The FACTS ONLY
CrissyV1
"items" (meaning: catty comments or speculations about her life in years gone
by) about Laura Schlesinger. If you have something to state about her, back it
up with a reference. If you don't have FACT keep it to yourself.
I listen to Dr. L and there are times I don't agree with her or I feel she is
in a bad mood, but as they say in 12 step programs, "TAKE WHAT YOU WANT AND
LEAVE THE REST."
Otherwise, I don't know why you whining people (you know who you are) post
nasty things about her. People that write these nasty, horrid bits about Dr.
Laura you are either evil or envious of Dr. L. She has moved on with her life
Why don't you?
RASAMER
CrissyV1 wrote:
She has moved on with her life
Why don't you?
Has she? Maybe there are other skeletons
in the closet!!!!
Maybe even more recent ones.
What proof do YOU have that she has "moved
on with her life"? Because she says so? That's a crock.
For all we know, she may be just as good at
deception and spin as Bill Clinton.
None of us know.........including YOU.
The difference is, you choose to believe her
at face value.
Others tend to disbelieve her at face value
And I say, we don't know the whole truth..................
CrissyV1
RASAMER
CrissyV1 wrote:
I am tired of reading a lot of crap...back it up with fact/reference.
That's a bunch of sanctimonious bull shit if I
ever heard it.First: I personally
have never said anything GOOD or BAD about Dr L
Second: You are the one who said "she
has moved on with her life"
So, YOU back it up!!! YOU are the one
who asked for facts. Where are your facts?
Her statements? Those are not facts.
Your overzealous defense of her is as bad as the overzealous detractors.
Ya know something.....I think you're awful thick headed, because apparently you don't have the intelligence to realize what I was saying.
Try this.........she says she has moved on.
Do you know that for a fact?? The term I used was "maybe" there are
other skeletons, more recent ones.
None of us knows the truth. Wake up,
open your eyes.
She may be telling the truth that she has
moved on, and then again she may not.
WE DO NOT KNOW
Sheeeesh..........................Maybe ya
might wanna try an old military saying "don't believe anything ya
hear, and only half of what ya see"
EMF1947
>Date: Wed, Nov 4, 1998 8:04 AM
>Message-id: <19981104090436...@ng-fa1.aol.com>
>
>Okay, everyone has seen the pictures. I am tired of reading postings of
>"items" (meaning: catty comments or speculations about her life in years
>gone
>by) about Laura Schlesinger. If you have something to state about her,
>back it
>up with a reference. If you don't have FACT keep it to yourself.
>Otherwise, I don't know why you whining people (you know who you are) post
>nasty things about her. People that write these nasty, horrid bits about
>Dr.
>Laura you are either evil or envious of Dr. L.
If you have something to state about me, follow your own advice and "back it
up". In what way am I evil? I want you to cite specifics.
Ellen
Neutrodyne
>From: cris...@aol.com (CrissyV1)
>Date: 11/4/98 6:30 AM Pacific Standard Time
>Message-id: <19981104093041...@ng12.aol.com>
>
>I am tired of reading a lot of crap...back it up with fact/reference.
So don't read it. Go to www.drlaura.com and drool over her picture. Send her a
book to sign. Oh, you might save a few bucks, Edward R. HAmilton, the king of
remainders now has a couple of her books marked down to $3.95..... She won't
make to the millenium with 50 stations.....
Neutrodyne
CrisVithen
CrisVithen
show. I don't like rap music, so I don't listen to rap stations. Take on the
day ... :-)
Neutrodyne
>From: crisv...@aol.com (CrisVithen)
>Date: 11/4/98 7:27 AM Pacific Standard Time
>Message-id: <19981104102725...@ng07.aol.com>
"If you don't like the opinions ypu find in this newsgroup, go to Dr. LAura's
censored, distorted fantasy world website and lick her boots for her there."
Is it an echo or we driving through Corbitt canyon...canyon....canyon.......
with all these dim bulbs (and bright men.....)
Neutrodyne
Rush3671
<<If you don't like/or believe what the woman has to say...don't listen to her
show. >>
And if you don't like/believe what we have to say, don't come here.
Adrian M. Rush
How to Prevaricate Your Way Out of a Sex Scandal 101:
Bill Clinton: "I was legally accurate."
Laura Schlessinger: "I was legally separated."
(Change the "aol.com" to "net-link.net" to respond.)
ZenMaestro
> Why don't you?
>
Oh, I have no problem with DL "moving on with her life" as long as she grants
that right to other people too... Like Bill Clinton. Why should we assume
that HER repentance is authentic and his is not - in other words??
I DID like her public statement on yesterday's program. Masterful spin! I
particularly liked the way she juxtaposed that Grateful Dead loop before the
Q&A. I will survive!!!!!
Wade Ramey
By Leslie Bennetts
By 5:30 A.M., Laura Schlessinger is already working on her syndicated
column or her latest book, lifting free weights and
doing squat thrusts. Then she puffs her bouffant blond-frosted do and
heads for the San Fernando Valley studio where her
call-in show - the fastest-growing program in radio history -
originates. She moves fast, charging past staffers who beseech her
for a moment of her time. Her followers are waiting.
