When I started at ESPN I ran into him out at a golf tournament in Las Vegas and he welcomed me to the network and so forth. I’m just mystified that somebody with that kind of brain would believe anything like this, and even if they don’t believe it they obviously wish to be harmful and damaging, which, folks, you have to understand, I expect it. I mean 21 years the enemies’ media monopoly has been destroyed by who? Me and those whose careers started after I started this one. They ought to hate my guts. The point is, when I talk about them, I tell the truth. I watch ’em, I listen to them, I report what they say and I tell them why they’re wrong, and I play their own words. They have to go somewhere to find concocted quotes which are now bordering on slander, libel, whatever it is, that I never said, and they believe it, and even if they don’t they use it on purpose.As I say, in the case of some of these people it’s disappointing, because they are better than the things they are saying, writing and doing. Some of them are not better and some of them it’s totally predictable. So one of the things that is going around out there is that black NFL players will boycott playing the game if I am an owner in the league, which of course is patently absurd. But this is being reported and it’s designed to affect the outcome of all of this, which, again, I can’t address. But Stephen A. Smith did. Stephen A. Smith, a black journalist and may still be a columnist for one of the Philadelphia papers, and really reamed me over the McNabb incident when it happened because he knew I was talking about the media there, not McNabb, but Stephen A. Smith, who then got a job at ESPN and is no longer there, he was on CNN’s Your Money I think yesterday afternoon — it says here yesterday on the sound bite roster — and the host, Christine Romans, said, ‘Limbaugh may be part-owner of a football team. Some black NFL players say if he’s the owner, they won’t play. What’s this all about?’SMITH: Absolutely. If he has the money, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with it, and those black ballplayers that are saying that, I’m here on national television telling you they’re lying through their stinking teeth. This is a bunch —
ROMANS: Aren’t they making a moral stand?
SMITH: Please. Their moral standard is great. Oh, I’m an athlete, and Rush Limbaugh happens to be the owner of the St. Louis Rams, so the New York Jets offer me $10 million, but Rush Limbaugh is offering me $20 million, I’m going to have a problem with it?
ROMANS: But what about McNabb? But what about McNabb?
RUSH: What about McNabb? What about McNabb? What about McNabb? What about McNabb?
SMITH: Please, they’re lying. Wasting my time.
ROMANS: Well, what about Donovan McNabb? Wasn’t there a comment on ESPN?
SMITH: The media is desirous that a black quarterback do well. Yeah, it caused a lot of controversy. I thought that Rush Limbaugh should have been, you know, criticized for that, which he was, and unceremoniously fired by ESPN. But the reality is that that does not mean that he should not own an NFL team. If he has the dollars, he should be allowed to do it. He’s definitely an NFL fan. I’ve listened to him talk about football. It’s not like he’s ignorant to the game of football. The man knows football. He’s a Pittsburgh Steelers fan. Oh, you’re going to pass up money because, oh, my God, I’m offended by Rush Limbaugh being the owner? Who are you fooling? They’re liars.
RUSH: That’s Stephen A. Smith on CNN’s Your Money with Christine Romans. Do you realize — you all know who the Hutch is, former player, Dallas Cowboys, Seattle Seahawks — the Hutch is on this show many times a year and we talk about football and life, he’s a preacher. He’s black. All of this, as you well know, is just patently absurd. The disappointing thing is that people who could just turn on the radio and listen to this program and find out what they want to know somehow can’t do that, like Stephen A. Smith has.
