Laura Schlessinger
Encyclopedia
Laura Catherine Schlessinger (born January 16, 1947) is an American talk radio
host, socially conservative
commentator and author. Her radio program consists mainly of her responses to callers' requests for personal advice and has occasionally featured her short monologues on social and political topics. Her website says that her show "preaches, teaches, and nags about morals, values and ethics."
Previously, Schlessinger combined a local radio career with a private practice as a marriage and family counselor, but after going into national syndication she concentrated her efforts on the daily The Dr. Laura Program, and on authoring self-help
books. The books Ten Stupid Things Women Do to Mess Up Their Lives, and The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands are among her bestselling works. A short-lived television talk show hosted by Schlessinger was launched in 2000. In August 2010, she announced that she would end her syndicated radio show in December 2010.
Her show moved to Sirius XM Radio on January 3, 2011. Schlessinger announced a "multi-year" deal to be on satellite radio.
, New York
, and raised in Brooklyn and on Long Island
. Her parents were Monroe (Monty) Schlessinger, a civil engineer of Jewish heritage, and Yolanda Ceccovini Schlessinger, an Italian-Catholic war bride. Schlessinger has said her father was charming and her mother beautiful as a young woman. She has a sister, Cindy, who is eleven years younger. Schlessinger has described her childhood environment as unloving and unpleasant, and her family as dysfunctional. She has ascribed some of the difficulty to extended family rejection of her parents' mixed faith Jewish-Catholic marriage. Schlessinger said her father was "petty, insensitive, mean, thoughtless, demeaning and downright unloving". She described her mother as person with "pathological pride", who "was never grateful", who "would always find something to criticize," and who "constantly expressed disdain for men, sex and love". She credited her father with giving her the drive to succeed.
Schlessinger attended Westbury High School
and Jericho High School
where she showed an interest in science. She received a bachelor's degree
from Stony Brook University. Moving to Columbia University
for graduate studies, she earned a Master's and Ph.D.
in physiology
in 1974. Her doctoral thesis
was on insulin
's effects on laboratory rat
s. After she began dispensing personal advice on the radio, she obtained training and certification in marriage and family counseling from the University of Southern California
, and a therapist's license from the State of California. In addition, she opened up a part-time practice as a marriage and family counselor.
show hosted by Bill Ballance
. Impressed by her quick wit and sense of humor, Ballance began featuring her in a weekly segment. Schlessinger's stint on Ballance's show led to her own shows on a series of small radio stations. By 1979 she was on the air Sunday evenings from 9:00 to midnight on KWIZ
in Santa Ana, California
. That year, the Los Angeles Times described her show as dealing with all types of emotional problems, "though sex therapy is the show's major focus".
In the late 1980s, Schlessinger was filling in for Barbara De Angelis
' noon-time relationship-oriented talk show in Los Angeles
on KFI
, while working weekends at KGIL in San Fernando
. Her big break came when Sally Jessy Raphael
began working at ABC Radio, and Maurice Tunick, former Vice-President of Talk Programming for the ABC Radio Networks, needed a regular sub for Raphael's evening personal advice show. Tunick chose Schlessinger to fill in for Raphael.
Ultimately, Schlessinger began broadcasting a daily show on KFI which was nationally syndicated in 1994 by Synergy, a company owned by Schlessinger and her husband. In 1997, Synergy sold its rights to the show to Jacor
Communications, Inc., for $71.5 million. Later, Jacor merged with Clear Channel Communications
and a company co-owned by Schlessinger, Take On The Day, LLC, acquired the production rights. The show became a joint effort between Take On The Day, which produced it, Talk Radio Network
, which syndicated and marketed it to radio stations, and Premiere Radio Networks
, (a subsidiary of Clear Channel), which provided satellite facilities and handled advertising sales. As of September 2009, Schlessinger broadcast from her home in Santa Barbara, California
with KFWB as her flagship station. Podcast
s and live streams of the show have been available on her website for a monthly fee, and the show was also on XM Satellite Radio
.
At its peak, The Dr. Laura Program was the second-highest-rated radio show after The Rush Limbaugh Show
, and was heard on more than 450 radio stations. Writing in 1998, Leslie Bennett described the popularity of the show:
In May 2002, the show still had an audience of more than 10 million, but had lost several million listeners in the previous two years as it was dropped by WABC
and other affiliates, and was moved from day to night in cities such as Seattle and Boston. These losses were attributed in part to Schlessinger's shift from giving relationship advice to lecturing on morality and conservative politics. Pressure from gay-rights groups caused dozens of sponsors to drop the radio show as well. In 2006, Schlessinger's show was being aired on approximately 200 stations. As of 2009, it was tied for third place along with The Glenn Beck Program
and The Savage Nation
.
Schlessinger used "Hot Talkin' Big Shot", a song by country and blues singer and songwriter Nikki Hornsby
, for several years as cue music for her radio program and for a national radio commercial advertising for the show.
On August 17, 2010, during an appearance on Larry King Live
, Schlessinger announced the end of her radio show saying that her motivation was to "regain her First Amendment rights", and that she wanted to be able to say what is on her mind without "some special interest group deciding this is a time to silence a voice of dissent." Several of her affiliates and major sponsors had dropped her show after her on air use of a racial epithet on August 10.
On January 3, 2011, Schlessinger's show moved exclusively to Sirius XM Radio.
to produce a syndicated talk show, which would be carried mainly by television stations owned and operated by
CBS
. The producers hoped to extend the success of Schlessinger's radio show to daytime television, however, the show was controversial before it ever aired, and it proved to be short-lived.