And when she goes on the air at 11 A.M., hordes of them are already on
hold, hoping for two or three minutes of her precious
wisdom. "Need some help, advice, a kick in the butt?" intones the
announcer. "Dr. Laura!"
Although the 51-year-old Schlessinger concedes that she's not a
psychotherapist and that what she's doing isn't therapy, those
distinctions seem lost on the 60,000 people who call in every day,
asking tremendously for th e "doctor." They don't care that
she got her Ph.D. in physiology (although she also earned a license in
marriage, family, and child counseling). They just want her
to fix their sorry lives.
Schlessinger's diagnosis of what's wrong with the country is simple:
"Too much freedom and too little values!" Her cure?
"Preaching, teaching, and nagging." The demand seems insatiable. Since
her program was nationally syndicated in 1994, her
rise has been meteoric; she has close to 20 million listeners, an
audience that is quickly surpassing Rush Limbaugh's and has
already topped Howard Stern's. She is now heard on 450 stations in the
U.S. and 35 in Canada.
A year ago Schlessinger, her husband, Lew Bishop, and their partner,
John Shanahan, sold her show to Jacor Communication
Inc. for $71.5 million. Television beckons, although Schlessinger is
skittish. Last spring, she abruptly backed out of a deal with
Eyemark Entertainment (CBS's syndication arm), saying she didn't want to
be associated with the company that syndicates
Stern. He retaliated on the air, according to Schlessinger, declaring
that she slept her way to the top (a charge she dismisses as
evidence of his moral turpitude). After all, Schlessinger has standards
- and millions of disciples who expect her to uphold them.
When a Dr. Laura Web site was established, 310,000 people clicked onto
it at once, crashing the system.
No matter; they an always buy one of her books. The first, Ten Stupid
Things Women Do to Mess Up Their Lives, was a New
York Times best-seller for 26 weeks; the next, How Could You DO That?!:
The Abdication of Character, Courage, and
Conscience, held on for 34 weeks. Ten Stupid Things Men Do To Mess Up
Their Lives catapulated Schelessinger's total sales
to more than 2.2 million.
Her latest arrives this month. The Ten Commandments: What's In It For
Me?, which Schlessinger co-authored with Rabbi
Stewart Vogel, reflects her evolution, over the last several years, from
a non believer into a Conservative Jew and now an
Orthodox Jew. She believes in religion - any religion. "I've probably
sent more people back to Catholicism than the Pope," she
says.
But her followers aren't really seeking religion: they want a taskmaster
to stiffen their spines and tell them what to do. And Dr.
Laura is happy to oblige, dispensing her advice in doses that land as
hard as a cane on the back.
Today, Dr. Laura's sinewy little size-two body is clad in a
cornflower-blue Escada blazer and matching skintight jeans cinched
around her taut waist. Diamonds glitter at her ears, in the Star of
David around her neck, and on her manicured fingers with
their blood-red nails. Despite her diminutive size, Schlessinger is a
commanding presence. A black belt in karate, she seems
tense, coiled, and ready to pounce: "I'm like a panther," she says. Her
callers provide ample opportunity.
To a woman whose boyfriend wanted her to have an abortion, Schlessinger
snaps, "You got knocked up by a guy who wanted
to kill your child?" (Furiously anti-choice, Schlessinger refers to
abortion as "sucking it into the sink.") The caller had the baby
anyway and moved in with the louse that wouldn't marry her. "You've
really blown it badly," snarls Dr. Laura. "Get a backbone
transplant here!"
Then there's Valerie, who is reluctant to leave her boyfriend. "You're
lying!" Dr. Laura explodes when Valerie denies she's
afraid of being alone. "You're wrong! You don't want to face that it's
your inadequacy!"
Between callers, Dr, Laura grumbles. "I don't know why women complain
about their lives; they're the architects," she says
irritably. "Let's not try to find a decent man: let's wait till he turns
into one!" she scoffs. "My answer to women who complain
about their men is: Pick better!"
She loathes weak women who choose victimhood. "I love women who
volunteer," she says witheringly. "There is no
oppression of women in this country. We volunteer. Nobody's going to
send you to the Gulag if you don't marry somebody."
Schlessinger hates feminists too, but admits she used to be one. "They
nauseate and sicken me," she says. "They've destroyed
the sanctity of motherhood."
But men - nearly half of her audience are pilloried, too, particularly
if they've had children with women they've left. One caller
divorced his wife, with whom he has a seven-year-old, a four-year-old,
and 18-month-old twins, because she is
manic-depressive and suicidal. Dr. Laura has no sympathy for his custody
problems: "Your penis helped create this," she says.
Although Schlessinger has become a poster girl for the Christian right
("They love me!" she exults), she doesn't completely toe
the party line. She is tolerant of homosexuality, which she believes is
not unusually an individual's decision. Moral choices are
what interest her. Steve, another caller, is married with children but
believes he is gay. Tough luck, says Sclessinger" "You
made a decision to hide, to deny, get married, and have children. You
made a covenant. Now be man enough to live it!"