Quick time-out. Back after this. Don’t go away.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: St. Louis Rams, St. Louis Rams, St. Louis Rams, I’m a longtime football fan, they were the Los Angeles Rams, before that the Minnesota Rams, that’s why the Lakers are called — well, no, no, the Lakers were the Minnesota Lakers, basketball team. Anyway, St. Louis Rams, a verbal dyslexia there, ladies and gentlemen.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Dawn said to me during the break here, ‘You didn’t deny what they’re saying you said about slavery!’ I’m not going to dignify it by denying it. Deny it? It’s an outrageous slander, which I did say. People saying I made jokes about the good points, whatever, the finer points of slavery. So to set the record… No, not to set it straight. To confirm the record, I don’t know how many times on this program I have gotten into arguments over the last 21 years with people when I have asserted that the Civil War primarily was about slavery. People have called me, ‘No, it wasn’t! It was about states’ rights. It was about this,’ and I said, ‘Don’t be silly. Abraham Lincoln knew what the union could not survive in one man was allowed to own another. I have uttered those words, quoting Lincoln favorably, too many times to count.
Slavery — indentured servitude, whatever you want to call it — is abominable, particularly in a free country. I’ve had people call this program and say, ‘Well, the Founding Fathers, I mean they were slave owners! Three-fifths of a person for blacks.’ Yeah, it’s a sad shame. It’s an absolute sad shame but I’ve given people the history. At the time there were 13 colonies. Getting them to all agree to rebel against the king and to declare independence, there were compromises necessary for that unity. Then when the Founders wrote the Constitution, they put the prescription in the Constitution for ending slavery, in the amendments — and in our founding document, the Declaration of Independence, ‘All men are created equal, endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among them life, liberty, pursuit of happiness.’ How many times I’ve quoted that, I can’t remember.
If I had said what they say I said, I would be gone. There would be nobody around. Snerdley would have resigned on the spot, even if I was trying to be funny. I’ve endeavored to go a little deeper into it, though, and explain how slavery has led us into some of the acrimony that we still have today in that there are some people who won’t forget it, who are still trying to capitalize on it and portray this country as though it is still in many ways no different than it was, and I have argued with those people vehemently. I’ve had people say to me, ‘I think you’ve got a blind spot. You don’t know what it’s like to have a heritage that black people in the country have.’ Oh, I most certainly do not have a blind spot and I most certainly do understand it.
I understand that all human beings have obstacles. We all have to overcome them. There’s no better place to overcome those obstacles than the United States of America. The freest country and the freest people on earth, and what really saddens me and disappoints me to this day is that there are people who are not inspired and taught about how great they can be because they are Americans. Frankly, the biggest problem I face in the current climate of political correctness is that I’m colorblind about it. I don’t say politically correct things about it. For example in the Today Show interview, Jamie Gangel asked, ‘Weren’t you moved by the election of the first black president?’ Yeah, I was. Great historical fact. But I got over it pretty quickly because I don’t see him as black. I see him as president of the United States and I’m more concerned about his policies.
I love this country. I want everyone in this country to succeed. I want everyone in this country to pursue happiness. I want everyone to benefit, as an American, as I have. I stand in no one’s way! I am not the one putting obstacles in people’s way. I’m the one trying to sweep them away. And in so doing I don’t speak politically correct language — and, as such, I’m accused of being insensitive. I guess my problem is I treat people as adults. I treat them as informed. I treat them as educated and I treat them as equals. I don’t condescend to people, and I don’t run around feeling sorry for people because that doesn’t help them. After you feel sorry for somebody then what do you do? It’s all up to us to make the most of the one life we are blessed to be given by God, and I cringe when I see so many lives not reaching anywhere near their potential because others capitalize on their failure to do so.
And that happens just only with racial issues, it happens with all minorities. We have assumed that we’re an unjust and unfair country, that all of the minorities (for whatever reasons they’re minorities) are victims of an unfair, unjust, immoral America. And there are white people that buy into that stuff, too, because they don’t want to run around feeling guilty and they don’t want to run around with people thinking that they are racists. It’s all political correctness that has lead people thinking this. So when I, for example, say, ‘I think the media has a little interest in a black quarterback doing well,’ I mean it! Most of the sports media is politically correct, and that kind of surface stuff matters to them. I’m interested in people’s hearts and their souls because that’s what animates us as human being, not our skin color.