In the months before the premiere of her TV show, Schlessinger called homosexuality
a "biological error", said that homosexuality was acceptable as long it was not public, and said that homosexuals should not attempt to adopt children. She regularly compared gay parenting
to pedophilia
by reiterating her view that "a huge portion of the male homosexual populace is predatory on young boys." Schlessinger was frequently criticized in lesbian
, gay
, bisexual, and transsexual (LGBT
) media for these views. Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), an LGBT media watchdog group, began monitoring Schlessinger's on-air comments about LGBT people, posting transcripts of relevant shows on its website.
In March 2000, a group of gay activists
launched StopDrLaura.com
, an online campaign with the purpose of convincing Paramount to cancel the Dr. Laura television show prior to its premiere. The group protested at Paramount studios, stating her views were offensively bigoted
. StopDrLaura.com eventually organized protests in 34 cities in the U.S. and Canada, and picked up on an advertiser boycott of both the radio and the TV shows started by another grass-roots organization which called itself "Silence Of The Slams" operating its boycott through AOL Hometown.
The first episode of Schlessinger's television show aired September 11, 2000. Critics and viewers complained that the format had been dulled down and did not stand out from any other daytime talk show. The biting rhetoric that worked well on radio seemed overly harsh for face-to-face discourse, owing to the normal sympathetic nature of most other daytime hosts; the radical change in Schlessinger's demeanor from her radio persona left viewers cold. Ultimately, the television show failed to generate the energy and interest of Schlessinger's radio show.
The credibility of Schlessinger's television program also suffered during its first month when the New York Post
reported that Schlessinger had used show staff to falsely pose as guests on the show. A September 25, 2000, episode named "Readin', Writin', and Cheatin'" featured a so-called college student who specialized in professional note-taking. On the next day's show, "Getting to the Altar," the same guest appeared in different hair and makeup and said she was a woman living with her boyfriend. In fact, the woman was San-D Duchas, a researcher for the show whose name appeared in the closing credits of the shows on which she posed as a guest.
By November 2000, advertisers that had originally committed to Schlessinger's show left, and the ratings plummeted. CBS directed its stations to move the show to a late-night slot or replace it altogether. Other stations outside of CBS did the same thing, while others moved it to weaker sister stations. The television show was cancelled in March 2001 and last aired in September 2001.
In 2004, Schlessinger said that although there is more money and celebrity in television, it is not as meaningful or intimate as radio, and for her television was a "terrible experience".
that was carried in many newspapers, as well as Jewish World Review
. She discontinued the column in July 2000, citing lack of time due to her upcoming television show. She wrote a monthly column for WorldNetDaily
between 2002 and 2004, with one entry in 2006. In 2006, Schlessinger joined the Santa Barbara News-Press
, writing bi-weekly columns dealing with Santa Barbara news, as well as general news and cultural issues discussed on her radio show. She suspended the column in mid 2007, resumed writing it later, then discontinued it in December 2008. She currently writes columns on her blog
, on a variety of topics.
Her 2004 book, The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands, sold well despite poor reviews by critics. It was a departure from her previous books, which tended to focus on premarital relationships and children. Proper Care asserts that men need direct communication, respect, appreciation, food, and good loving, rather than tearing down the husband's sense of strength and importance. Schlessinger's thesis is that wives have the power to change their husbands' attitudes by seeing to these needs, and then their husbands will "swim across shark-infested waters to bring you a lemonade." The book proposes that wives have the power to promote devotion, compassion, and love from their husbands.
are often discussed on her website; she was a self-proclaimed feminist in the 1970s, but is now opposed to feminism.
Schlessinger has been cited as an influential and wealthy donor to Project Prevention
, an organization that pays drug and alcohol addicts $200 to use long term birth control or to be sterilized. Her support of the organization has been criticized as unethical, racially biased, and as an endorsement of eugenics.
Schlessinger has praised the group emphasizing the voluntary nature of the sterilization or implants, and has said that people who oppose Project Prevention are defending a woman's right "to maim and destroy babies inside her body".
In 2007, Schlessinger began fundraising for Operation Family Fund, an organization which aids the families of fallen or seriously injured veterans of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. In 2008, she helped raise more than $1 million dollars for the organization.
for Network/Syndicated Personality of the Year (1997). In 1998 she received the American Women in Radio & Television's Genii Award. She was on the Forbes top 100 list of celebrities in 2000 with estimated earnings of $13 million. In September 2002, the industry magazine Talkers
named Schlessinger as the seventh-greatest radio talk show host of all time. In 2005 and 2008, she was nominated for induction into the National Radio Hall of Fame, but was not selected.
Schlessinger received a National Heritage award from the National Council of Young Israel in March 2001. She also received the National Religious Broadcasters
Chairman's Award, and has lectured on the national conservative circuit. She was the commencement speaker at Hillsdale College
in June 2002, and was awarded an honorary degree as a doctor of tradition and culture.
In 2007, Schlessinger was given an Exceptional Public Service award by the Office of the U.S. Secretary of Education. In 2008, Talkers Magazine presented her with an award for outstanding community service by a radio talk show host.
in 1996. In 1998, Schlessinger, Bishop, and their son converted to Orthodox Judaism
, and began instruction under Rabbi Reuven P. Bulka
of Ottawa, Ontario. During this time, Schlessinger sometimes used Jewish law and examples to advise her callers about their moral dilemmas. She occasionally clarified ethical and moral issues with her local Orthodox Rabbi Moshe D. Bryski, before mentioning them on the air. She was embraced by many in the politically conservative segment of Orthodox Judaism for bringing more awareness of Orthodoxy to her radio show. Some of her expressed views were explicitly religious, and are referenced her 1999 book The Ten Commandments: The Significance of God's Laws in Everyday Life. Although her other books have stressed the importance of morality, they are more secular in nature.
In July 2003, Schlessinger announced on her show that she was no longer an Orthodox Jew.
ceremony. Separating from Rudolph, Schlessinger moved to Encino, California in 1975 when she obtained a job in the science department at the University of Southern California
. Their divorce was finalized in 1977.
