Dr. Laura: "take on the n-word!"

Syndicated radio agony aunt, Dr. Laura Schlessinger (KTTH m-f, 9p-12a) is pretty good at scolding trembling housewives for shirking their wifely duties for failing to suck their husbands' toes, but her own morals have often been, let's say, dubious. (See Dr. Laura naked here).

The front-running national nag really did it this time, though. A listener wrote to Radio-Info reporting that on Tuesday:

“Dr. Laura blurted out the N-word several times in rapid succession to a caller, a black woman married to a white man, [who] wanted to ask about racially hurtful remarks that other white people make to her and  why her husband does nothing about them. Dr. Laura quickly concluded that the woman was hypersensitive, first pointing to African-American comedians on HBO who employ the N-word and then to black people in general, stating that the word is practically a term of endearment within that community. Not surprisingly, the caller was dissatisfied to hear that if some blacks call each other a particular word, everybody should feel free to use it. At that point, Dr. Laura might have steered the conversation in a better direction.”

Bernhart continued: “Instead, apparently chafing at society's notion that a white person shouldn't throw the word around, she exclaimed, ‘Nigger, nigger, nigger.’ While it was clear that Dr. Laura wasn't directing that term toward the caller personally, I was shocked at such an example of schoolyard frustration coming from a radio professional whose opinions I've tended to agree with more often than not. And a few moments later, she repeated the barrage.”

The self-appointed role model apologized today on her blog: “Yes, I did use the ‘n’ word and I regretted it as soon as the call was over.”

“While it was in the context of making a point about the unfortunate use of that term by others who deem it acceptable or funny, it is a word that is hateful, hurtful and I should not have used it even to prove a point. After the call, I was terribly upset about it and pulled myself off the air for the rest of the show. Wednesday, at the top of my program, I will apologize to my listeners.”

She can apologize all she wants, but you can bet where her real heart is when it comes to the schwartzes. The remarks were a tone-deaf lecture on political correctness out of the formerly religious Jew (she renounced her judo/Judaism in favor of yacht racing a few years ago. And, it's reported, she cheats at that).

(We posed these questions in 2008 after she blamed Eliot Spitzer's wife for his whoring around: a) Can you imagine Dr. Laura as a passive little wifey, living so her man can feel heroic and horny? b) can you visualize My Kids' Mom be-aproned and always at the ready to lay down and please her "hungry, damaged, perfectly good man?" c) Ever wish Laura was your wife?)

This is mostly about the situational ethics of talk media. Short of felony, a talk host can forsake any professed morals, or values, and participate in any hypocrisy and stay on the air- as long as he or she performs in a way that brings and keeps an audience. Imus, Limbaugh, Schlessinger, and Billo Reilly are prime examples.

Dr. Laura's public life has seen more than just your run o' the mill, talk-host hypocrisy- hers is a bizarre tangle of angst, arrogance, meanspirit, self-righteousness, retribution; family feuding; religious confusion; formidable stick lodged in her backside; and wide streaks of what looks from here like sociopathy.

In Seattle, Laura appears on a station owned by Mormons and shares parts with moral titans, Limbaugh and Glenn Beck, both of whom use race daily as a schticking point. It has nothing to do with the "values" they and the LDS supposedly share: It's bidness. And bidness is bidness. 

Comments

[chucks]

Nigga puhleeze!!! Do you really gotta talk that way?
Speaking of toe-sucking, has anybody here ever cracked and eaten nigger toes? Did you, like I have an old uncle call them that?
We really need to get Dr Laura to discuss that topic.

[sparky]

So if someone calls your wife a "beaner" or "spic" or "wetback"...you're ok with that?

[tigsnort]

chucks is so edgy and brave when he's anonymously posting on the internet, isn't he?

[chucks]

Sparky, if I got angry every time some Mexican man got insulting because I stole one of "their" hot Latina women, I would have fought all through the seventy's. Never really heard too much negative out of white people, even back then. White men would just look at her and understand (she was a 1972 Playboy calendar girl).
There will always be idiots who think of people in terms of race.
People like Jesse Jackson, Bla'm, Al Sharpton and David Duke just perpetuate those people and give them fodder for their life choices.
I have never really listened to Dr. Laura so I really don't know if she is a racist. I do know that I have read a number of articles here through the years that are meant to demean others that may not be racist just to gain some kind of liberal political advantage. Thus, I know not to assume she is a racist or bigot just because Michael posted such blather. Hell, I have been accused of being a racist here, yet there is no person on this planet that knows me on a personal basis would even consider the thought.