Although Schlessinger is almost always riled up, some days she's on a
real tear. "How stupid can you be and still be able to
chew your food!" she berates one listener. "Don't be so gutless!" she
reproves another. Schlessinger calls one man's wife a
"loose woman" and tells a 20-year-old her best friends are "drunken
sluts." On other days, particularly with callers who grovel
sufficiently, she can be less ferocious. "Since you're so smart, maybe
you could be our judge and jury," implores Wendy.
"Ohhhh - lubricate me," Dr. Laura purrs lewdly.
At times she even jokes about her own sadism. When Dennis says, "I'll
try to listen to your questions carefully and answer
them," Dr. Laura replies grumpily, "That's no fun. Then I can't jump on
you." When Lita makes it through her first question
unbloodied and wants to know if the guru has time for another, Dr. Laura
unexpectedly relents, because "I haven't had to yell at
you yet." Pause. "I'm hoping."
Often Schlessinger weighs in with a diagnosis before callers have a
chance to explain the facts. Before it's established that one
woman actually wronged her sister-in-law. Dr. Laura tells her curtly to
"eat dirt."
Nor does she consider social context. A man whose girlfriend was
date-raped wants to confront the perpetrator. "How do we
even know it happened?" Dr. Laura demands. "Women accuse men unfairly!"
Then she attacks the victim for not reporting the
incident, which occurred more than 20 years ago, when most teenagers
didn't understand that forced sex, even with a man you
know, is rape.
There is a similar absence of medical and legal context. Worried about
paying for her children's orthodontia, a divorced mother
asks whether to seek help from the grandparents. Dr. Laura never
mentions that the woman is legally entitled to child support
from the deadbeat dad.
To her listeners, such lapses don't matter. The more autocratic Dr.
Laura is, the more they prostrate themselves. She hates it
when they try to clarify matters with relevant facts. "You called for my
opinion," she says, "Why would you argue with me?"
And the testimonials keep coming. "Dr. Laura, you are my hero," Shaynee
says abjectly. "I think you have a great program."
Alison says. "It's helping the world." Linda, whose first adulterous
affair was with her therapist, quavers, "You may have saved
my life." A grandmother offers, "I wish I had heard you when I was
bringing my children up. I've learned a lot from you
morally."
And in an age of moral relativity, Dr. Laura's certitude compels. Who
could find fault with her message of personal
responsibility? Do the right thing! Put your children first! Honor your
commitments! She is like having an avenging fury, come to
reveal the path to righteousness.
"I am a prophet," she crowed to the Los Angeles Times early this year.
After some found that grandiose, she claimed she was
misquoted: "I have never, ever said that I was a prophet! That's a
total, complete lie," she tells me. ("She said it twice," reports
the writer, Janet Wiscombe.)
But Schlessinger's fervor is indisputably evangelical, and her listeners
believe her to be a paragon, a beacon of hope and
rectitude in a dissolute, degraded world. She gets faxes asking her to
run for president. "The country needs you!"
Dr. Laura's old friends and colleagues listen to all this with mirthless
amusement. "Everyone who's known her hates her - and on
some level she knows it," says Marilyn Kagan, a radio host who incurred
Schlessinger's enmity. "She is probably the unhappiest
woman I've ever met," says Shelley Herman, a writer who has worked with
Schlessinger and been a closest friend for many
years. "She doesn't appear to have a guilty conscience, even though we
all know the road is littered with people. Maybe that's
why she's not happy: she knows from whence she came."
She's writing a book on the Ten Commandments?" asks Dr. Laura's original
mentor, veteran Los Angeles radio personality Bill
Ballance. He snorts derisively. "She's broken them all."
Clearly, he is joking: Schlessinger is undoubtedly innocent of
polytheism and idol worship. But the others seem to be up for
grabs, since she insists that the commandments must be understood
metaphorically as well as literally. Dr. Laura maintains that
character assassination is tantamount to murder; in that case she may
have some explaining to do on Judgement Day, which she
firmly believes in.
On the surface Schlessinger's life appears exemplary: Lew Bishop, her
adoring husband, serves as her manager, and their
12-year-old son. Deryk, is so smart and poised that she has put him on
the air to answer kids' questions. She observes the
Sabboth and keeps kosher. (Actually, it's Bishop who keeps kosher; he
does all the cooking.) Lew Bishop used to be
Episcopalian, but Dr. Laura doesn't believe in mixed marriages, which
she calls "interfaithless marriages." So he obligingly
converted to Orthodox Judaism, too.
Sclessinger even has friends, although not many. "She doesn't have time
for friends," says Patti Edwards, one of Schlessinger's
closest friends. "But when she does become your friend, you've got a
friend for life," adds Rhoda Marcovitch, a psychologist
who says Schlessinger is "the most loyal person."
