Sacramento Area Local News

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) ― It only took a few words from the CBS13.com morning show cast to bring heated criticism from nationally syndicated radio host Rush Limbaugh. What brought it on? A question posed about a parody song that had been on the Rush Limbaugh show for the past month and a half.

The song "Barack the Magic Negro" was produced for the Rush Limbaugh show by songwriter Paul Shanklin. Limbaugh, according to the website Wikipedia, had referred to Obama many times as "Obama the 'Magic Negro'", each time prefacing the comment by saying title with regard to Obama originated in an L.A. Times opinion article by freelance writer David Ehrenstein. Before today's show, Chris Burrous, CBS13 anchor, says he read an article in a newspaper about a group who found Obama's song racist. After he read the article, he says he immediately went to his computer to listen to the song, but says he hesitated and felt like he should turn down the song because of a black co-worker nearby. This prompted him to pose the question to viewers of whether viewers thought it was racist. He asked the question on air and also posted a poll on the website asking the same thing. Hours later, the poll was the focus of Rush Limbaugh's show.

"KOVR must have just heard about 'Barack the Magic Negro'," Limbaugh said during his show, adding that the song had been aired for months, without any listeners getting upset.
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Poll On Song About Barack Obama Incites Uproar From Limbaugh Fans
Rush Listeners Flood CBS13.com With E-mails About Poll Question
Is Rush Limbaugh's "Barack The Magic Negro" Song Racist? Part 1
Is Rush Limbaugh's "Barack The Magic Negro" Song Racist? Part 2
Is Rush Limbaugh's "Barack The Magic Negro" Song Racist? Part 3
Is Rush Limbaugh's "Barack The Magic Negro" Song Racist? Part 4
Is Rush Limbaugh's "Barack The Magic Negro" Song Racist? Part 5
 LA Times Editorial: Obama The 'Magic Negro'
Other Paul Shanklin parodies
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"The learned journalist community is moronic and they are ignorant and we are doing our best here to bring them up to speed on this," said Rush.

During the noon CBS13 news program, Burrous and Gonzales were asked why they decided to ask the online poll question and what they thought Limbaugh's comments.

"We would be members of the 'liberal drive-by media' as he has said today, and often says, if we didn't ask the question," said Chris Burrous. "We like the new show on CBS13 in the morning from 5 to 7 a.m. We do news stories and we ask people to call in and e-mail in their thoughts. We don't edit the thoughts. We put them right out on the air and I don't care which way the poll turns out. It's giving viewers a voice and an opportunity to say what ever they want to say about it. I wouldn't care if 90% of the viewers went one way or another on it."

"I think we just wanted to hear what viewers had to say, which I think is exactly opposite of the 'liberal drive-by media' he depicts it," said Gonzales. "Well, I said I wanted to hear from Rush. So I think he gave us his answer."

After airing the radio show, Limbaugh started a poll on his own website asking listeners if they thought CBS13 morning show hosts were "morons who are threatening racial harmony."

"I don't think we're threatening any racial harmony by asking a question and having a dialogue any more than a song like that is. It could do the same, some people would say," said Burrous.

KFBK, a local Sacramento radio station that airs the Rush Limbaugh show, invited Burrous and Gonzales to comment Monday afternoon about the topic. The pair was interviewed live on air and spoke with KFBK listeners about why they posted the poll on CBS13.com's website.

The song had previously been commented on by Barack Obamba's camp as 'dumb', and the Obama camp said they don't think anyone would take the song seriously.

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