As others said - "shock jock"? Well at least they got "the leading" part right
Limbaugh, whose rightwing talk show is one of the most listened to in the US, has been running a song called Barack the Magic Negro, to the tune Puff the Magic Dragon.
So "leading" has been, within the following paragraph, reduced to "one of the most listened to..."
On his show Limbaugh says he is an entertainer and the song is a parody. He justifies it by saying the first linkage of the term "magic negro" to Mr Obama was by a black commentator, David Ehrenstein, in the liberal Los Angeles Times.
At least the writer mentioned Ehrenstein's comment. How about Big Al?
Limbaugh says liberals upset about the term should be aware that "magic negro" is a historical cultural term, a reference to benevolent African-Americans portrayed in old films.
Any article that is focused on the utterences of a talk radio host surely would have plenty of actual quotes to use as fodder. Guess not.
Another of the shock jocks, Don Imus, was sacked last month after racially and sexually demeaning remarks about a university women's basketball team.
Imus was a talk show shock jock. A shock jock guns for the outrageous just to shake the boat. Rush guns for the truth that in turn shakes the boat.
Mr Obama's campaign team described the song as dumb. Mr Obama, who could become the first black president, said he had not heard the song but had heard about it. He played down the row, saying that he did not take himself so seriously that he became offended by every comment made about him.
What Obama wanted to say was that every 10,000th negative comment offends him.
Karl Frisch, a spokesman for Media Matters, a US monitoring group, said today he did not see a difference between Limbaugh and Imus, and accused Limbaugh of inflaming his audience. He described the song as being consistent with previous comments by Limbaugh, such as referring to Mr Obama as "Halfrican American".
I wonder if Media Matters tilts towards the left? And "Halfrican American" is a ancestral fact.
Mr Frisch said the song was first aired in March and there had been a lot of internet traffic. The mainstream US media had been slow to respond but papers such as the Chicago Tribune were now beginning to take notice. He said the slow response was partly because the media saw Limbaugh as being on the fringes. "I take him seriously because he has a large audience," Mr Frisch said, adding that figures such as the vice-president, Dick Cheney, had been guests on the show.
"On the fringes" is a 2-for-1 deal - explain the late outrage/new smear campaign while implying that Rush and Dick Cheney are on the fringe. Righto. Next!
Mr Obama was last week given secret service protection after threats appeared on white supremacist websites.
Note to Republican candidates - egg racial seperatists to rage and the obligatory threats - physical and racial - and then you will be guaranteed secret service protection - NOT!
The CBS News website this week took the unusual step of blocking all readers' comments on its stories about Mr Obama. Mike Sims, the director of the website, said CBS could not collectively delete the ugly remarks because of their "volume and persistence". A CBS spokeswoman said today the block is intended to be temporary.
Look for this "blocking" to become semi-temporary and eventually permanent.
Media Matters definitely tilts left. They are a Soros funded group. “Exposing conservative misinformation” is their “mission statement”.