However, before the happy family and the best-sellers and the dream
house with its 30-foot ceilings, there was another Laura
Schlessinger. Scratch the surface of the radio industry and the ill will
toward her bursts like a festering boil; former co-workers
describe a Schlessinger her listeners can't even imagine. "You want to
talk to me about Laura?" says Bill Ballance, who is often
called the inventor of modern talk radio. "This ogre I created?"
Schlessinger's official life story is studded with odd conflicts and
critical omissions. She grew up in Brooklyn and on Long
Island, the daughter of Monroe Schlessinger, a Jewish civil engineer,
and his Italian war bride, Yolanda Ceccovini. Laura's
hostility toward mixed relationships has primal roots; when her parents
married, her father's family reacted poisonously because
Yolanda wasn't Jewish. "Every member of his family cut him off and would
have nothing further to do with him from 1945 on,"
says Ballance, who knew both Yolanda and Monty. Laura and her sister,
Cyndi, were raised in a home where there seemed to
be little love. "She was brought up in a quarrelsome family, so her idea
of human communications is shouting, screaming,
bellowing, and screeching," says Ballance. The Schlessingers eventually
divorced, and Monty died of stomach cancer in 1990.
Some of Laura's intimates didn't even know that she had a sister. "She
always told me she was an only child," says Shelly
Herman.
Schlessinger has been estranged from her sister, who is a marriage and
family counselor, apparently since the 1970s. Her
friends don't know why. When Ballance, who actually met Cyndi before the
rift, asked Laura about it, she just said, "Oh, she's
so much prettier than I am!" Laura's own attractiveness has always been
an extremely sore subject. "Her daddy told her she
was ugly when she was little," explains Herman. Laura, who had brown
hair and big glasses back then, remembers this
assessment as totally devastating.
Although Schlessinger admonishes her callers to mend family rifts, she
hasn't seen her own mother in 14 years. The rupture
amazed her friends, who say that Laura's mother was devoted to her.
"Laura is a very needy person, and her mother was
instrumental in helping her function on a daily basis," explains Herman.
"Her mother lived for Laura and would have done
anything for her."
Schlessinger claims that her mother walked out on her job as her
secretary after Laura suggested she learn to type.
"She just evaporated." Laura told People magazine four years ago, in an
interview in which she also described her mother as
"filled with negativity.....She blamed everyone for her unhappiness."
But back in 1984, Schlessinger explained the breach
somewhat differently: "I retired my mother from my office," she said in
a letter to Ballance. These days Schlessinger refuses to
talk about her family at all, insisting that gossip is against her
religion.
The subject of divorce sends Dr. Laura into public paroxysms of anger,
but many listeners don't realize that she herself is
divorced. She had no children in her brief, early marriage. "It was a
mistake, and I corrected it," she says coldly. When she
arrived in California in the mid-1970s, she was only separated; Ballance
says he had been dating her for months before he
discovered she had left a husband back East.
By then Laura had succeeded in launching a new career. One day,
listening to Ballance's radio program, she had called in to
answer the question "Would you rather be a widow or a divorcee?" A
widow, she said, because then everyone feels sorry for
you. Her wit was so quick, her repartee so ready, that Ballance, who is
29 years older, was enchanted. He says he met her the
next day and they went to bed that very afternoon. ("That's not true,"
says Laura, who insists Ballance "was just mentoring
me.") Ballance complains that their ensuing relationship has also been
subject to Dr. Laura's penchant for revisionist history.
"We went together for two goddamned solid, passionate, throbbing years,
although she has now reduced that to a couple of
lunches," he says sardonically. "We used to thrash around like a couple
of crazed weasels. I used to call her Ku Klux, because
she's a demon between the sheets. Dynamite!"
Schlessinger also turned out to be dynamite on the air. In her first
major appearance, she started off badly, "with a faint, quivery
voice and a lot of disclaimers, like 'I really haven't had a chance to
give it much thought....,'" Ballance reports. During a
commercial break, he told Schlessinger she had to project more
authority. "By the end, she'd practically taken over the show:
'Bill, let me handle this!'" he says, mimicking her brisk, I'm-in-charge
voice.
At the time, Schlessinger was working in a lab at the University of
Southern California next to Lew Bishop, a tenured
neuro-physiology professor and father of three. They are vague about
when their relationship began; first they insist Bishop was
already divorced, but later Schlessinger concedes he had just separated.
Friends have a different recollection. "Laura always
used to complain about how they had to sneak around," says Ballance.
Dr. Laura is now a passionate opponent of pre-marital sex: she
particularly disapproves of unwed couples "shacking up." But
according to Shelly Herman, "Laura lived with Lew for about nine years
before she was married to him." Schlessinger blames
the influence of the 1960s for such lapses. "There are things I did that
I wouldn't dream of doing now," she says. Nor was she
interested in children back then: she had even undergone a tubal
ligation. "I didn't want to have kids because my mission in life
was to be very successful and brilliant at something," she says. But in
her 30s she began to feel "a big empty space: something
missing," she recalls. "I wasn't happy. I kept churning, not knowing
what my problem was."