I’m colorblind. I have reached the point where everybody professes we need to go. I treat everybody equally. In the political arena, I don’t care. Male, female, black, white, gay, straight, bisexual, if you are opposed to the things I think are great for the country, I’m going to say so. I’m going to criticize you. Not because of whatever it is distinguishes you from me on a surface basis, but because of ideas. I’m just a lone guy here in the arena of ideas, sharing mine. I don’t have the ability or power to force ’em on anybody. Yet there are those throughout our society and culture who are trying to force their views — whether they be militant vegetarians or environmentalist nutcases or what have you — on all of us. And too few people, frankly, have the guts to stand up and say, ‘Screw you! Live your life and I’ll live mine. As long as we do so within the bounds of the law, it’s none of your business what I’m doing.’
I don’t make it my business what other people are doing, certainly not to the point that I want to censor what they say or become an obstacle to what they can accomplish because I want everybody to succeed. That’s what, frankly, broke my heart about these two sound bites, the situation in Detroit in Cobo Hall last week. ‘Well, what about these parodies? You make fun of people.’ Hey, we’re always up fronts and honest about those. All you have to do is listen here to understand them. There’s nobody that listens to this radio program that thinks that those things are horrible. It’s only the people who hear about it out of context. It’s like Ms. Gangel in the interview. I doubt that this will make the cut, but I understand she played some of ‘Barack the ‘Magic Negro” and ‘Banking Queen’ in the interview today. And she asked me the obligatory question: ‘Don’t you think that’s a little harsh?’
I said, ‘Would you ask Saturday Night Live these questions? Would you ask Saturday Night Live these…?’
I said, ‘Barack the ‘Magic Negro,’ do you know where it came from?’
She said, ‘No.’ I said, ‘You really don’t? You don’t know where it came from?’
‘No.’
‘Well, a black columnist for the Los Angeles Times wrote a piece, and the headline was ‘Obama the ‘Magic Negro,” and I explained it to her. ‘It’s all about white people voting for the ‘Magic Negro’ not because of what he believes, but it’s a way for them to assuage their guilt,’ and I told her what amazed me was all of the racism that was going on in the Democrat primary. I can’t count the number of pieces written from Chicago to Los Angeles to New York about how Obama was not ‘authentic’ because he didn’t come from the civil rights struggle, that he wasn’t ‘down for the struggle.’ They’re the ones who question his authenticity and, meanwhile, I’m trying to figure out: What is this guy going to do as president? They’re all worried about these social things. They’re all worried about these surface things.
‘Is Obama authentic? Is he down for the struggle?’ It wasn’t I who said of Obama, ‘It’s great we finally got a clean, articulate black guy in our party.’ That was Joe Biden, the current vice president, who is a Democrat. It wasn’t I who said that. While all that’s going on, I love to laugh at liberals. I love to make fun of them and throw their own words right back at them in a parody, and the reason we chose Sharpton to sing it is because he was upset when Biden said that Obama was ‘finally a clean, articulate black guy’ that came along in the Democrat Party and Sharpton was withholding his endorsement. So we had Sharpton sing the song, and the lyrics of the song explain where the song came from! Yet somehow I became the author of the term, which I had never heard of until this piece in the LA Times. (interruption)
(laughing) You think so? I’ll tell you what. All right. The staff is suggesting I play the song, ‘Barack the ‘Magic Negro.” So grab the song. It’s ready now. And you know what I’m not going to do? I could tease you. I could say, ‘Oops, I gotta go to a commercial time-out,’ a time-honored broadcast technique to hold you through the time-out. And I must tell you that local programmers around the country are saying, ‘Do it, Rush! Do it, Rush! Do it, Rush, for the quarter hour.’ Nope. I’m not teasing you. Here’s the song. I want you to listen to the lyrics and I want you to remember… The lyrics explain the whole thing. This is simply great satire. This is huge comedy. If we’ve gotten to the point where we can’t poke fun at people who seek power over all of us, regardless their skin color, then we have reached a dangerous point.
