http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_5934072Dr. Laura son linked to lurid Web page
Site contained violent, sex-oriented images one official called 'repulsive'
By Matthew D. LaPlante
The Salt Lake Tribune
Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated:05/23/2007 01:15:21 PM MDT
The soldier son of talk radio relationship counselor Laura Schlessinger is under investigation for a graphic personal Web page that one Army official has called "repulsive."
The MySpace page, publicly available until Friday when it disappeared from the Internet, included cartoon depictions of rape, murder, torture and child molestation; photographs of soldiers with guns in their mouths; a photograph of a bound and blindfolded detainee captioned "My Sweet Little Habib"; accounts of illicit drug use; and a blog entry headlined by a series of obscenities and racial epithets.
The site is credited to and includes many photographs of Deryk Schlessinger, the 21-year-old son of the talk radio personality known simply as Dr. Laura. Broadcast locally on 570 KNRS, "Family Values Talk Radio," the former family counselor spends three hours daily taking calls and offering advice on morals, ethics and values. She broadcast a show from Fort Douglas, in Salt Lake City, last week.
Military leaders have long grappled with how to balance positive publicity and operational security with technological opportunities for troops to tell their personal stories.
http://independent.com/news/2007/aug/31/military-investigation-dr-lauras-son-complete/Military Investigation of Dr. Laura’s Son Complete
Deryk Schlessinger Still Serving in Afghanistan
By Matt Kettmann
Friday, August 31, 2007
Did Deryk Schlessinger — the soldier son of syndicated talk show host Dr. Laura who’s currently serving in Afghanistan — post images of rape, murder, torture, and child molestation on his MySpace page?
The official answer to that question is an unequivocal “maybe” — the Army will only confirm that the investigation is complete, but will not discuss whether Schlessinger was at fault or whether he was reprimanded. All that Lt. Col. David Accetta, the Army’s spokesman in Afghanistan, could offer via email from his post in Bagram was, “The investigation is complete and the unit commander took appropriate action based on the results. Any disciplinary action taken is not publicly releasable nor are the specific allegations or investigation results.” Accetta said he could not discuss more because he was obligated to protect Schlessinger’s privacy.
It seems the final chapter has an open ending in the Deryk Schlessinger saga, which began last May when Salt Lake Tribune reporter Matthew LaPlante discovered that the son of Santa Barbara resident Laura Schlessinger, a.k.a. Dr. Laura, was the subject of a military investigation. Tipped off by a former schoolmate of the soldier’s, LaPlante reported that Deryk Schlessinger’s MySpace page was awash in objectionable material, from the aforementioned images to written entries such as “I LOVE MY JOB, it takes everything reckless and deviant and heathenistic and just overall bad about me and hyper focuses these traits into my job of running around this horrid place doing nasty things to people that deserve it . . . and some that don't.”