Dr. Laura, Talk Radio Celebrity
Even as tolerance seems to be on the increase, gays have learned they've got a new nemesis: the harsh-tongued talk-radio oracle Dr. Laura Schlessinger, 53, who's surpassed Howard Stern and Rush Limbaugh as most-listened-to personality on the air. Her anti-gay remarks on air were well known in the gay community, but when she landed an upcoming TV show, protests ignited. She backed off a little last week, but nobody thinks the trouble's over.
Several years ago Schlessinger had a reputation for being tolerant of homosexuality, but she's since embraced Orthodox Judaism and moved farther to the sociocultural right. She's trashed feminists ("They nauseate and sicken me") and mixed ("interfaithless") marriages. In a November broadcast, she savaged--by name--a Connecticut eighth grader for an award-winning essay in favor of free speech on the Internet: "If she was my daughter, I'd probably put her up for adoption... When she makes her marriage vows and her husband has sex with everybody else, let's see if she thinks that this philosophy works." She also suggested the girl be "sacrificed," Inca style.
Schlessinger decries homosexuality on Biblical grounds: in Genesis, God "didn't get Adam another guy." She calls gays "deviants," prevented by "a biological error" from relating "normally" to the opposite sex; she supports "reparative therapy," the dubious "cure" for homosexuality. Same-sex parenting is "despicable." She makes the absurd claim that "a huge portion of the male homosexual populace is predatory on young boys," and warns of a militant gay conspiracy: "You people have to get off your duffs, or you're going to lose your country to fascism."
Well, she's sure gotten gays off their duffs. Last week the brand-new "StopDr.Laura.com" Web site got more than 3 million hits, and this week activists plan to picket Paramount Studios in L.A. to protest her upcoming syndicated TV show, scheduled for September. Paramount has met with GLAAD (the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation), but still issued a stirring defense of free speech--"We respect and believe in Dr. Laura's right to have and express her own point of view"--just as they would for anyone to whom they'd paid $3 million. Still, the pressure's clearly been building. The then presidential candidate Bill Bradley's denunciation (her comments made him "sick to my stomach") didn't rock Paramount's world, but when producers at the hit show "Frasier" protested against their new colleague, something had to be done.
Last week Schlessinger issued a statement denying she meant to "contribute... to an atmosphere of hate or intolerance" and regretting that "words that I have used in a clinical context have been perceived as judgment. They were not meant to... encourage others to disparage homosexuals... We are all made in G-d's image, and therefore, we should treat one another with love and kindness..." The unmollified StopDrLaura.com Web site issued a response saying their demonstration was still on. Stay tuned.
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Mark Miller was named Assistant Managing Editor in October 2006 and Chief of Correspondents in August 2007. In that position, he oversees Newsweek's 19 domestic and international bureaus and the reporting done for Newsweek.com and the magazine's print edition. He also helps plan and direct the magazine's coverage of breaking news online and in print. In addition, he oversees Newsweek's entertainment and cultural coverage.
Miller returned to Newsweek after two and a half years as an assistant managing editor at The Dallas Morning News. He was the newspaper's Sunday and Enterprise editor.
Previously, Miller was Senior Editor for News Development from March 2002 to May 2004, working out of Newsweek's Dallas office. Miller previously served as Newsweek's Chief of Correspondents, based at the magazine's New York headquarters, from November 2000 to March 2002. In that position he oversaw the Newsweek's international network of domestic and foreign bureaus and helped direct the magazine's reporting on 9-11 and the war in Afghanistan.
Since joining Newsweek in 1985 as a summer intern in the Washington bureau, Miller has worked at the magazine in several other capacities. In 1986 he became a Washington correspondent covering the drug war as well as other law-enforcement and justice-related issues. In 1990, he moved to New York as a reporter/writer in the cultural, lifestyle and society sections.
In August 1991, Miller became a political correspondent working exclusively on covering the 1992 presidential campaign. Miller was part of the magazine's special quadrennial election project in which a team of correspondents goes behind the scenes to chronicle the race for the presidency. He secured unprecedented access to Bill Clinton's campaign, including confidential memorandums, research and senior strategy meetings with the candidate and his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton. Miller's reporting produced a number of exclusives such as the then unknown prominent role Mrs. Clinton played in making strategic decisions and a secret research operation, code-named "The Manhattan Project," designed to save Clinton's candidacy in the summer of 1992.
Newsweek's instant history, published less than 36 hours after the polls closed on Nov. 5, 1992, was honored with several awards, including the most prestigious American magazine prize, the National Magazine Award. The special election project was expanded and published as a book, "Quest for the Presidency 1992," in 1994 by Texas A&M University Press.
Miller served as a White House correspondent before moving to the West Coast to work in several positions for the magazine. From June 1993-95, he was an entertainment and news correspondent in Los Angeles and covered the murder charges against O.J. Simpson. Miller's coverage of the case was repeatedly cited in other media for revealing new information about both the murders themselves and the strategies of the prosecution and the defense.
Miller was also Newsweek's Los Angeles bureau chief from 1996-1997 where he reported on a variety of news and entertainment topics, including the JonBenet Ramsey murder case. He then spent a year at ABCNEWS/Primetime Live as senior story editor, developing and assigning stories and running the show's booking department. He returned to Newsweek as a senior editor and was West Coast editor from June 1999 until November 2000.
Before joining Newsweek, Miller reported for the metro desk of The Dallas Morning News from 1983 to 1985. A 1985 graduate of Southern Methodist University, Miller holds a B.A. in history and a B.F.A. in journalism. He was born in San Antonio.
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