In 1975, while working in the labs at USC, she met Lewis G. Bishop, a professor of neurophysiology
who was married and the father of three children. Bishop separated from his wife and began living with Schlessinger the same year. Schlessinger has vociferously proclaimed her disapproval of unwed couples "shacking up." But according to personal friend, Shelly Herman, "Laura lived with Lew for about nine years before she was married to him." "His divorce was final in 1979. Bishop and Schlessinger married in 1985. Herman says that Schlessinger told her she was pregnant at the time, which Herman recalls as " particularly joyful because of the happy news." Schlessinger's only child, a son named Deryk, was born in November 1985.
Schlessinger was estranged from her sister for years, and many thought she was an only child. She had not spoken to her mother for 18 to 20 years before her mother's death in 2002 from heart disease. Her mother's remains were found in her Beverly Hills condo approximately two months after she died, and lay unclaimed for some time in the Los Angeles morgue before Schlessinger had them picked up for burial. Concerning the day that she heard about her mother’s death, she said: “Apparently she had no friends and none of her neighbors were close, so nobody even noticed! How sad.” In 2006, Schlessinger wrote that she had been attacked in a "vulgar, inhumane manner by media types" because of the circumstances surrounding her mother's death, and that false allegations had been made that she was unfit to dispense advice based on family values
. She said that she had not mourned the deaths of either of her parents because she had no emotional bond to them.
. On her radio program, Schlessinger declared the magazine to be "stealth pornography." When the owner of the store publicly denied that she found pornography in his store, Schlessinger sued him for lying, claiming that his denial had hurt her reputation. When the case went to court, the judge dismissed her suit, but the shop owner's $4 million defamation countersuit
lodged for hurting the reputation of his store was allowed to stand. The suit has since been settled, but the terms of the settlement have not been revealed.
, sold nude photos that he had taken of Schlessinger in the mid-1970s to a company specializing in internet porn. The photos were taken while Schlessinger was involved in a brief affair with then-married Bill Ballance. Schlessinger sued after the photos were posted on the internet, claiming invasion of privacy and copyright violation. The court ruled that Schlessinger did not own the rights to the photos, and she did not appeal the ruling. She told her radio audience that she was embarrassed, but that the photos were taken when she was going through a divorce and had "no moral authority."
" eleven times. When Hanson asked, "Is it ever OK to say that word?," Schlessinger responded, "It depends how it’s said. Black guys talking to each other seem to think it’s OK." After the call Schlessinger said, "If you're that hypersensitive about color and don't have a sense of humor, don't marry out of your race." A day later, Schlessinger apologized. Hanson questioned the motivation and sincerity of Schlessinger's apology, believing it to be result of being "caught". Hanson also said that Schlessinger made no apology regarding her comments on interracial marriage.
Schlessinger announced she would end her radio show at the end of 2010: Schlessinger stated that she will not retire.
. The character was portrayed as having dogmatic and fundamentalist social views that promoted social conservatism. The character was also shown to have a degree that belies her therapeutic advice and was estranged from her mother.
In 2000, in the episode The Midterms
on The West Wing, the fictional "Dr. Jenna Jacobs" is scolded by President Bartlet
, who criticizes her views on homosexuality, and points out she is not a doctor in any field related to morality, ethics, or theology. He quotes from the Bible
to point out the inconsistency of condemning certain sins but not others. Show creator Aaron Sorkin
admitted to modeling Bartlet's diatribe on an anonymous "Letter to Dr. Laura," which was a popular viral email
at the time.
Schlessinger is featured as an antagonist in the animated series Queer Duck
.
Talk radio
Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues. Most shows are regularly hosted by a single individual, and often feature interviews with a number of different guests. Talk radio typically includes an element of listener participation, usually by broadcasting live...
host, socially conservative
Social conservatism
Social Conservatism is primarily a political, and usually morally influenced, ideology that focuses on the preservation of what are seen as traditional values. Social conservatism is a form of authoritarianism often associated with the position that the federal government should have a greater role...
commentator and author. Her radio program consists mainly of her responses to callers' requests for personal advice and has occasionally featured her short monologues on social and political topics. Her website says that her show "preaches, teaches, and nags about morals, values and ethics."
Previously, Schlessinger combined a local radio career with a private practice as a marriage and family counselor, but after going into national syndication she concentrated her efforts on the daily The Dr. Laura Program, and on authoring self-help
Self-help
Self-help, or self-improvement, is a self-guided improvement—economically, intellectually, or emotionally—often with a substantial psychological basis. There are many different self-help movements and each has its own focus, techniques, associated beliefs, proponents and in some cases, leaders...
books. The books Ten Stupid Things Women Do to Mess Up Their Lives, and The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands are among her bestselling works. A short-lived television talk show hosted by Schlessinger was launched in 2000. In August 2010, she announced that she would end her syndicated radio show in December 2010.
Her show moved to Sirius XM Radio on January 3, 2011. Schlessinger announced a "multi-year" deal to be on satellite radio.
Early life and education
Schlessinger was born in BrooklynBrooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, and raised in Brooklyn and on Long Island
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
. Her parents were Monroe (Monty) Schlessinger, a civil engineer of Jewish heritage, and Yolanda Ceccovini Schlessinger, an Italian-Catholic war bride. Schlessinger has said her father was charming and her mother beautiful as a young woman. She has a sister, Cindy, who is eleven years younger. Schlessinger has described her childhood environment as unloving and unpleasant, and her family as dysfunctional. She has ascribed some of the difficulty to extended family rejection of her parents' mixed faith Jewish-Catholic marriage. Schlessinger said her father was "petty, insensitive, mean, thoughtless, demeaning and downright unloving". She described her mother as person with "pathological pride", who "was never grateful", who "would always find something to criticize," and who "constantly expressed disdain for men, sex and love". She credited her father with giving her the drive to succeed.
