Dr. Laura Slapped in Canada

Great Debates
41

**
Truth to tell, I haven’t heard Dr. Laura’s show in a couple of years

Still, for the week or so that I listened, I heard VERY little about homosexuality! To hear GLAAD representatives talk, you’d think Dr. Laura was ranting about “evil Sodomites” for hours on end, but the truth is, when she went on moralistic rants, it was invariably against irresponsible HETEROsexual behavior!**

Well, she has brought the subject up more lately. Her discussions of homosexuality started to increase back in June of last year, mainly because she started supporting Prop 22 in California. Though, not that she was bringing it p all that much even then. Maybe a couple times of the month, at the most. However, she expressed some strong and, from the point of view of some, clearly false opinions.
It’s the same as a politician. He may say something stupid only once, but since it’s seen as a reflection of his views, he will have to deal with the statement for the entire campaign.

**
Side note: when the nude photos surfaced, I figured her career was over… but apparently, Dr. Laura is as shameless as Bill CLinton, and just as able to convince her devoted admirers that her crimes were “old news.” **

Well…I can buy her story. It was before she turned to conservative Judaism and she was really young. Now, if the photos had been from her radio show days, then yeah she’d clearly be a hypocrit.

I think what bothers me more is the fact that she’s divorced and blasting divorced people. I mean, yeah it’s great that she is encouraging people to work on their relationships more, but it’s still annoying to hear her call people selfish for failing at something she herself couldn’t succeed either.

**
Monty wrote:
First, isn’t the “good” Dr. L. actually doing her radio stint/“practice” in a field for which she’s received training and certification? **

Depends on what she’s talking about. Her doctorate is in physiology and she has a cerytficate in family therapy. So as long as she’s talking about marriage and raising children she is speaking from her training. However, when she gets into reparative therapy, she’s speaking out of her league. Not that she can’t read up on the subject and become knowledgable. However, from everything I have read, she clearly hasn’t done much in depth research in the subject. She is mainly pulling from NARTH and Family Research Council, who are both biased sources, and from what I can see, pseudo-intellectual sources as the most.

42

What really bugs me is the fact that Dr. Laura was blasted as being “Public Enemy #1” in Hollywood. Although I think she’s quite full of herself and will probably choke on her own ego, I think listing her as a danger to the populace is going a bit far, don’t you? After all, the only people that will agree with her are people who already agree with her. Whatever “damage” she will do to Gay Rights issues (or any other issue) will be minimal at best, but more likely non-existent.

So while she may be annoying and obnoxious (however, this does not mean that all of her advice is incorrect), I think it’d be a better idea to just let her rant and rave when she does. All the negative publicity only helps in strengthening her position, since it ::ahem::“proves” that the “evil gays are trying to destroy American values!” or whatever paranoia line is the norm. (I was being sarcastic with that). What I mean is, if she just rants and raves without getting any reaction from her “opponents”, then eventually people will just see that, yes, she’s just ranting and raving. So either she’ll quiet down about all that, or people will stop listening to her altogether.

43

Hey, I wan’t being rude - just asking.
A professor (at least in the UK) is a doctor who has accepted the “offer” of a seat at a university.
I don’t think you can apply to be a professor.
It’s an honourary position and would therefore be a greater achievement.
My point still stands.

44

QUOTE
She has crossed from stating opinions to trying to declare something as a fact. Don’t you think that a television station (a business) has the right to say, “we don’t want our customers seeing us as the source of misinformation. Either produce some documentation or we’ll air an alternative version of the show.”?
This is not a news show and Dr Laura is not a journalist. This is an entertainment show. I don’t think we should expect more from Dr laura than we do from Howard Stern.

Look, the chick’s off her rocker and making some absurd statements, but she is preaching to the converted. People don’t tune in to get information, they tune in to hear someone voice similar opinions and to be entertained. Or to get mad, which can be entertaining as well.

IMHO, the stations brass are a bunch of PC namby-pambies. Did they not know who she was before airing the show? The only good reason for taking her off the air is her show not drawing an audience. I always get a queasy feeling when someone says they are trying to protect me from misinformation.

45

Hear-hear, Spooje! (Are we related?)

You’re precisely right. A lot of advocacy groups claiming that Dr. Laura is damaging the gay population are exaggerating, at best. While it’s extremely rude of her to say what she does, there’s not going to be some pro-gay person tune into her show, hear her opinions, and suddenly think, “My, she’s right! Gays are evil!” And those who are undecided on the issue… well, they’ll probably remain undecided after listening to her, if they haven’t made up their mind already.

She’s arrogant and a bit nutso, though, that I agree on, and she needs a good kick in the pants.

46

FWIW (not much) the rule on the “Dr.” title for reporters, from the Associated Press Stylebook, is to only give it to medical doctors, unless it for some reason is relevant to the story.

Were “Dr.” Laura some local person who I had to do a story on, and I found out that her degree not only wasn’t germane to the advice she was spewing, but was actually being used in a vaguely fraudulent way to give people a false sense that she’s a licensed psychiatrist or something, my call would be to definitely shitcan the Dr. title for her.