[Dr. Remulac]

Dr' Laura's right you know.

[me]

Niggers should be called Negroes. I get that. But it is now very obvious that everyone that they are not ready to govern our country.

[lukobe]

I have always wondered about if the author of this blog is anti-Semitic. Posts like this talking about her "renouncing her judo/Judaism" gives me reason to suspect bigotry.

[The Anti-Dori]

Dr. Laura? Who cares. More interesting are the responses from people who think this all gives them an opportunity to be cute with the racial slurs.

[Rob]

Wow! An actual talk radio topic on this blog! No attacks on conservatives? Be still my beating heart!

[Stinkweed Moholohan]

GAWKER TV now has the audio to hear.

It's broken into 3 segments.

Her initial rant isn't too bad, but the follow-up after the commercial break shows her to be quite the little racist...

http://tv.gawker.com/5611670/dr-laura-apologizes-for-shocking-n+word-radio-rant

[Prince Thrash]

Dr. Laura is a prophet. I hope she doesn't get NAACP'd. I hate her fucking face.

[joanie]

I have been accused of being a racist here, yet there is no person on this planet that knows me on a personal basis would even consider the thought.

Hmm, now who do they say is always the last to know?

The disrespect you show leaves no doubt. And that is why I give you so much shit. You are not a good person. You think you are . . . but you're a taker, a bigot (Miss 1972 or whatever notwithstanding), incapable of using adult language and ignorant. It shows with every post.

[chucks]

You give me shit because you are an asshole. About the only thing that comes out of an asshole is shit and stinky gas. You do it well. You spew it day in, day out, year after year.
(in case you are unaware, it really stinks to high heaven, that which you spew)

[joanie]

I'm laughing at your thirteen-year-old potty talk. Grow up, chuxie.

[AprilMayJune]

Potty mouth, anyone?

[KS]

Judgmental Joanie is what you are, sans the potty talk. As for Dr. Laura, she has a shrill edge to her, but don't see her as a racist - a term that has maxed out thanks the intellectually bankrupt leftists who spout it whenever they are in trouble. Now the right is starting to parrot that style.

Tom Leykis used to love to attack her for being a hypocrite and the nude pics back in 1972. It was hilarious when he shot out at her and referred to her as a shrill shrieking shrew, not just because she was a conservative - it was because of her actions and her shrillness on the air (there are a lot of shrill shrieking shrews who are liberal, BTW).

Rather tiring of berating the left (or the right as other usual suspects and other drive by tallywhackers like to do)., but I'm game to fire back if you/they are - to keep it balanced for the good of the blog.

[Tommy008]

Dr. Laura takes other peoples' dignity, with her constant air of contempt and superiority- very similar to what Medved does but exponentially so. I really find her to be a repulsive individual. I'l never foreget when she appeared live with Kirby and Carleen via phone from LA to promote some stupid personal appearance in Seattle. She treated them like the hired help, not bothering to call any of them by name, while they lavished her with undeserved respect. She's the Emperor's New Clothes.... a cynical fraud who hides behind her irrelevant doctoral degree in physiology, knowing thaT 99% of her listeners will believe that "Dr. Laura" is a shrink or a psychologist. The shameless bitch be forced to run a legal disclaimer at the start of every hour revealing that she has no doctorate in psychology or medical degree in psychiatry.

[Jason Andersen]

This is soooooooo wrong on so many levels that it doesn't even deserve serious discussion; and, I suppose it's all OK cuz she has negro liveryman/body-guard on payroll who also can jump on the basketball court or WTF...Anywhoo, I normally do not talk or think in such crass, impolite terms and use misognynistic language, but Dr. Laura = C(an't) U(nderstand) N(ormal T(hinking).