Schlessinger attended Westbury High School
Westbury High School (Old Westbury, New York)
Westbury Senior High School is a ninth-through-12th-grade school of the Westbury Union Free School District , the district covering the village of Westbury, New York...
and Jericho High School
Jericho High School
Jericho High School is an American high school in the hamlet of Jericho in Nassau County, New York. It is the only high school in the Jericho Union Free School District. It opened in 1959.-Academics:...
where she showed an interest in science. She received a bachelor's degree
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
from Stony Brook University. Moving to Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
for graduate studies, she earned a Master's and Ph.D.
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...
in physiology
Physiology
Physiology is the science of the function of living systems. This includes how organisms, organ systems, organs, cells, and bio-molecules carry out the chemical or physical functions that exist in a living system. The highest honor awarded in physiology is the Nobel Prize in Physiology or...
in 1974. Her doctoral thesis
Thesis
A dissertation or thesis is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings...
was on insulin
Insulin
Insulin is a hormone central to regulating carbohydrate and fat metabolism in the body. Insulin causes cells in the liver, muscle, and fat tissue to take up glucose from the blood, storing it as glycogen in the liver and muscle....
's effects on laboratory rat
Laboratory rat
A laboratory rat is a rat of the species Rattus norvegicus which is bred and kept for scientific research. Laboratory rats have served as an important animal model for research in psychology, medicine, and other fields.- Origins :...
s. After she began dispensing personal advice on the radio, she obtained training and certification in marriage and family counseling from the University of Southern California
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
, and a therapist's license from the State of California. In addition, she opened up a part-time practice as a marriage and family counselor.
Radio career
Schlessinger's first appearance on radio was in 1975 when she called into a KABCKABC (AM)
KABC is a Los Angeles radio station, and a West Coast flagship station for the Cumulus Media company. A pioneer of the talk radio format, the station went "all-talk" in 1960 and was one of the first stations to do so...
show hosted by Bill Ballance
Bill Ballance
Willis "Bill" Ballance , was an American radio talk show host.Ballance studied journalism at the University of Illinois before serving in the United States Marines. He had radio station stints in Denver, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Honolulu and San Diego. Ballance was the evening personality late...
. Impressed by her quick wit and sense of humor, Ballance began featuring her in a weekly segment. Schlessinger's stint on Ballance's show led to her own shows on a series of small radio stations. By 1979 she was on the air Sunday evenings from 9:00 to midnight on KWIZ
KWIZ
KWIZ, is a commercial radio station located in Santa Ana, California, broadcasting to the Los Angeles-Orange County area on 96.7 FM. KWIZ airs a Regional Mexican music format branded as "Sondido 96.7 FM". In the early days, Spinder McLaine, Karen Sharpe, John Novak and James Gomez hosted radio shows...
in Santa Ana, California
Santa Ana, California
Santa Ana is the county seat and second most populous city in Orange County, California, and with a population of 324,528 at the 2010 census, Santa Ana is the 57th-most populous city in the United States....
. That year, the Los Angeles Times described her show as dealing with all types of emotional problems, "though sex therapy is the show's major focus".
In the late 1980s, Schlessinger was filling in for Barbara De Angelis
Barbara De Angelis
Barbara De Angelis is an American relationship consultant, lecturer and author, TV personality, relationship and personal growth adviser....
' noon-time relationship-oriented talk show in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
on KFI
KFI
KFI is an AM radio station in Los Angeles, California. It received its license to operate on March 31, 1922 and began operating on April 16, 1922 as one of the United States' first high-powered, "clear-channel" stations...
, while working weekends at KGIL in San Fernando
San Fernando, California
San Fernando is a city located in the San Fernando Valley, in northwestern region of Los Angeles, California, United States. The population was 23,645 at the 2010 census, up from 23,564 at the 2000 census.-History:...
. Her big break came when Sally Jessy Raphael
Sally Jessy Raphaël
Sally Lowenthal , better known as Sally Jessy Raphael, is an American talk show host, known for the eponymous Sally talk show she hosted for two decades.-Early years:...
began working at ABC Radio, and Maurice Tunick, former Vice-President of Talk Programming for the ABC Radio Networks, needed a regular sub for Raphael's evening personal advice show. Tunick chose Schlessinger to fill in for Raphael.
Ultimately, Schlessinger began broadcasting a daily show on KFI which was nationally syndicated in 1994 by Synergy, a company owned by Schlessinger and her husband. In 1997, Synergy sold its rights to the show to Jacor
Jacor
Jacor Communications was a media corporation which owned a large number of radio stations in the United States. Inside the radio industry, Jacor was seen as one of the most competitive broadcast companies in history. Jacor's re-image in 1996 created the slogan "The Noise You Can't Ignore".Jacor was...
Communications, Inc., for $71.5 million. Later, Jacor merged with Clear Channel Communications
Clear Channel Communications
Clear Channel Communications, Inc. is an American media conglomerate company headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It was founded in 1972 by Lowry Mays and Red McCombs, and was taken private by Bain Capital LLC and Thomas H. Lee Partners LP in a leveraged buyout in 2008...
and a company co-owned by Schlessinger, Take On The Day, LLC, acquired the production rights. The show became a joint effort between Take On The Day, which produced it, Talk Radio Network
Talk Radio Network
Talk Radio Network is an American radio network providing talk radio programming, with an emphasis on conservative talk on weekdays and variety/general interest talk radio on weekends. Some of the most recognizable personalities in American radio, such as Laura Ingraham and Michael Savage, are...
