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Larry King: “What are you here to tell us tonight?”
Dr. Laura: “Well I am here to say that my contract is up for my radio show at the end of the year and I have made the decision not to do radio anymore. The reason is -- I want to regain my First Amendment rights.” (CNN)

Radio host Dr. Laura Schlessinger  is calling it quits following controversy surrounding her recent for use of the N-word in a live broadcast.

We’re analyzing perspectives from NPR, CNN, Twitter, The Washington Post, and Comedy Central.

Schlessinger announced she will move her work to the Internet to get back her First Amendment rights. But a writer for NPR says Dr. Laura never lost her constitutional rights, she just lost her sponsorships.

“General Motors and Motel 6 both reportedly pulled their sponsorship over the flap ... But whether that's the right thing to do or the wrong thing to do, it doesn't implicate the government; it implicates the profit motive... Because the ‘free’ in that concept means ‘free from government interference,’ not ‘free from consequences.’”

On CNN Reverend Al Sharpton says he agrees Schlessinger has her right to free speech, but says she now has to suffer the consequences.

“She should not have her right to say something or have her right to free speech impeded, but neither should people that are offended. The other thing, she shouldn’t rewrite history. She said she apologized before she was told. You just played where the caller told her she was offended, she chastised the caller, said I’ll say it again and repeated it. She did not apologize until the next day after there was already an uproar. If she wants to retire that’s up to her. If I were her I would not want to leave with this legacy but that would be her choice.”

The issue has even attracted the attention of former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, who tweeted, “Dr. Laura: don’t retreat, reload!”

And in an article for The Washington Post, one writer agrees saying, she doesn’t think Dr. Laura deserved all the backlash.

“Dr. Laura did not use the N-word to describe a particular person or as a smear against African Americans. She used the word matter-of-factly in describing – accurately, by the way – how often the word is used by African American comedians.”

On The Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert jokingly takes Schlessinger’s side, and defends her constitutional rights.

“Good for you Laura. The First Amendment guarantees all Americans the right to say what we want on the air no matter how offensive, without having our sponsors drop us like the clothes off Laura Schlessinger in the late 1970’s. So tonight in solidarity with Dr. Laura I would like to say this. Belgians are a filthy, thieving people. Drink Bud-Light.”

So what do you think? Should Dr. Laura have quit her show? Were her First Amendment rights violated?