On her show, Schlessinger disparages would-be parents who insist on
bearing biological offspring rather than adopting needy
children. But after deciding she wanted a baby, she herself underwent
protracted fertility treatments to conceive, enduring a
traumatic ectopic pregnancy before getting pregnant with Deryk. Herman
says that Schlessinger told her she was pregnant at
her wedding, which Herman recalls as a particularly joyful because of
the happy news. But Schlessinger adamantly denies that
she conceived either pregnancy out of wedlock.
Her son inspired her best-known slogan, "I am my kid's mom."
"He is the most important thing in my life," says Schlessinger, who gave
Deryk her own last name rather than her husband's. She
believes fervently that mothers should care for their children rather
than work outside the home. (Part-time work is O.K. after
the kids are in school.) She claims she stayed home for 10 years after
Deryk was born, although when I ask Bishop he says his
wife returned to work when Deryk was "five or six."
By this time, Bishop had left U.S.C. for medical-technology sales. But
he lost his job, and he and Schlessinger hit hard times.
When I ask him about that period, he tears up, then turns his head away
in embarrassment. "Six years ago, our house was in
foreclosure," he says, staring at the floor. "We had no money. We were
in terrible trouble."
The family's problems were compounded when Bishop nearly died after
cardiac arrest. Schlessinger took the blow badly. In
the hospital, she tells me, "I was down on my knees in the hall,
screaming in terror and anguish." But much of her concern
seemed to be for herself. "She would say, 'What am I going to do?' It
was all 'I, I, I,'" says Herman.
Then Schlessinger began to suffer incapacitating panic attacks - "terror
and pounding and thinking I'm going to die," she says.
These included a dramatic episode moments before airtime. "She actually
had a nervous breakdown right in front of all of us, "
marvels a former colleague. "She got in an argument with her screener,
and all of a sudden she was down on the ground
vibrating like a carp out of water." Schlessinger was taken out on a
stretcher by paramedics.
Her husband has recovered, thanks to a sextuple bypass and a
defibrillator, but he and Schlessinger never talk about his heart.
"It scares me too much," she says in a small voice.
Schlessinger's reliance on her husband is the flip side of her
aggressive displays of strength. "She's totally dependent on Lew for
validation," says Herman. Tall, bearded, and bespectacled, Bishop looks
like his wife's opposite, but he seems equally
dependent. "Lew became the wife; Laura became the breadwinner," Herman
explains. "I think Lew is so blindly devoted to her
that he has completely lost his sense of self. Lew has morphed into
Laura."
Bishop no longer has an independent career; he and Schlessinger decided
several years ago that he would manage hers instead.
Deryk often went along for the ride, even when his mother worked the
late shift. "You'd have to dodge him in the hallways; he
was always running around the station unsupervised," reports Laurie
Sanders, whose show ran from 6 to 10 P.M. at Los
Angeles's KOST, while Dr. Laura took the 9-to-midnight shift at its
sister station, KFI, housed in the same building. "One night
I was on the air and Deryk ran into the studio with another child and
screamed and laughed at the top of his lungs. I called my
program director and said, 'This has got to stop.'"
Schlessinger was livid. "From that point on she ignored me," says
Sanders. "When I was released from the station, allegedly
because of budget cuts, she ran around overjoyed, singing, 'Ding, dong,
the witch is dead!' She just reveled in the fact that I
was let go."
When asked about Sanders, Laura claims not to know who she is, and says
she "would never rejoice in anybody else's pain."
But another staffer remembers the "ding, dong" comment, too: "She said
it to me."
Sanders doesn't know whether Schlessinger had anything to do with her
termination, but other women have found her a
formidable enemy. "Any woman she came in contact with, she would view as
a threat," says Shelly Herman, adding that on-air
personalities were at particular risk. "Tracey Miller, Marilyn Kagan,
Barbara De Angelis, Mother Love - she systematically set
out to destroy each of these women. She was the most vengeful, evil
person. She had me making calls, trying to find out things
about these people. Now she's against gossiping, but she was very much
in that trap of finding out things about her colleagues
and using the information to undermine them. She would go to management:
'How can this person be giving advice - they're not
a therapist!'" Herman sighs. "At the time, I didn't realize that Laura's
doctorate was from a biological science rather than a
behavioral science."
Schlessinger denies having tried to undermine her rivals, but she admits
that when she worked nights at KFI, she coveted the
noontime slot held by Barbara De Angelis, who had a doctorate in
psychology from Columbia Pacific University. De Angelis,
whose call-in show was highly rated in Los Angeles, was already a
best-selling author, and at first Schlessinger cultivated her.
"She called me and said she wanted to write a book. That was the last
time we ever spoke."
"Laura found out that Dr. De Angelis was not a doctor," says Tracey
Miller, who is now at KLSX in Los Angeles. "She
informed the entire building." Laurie Sanders adds, "She was always
bad-mouthing Barbara. To go out and discredit someone
to get what you want - is that ehical? She was always looking at it like
'This should be mine - and I will do whatever it takes to
make it mine.'"