, which syndicated and marketed it to radio stations, and Premiere Radio Networks
Premiere Radio Networks
Premiere Networks is an American radio network. It is the largest syndication company in the United States based on popularity of programming...
, (a subsidiary of Clear Channel), which provided satellite facilities and handled advertising sales. As of September 2009, Schlessinger broadcast from her home in Santa Barbara, California
Santa Barbara, California
Santa Barbara is the county seat of Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Situated on an east-west trending section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coast of the United States, the city lies between the steeply-rising Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean...
with KFWB as her flagship station. Podcast
Podcast
A podcast is a series of digital media files that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication...
s and live streams of the show have been available on her website for a monthly fee, and the show was also on XM Satellite Radio
XM Satellite Radio
XM Satellite Radio is one of two satellite radio services in the United States and Canada, operated by Sirius XM Radio. It provides pay-for-service radio, analogous to cable television. Its service includes 73 different music channels, 39 news, sports, talk and entertainment channels, 21 regional...
.
At its peak, The Dr. Laura Program was the second-highest-rated radio show after The Rush Limbaugh Show
The Rush Limbaugh Show
The Rush Limbaugh Show is an American talk radio show hosted by Rush Limbaugh on Premiere Radio Networks...
, and was heard on more than 450 radio stations. Writing in 1998, Leslie Bennett described the popularity of the show:
In May 2002, the show still had an audience of more than 10 million, but had lost several million listeners in the previous two years as it was dropped by WABC
WABC (AM)
WABC , known as "NewsTalkRadio 77 WABC" is a radio station in New York City. Owned by the broadcasting division of Cumulus Media, the station broadcasts on a clear channel and is the flagship station of Cumulus Media Networks...
and other affiliates, and was moved from day to night in cities such as Seattle and Boston. These losses were attributed in part to Schlessinger's shift from giving relationship advice to lecturing on morality and conservative politics. Pressure from gay-rights groups caused dozens of sponsors to drop the radio show as well. In 2006, Schlessinger's show was being aired on approximately 200 stations. As of 2009, it was tied for third place along with The Glenn Beck Program
Glenn Beck Program
The Glenn Beck Program is an American talk radio show hosted by commentator Glenn Beck on Premiere Radio Networks. Since its inception as a nationally syndicated show in 2002, the program has become one of the highest rated radio programs...
and The Savage Nation
The Savage Nation
The Savage Nation is an American radio show hosted by conservative commentator Michael Savage on Talk Radio Network. His show is heard by 8-10 million listeners a week and syndicated across the U.S. in over 300 markets, making it the 3rd most listened to radio show in the country...
.
Schlessinger used "Hot Talkin' Big Shot", a song by country and blues singer and songwriter Nikki Hornsby
Nikki Hornsby
Nikki Hornsby is an American pop, Americana, country and blues singer-songwriter and guitarist.-Teenage years:...
, for several years as cue music for her radio program and for a national radio commercial advertising for the show.
On August 17, 2010, during an appearance on Larry King Live
Larry King Live
Larry King Live is an American talk show hosted by Larry King on CNN from 1985 to 2010. It was CNN's most watched and longest-running program, with over one million viewers nightly....
, Schlessinger announced the end of her radio show saying that her motivation was to "regain her First Amendment rights", and that she wanted to be able to say what is on her mind without "some special interest group deciding this is a time to silence a voice of dissent." Several of her affiliates and major sponsors had dropped her show after her on air use of a racial epithet on August 10.
On January 3, 2011, Schlessinger's show moved exclusively to Sirius XM Radio.
Television show
In 2000, Schlessinger signed a deal with Paramount Domestic TelevisionParamount Domestic Television
Paramount Domestic Television was the television distribution arm of American television production company Paramount Television, once the TV arm of Paramount Pictures...
to produce a syndicated talk show, which would be carried mainly by television stations owned and operated by
Owned-and-operated television stations in the United States
In the United States, owned-and-operated television stations constitute only a portion of their parent television networks, due to an ownership limit imposed by the Federal Communications Commission...
CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
. The producers hoped to extend the success of Schlessinger's radio show to daytime television, however, the show was controversial before it ever aired, and it proved to be short-lived.
In the months before the premiere of her TV show, Schlessinger called homosexuality
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
a "biological error", said that homosexuality was acceptable as long it was not public, and said that homosexuals should not attempt to adopt children. She regularly compared gay parenting
LGBT parenting
LGBT parenting refers to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people parenting one or more children. This includes children raised by same-sex couples , children raised by single LGBT parents, and children raised by an opposite-sex couple where at least one partner is LGBT.LGBT people can...
to pedophilia
Pedophilia
As a medical diagnosis, pedophilia is defined as a psychiatric disorder in adults or late adolescents typically characterized by a primary or exclusive sexual interest in prepubescent children...
by reiterating her view that "a huge portion of the male homosexual populace is predatory on young boys." Schlessinger was frequently criticized in lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
, gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
, bisexual, and transsexual (LGBT
LGBT
LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...
) media for these views. Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), an LGBT media watchdog group, began monitoring Schlessinger's on-air comments about LGBT people, posting transcripts of relevant shows on its website.
In March 2000, a group of gay activists
Activism
Activism consists of intentional efforts to bring about social, political, economic, or environmental change. Activism can take a wide range of forms from writing letters to newspapers or politicians, political campaigning, economic activism such as boycotts or preferentially patronizing...
launched StopDrLaura.com
John Aravosis
John Aravosis is an American Democratic political consultant, writer, gay activist and blogger. Aravosis, an attorney who lives in Washington, D.C., is the founder of AMERICAblog and a co-founder of StopDrLaura.com....
, an online campaign with the purpose of convincing Paramount to cancel the Dr. Laura television show prior to its premiere. The group protested at Paramount studios, stating her views were offensively bigoted
Bigotry
A bigot is a person obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices, especially one exhibiting intolerance, and animosity toward those of differing beliefs...