[Jason Andersen]

BTW, Tommy, I get your point re: Medved, and he does push the seam with his mockery of the homeless...I guess he thinks it's funny and endears his Medheads to him more so??? Maybe? Dunno. But Michael Medved never has equalled Dr. Laura in utter declasse, disgusting depravity; he has a brain that's usually engaged, even though I prolly disagree w/him ~75%. Medved is quite progressive on immigration, surely to the peril of his core listeners, and for that I respect him.

[Tommy008]

i like when Savage does his "in my day, tops" segments where he picks some jumped up little fart like Dr. Laura and points out what their station would be in life, "tops', back in his day, when fraudulent turds seldom rose to the top but stayed submerged. For instance he'd say " in my day Barbara Boxer would own a couple of brassiere shops in Queens, tops'..........in my day, Dr. Laura would be following blacks around in her family -owned liquor store in Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn- tops.

[Coiler]

(1963) Nina Simone

The name of this tune is Mississippi Goddam
And I mean every word of it

Alabama's gotten me so upset
Tennessee made me lose my rest
And everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam

Alabama's gotten me so upset
Tennessee made me lose my rest
And everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam

Can't you see it
Can't you feel it
It's all in the air
I can't stand the pressure much longer
Somebody say a prayer

Alabama's gotten me so upset
Tennessee made me lose my rest
And everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam

This is a show tune
But the show hasn't been written for it, yet

Hound dogs on my trail
School children sitting in jail
Black cat cross my path
I think every day's gonna be my last

Lord have mercy on this land of mine
We all gonna get it in due time
I don't belong here
I don't belong there
I've even stopped believing in prayer

Don't tell me
I tell you
Me and my people just about due
I've been there so I know
They keep on saying "Go slow!"

But that's just the trouble
"do it slow"
Washing the windows
"do it slow"
Picking the cotton
"do it slow"
You're just plain rotten
"do it slow"
You're too damn lazy
"do it slow"
The thinking's crazy
"do it slow"
Where am I going
What am I doing
I don't know
I don't know

Just try to do your very best
Stand up be counted with all the rest
For everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam

I made you thought I was kiddin' didn't we

Picket lines
School boycotts
They try to say it's a communist plot
All I want is equality
for my sister my brother my people and me

Yes you lied to me all these years
You told me to wash and clean my ears
And talk real fine just like a lady
And you'd stop calling me Sister Sadie

Oh but this whole country is full of lies
You're all gonna die and die like flies
I don't trust you any more
You keep on saying "Go slow!"
"Go slow!"

But that's just the trouble
"do it slow"
Desegregation
"do it slow"
Mass participation
"do it slow"
Reunification
"do it slow"
Do things gradually
"do it slow"
But bring more tragedy
"do it slow"
Why don't you see it
Why don't you feel it
I don't know
I don't know

You don't have to live next to me
Just give me my equality
Everybody knows about Mississippi
Everybody knows about Alabama
Everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam.

[The Anti-Dori]

"In my day...Barbara Boxer...In my day ... Dr. Laura..."

He got something against women?

[chucks]

Mediaite has the Dr Laura segment up. I just listened to it for the first time. This whole thing is BS.
This is just more liberal racist race baiting.

[KS]

Dr. Laura or Barbara Boxer - ignore the politics; they are the same person -both equally shrill, per Jason; C(an't) U(nderstand) N(ormal T(hinking).

KKKoiler the master race baiter is out there with his outdated ditty from 1963.

I guess Dr. Laura gave her mea culpa - guess that she has some degree of shame.

However, I doubt that Boser and Pelosi would ever do a mea culpa without saying "I'm sorry I got caught" which would make it a
Ph(J)oanie mea culpa because they have no shame = A frickin' sham as human beings.

[Bob of America]

"Some of my best friends are hispanic Playboy centerfolds"

[Coiler]

You guess that she did, KS? Don't rush, KS, "do it slow", do it slow.

[Tommy008]

Christ, I just got off work, waxing floors at the Space Needle.

[Dr. No.]

So if someone calls your wife a "beaner" or "spic" or "wetback"...you're ok with that?

if I got angry every time some Mexican man got insulting because I stole one of "their" hot Latina women,

Chucks didn't really answer the problem, did he? It's always about him. So when his wife was called "spic, wetback and beaner," he just laughed it off. She must have felt real good about that.

