Besieged Dr. Laura claims radio ratings boost

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - Dr. Laura Schlessinger, who lost her television talk show over outspoken commentaries that cost her viewers and outraged gays, said on Wednesday her radio listening audience has grown 15 percent in the latest ratings period.

``Even with the brouhaha, my audience is up 15 percent in the last ratings period, thank you,'' she said in a speech to the National Religious Broadcasters. She said her listening audience is about 18 million people in the United States.

Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Domestic Television unit pulled the plug on her low-rated television show after one season amid protests and a campaign by critics to drive her off the air because of her radio comments referring to homosexuality as ``deviant'' and ``a biological error.''

More than 90 sponsors eventually dropped ads during her show following a vigorous campaign by gay and lesbian groups.

During the controversy, Schlessinger denied being anti-gay or intending to foment intolerance, saying her remarks ``were used in a clinical context'' that were not meant to disparage gays and lesbians.

``I talk about the Ten Commandments every day, the importance of raising children in a religious faith, the necessity of children having a married mom and dad,'' she said on Wednesday.

She called on the friendly audience of religious radio and television broadcasters to unite together to beat the drum for their beliefs and push online search engines like Yahoo Inc. to wall off sexually explicit materials.

``All online search engines must take, in my opinion and Yahoo should lead the way, to ghettoizing the sex and pornography in their databases of Web sites,'' she said. ``Have a red-light decorated, firewall district.''

Yahoo earlier this month reversed course in the face of a barrage of customer criticism pledging to remove all pornography from its shopping and auction channels and reject requests for related advertising.

Yahoo, which triggered the criticism by at first defending its expanded sale of pornography, said the changes would be carried out over the next few weeks for its flagship U.S. site, although porn could still be for sale on Yahoo portals in other parts of the world.

``I believe with our strength in numbers, our shared vision and smart strategy, we could take that on, we could make that happen,'' Schlessinger said.

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