Colleagues were appalled by Schlessinger's tactics. "If you're the best,
earn the job - don't go digging up dirt," says one.
(Schlessinger denies asking De Angelis how to write a book, but admits
she complained to KFI management about the other
woman's credentials.)
De Angelis ended up leaving KFI, but her problems weren't over. "The
California state board is very strict about who can call
themselves 'doctor,'" De Angelis explains. The board contacted me and
said, 'Unless you have a clinical license you can't use
"doctor'" They said they had a complaint, but they wouldn't tell me from
whom. I haven't used 'doctor' since." (Schlessinger
says she did not file the complaint.)
Schlessinger also allegedly targeted Marilyn Kagan, a psychoanalytic
psychotherapist who inherited Dr. Laura's time slot when
Schlessinger replaced De Angelis at noon. "When I first got there she
was saying, 'Well, finally we have a real therapist!
Marilyn really knows what she's doing,'" recalls Kagan. "She befriended
me; she would call me every day. People at the radio
station were saying, 'Just be careful. Watch your back.'"
Kagan confided to Laura that she was undergoing fertility treatments.
Then a co-worker informed her, "Laura went to your
boss and told him you're very ill, that you were going through lots of
things that would put you in the hospital, and that you'd be
out a lot," Kagan reports. "Laura had a guy she told them they should
replace me with; she's less threatened by men. I went to
my boss and he said, 'Don't worry about it.'" David Hall, her former
boss, is still program director at KFI, which carries
Schlessinger's show. Asked about the incident, he says, "I don't
remember."
But from then on, Schlessinger was a declared enemy. "Everything I would
say, she would put me down on the radio or
challenge me," says Kagan, who now appears on KCBS-TV in Los Angeles.
"She would constantly zing me and berate me on
the air. She has said really horrible things about me; she slanders me
right and left." Although other co-workers remember such
comments, Laura denies attacking Kagan: "What a lying bitch," she says
angrily.
Kagan adds, "The sickest thing about Laura is how she ingratiates
herself to you, with a plan: If I kick your ass, then I can stab
you in the back. The minute she didn't need people anymore, she would
shit on them. She is such an evil, vicious human being.
This woman is very ill; her envy is so perverse. I can't believe how she
hurts people. I guess even $71.5 million doesn't heal a
wounded psyche."
Schlessinger attributes such accusations to envy of her success. The
problem with that explanation is that so many people
disliked her before she ever became rich or famous. "Even before she was
a star, she had the attitude that 'the rules don't apply
to me,'" says one former colleague.
Dr. Laura is not pleased that I have asked her if she is being
hypocritical. "I live my values," she says, and offers one of her
favorite quotes: "A hypocrite is somebody who says, 'Do as I say, not as
I do.' A teacher is someone who says, 'Do as I do,
not as I did.'" She admits there are "things I regret and have shame
for." But she is not about to enumerate them. "With the
mindset I have now, There are certain things I would not have done." she
says evenly. "I am repentant; I have moed on; I see
no reason to embarrass myself."
Particularly now, when things are going so well. After 22 years of
bouncing from one radio station to another, after all the
shows when her husband and Shelly Herman had to call Dr. Laura with fake
problems because nobody was calling in with real
ones, she now has her own, custom-designed studio and can buy a Mercedes
whenever she wants. She attributes her success
to her own enlightenment. "This show parallels my personal growth: it
evolved as I evolved,"she says.
Petty quibbles about her own life merely serve to distract from her
crusade to change the world, a task she believes she is
accomplishing. In front of her new, California Mission-style house is an
exclusive gated community in the San Fernando Valley,
her husband has placed a sign that alludes to Schlessinger's lofty
goals: ON A MISSION, it says.
I am getting people to stop doing wrong and start doing right," she
says.
Schlessinger may not be calling herself a prophet these days, but
"rabbi" will do. "Rabbi means teacher; I are one," she says.
She ignores the fact that Orthodox Judaism doesn't permit women rabbis,
and insists that the strictures Orthodoxy imposes on
women are not sexist. "The clarity of the roles is wonderful," she says.
(Several days later, I turn on the radio and hear her
ridiculing my "ignorance" for asking about the concerns of Jewish women
who believe that Orthodox Judaism is sexist.)
Schlessinger doesn't like it when you don't agree with her. One day I
question her interpretation of an on-air exchange. Her
green eyes blaze. "You missed the point again," she says. "That's the
difference between a civilian and me. Listening to the
pieces of the puzzle, we're not equal. Sorry; that's not arrogance,
that's just a fact."
Her admirers ascribe her certitude to devine providence. "I think her
show is one of God's blessings," says Patti Edwards, who
became a friend when she persuaded Schlessinger to be honored by
Childhelp U.S.A., a charity Edwards supports.
"To call her America's conscience is not an exaggeration," says Reuven
Bulka, an Orthodox rabbi from Ottawa, Canada, who
has become Schlessinger's latest spiritual adviser.
