Wed, May 23, 2007 6:52pm EST

Limbaugh lashed out at Media Matters and NBC, having declined invitation from Today to respond
On the May 22 edition of his nationally syndicated radio show, in response to segments on the May 21 editions of NBC's Today and MSNBC's Scarborough Country highlighting his "Barack, the Magic Negro" parody, Rush Limbaugh claimed: "Now, here's what gets me about this. This whole thing came from this website called Media Matters for America. And the drive-by media, NBC, Dan Abrams, the Today show people, everybody, CNN, they rely on this religiously to find out, quote-unquote 'find out,' what happens on this program." Limbaugh continued: "They don't listen to this program. Dan Abrams didn't listen to this program about any -- he doesn't know what happened here. His source is Media Matters for America and maybe a couple of newspaper columns."

Limbaugh then attacked Media Matters Senior Fellow Paul Waldman, who appeared on the Today and Scarborough segments: "The hack is presented as an expert. The Media Matters guy is an all-knowing expert. Nobody's ever heard of him; he's never accomplished anything. He's just a hack working for a front group for the Democrat [sic] Party, and they know this, yet they continue to do this." He asserted: "They know, Dan Abrams knows, and so does everybody else at NBC and CNN, that Media Matters is a [Sen.] Hillary Clinton [D-NY], George Soros, DNC front group." As noted repeatedly, Media Matters -- which is not affiliated with any political party or candidate -- has never received funding from Soros, either directly or indirectly. Limbaugh also falsely claimed that Waldman characterized him as him as a "pig" in his comments on Scarborough Country about the song parody. In fact, Waldman made no such comments about Limbaugh.

Additionally, Limbaugh maintained: "It underscores completely their dishonesty. They were not interested in our take on this, and our take is the take. I mean, we are the record on this. I am the record on the whole 'Barack, the Magic Negro' parody." In fact, as Limbaugh himself acknowledged on the May 18 edition of his program, he declined an interview with NBC to give his "take" on the subject, asserting: "They're [NBC] a leading news organization of the world, and of course their call was to invite me to appear on the Today show, and there is no way. I don't do that, especially under these circumstances." During Today's report, NBC correspondent Michael Okwu told viewers that "Limbaugh declined an interview."

As Media Matters has documented, Limbaugh's "Barack, the Magic Negro" parody first aired during the March 19 broadcast of his radio show. Limbaugh highlighted a March 19 Los Angeles Times op-ed that described Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) as "running for an equally important unelected office, in the province of the popular imagination -- the 'Magic Negro,' " a term used to describe certain benevolent African-American characters in movies and other popular culture.

On his May 21 show, Limbaugh said that the song is "not even a hit piece on Obama" and accused Today of misrepresenting the song: "There's no other way this could happen. This -- and they don't even understand the point of the parody 'Barack, the Magic Negro.' It's a piece on Al Sharpton. It's not even a hit piece on Obama." Limbaugh later referred to Obama as the "Magic Negro" in the context of criticizing a May 21 article about Obama's marriage published on Salon.com by Debra Dickerson -- whom Limbaugh referred to as a "feminazi" -- stating, "All right, you've got another liberal here taking out after the Magic Negro. Do you hear this? This guy's nothing more than a doormat. She -- that's truly bitter. These are angry women. I'm telling you, these militant feminazis are angry."

Media Matters for America has documented Limbaugh's history of racially charged insults and parodies, which include:

Limbaugh
http://mediamatters.org/items/200705230007?f=h_topic