Talk radio is often talk radio in more ways than one: the talk on the talk radio show and the talk — often controversy — generated by it. And today’s entry is either a career setback or attention booster, in the eyes of some. Or, perhaps, one of those controversies destined to be more of a google link and You Tube than one that will have any impact to their career or the issue raised by the controversy.
But one thing is clear: popular Dr. Laura Schlessinger, who has controversies swirl around her the past, was at the center of a mini-firestorm yesterday when in talking with a black woman whose husband was white, she talked about the use of the “n word” by black comedians on HBO and argued there was a double standard for use of the word. Her problem, though, wasn’t her point but her saying the word repeatedly on the air.
Media Matters has the transcript and a chunk of the offending call. Here are the key parts:
CALLER: How about the N-word? So, the N-word’s been thrown around —
SCHLESSINGER: Black guys use it all the time. Turn on HBO, listen to a black comic, and all you hear is n—, n—, n—.
CALLER: That isn’t —
SCHLESSINGER: I don’t get it. If anybody without enough melanin says it, it’s a horrible thing; but when black people say it, it’s affectionate. It’s very confusing. Don’t hang up, I want to talk to you some more. Don’t go away.
I’m Dr. Laura Schlessinger. I’ll be right back
And after the break, when she gets her caller, Jade, back on the air it’s clear her caller is upset so she uses the word again:
SCHLESSINGER: I’m Dr. Laura Schlessinger, talking to Jade. What did you think about during the break, by the way?
CALLER: I was a little caught back by the N-word that you spewed out, I have to be honest with you. But my point is, race relations —
SCHLESSINGER: Oh, then I guess you don’t watch HBO or listen to any black comedians.
CALLER: But that doesn’t make it right. I mean, race is a [unintelligible] —
AND:
CALLER: I can’t believe someone like you is on the radio spewing out the “nigger” word, and I hope everybody heard it.SCHLESSINGER: I didn’t spew out the “n—-” word.
CALLER: You said, “N—-, n—-, n—-.”
SCHLESSINGER: Right, I said that’s what you hear.
CALLER: Everybody heard it.
SCHLESSINGER: Yes, they did.
CALLER: I hope everybody heard it.
SCHLESSINGER: They did, and I’ll say it again —
CALLER: So what makes it OK for you to say the word?
SCHLESSINGER: — n—-, n—-, n—- is what you hear on HB —
CALLER: So what makes it —
SCHLESSINGER: Why don’t you let me finish a sentence?
CALLER: OK.
SCHLESSINGER: Don’t take things out of context. Don’t double N — NAACP me. Tape the —
CALLER: I know what the NAACP —
SCHLESSINGER: Leave them in context.
After Jade gets off the line her final comments include these:
And what I just heard from Jade is a lot of what I hear from black-think — and it’s really distressting [sic] and disturbing. And to put it in its context, she said the N-word, and I said, on HBO, listening to black comics, you hear “n—-, n—-, n—-.” I didn’t call anybody a n—-. Nice try, Jade. Actually, sucky try.
Schlessinger later issued an apology and indicated that she had been upset over what happened and had pulled herself off the air.
Longtime talk show host Dr. Laura Schlessinger has posted an apology to her website after a conversation with a caller on Tuesday where she said in the N-word several times. “I articulated the N-word all the way out—more than one time,” Schlessinger said in the apology, which opened her show Wednesday morning. “And that was wrong. I’ll say it again—that was wrong.” Schlessinger claimed she was trying to make a philosophical point and lost her way. She continued in her apology: “I ended up, I’m sure, with many of you losing the point I was trying to make, because you were shocked by the fact that I said the word. I, myself, realized I had made a horrible mistake, and was so upset I could not finish the show. I pulled myself off the air at the end of the hour. I had to finish the hour, because 20 minutes of dead air doesn’t work. I am very sorry. And it just won’t happen again.”
What to make of it?
Schlessinger says she was trying to make a philosophical point about the use of the n word and how it’s taboo depending on who says it. But in doing so she repeated the word so often that she sounded like a shock-jock wannabe, talking on the air about George Carlin’s taboo words on the air. Anyone who has been on the air, or worked on a newspaper, or writes on websites, knows that each venue and company has certain boundaries and that crossing them could spell trouble. Although the word is indeed used now in movies and TV in dramatic context and used if it is reported to have been said, just saying it over and over is bound to spark controversy.
To Steve Benen, it’s a potential career killing move:
Schlessinger’s website features a recording of her daily program, but in this case, the show edited out this entire exchange. Media Matters, however, has the full recording and transcript.
Which suggests that Dr. Laura would like to move on.
It’s often hard to predict what constitutes a career-killing moment on talk radio, but I have a hard time imagining sponsors sticking with this show in the future.
Perhaps. But its more likely that Schlessinger’s apology will short-circuit a mass exit of advertisers to a show that is a ratings powerhouse.
Ann Althouse titled her post ” Dr. Laura Schlessinger has finally figured out (or bumbled into) the way to get us talking about her again” and had several takes on the incident:
It was really weird to use the word on the radio, and I suspect her of doing what Rush Limbaugh calls the “Media Tweak of the Day,” a remark designed to get his adversaries talking about him.
And, a the end of her post which should be read in full:
The friends and family in question aren’t black guys (and neither is Jade), so what is the point? That Jade should put up with the n-word, said in her presence? People on HBO say “f–” all the time too, but if the neighbors come to your house and say “f–” all the time, you have a legitimate complaint. “Don’t be so sensitive” is like saying “Be a doormat.” But that lapse of Laura’s — the failure to recognize what is special about a person’s home — hardly gets any attention, because her saying the word “n—” was such an immense distraction. Why on earth would Laura do that? Media tweak.
After talk-radio host Dr. Laura Schlessinger said the N-word eleven times in the span of five minutes during an on-air conversation with a caller earlier this week, she has issued a public apology, claiming she used the word to make a “philosophical point.”
I particularly love the part where she ends the exchange with Jade, her caller, a black woman who is upset her white husband doesn’t intercede when his white friends and family members make racist comments, by sniffing: “You know what? If you’re that hypersensitive about color and don’t have a sense of humor, don’t marry out of your race.” Wow.
Here’s the CNN segment on the controversy, which includes her on the air apology, and Rev. Al Sharpton’s reaction:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toyGlBI92zI
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.