Jamie Gangel said, ‘Well, you’re so controversial, so outrageous!’ I’m not controversial. Everybody that listens to me agrees with me. I said, ‘You know why you think I’m controversial, is because I say things everybody thinks but doesn’t have the guts to say.’ Political correctness is like a vise grips around our throats. So here’s the song. This is the song that everybody thinks (aside from you people) I somehow wrote, invented, created, the term and all that. Listen to the lyrics, and it’s all in the song. (song starts) Oh, and they’re really bugged that we use their favorite liberal singers Peter, Paul and Mary and their favorite marijuana song ‘Puff the Magic Dragon’ as the parody melody.
AL SHARPTON IMPRESSIONIST: Barack ‘the Magic Negro’ lives in DC. The LA Times, they called him that ‘Cause he’s not authentic like me. Yeah, the guy from the LA paper said he makes guilty whites feel good. They’ll vote for him, and not for me ’cause he’s not from the ‘hood. See, real black men like Snoop Dogg or me or Farrakhan, have talked the talk, and walked the walk. Not come in late and won! (refrain) Oh, Barack ‘the Magic Negro’ lives in DC. The LA Times, they called him that ’cause he’s black, but not authentically. (repeat refrain) Some say Barack’s ‘articulate,’ and bright and new and ‘clean.’ The media sure love this guy, a white interloper’s dream! But, when you vote for president, watch out, and don’t be fooled! Don’t vote ‘the Magic Negro’ in ’cause… (music stops) ’cause I won’t have nothing after all these years of sacrifice! I won’t get justice! This is about justice! This ain’t about me, it’s about justice. It’s about, ummm… (garbled with back-up singers) There won’t be any church contributions! No cash in the collection plate. There ain’t gonna be no cash money, no walkin’ around money. (garbled with back-up singers) Barack is gonna come in here and say that he’s authentic, that he’s gonna be in the street in the struggle with the rest of us, down here where all of us struggle! (music fades out) This is crazy! I’m not gonna have nothing.
RUSH: Reverend Sharpton and the ‘Barack the ‘Magic Negro.” The funny thing about that is, too, that he gets so mad singing the song he leaves the lyric line and starts protesting. We put Reverend Sharpton through the bullhorn because that’s how he came to be known leading protest marches. I mean, it’s a brilliant, brilliant satirical treatment. He goes off and then the chorus starts trying to drown him out, trying to cover for the fact that he’s blown the lyric line. Oh! It’s probably all-time top favorite song and the ‘Banking Queen,’ Barney Frank is in the top five. We’ll play that next.
But I just want to say one more thing about this country and one of the things I’ve said repeatedly and constantly. This has nothing to do with the National Football League. It has nothing to do with the St. Louis Rams. It has nothing to do with anything other than a bunch of slanderous, jealous, incompetent sportswriters. One of the things that I am proudest of this country is that we are the country that went to war with ourselves to end slavery: 500,000 Americans, our most costliest war ever, to end slavery. There is nobody I know who wishes to revive it, who defends it. I don’t know anybody, and I mean of 280, 300 million people in this country, I don’t know anybody who wants to return to those days.
Back with the ‘Banking Queen’ in a second.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: As promised, ladies and gentlemen, and remember, every one of these parodies are based on words these people always say. Barney Frank, architect of the subprime mortgage crisis himself, along with Chris Dodd, he’s the ‘Banking Queen.’
(playing of ‘Banking Queen’)
RUSH: And yet another brilliantly conceived, flawlessly written, executed and performed parody here on the Rush Limbaugh program. That’s white comedian Paul Shanklin, by the way, on both parodies. Why say that? Because once when trashing this program they pointed out that the voice interpreter here is white. Okay, fine, he’s white, white comedian Paul Shanklin.