Did she have "niggah blood" as well? Many, many hot Latinos have black blood. Especially the beauties.

[Puget Sound]

Coiler
Good choice with Nina Simone but I think the 1930's version of 'Strange Fruit' by Billie Holliday is more haunting.

[Puget Sound]

The disrespect you show leaves no doubt. And that is why I give you so much shit. You are not a good person. You think you are . . . but you're a taker, a bigot (Miss 1972 or whatever notwithstanding), incapable of using adult language and ignorant. It shows with every post.

Posted by: joanie | August 12, 2010 at 07:55 PM

Pot, meet the Mother of all Kettles...

[Tommy008]

Some creep smashed a guy in the mouth, as he confronted the man and his girlfriend coming out of a cafe in Alki today. The radio news bleeped the word, but I assume the cretin yelled "what are yo ulooking at nigger"? Police know who the guy is and have hate crime charges waiting for him. Terrible crime of course and the hateful fool should be reamed for it. The vast majority of racial hate crimes are black on white attacks, beatings etc. It's the dirty little secret, the kind of thing Dave Ross would never have on his show( I know, i tried to say it on his show, and never got past the deep-voiced buffoon's producer.) Most of these atttacks aren't covered in the news unless they are very severe, and blacks aer never charged in Seattle with hate crimes.

[Tommy008]

i heard a clip of Schlesinger starting her "apology". It had the sound of someone who had been told to apologize, by network honchos, not someone who had come to it on their own. The arrogance level of this bitch is in the very tip top of the charts- in fact it is off the charts.

[Tommy008]

i hate to give credit to Dr. Laura for anything, but a person who can earn a doctorate in physiology (that's her degree, not psychology or psychiatry as she cynically assumes her rube listeners will think) is smart enough to know there is a difference between a black man saying "nigger" and a white man saying that word to a black man. She is simply playacting when she feigns puzzlement over this "double standard". As a Jew she knows theres a difference between a bunch of older Jews telling jokes about Nazi concentration camps and a bunch of older Germans telling the same jokes. So since there is no doubt she knows the difference, then the only conclusion is that she simply doesn't care, has no sensitivity to it, and will use the word anyway, over and over , on the air. That is called racism. She is really beneath contempt.

[Tommy008]

Schlesinger should be following blacks around in her own Brooklyn liquor store, with a .45 tucked under her jacket, not telling people how to live their lives on a nationwide radio show.

[Tommy008]

" I pulled myself off the air for the remainder of the program." yeah, right.

[Fremont]

Spot on "Mississippi Goddamn", Coil...Thanks!

Btw, L'obe, before you castigate Bla"M as an anti-Semite...isn't he a member of Ezra Bessaroth, an Orthodox Jewish congregation in Seattle? Your apologies are welcomed...

[Puget Sound]

Who is this person?
"He graduated from Bronx High School of Science and worked his way through Harvard University as a janitor and nightwatchman, graduating summa cum laude in three years. He was also a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He returned to Harvard for graduate studies. Within four years, he earned a law degree with honors from Harvard Law School, a masters in public policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government and completed the course work and passed the general exams for a Ph.D. in government."

Why it is Congressman Alay Grayson. Why is it someone with his distinguished background comes off as such a nut?

I'm just asking...

[KS]

I'd also be interested to hear how this guy Grayson became such a sycophant. There is something deeper than that which explains his neo-marxist convictions.

Time to move on...I think that the Dr. Laura thing has been sliced, diced and pureed.

[Mike Barer]

I don't care if you are Conservative or Liberal. If you go by Dr... and you are not a Psychiatrist or a Psychologist, you are misrepresenting yourself.

[Mike Barer]

Let me clarify that before I get burned. If you have a program that is supposed to deliver therapy and you'r Dr's degree is not in Phsych or medicine, you are misrepresenting yourself.

[Tommy008]

yes, exact;y the point i've made several times here. Since she is a "Doctor", with a PhD., i suppose she is technically within the letter of the law, and nothing can be done legally about this. However you aer quite correct- she is misrepresenting herself. It's sleazy, it's unethical, and morally wrong. Other than that, i don't see any problem with it.