Dr Laura has accepted that she can’t say “fuck” (or a bunch of other words) on the radio ever since she started blathering on it, but now that she got mau-maued for saying “nigger”, her First Amendment rights are being violated.
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flukebucket
Well I guess now the attention whore can say nigger anytime she wants to.
dmsilev
Obviously working from the Sarah Palin version of the First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the freedom of conservatives to say whatever they want without consequence and to only answer questions posed by Fox News.”
dms
benjoya
misterM, jc stepped on your thread. not jesus, the other one.
Brachiator
The rules are kinda stupid (as are the overblown FCC regulations for flashing a bit of nipple).
Dr Laura is a clown, but it will be interesting to see if she can resurrect her career on a blog or a podcast.
Violet
@Brachiator:
The rules really are stupid. It’s not okay to say “fuck” but it’s okay to show people’s heads being blown off. Where’s the logic there?
russell
I’m thinking she’s gonna go back to the naked pictures thing.
metricpenny
Dang. That was easy.
Now we just need a way to get Palin, Limbaugh, Beck and Hannity to say “nigger” on the air. Preferably numerous times.
We could name it the Beetlejuice Project.
Any ideas on the particulars for this plan folks?
Hey. I’m just the big picture gal.
Legalize
@metricpenny:
It’s just a matter of time before they do it on their own. I’d put the under at October 2012. January 2013 at the very latest.
El Tiburon
It reminds me of the scene in “Life of Brian” when the old man is about to be stoned for saying ‘Jehova’ out loud.
We join it already in progress:
MATTHIAS: Look. I don’t think it ought to be blasphemy, just saying ‘Jehovah’.
CROWD: Oooh! He said it again! Oooh!…
OFFICIAL: You’re only making it worse for yourself!
MATTHIAS: Making it worse?! How could it be worse?! Jehovah! Jehovah! Jehovah!
CROWD: Oooooh!…
OFFICIAL: I’m warning you. If you say Jehovah once more…
MRS. A. stones OFFICIAL
Right. Who threw that?
MATTHIAS: laughing
silence
OFFICIAL: Come on. Who threw that?
CROWD: She did! It was her! He! He. Him. Him. Him. Him. Him. Him.
OFFICIAL: Was it you?
MRS. A.: Yes.
OFFICIAL: Right!
MRS. A.: Well, you did say ‘Jehovah’.
CROWD: Ah! Ooooh!…
CROWD stones MRS. A.
OFFICIAL: Stop! Stop, will you?! Stop that! Stop it! Now, look! No one is to stone anyone until I blow this whistle! Do you understand?! Even, and I want to make this absolutely clear, even if they do say ‘Jehovah’.
CROWD: Ooooooh!…
CROWD stones OFFICIAL
WOMAN #1: Good shot!
DickSpudCouchPotatoDetective
I’d like to remind you that America was founded on sensitivity training principles.
Rights only exist when they can be exercised without hurting anyone’s feelings. That’s the rule, so shut up.
Remember that just as in sexual harassment cases, the only thing that counts is not the intent of the speaker, it’s the feelings of the receiver of the speech. Or at least that’s the way it was explained to me in the seminar.
Sticks and stones may break your bones, but words are da shiznits.
At least she didn’t try to build a mosque too close to hallowed ground.
mistermix
@benjoya: OMFG, my First Amendment rights have been violated on Balloon-Juice. See, it happens everywhere!
David Hunt
mistermix@top
The apparent cognitive dissonance might seem odd until you realize that the difference is that she agrees that “fuck” is a dirty word, but thinks “nigger” is something that should be okay in polite company and certainly on the radio.
Just a guess.
Michael
Said it before and will say it again – the highest form of 1st Amendment expression for a wingnut is the non-pc and persistent use of the word “nigger” as a pejorative. If anybody criticizes them for it, it is a persecution of all that is right and good about conservatism.
Brachiator
@Violet:
They should be able to say “Fuck! Did you see how their heads blew off?”
I got no problem with either sex or violence, but I understand how Puritanical Americans fear sex as much as they love violence.
@metricpenny:
Limbaugh and Hannity do it all the time in various ways. They are protected by something higher than the First Amendment. Ratings.
I know that Dr Laura got dumped from the radio station that used to host her show in Los Angeles because her ratings had dropped. And this is probably behind some of her “decision” to leave now.
Susan Kitchens
I came into the comment thread to see if anyone had yet used the expression fee fees concerning Doctored Laura.
