12:43 a.m. | Updated Dr. Laura Schlessinger, the conservative talk radio commentator under fire for repeatedly using a racial epithet, announced on Tuesday that she was ending her long-running radio show.
Dr. Schlessinger made the announcement on Tuesday night on "Larry King Live," saying she made a decision not to renew her contract when it expires at the end of the year and suggesting that she did not want her opinions and language, however provocative, to be muzzled.
"I want to regain my First Amendment rights," she said. "I want to be able to say what's on my mind and in my heart and what I think is helpful and useful without somebody getting angry, some special interest group deciding this is the time to silence a voice of dissent and attack affiliates, attack sponsors. I'm sort of done with that."
But she stressed that she was not retiring, only ending her show, and would continue to write books and appear at speaking engagements.
"I'm not quitting," she told Larry King. "I feel energized actually -- stronger and freer to say the things that I believe need to be said for people in this country."
Click here to continue reading.