But many mental-health professionals doubt whether her obey-me approach
is truly constructive. "A good psychotherapist
helps people find their own answers," says Salvatore Maddi, a professor
of psychology and social behavior at the University of
Southern California at Irvine. "Basically Dr. Laura is about: I'm right,
everyone else is wrong. The hostility behind that is very
tangible in the way she interacts with everyone. The more followers she
gets, the more she's sure she's right. She needs very
much to be in control."
And her acolytes arc are happy to hand over the reins. "A lot of people
feel overwhelmed," Maddi explains. "People want there
to be simple right-and-wrong answers: 'Spank me some more, Mama, and
I'll do whatever you want!'"
It seems to be a surefire formula; the money is rolling in. In addition
to Schlessinger's books, audiotapes, and videos, there is a
magazine, a new line of gifts and collectibles, and the Dr. Laura
Collection of clothing. Never shy about merchandising - she
used to have Deryk read on-air commercials - she now hawks an "I am my
kid's dad" tie in two styles, the conventional
boardroom version and the showbiz one. She has formed her own production
company and written a children's book. And Ten
Commandments goes on sale September 9, she reminds her listeners.
But all this activity is not about the money, she assures me. She loves
to quote the Bible, and one day she tells me about the
time she read the words "You shall be unto me a nation of priests." "I
stopped dead," she says. "So the point is that, by virtue of
what I do and how I live, I give evidence of God's presence on earth!
That was the deal at Sinai: that was the job given to the
Jews!"
She tilts her head back and closes her eyes beautifically, as if basking
in an invisible light.
"I like having a job." says Dr. Laura.
EMF1947
>Date: Wed, Nov 4, 1998 9:27 AM
>Message-id: <19981104102725...@ng07.aol.com>
>
>If you don't like/or believe what the woman has to say...don't listen to
>her
>on the
>day ... :-)
>
>
>
>
>That's a bunch of sanctimonious bull shit if I ever heard it.First: I
>personally have never said anything GOOD or BAD about Dr L
>Second: You are the one who said "she has moved on with her life"
>So, YOU back it up!!! YOU are the one who asked for facts. Where are
>your facts?
>Her statements? Those are not facts. Your overzealous defense of her is
>as bad as the overzealous detractors.
>
>Ya know something.....I think you're awful thick headed, because
>apparently you don't have the intelligence to realize what I was saying.
>
>Try this.........she says she has moved on. Do you know that for a
>fact?? The term I used was "maybe" there are other skeletons, more
>recent ones.
>None of us knows the truth. Wake up, open your eyes.
>She may be telling the truth that she has moved on, and then again she
>may not.
>WE DO NOT KNOW
Well, this is interesting. Chrissy comes here demanding that we back up her
statement with "the facts" but when asked to back up one of her own staements
with facts, she doesn't do so. Instead she gives more orders (this time "don't
listen"). Not to mention her e-mail to me, which also didn't back up her
conclusions as I asked.
Is it legal for me to repost her e-mail here?
Ellen
Ala67
>Not to mention her e-mail to me, which also didn't back up her
>conclusions as I asked.
>Is it legal for me to repost her e-mail here?
Its not good netiquette, at any rate.
Mitch
EMF1947
>Date: Wed, Nov 4, 1998 11:19 AM
>Message-id: <19981104121933...@ng118.aol.com>
I won't, then. I don't mind what Laura Schlessinger and all her little
followers think of me, but I refuse to risk the wrath of my idol, Miss Manners.
Ellen
Lynne Fonda-Kosorek
Hahahahahahahahahahaha
Laughing hysterically !!
Wade Ramey
cris...@aol.com (CrissyV1) wrote:
> I listen to Dr. L and there are times I don't agree with her or I feel she is
> in a bad mood, but as they say in 12 step programs, "TAKE WHAT YOU WANT AND
> LEAVE THE REST."
Dr. L. would not approve. You do that, you are your own moral authority.
Big no-no in the sky. It's Ten Commandments or Hell, honey.
She's a born-again Jew, a 90s version of Jimmy Swaggart.
I love the smell of brimstone in the morning.
"Now go out and take off your clothes!"
ZenMaestro
More-or-less he did. Apparantly he got wind of the pix and talked about them
on the show some time in late September. IEG tracked them down from that
mention.
The subtext here is really fascinating. Stern's numbers are slipping; DL's are
growing. Plus DL pissed him off by refusing to do that CBS special because CBS
was the station that carried Stern's show.
Gotta hand it to Stern - a well-orchestrated revenge.
Rev. Dr Tim, McC, BsD
>EMF1947 wrote:
>
>>Not to mention her e-mail to me, which also didn't back up her
>>conclusions as I asked.
>>Is it legal for me to repost her e-mail here?
>
>Its not good netiquette, at any rate.
I see no reason why there should be any reason to keep unsolicited
e-mail private. I've been meaning to post my latest threat from a
militiaboy for a week now, but something's always coming up.
