Limbaugh playing song satirizing Obama with little outcry

Don Imus lost his job over derogatory comments he made about the Rutger's women's basketball team. He apologized to the team.

But weeks before his comments, another radio show host was airing a little song about presidential candidate, Senator Barack Obama.

The ditty goes a like this, "Barack the magic negro, lives in DC."

The voice is that of a white political satirist who is imitating the Rev. Al Sharpton as he goes on to say, "'cause he's not authentic like me."

Paul Waldman of Media Matters for America says Limbaugh has gotten a pass, "This is basically the radio equivalent of a black face minstrel show. You know going back to Amos and Andy and all of those kinds of racist shows."

For his part Obama says he doesn't listen to Limbaugh but says being targeted is part of being a politician.

Michael Harrison is the publisher of Talkers Magazine and he says Limbaugh's creation is legitimate,"It's insulting. It's in bad taste but it's legitimate political satire."

Limbaugh declined NBC's request for an interview about the song, but in his broadcasts suggests the song is simply a parody based on a newspaper column about Obama written by journalist David Ehrenstein.

David Ehrenstein says the words were from old film days, "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. I was simply trying to get a conversation going. How it's gone is another question."

Paul Waldman says Limbaugh has no excuse.

"He is trying to get himself off the hook by saying oh it was somebody else who did it."

Media watchdogs say there's no hue and cry to stop Limbaugh because he speaks to a niche audience who either expects this or is willing to let him slide and that his target in this case is a public figure, a presidential candidate, not a college women's basketball team.

Michael Okwu, NBC News

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