"I'm Buster Brown,
I live in a shoe.
That's my dog, Tige,
she lives there too!"
"Plunk your Magic Twanger, Froggie!"
"Hiya, Kids, Hiya, Hiya"
"I'll be good, I will, I will."
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Posted on 05/22/2007 1:45:44 AM PDT by Baladas
CHICAGO -- When former talk radio host Don Imus recently made racist remarks about the Rutgers women's basketball team on his radio show, he lost his job.
Now, some are wondering if radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh has also gone too far, NBC5 reported on Monday.
Weeks before Imus controversy, Limbaugh began airing a song about Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, who is running for the Democratic nomination for president. The song, a parody of the folk song "Puff The Magic Dragon," contains the line, "Barack, The Magic Negro." Some have begun to wonder if Limbaugh has been getting a free pass.
"It's insulting," said Michael Harrison, publishers of Talkers Magazine. "It's in bad taste, but it's legitimate political satire."
The voice on the song is a white political satirist imitating civil rights activist Rev. Al Sharpton.
"This is basically the radio equivalent of a black face minstrel show," said Paul Waldman of Media Matters for America. "You know, going back to 'Amos and Andy' and all of those kinds of racist shows."
Media watchdogs said there was no hue and cry to stop Limbaugh because he speaks to a niche audience who either expects this or was willing to let him slide, and that his target in this case is a public figure, not a college women's basketball team.
Obama said he doesn't listen to Limbaugh, but said being targeted is part of being a politician. In his broadcasts, Limbaugh suggest that the song is a parody based on a newspaper column about Obama written by journalist David Ehrenstein.
"The 'magic negro,'" was chiefly a term used when talking about films, in which you'd have black characters who would suddenly come out of nowhere and come to the rescue of white characters," Ehrenstein said. "I was just simply trying to get a conversation going. How it's gone is another question."
Waldman said Limbaugh has no excuse.
Let’s see, Rush makes a parody using liberal words and it is insulting? Who is really at fault?
The "free pass" phrase rang a bell.
They know perfectly well what is the point and origin of the parody. It suits their purposes much better to pretend otherwise in the hope that their dwindling audiences will swallow their lies and give impetus to their intention to have Rush Imused. If this doesn't work (it won't), they will try something else, as usual.
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