Dr. Laura Schlessinger's N-word 'rant': Should she lose her job?
The conservative talk-radio host apologized for repeatedly speaking a harsh racial epithet. Is that enough?
Conservative radio host Dr. Laura Schlessinger faced a torrent of criticism this week after using the word "n****r" 11 times on her radio show in the course of lecturing a caller — a black woman who'd been on the receiving end of the epithet from her white in-laws — about the dangers of being hypersensitive to racism. Schlessinger promptly issued an apology on her website, writing: "I didn’t intend to hurt people, but I did." Nice try, but an apology doesn't come close to compensating for a "racist tirade" that was completely "over the top" and "devoid of decency," says Steve Benen at Washington Monthly. She deserves to lose her job. Oh, come on, says the conservative Left Coast Rebel blog. "From the sound of it, you would think that the leftists" had linked Dr. Laura to Hitler and the KKK. She made a "stupid" choice of words — but her real "unspeakable" offense was "pointing out the fact that liberals and black people use the 'N' word and are never called out on it." Listen to the exchange below: (Warning: Offensive language)
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