
"I'm not retiring, I'm not quitting, I feel energized, actually," she said. "Stronger and freer to say the things that I believe need to be said for people in this country."
Uh, last time we checked, people are not violating your First Amendment rights simply by being angry at you or offended by what you say, and expressing that they are offended. They are not even violating your rights when they decide to boycott your advertisers. They are simply exercising their own right to free speech and to choose what they listen to.
(As a side note, did anyone watching Larry King's show tonight notice how he coined the phrase "non-n person" to describe someone who shouldn't be saying the n-word because he or she is not … uh … an n-person?)
—Sheryl Huggins Salomon