Roy Greenslade
Wednesday August 18 2010
guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2010/aug/18/freedom-of-speech-usa
Laura Schlessinger, one of American radio's most popular - and often
controversial - talk show hosts as Dr Laura, is to give up
broadcasting.
Her decision, which she announced on CNN's Larry King Live yesterday,
follows a storm of protests over her repeated use of the word "nigger"
during her phone-in programme.
She described an African-American caller as "hypersensitive" for
taking offence at a neighbour's racial taunting, and used the N-word
11 times during the five-minute segment.
She later apologised, saying she had said "the wrong thing". But her
decision to give up her advice programme, which has been a fixture on
talk radio for years and is heard on almost 200 stations across the
US, came as a surprise.
Schlessinger told King: "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."
Source: Washington Post [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/
article/2010/08/17/AR2010081706418.html?wpisrc=nl_natlalert]
guardian.co.uk Copyright (c) Guardian News and Media Limited. 2010
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