--
Rev. Dr. Tim, McC, BsD
Art Bell, Dr. Laura, Militia Satire Websites
http://extra.newsguy.com/~satire
Watching the rise of the American Taliban
What ever happened to Whitewater?
Ultimate alt.paranormal Overseer
Have you offered a heart to Tezcatlipoca today?
ZOG Agent
Grand Inquisitor, STTMI (What is STTMI)
artd-l Cornholio
Psychic Vampire
Jackal, Ava Cairo's Palace of Jackals
Official Jackyl, Pack O'Jackyls (TM)
Order of the ILK
Skepticultist
Master Baiter
Proper Usenet Authority
High Counselor, New Usenet Order
certified psychic
ECPWHKbA
ECPWAODTb
Lord Supreme Being and Reigning Monarch of afa-b
Owner of a super-inflated ego
Maddi Hausmann Sojourner
>
>How to Prevaricate Your Way Out of a Sex Scandal 101:
>Bill Clinton: "I was legally accurate."
>Laura Schlessinger: "I was legally separated."
Now THAT'S funny.
The Rev. Dr. Maddi
Expert, What Is Funny, and More Importantly, What Is Not
--
Maddi Hausmann Sojourner mad...@netcom.com
Writer, Pundit, and Mother of two children with web pages
Diana is at http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~ds
Aidan is at http://www.employees.org/~ahs
Maddi Hausmann Sojourner
Go on, Chrissy. Back up Evil OR Envious.
The Rev. Dr. Maddi
Enjoying the Chris hoist on her/his own petard show
R R M Tweek
CrissyV1 <cris...@aol.com> wrote:
>I am tired of reading a lot of crap...back it up with fact/reference.
Hey babe. If you don't like what you read hear, unsubscribe from
this newsgroup and subscribe to alt.love.barney.purple. IOW, stop
your whining about our whining.
--
tw...@netcom.com tw...@io.com | Net filter software released by the cult
DoD #MCMLX tw...@ccnet.com | of $cientology finds that articles from
sig...@tweekco.ness.com | this account are too dangerous to read.
R R M Tweek
>
>The subtext here is really fascinating. Stern's numbers are slipping; DL's are
>growing. Plus DL pissed him off by refusing to do that CBS special because CBS
>was the station that carried Stern's show.
What's interesting, is Laura can't stand the SHOCK JOCK Howard Stern or
his SHOCK RADIO because of his SHOCK STYLE... yet our Ms. Muffet finds
no problem with SHOCK VALUED PHRASES like SUCKED INTO A SINK or SLUT or
SHACKED UP or GET A VIBRATOR.
Spiros Triantafyllopoulos
: I listen to Dr. L and there are times I don't agree with her or I feel she is
: in a bad mood, but as they say in 12 step programs, "TAKE WHAT YOU WANT AND
: LEAVE THE REST."
That's exactly what the good doctor doesn't want you to do. No moral
relativism, remember? (unless it's her :-))
Spiros
--
Spiros Triantafyllopoulos email: stri...@primenet.com
at home in Central Indiana www.primenet.com/~strianta
CJ
>Okay, everyone has seen the pictures. I am tired of reading postings of
>"items" (meaning: catty comments or speculations about her life in years
gone
>by) about Laura Schlesinger. If you have something to state about her,
back it
>up with a reference. If you don't have FACT keep it to yourself.
Tell you what, you tell us the facts you are speaking of, and I'll gladly
hunt them down for you. Hell, Rev. Tim has plenty of citations at his
website, but it seems that you'll ignore the facts no matter if they do
smack you in the face with sources backing them up.
So come on, you issued the challenge. Name these "facts" and you'll see
soon enough.
Rush3671
<<Rush3671 <rush...@aol.com> wrote:
>
>How to Prevaricate Your Way Out of a Sex Scandal 101:
>Bill Clinton: "I was legally accurate."
>Laura Schlessinger: "I was legally separated."
Now THAT'S funny.>>
Thanks for noticing. :-)
A.
John Lemons
long as they were still married, don't date. Yet a couple of days ago,
she told someone who was getting ready to get a divorce that once the
decision to get dvorced is made, the covenant is broken, and she can
date.
Rush3671
<<So THAT explains her change of heart... She used to tell people that as
long as they were still married, don't date. Yet a couple of days ago,
she told someone who was getting ready to get a divorce that once the
decision to get dvorced is made, the covenant is broken, and she can
date.>>
Yep...once again, it's whatever excuses her own past behavior. I guess in
Laura's world, if some guy got the hots for another woman, he could tell his
wife he wants a divorce, have his affair, and then come back to his wife and
tell her he doesn't want a divorce after all.
It's so funny how she demands "a ring and a date" for the beginning of the
covenant to be official, but for the covenant to be over, you don't need any
signed divorce papers, as long as you *intend* to get divorced...
Adrian M. Rush
How to Prevaricate Your Way Out of a Sex Scandal 101:
Bill Clinton: "I was legally accurate."
Laura Schlessinger: "I was legally separated."
(Change the "aol.com" to "net-link.net" to respond.)