47

Regarding the “Dr.” title…

If Laura Schlessinger were diagnosing medical conditions, or telling people to start taking this-or-that drug, her use of the title “Dr.” would be fraudulent. As it is, however, she is offering (ostensibly) practical and moral advice to people who call her of their own volition. You are free to agree or disagree with her moral slant, and you are free to accept or reject her advice… but either way, be honest: it is NOT the woman’s credentials that you’re concerned about!

If Laura Schelsssinger were giving the same kind of do-your-own-thing, “feel good about yourself,” self-esteem massaging pop-psych advice as Joy Browne, Sally Jesse Raphael, Dear Abby or E. Jean Campbell, would ANY of her detractors be quibbling about her title?

Of COURSE not! So, quit getting worked up about a bogus issue!

Now, if Laura Schlessinger (or Astorian, or Otto, or ANYBODY) were to chat with someone on the phone for a minute or two, then offer a pat medical diagnosis (“you’re clearly schizophrenic and manic-depressive… start taking Prozac immediately”), you’d have a case. But the reality is, most of her callers are idiots who’ve ruined their lives by making stupid or immoral decisions. Would a Ph. D in psychology REALLY make ANYONE more qualified to offer advice to people like THAT?

The trailer trash losers I heard calling her show were not in need of Rohrschach tests, Gestalt therapy, or Freduian analysis- they were, with rare exceptions, people who needed to be told one or more of the following things:

  1. “Grow up!”
  2. “Get off your butt and get a job.”
  3. “Give up the booze and the drugs.”
  4. “Quit going to bed with anything that moves.”

Something tells me those people wouldn’t get such unpleasant (but necessary) advice from the “nicer” radio shrinks

48

Unfortunately, the Los Angeles Daily News still carries her column.

49

http://savedrlaura.shutdown.com/

(Contains a nekkid picture of the doc herself.)

Be sure to explore the rest of this mean, cynical, funny and satirical website. (The link to the homepage, “The misanthropic bitch,” refers to the author of the site, not Laura!)

50

Commupance for the arrogant and rude lady is long overdue. I doubt she gets “a lick amiss”.

51

Astorian has got a point… if you think about it, her callers are kind of stupid. The reason she doesn’t spend a lot of time with a lot of callers is because her callers’ problems are really quite simple (“Should I invite my mother-in-law to the wedding even if she’s sent me death threats?” Extreme example, I know, but I’m trying to say that, to Dr. Laura herself, the solution is obvious).

HOWEVER… every now and then, she gets someone with a really convoluted problem, and will spend ten, twenty, thirty minutes trying to resolve things. This doesn’t happen very often, of course, so most people never get to hear it.

I disagree with a lot of her advice, and definitely disagree with her moral standings, but I don’t disagree with her methods of treating callers to her program. I mean, if you disagree with her, that’s fine… but there’s no need to nitpick the woman to death.

52

Like astorian, I tend to agree with much of what Dr. Laura says; but her radio approach is a bit off-putting. I’ve read two of her books about living up to the 10 Commandments, and stupid mistakes men do to screw up their lives. I would be hard pressed to disagree with anything she wrote in those two books.

(aside to astorian: I, too, do not get a chance to listen to daytime radio b/c of my job; but I do still enjoy listening to Rush if I get a chance. Sure, he’s preaching to the choir, but he is a very good entertainer. I think his parodies are usually very funny. The same cannot be said of Dr. Laura, however.)

And for a medium that gives us Springer, Geraldo, “When Household Pets Go Bad,” etc… to suddenly get its panties in a knot because some people don’t like a host who takes voluntary calls and gives her opinion (yes, opinion), well, talk about hypocritical. It’s not like she’s going through FBI files to learn up on her foes, or perjuring herself or anything.

The truth is, if she’s entertaining she’ll get the ratings. If not, her TV show will die a quick death. That is the lesson of entertainment, regardless of political or moral philosphy. If we are going to start trying to buck that trend based on content, aren’t there dozens of other shows that basically make a mockery of the call-in/studio audience guest arrangement?

53

I haven’t listened to Dr. Laura in a long time, and maybe she’s gotten worse, but when I did listen occasionally her advice was harsh, but with a valid undertone to it. She fielded an awful lot of calls from people wanting to divorce their spouses, or refuse parental visiting rights, or move away from their divorced spouse and children, etc.

Her advice was unfailingly in support of the kids. A person would call and say he’s been offered a great job across the country, but he has shared custody of the kids and his ex-wife is staying put. What should he do? Her answer would always be something like, “Hey, sparky. You took on a responsibility when you decided to make babies. Children need their father. You stay the hell put where you are.”

Other people would call in and say they want to divorce their husbands or wives because of this injustice or that. Her answer would almost always be, “If you’ve got kids, you deal with it. You don’t divorce your husband unless he’s beating you. If you don’t like the way he looks, or if the ‘spark’ is gone, tough noogies. You have children. You have a responsibility. Deal with it.”

Sometimes she’d go over the top, but maybe there’s a need for some extremes on that end when you have many, many other people going over the top in the other direction. In a society with a divorce rate as high as ours, perhaps it’s healthy to have a strident voice out there yelling at everyone that they have responsibilities to go along with their rights.

54

OK, I haven’t read the entirety of this thread, but I’ll point everyone to the thread I just started in The Pit entitled “Hey, “Dr.” Laura is a hypocrite!” for a little news tidbit I found about her new show. Take a gander.

Esprix