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Be Sacrificed or Adopted Paramount TV Star Downplays First Amendment's Importance Teen's Award Winning Essay Defended Internet Free Speech |
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Compiled by GayToday
From StopDrLaura.com
Defending her actions in publicly criticizing the youth, Schlessinger wrote: "The First Amendment is not the Eleventh Commandment. Its protection does not extend to ALL speech." In a sadly ironic twist to Dr. Laura's "free speech" defense of her on-the-air attacks on gay men and lesbians, the Courant reported that Dr. Laura "savaged the child" in a "disgusting" broadcast in which she said the Connecticut eighth-grader's support of the First Amendment as applied to the Internet was "stupid" and "dangerous," and that "If she was my daughter, I'd probably put her up for adoption.''
Schlessinger's statement came within hours of the announcement that a coalition of organizations will hold a protest at the gates of Paramount on March 21 to demand that the studio drop plans to air the Dr. Laura Show this fall. For the last several weeks, Paramount has been under a blitzkrieg of bad publicity surrounding the talk show deal, fueled by the creation of an anti- Paramount Web site, StopDrLaura.com, and scores of nationwide ads sponsored by the Horizons Foundation, the Child Welfare League of America, and TomPaine.com. In her statement on the gay controversy, issued March 10, 2000, Schlessinger still denies that labeling gays as "biological errors," sexual deviants, and pedophiles should be perceived as judgmental. "Words that I have used in a clinical context have been perceived as judgement. They were not meant to characterize homosexual individuals or encourage others to disparage homosexuals," Schlessinger wrote. Schlessinger used almost identical language only three months earlier to defend her actions against the First Amendment's littlest defender.
"Is Paramount really prepared for Dr. Laura to berate little children, gays and who knows who else on nationwide television?", said Alan Klein, spokesman for StopDrLaura.com. "How many so-called 'apologies' does Dr. Laura have to issue before Paramount gets the picture," Klein added. "Fool me once, shame on you, Dr. Laura; fool me twice, shame on me." Dr. Laura is rapidly becoming known, according to activists, as "the Anita Bryant of the new millenium." StopDrLaura.com and the Horizons Foundation remain committed to taking their protest to the gates of Paramount on Tuesday, March 21, from 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. Contact: Alan Klein, alanklein@earthlink.net, (646)-486-1910 The young girl's full name is being withheld to shield her from further trauma. |
Washington, D.C.--StopDrLaura.com has learned that only four months
ago Dr. Laura attacked a 14-year-old girl, by name, on-the-air to 450 radio
stations nationwide, because she disagreed with the child's award-
winning essay defending free speech on the Internet, according to
the November 9, 1999 Hartford Courant.
