Howard Stern, Rush Limbaugh, Radar Magazine

FALLING FLAT

Stern's Rush Rip Ignored, RADAR's Cheap Shot






*** UPDATE BELOW ***

Five or ten years ago, wouldn't it have been a whole different story?

Back then, a tirade by Howard Stern against just about any celebrity could have generated headlines across the country, especially one with talk titan Rush Limbaugh as the target.

Now, however, Stern's attempt at knocking down Rush has fallen flat, as evidenced by this generally- ignored RADAR Online item:

Howard Stern Blasts Bloated Rush


Shock jock Howard Stern weighed in on racism and conservative mouthpiece Rush Limbaugh at last night's Tribeca Film Festival premiere of The Hammer.

Asked what he thought of Limbaugh's "Barack the Magic Negro skit," Stern replied, "I heard it. He's guilty of not being funny, as usual. I don't mind race humor, or people talking about racial stuff, [but] it was just lame. He's lame." He went on to remark that even though Limbaugh "got thin, he still looks fat. He's an OxyCotin-head, and he can't even come clean about that. The guy's got issues."

Actually, Stern's slam fell so flat that it wouldn't rate a mention here at all, except for one reason: it's part of a larger campaign by RADAR against Limbaugh.

Disguised as a gossip magazine, RADAR has long had a far- left agenda and tends to utilize a sloppy approach to the facts. In fact, your Radio Equalizer can think of no better example than their dishonest recent attempt to stir up Imus- style outrage over one of El Rushbo's song parodies:

Limbaugh Guest Makes Imus Look Tame


IMUS WOULD BE PROUD Limbaugh, targets Obama and Sharpton

Forget that Imus guy. Before he was slinging his wannabe hipster, racially insensitive lingo, one of Rush Limbaugh's sidekicks sang the words "Barack the Magic Negro" to the tune of "Puff the Magic Dragon." Listen here.

The song is performed by white comedian Paul Shanklin mimicking Rev. Al Sharpton in a bad "black" voice, and it's based on an LA Times article that explains how the "Magic Negro" was a figure in lore who cropped up during the Brown vs. Board of Education era.

Rev. Sharpton, got room for another guest this week?

What's particularly infuriating here is while it (sort of) admits the "Magic Negro" tag was actually applied to Obama by a Los Angeles Times columnist, it blames Rush anyway!

Yet anyone who actually heard Rush's show would know he was pointing to the irony of a liberal daily newspaper dismissing Obama in such a blunt manner.

From the original LA Times piece:

Obama the 'Magic Negro'

The Illinois senator lends himself to white America's idealized, less- than- real black man.

By David Ehrenstein

March 19, 2007

AS EVERY CARBON-BASED life form on this planet surely knows, Barack Obama, the junior Democratic senator from Illinois, is running for president. Since making his announcement, there has been no end of commentary about him in all quarters — musing over his charisma and the prospect he offers of being the first African American to be elected to the White House.

But it's clear that Obama also is running for an equally important unelected office, in the province of the popular imagination — the "Magic Negro."

The Magic Negro is a figure of postmodern folk culture, coined by snarky 20th century sociologists, to explain a cultural figure who emerged in the wake of Brown vs. Board of Education. "He has no past, he simply appears one day to help the white protagonist," reads the description on Wikipedia.

He's there to assuage white "guilt" (i.e., the minimal discomfort they feel) over the role of slavery and racial segregation in American history, while replacing stereotypes of a dangerous, highly sexualized black man with a benign figure for whom interracial sexual congress holds no interest.

While the writer does have a point (the political careers of Obama, as well as new Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, are both largely the products of white guilt), it was an incendiary column from a supposedly "progressive" publication.

To blame Limbaugh for merely spoofing this piece, however, reveals RADAR's extreme partisan agenda. Luckily for Rush, it's going to take a lot more than this to bring him down.


UPDATE: In a rare case of independent thought at the Huffington Post, columnist Earl Ofari Hutchinson is backing Limbaugh!


ELSEWHERE: New at SaveWRKO, it's Howie's sardine can Saturday show!


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