. StopDrLaura.com eventually organized protests in 34 cities in the U.S. and Canada, and picked up on an advertiser boycott of both the radio and the TV shows started by another grass-roots organization which called itself "Silence Of The Slams" operating its boycott through AOL Hometown.
The first episode of Schlessinger's television show aired September 11, 2000. Critics and viewers complained that the format had been dulled down and did not stand out from any other daytime talk show. The biting rhetoric that worked well on radio seemed overly harsh for face-to-face discourse, owing to the normal sympathetic nature of most other daytime hosts; the radical change in Schlessinger's demeanor from her radio persona left viewers cold. Ultimately, the television show failed to generate the energy and interest of Schlessinger's radio show.
The credibility of Schlessinger's television program also suffered during its first month when the New York Post
New York Post
The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...
reported that Schlessinger had used show staff to falsely pose as guests on the show. A September 25, 2000, episode named "Readin', Writin', and Cheatin'" featured a so-called college student who specialized in professional note-taking. On the next day's show, "Getting to the Altar," the same guest appeared in different hair and makeup and said she was a woman living with her boyfriend. In fact, the woman was San-D Duchas, a researcher for the show whose name appeared in the closing credits of the shows on which she posed as a guest.
By November 2000, advertisers that had originally committed to Schlessinger's show left, and the ratings plummeted. CBS directed its stations to move the show to a late-night slot or replace it altogether. Other stations outside of CBS did the same thing, while others moved it to weaker sister stations. The television show was cancelled in March 2001 and last aired in September 2001.
In 2004, Schlessinger said that although there is more money and celebrity in television, it is not as meaningful or intimate as radio, and for her television was a "terrible experience".
Columns
For several years, Schlessinger wrote a weekly column syndicated by Universal Press SyndicateUniversal Press Syndicate
Universal Press Syndicate, a subsidiary of Andrews McMeel Universal, is the world's largest independent press syndicate. It distributes lifestyle and opinion columns, comic strips and other content. Popular columns include Dear Abby, Ann Coulter, Roger Ebert and News of the Weird...
that was carried in many newspapers, as well as Jewish World Review
Jewish World Review
Jewish World Review is a free, online magazine updated Monday through Friday , which seeks to appeal to "people of faith and those interested in learning more about contemporary Judaism from Jews who take their religion seriously."It carries informational articles related to Judaism, dozens of...
. She discontinued the column in July 2000, citing lack of time due to her upcoming television show. She wrote a monthly column for WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily is an American web site that publishes news and associated content from a U.S. conservative perspective. It was founded in May 1997 by Joseph Farah with the stated intent of "exposing wrongdoing, corruption and abuse of power" and is headquartered in Washington, D.C.-History:In...
between 2002 and 2004, with one entry in 2006. In 2006, Schlessinger joined the Santa Barbara News-Press
Santa Barbara News-Press
The Santa Barbara News-Press is a broadsheet newspaper based in Santa Barbara, California.-History:The News-Press asserts it is the oldest daily newspaper in Southern California, publishing since 1855...
, writing bi-weekly columns dealing with Santa Barbara news, as well as general news and cultural issues discussed on her radio show. She suspended the column in mid 2007, resumed writing it later, then discontinued it in December 2008. She currently writes columns on her blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
, on a variety of topics.
Books
Schlessinger has published a number of books. Several follow the mold of her successful Ten Stupid Things Women Do to Mess Up Their Lives, with similarly named books giving advice for men, couples, and parents, while others are more religious or moral in orientation. The later advice books emphasize religion more than the earlier works, until her announced departure from Orthodox Judaism in July 2003.Her 2004 book, The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands, sold well despite poor reviews by critics. It was a departure from her previous books, which tended to focus on premarital relationships and children. Proper Care asserts that men need direct communication, respect, appreciation, food, and good loving, rather than tearing down the husband's sense of strength and importance. Schlessinger's thesis is that wives have the power to change their husbands' attitudes by seeing to these needs, and then their husbands will "swim across shark-infested waters to bring you a lemonade." The book proposes that wives have the power to promote devotion, compassion, and love from their husbands.
Magazine
For several years, Schlessinger published a monthly magazine, Dr. Laura Perspective. She was the editor, her husband a contributing photographer, and her son the creative consultant. The magazine has since gone out of publication.Website
Schlessinger has a website which contains hints for stay at home parents, her blog, a reading list, and streaming audio of her shows (by subscription only). When it was started, 310,000 people tried to access it simultaneously and it crashed. Certain aspects of feminismFeminism
Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...
are often discussed on her website; she was a self-proclaimed feminist in the 1970s, but is now opposed to feminism.
Charitable work
Schlessinger created the Laura Schlessinger Foundation to help abused and neglected children in 1998. Schlessinger regularly asked her on-air audience to donate items for My Stuff bags, which go to children in need. All other donations came from other people or groups, usually in the form of donated items for the bags. Per the foundation's reports, money not used for operations was directed toward pro-life organizations, such as crisis pregnancy centers. In September 2004, Schlessinger announced that she was closing down the foundation because it had become too difficult and costly for her and her husband to underwrite, and they wished to devote their "energies and resources to other pressing needs".Schlessinger has been cited as an influential and wealthy donor to Project Prevention
Project Prevention
Project Prevention is an American non-profit organization that pays drug addicts cash for volunteering for long-term birth control, including sterilization. Originally based in California and now based in North Carolina, the organization began operating in the United Kingdom in 2010...
, an organization that pays drug and alcohol addicts $200 to use long term birth control or to be sterilized. Her support of the organization has been criticized as unethical, racially biased, and as an endorsement of eugenics.