It’s my first amendment right to do so.
fee fee
fee fee
fee fee.
Hope this passes DickSpudCouchPotatoDetective’s (#10) definition for the constitutional basis for free speech.
And here’s hoping that I didn’t hurt any of your fee fees by using this particular expression.
Aet
“I can say what I want” becomes “You can’t say what you want about me”.
This is actually a common reaction, especially among those with an overdeveloped sense of entitlement.
It’s also a common sign of sociopathy.
@14: That’s the nature of this country. You can show horrible scenes of war and violence, but when the funny man doesn’t say “poopy”, _that’s_ when we get traumatized. They want us numb, not relaxed.
Susan Kitchens
@Aet:
Xactly. This way of thinking reminds me reminds me of something my childhood friend said to me way back when. (I was 7 or 8 at the time; she- 6 or 9 months older)
She said, “When we’re at your house, I should get my way because I’m the guest, and when we’re at my house, I should get my way because I’m older.”
Come to think of it, this reinterpretation of what, exactly, the 1st Amendment means when it comes to speech, sounds just as juvenile as a bratty 8 year old.
The Moar You Know
I was not aware that the First Amendment included a right to have corporations pay for you to say shit, for example, the word “nigger”, that offends their customers.
With that being said, this is about nothing but ratings, and Dr. Laura hasn’t enjoyed decent ratings since the late 1990s. Gauleiter Limbaugh could spend an hour screaming the word “nigger” into his gold-plated microphone (he really does have one) and get a briefcase full of pills and a wad of cash delivered to his doorstep in a horse-drawn carriage.
Free market, bitch.
West of the Cascades
For people who scream constantly about the importance of “upholding the Constitution,” they really don’t seem to understand much of what is in that document. The First Amendment protects against CONGRESS (or, by incorporation, State governments) making any laws abridging freedom of speech. It doesn’t protect people from having other people speak freely and call you a “bigot” or a “racist” or call your sponsors and say “I won’t buy your cheezburgers any more if you continue to sponsor the racist, bigoted Dr. Laura.”
You would think that even a TV personality as somnolent as Larry King would point this out to her.
WereBear
My take is that this was a blatant attempt at controversy to goose her ratings.
Now Glenn Beck could dance on his set blue and naked, and his fans would simply say, “He’s warning us about Druids!”
However. Dr. Laura mistimed her tantrum and she’s gone.
sal
Admittedly not the Dr. L, but anybody remember O’Reilly spewing gasbags and calling for a boycott of Pepsi for using Ludacris in an ad a couple years back because of his lyrics? Congressional hearings into rap lyrics and labelling records?. IOKIYAR is something even the FSM can’t defeat.
BC
Well, now Dr. Laura can get that gig on HBO and say “nigger, nigger, nigger” all the time, can’t she?
kommrade reproductive vigor
Here’s a woman who ran off most of her sponsors with her homophobic crap. Now, not only is she shocked the invisible hand of the free market’s giving her the finger for her latest stunt, she obviously can’t read the short and simple passage that outlines her 1st Am rights.
Neo-Cons really are the dumbest sumbitches on the planet.
OldK
To be clear, Dr. Laura used the term in just the same way that mistermix is using it here — quoting somebody else (“black comics”). She deserves everything she gets, because of what her argument was (“if black people can say it, I should be able to, also”, and “if we have a black president, there can be no racism” — arguments I last heard from a 16-year old asshole in an online video game), and the dripping contempt in her voice. But I don’t want to live in a world where there is no difference between saying something in your own voice and quoting what someone else said.
Michael D.
If “Dr.”* Laura (gay is a biological error) Schlessinger feels that she had a constitutional right to say what she said, then why did she apologize?
Isn’t it part of the GOP platform that “There Is No Right Not To Be Offended In The Constitution (and Also Gay Marriage, Too)”?
*her Ph.D. is in physiology and not in anything she spews on about.
The Other Chuck
Laura, Laura, Laura … you’re not being canned because you said “nigger”. You’re being canned because your ratings have been in the basement for a decade and the people who have been carrying your unprofitable ass figured they wouldn’t be able to convert your latest hateful controversy into ratings. I personally didn’t even realize you were still on the air, that’s the kind of mindshare you command Laura.
We don’t hate you, Laura. We just forgot you existed, and don’t care if you do now.
Frank
Shlessinger did the same whining when her hilariously bad tv show was cancelled.Even her fanbase couldn’t swallow her grotesque fraudulence when looking it straight in the eyes. Radio forgives so much.