Schlessinger has praised the group emphasizing the voluntary nature of the sterilization or implants, and has said that people who oppose Project Prevention are defending a woman's right "to maim and destroy babies inside her body".
In 2007, Schlessinger began fundraising for Operation Family Fund, an organization which aids the families of fallen or seriously injured veterans of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. In 2008, she helped raise more than $1 million dollars for the organization.
Awards
Schlessinger has received numerous awards from both media and conservative organizations. She was the first woman to win the Marconi AwardNAB Marconi Radio Awards
The Marconi Radio Awards are presented annually by the National Association of Broadcasters to the top radio stations and on-air personalities in the United States. The awards are named in honor of Guglielmo Marconi, the man generally credited as the "Father of Wireless Telegraphy." NAB member...
for Network/Syndicated Personality of the Year (1997). In 1998 she received the American Women in Radio & Television's Genii Award. She was on the Forbes top 100 list of celebrities in 2000 with estimated earnings of $13 million. In September 2002, the industry magazine Talkers
Talkers magazine
Talkers Magazine is a trade industry publication related to talk radio in the United States. Its slogan is "The Bible of Talk Radio and the New Talk Media"...
named Schlessinger as the seventh-greatest radio talk show host of all time. In 2005 and 2008, she was nominated for induction into the National Radio Hall of Fame, but was not selected.
Schlessinger received a National Heritage award from the National Council of Young Israel in March 2001. She also received the National Religious Broadcasters
National Religious Broadcasters
National Religious Broadcasters is an American organization that represents Christian religious broadcasters on American television and radio, including several high-profile televangelists and Christian radio show hosts. It claims a membership of more than 1700 organizations...
Chairman's Award, and has lectured on the national conservative circuit. She was the commencement speaker at Hillsdale College
Hillsdale College
Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, Michigan, United States, is a co-educational liberal arts college known for being the first American college to prohibit in its charter all discrimination based on race, religion, or sex; its refusal of government funding; and its monthly publication, Imprimis...
in June 2002, and was awarded an honorary degree as a doctor of tradition and culture.
In 2007, Schlessinger was given an Exceptional Public Service award by the Office of the U.S. Secretary of Education. In 2008, Talkers Magazine presented her with an award for outstanding community service by a radio talk show host.
Religious beliefs
Schlessinger was non-religious until she and her son began practicing Conservative JudaismConservative Judaism
Conservative Judaism is a modern stream of Judaism that arose out of intellectual currents in Germany in the mid-19th century and took institutional form in the United States in the early 1900s.Conservative Judaism has its roots in the school of thought known as Positive-Historical Judaism,...
in 1996. In 1998, Schlessinger, Bishop, and their son converted to Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism , is the approach to Judaism which adheres to the traditional interpretation and application of the laws and ethics of the Torah as legislated in the Talmudic texts by the Sanhedrin and subsequently developed and applied by the later authorities known as the Gaonim, Rishonim, and...
, and began instruction under Rabbi Reuven P. Bulka
Reuven Bulka
Reuven P. Bulka is a rabbi, writer, broadcaster and activist in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada and former co-president of the Canadian Jewish Congress...
of Ottawa, Ontario. During this time, Schlessinger sometimes used Jewish law and examples to advise her callers about their moral dilemmas. She occasionally clarified ethical and moral issues with her local Orthodox Rabbi Moshe D. Bryski, before mentioning them on the air. She was embraced by many in the politically conservative segment of Orthodox Judaism for bringing more awareness of Orthodoxy to her radio show. Some of her expressed views were explicitly religious, and are referenced her 1999 book The Ten Commandments: The Significance of God's Laws in Everyday Life. Although her other books have stressed the importance of morality, they are more secular in nature.
In July 2003, Schlessinger announced on her show that she was no longer an Orthodox Jew.
Marriage and family life
Schlessinger met and married Michael F. Rudolph, a dentist, in 1972 while she was attending Columbia University. The couple had a UnitarianUnitarian Universalism
Unitarian Universalism is a religion characterized by support for a "free and responsible search for truth and meaning". Unitarian Universalists do not share a creed; rather, they are unified by their shared search for spiritual growth and by the understanding that an individual's theology is a...
ceremony. Separating from Rudolph, Schlessinger moved to Encino, California in 1975 when she obtained a job in the science department at the University of Southern California
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
. Their divorce was finalized in 1977.
In 1975, while working in the labs at USC, she met Lewis G. Bishop, a professor of neurophysiology
Neurophysiology
Neurophysiology is a part of physiology. Neurophysiology is the study of nervous system function...
who was married and the father of three children. Bishop separated from his wife and began living with Schlessinger the same year. Schlessinger has vociferously proclaimed her disapproval of unwed couples "shacking up." But according to personal friend, Shelly Herman, "Laura lived with Lew for about nine years before she was married to him." "His divorce was final in 1979. Bishop and Schlessinger married in 1985. Herman says that Schlessinger told her she was pregnant at the time, which Herman recalls as " particularly joyful because of the happy news." Schlessinger's only child, a son named Deryk, was born in November 1985.
Schlessinger was estranged from her sister for years, and many thought she was an only child. She had not spoken to her mother for 18 to 20 years before her mother's death in 2002 from heart disease. Her mother's remains were found in her Beverly Hills condo approximately two months after she died, and lay unclaimed for some time in the Los Angeles morgue before Schlessinger had them picked up for burial. Concerning the day that she heard about her mother’s death, she said: “Apparently she had no friends and none of her neighbors were close, so nobody even noticed! How sad.” In 2006, Schlessinger wrote that she had been attacked in a "vulgar, inhumane manner by media types" because of the circumstances surrounding her mother's death, and that false allegations had been made that she was unfit to dispense advice based on family values
Family values
Family values are political and social beliefs that hold the nuclear family to be the essential ethical and moral unit of society. Familialism is the ideology that promotes the family and its values as an institution....
. She said that she had not mourned the deaths of either of her parents because she had no emotional bond to them.
Libel lawsuit
In 1998, Schlessinger was in a Costa Mesa surf shop with her son when she began perusing the skateboarding magazine, Big BrotherBig Brother (magazine)
Big Brother was a skateboarding magazine founded by Steve Rocco, which was notable for ushering in street skating and the sub-culture of skateboarding....
. On her radio program, Schlessinger declared the magazine to be "stealth pornography." When the owner of the store publicly denied that she found pornography in his store, Schlessinger sued him for lying, claiming that his denial had hurt her reputation. When the case went to court, the judge dismissed her suit, but the shop owner's $4 million defamation countersuit
Counterclaim
In civil procedure, a party's claim is a counterclaim if the defending party has previously made a claim against the claiming party.Examples of counterclaims include:...
lodged for hurting the reputation of his store was allowed to stand. The suit has since been settled, but the terms of the settlement have not been revealed.
Internet publication of nude photos
In 1998, Schlessinger's early radio mentor, Bill BallanceBill Ballance
Willis "Bill" Ballance , was an American radio talk show host.Ballance studied journalism at the University of Illinois before serving in the United States Marines. He had radio station stints in Denver, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Honolulu and San Diego. Ballance was the evening personality late...
, sold nude photos that he had taken of Schlessinger in the mid-1970s to a company specializing in internet porn. The photos were taken while Schlessinger was involved in a brief affair with then-married Bill Ballance. Schlessinger sued after the photos were posted on the internet, claiming invasion of privacy and copyright violation. The court ruled that Schlessinger did not own the rights to the photos, and she did not appeal the ruling. She told her radio audience that she was embarrassed, but that the photos were taken when she was going through a divorce and had "no moral authority."
Use of racial epithet
On August 10, 2010, Nita Hanson, an African-American woman married to a white man, called Schlessinger's show to ask for advice on dealing with racial comments made by acquaintances. During the call, Schlessinger used the word "niggerNigger
Nigger is a noun in the English language, most notable for its usage in a pejorative context to refer to black people , and also as an informal slang term, among other contexts. It is a common ethnic slur...
" eleven times. When Hanson asked, "Is it ever OK to say that word?," Schlessinger responded, "It depends how it’s said. Black guys talking to each other seem to think it’s OK." After the call Schlessinger said, "If you're that hypersensitive about color and don't have a sense of humor, don't marry out of your race." A day later, Schlessinger apologized. Hanson questioned the motivation and sincerity of Schlessinger's apology, believing it to be result of being "caught". Hanson also said that Schlessinger made no apology regarding her comments on interracial marriage.
Schlessinger announced she would end her radio show at the end of 2010: Schlessinger stated that she will not retire.
Fictional portrayals
In 1999, Schlessinger was parodied as "Dr. Nora" on the sitcom FrasierFrasier
Frasier is an American sitcom that was broadcast on NBC for eleven seasons, from September 16, 1993, to May 13, 2004. The program was created and produced by David Angell, Peter Casey, and David Lee in association with Grammnet and Paramount Network Television.A spin-off of Cheers, Frasier stars...
. The character was portrayed as having dogmatic and fundamentalist social views that promoted social conservatism. The character was also shown to have a degree that belies her therapeutic advice and was estranged from her mother.
In 2000, in the episode The Midterms
The Midterms
"The Midterms" is the 25th episode of The West Wing and the 3rd episode of the second season.-Plot:This episode is fast paced, taking place over the course of 12 weeks at the end of the 106th Congress, and focusing primarily on the run-up to the midterm elections. Josh is out of the office for the...
on The West Wing, the fictional "Dr. Jenna Jacobs" is scolded by President Bartlet
Josiah Bartlet
Josiah Edward "Jed" Bartlet is a fictional character played by Martin Sheen on the television serial drama The West Wing. He is President of the United States for the entire series until the last episode, when his successor is inaugurated...
, who criticizes her views on homosexuality, and points out she is not a doctor in any field related to morality, ethics, or theology. He quotes from the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
to point out the inconsistency of condemning certain sins but not others. Show creator Aaron Sorkin
Aaron Sorkin
Aaron Benjamin Sorkin is an Academy and Emmy award winning American screenwriter, producer, and playwright, whose works include A Few Good Men, The American President, The West Wing, Sports Night, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, The Social Network, and Moneyball.After graduating from Syracuse...
admitted to modeling Bartlet's diatribe on an anonymous "Letter to Dr. Laura," which was a popular viral email
Viral email
A viral email is a certain kind of email which rapidly propagates from person to person, generally in a word-of-mouth manner...
at the time.
Schlessinger is featured as an antagonist in the animated series Queer Duck
Queer Duck
Queer Duck is an animated series produced by Mondo that originally appeared on Icebox.com and later moved to the American cable television channel Showtime in 2002, where it aired as a followup feature of the American version of Queer as Folk...
.
See also
- Culture warCulture warThe culture war in American usage is a metaphor used to claim that political conflict is based on sets of conflicting cultural values. The term frequently implies a conflict between those values considered traditionalist or conservative and those considered progressive or liberal...
- Talk radio in the United States
- Joy BrowneJoy BrowneJoy Browne also named Dr. Joy, is an American radio psychologist.-Early life:Browne was born in New Orleans, Louisiana and educated at Rice University in Houston, TX.-Career:...
- radio psychologist - Toni GrantToni GrantToni Grant is an American psychologist and talk radio host. She was one of the first licensed psychologists to have her own radio talk show, and a pioneer in the advice-giving genre.-Personal life:...
- radio psychologist - Santa Barbara News-Press controversy