Gibson, self-proclaimed "black man's best friend," launches false attack on Media Matters over "ooga booga fever" fallout
During the June 1 edition of his nationally syndicated radio program, Fox News anchor John Gibson responded to posts on Media Matters for America and Think Progress about his comment on the May 31 edition of Fox News' The Big Story that "every time a story pops up about somebody who has suddenly contracted some strange or incurable disease, it's somebody who is either from the third world, or was traveling through some godforsaken hellhole, and somehow managed to contract ooga booga fever." Gibson responded: "Well, the whitest man in America, who is the black man's best friend, is now being alleged to be a racist for having invented something called ooga booga fever." He also said, "I should have said Ouagadougou fever," a reference to the capital of the African country Burkina Faso.
Gibson asserted: "Media Matters is going after me. Think Progress is going after me. Now, Media Matters assures, assures me -- the fact that Media Matters has taken me on, put my picture up there, and quoted ooga booga fever as being racist. It's guaranteed that I'm going to be the Worst Person in the World, in somebody's mind," referring to the nightly feature on MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann. Gibson called Media Matters "an attack machine" and said: "I say something like that, I get a laugh, there's gonna be somebody who's offended. This is how they beat me over the head. That Media Matters, which as it turns out now, as some investigating has revealed, was invented by the Hillary Clinton campaign -- they got together with David Brock and they just put this thing together, secretly. And he's been funded secretly by the Clinton campaign." Media Matters is an independent progressive organization and is not funded (or "invented") by or affiliated with any candidate or political party.
Gibson explained the origin of his "ooga booga fever" comment by claiming that former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV -- whose July 2003 New York Times op-ed on his trip to Niger to determine if Iraq was trying to acquire uranium set off a controversy that resulted in the outing of his wife, Valerie Plame, as a CIA operative -- wrote in his book that "to get to Niger, you have to fly into the capital of the neighboring country, Burkina Faso, to the capital of Ouagadougou. And I said, 'Now that cannot be true.' So I got out my little MapQuest, and sure enough, up pops the map, and right there next to Niger is the country of Burkina Faso and the capital city of Ooh-ga Doo-gu." Gibson continued: "So I, in making up ooga booga fever, I actually mispronounced the name of Burkina Faso. I should have said Ouagadougou fever." He also stated: "Now, I could have called it Machu Picchu fever or Latino jungle fever or something. I've gotten sick in those places too."
As Media Matters has noted, Gibson has previously referred to the Iraqi people as "knuckle-dragging savages from the 10th century." He also urged his viewers to "[d]o your duty. Make more babies," because, he said, "Twenty-five years and the majority of the population is Hispanic."
Think Progress and the weblog Johnny Dollar's Place also noted Gibson's response.
From the June 1 edition of Fox News Radio's The John Gibson Show:
GIBSON: Now I am currently under assault on the Internet.
ANGRY RICH (executive producer): Again.
GIBSON: Again. It arises from a "My Word" I did yesterday about the TB man, Andrew Speaker.
GIBSON [audio clip]: Now "My Word." The TB Man story has me completely mesmerized. I've been doing this for a few years. It seems every time a story pops up about somebody who has suddenly contracted some strange or incurable disease, it's somebody who is either from the Third World, or was traveling through some godforsaken hellhole, and somehow managed to contract ooga booga fever.
GIBSON: [laughter] "Ooga booga fever" seems to have set off a national panic.
ANGRY RICH: What's the problem with that?
GIBSON: Well, the whitest man in America, who is the black man's best friend, is now being alleged to be a racist for having invented something called ooga booga fever.
ANNOUNCER [audio clip]: Gibson is a racist!
GIBSON: Now, in the next sentence after that, I described how when I was in --
GIBSON [audio clip]: I got dengue fever in Mogadishu, Somalia, just for instance.
GIBSON: I did, I got dengue fever. I didn't even know what it was, but boy, I found out. I was sick as a dog for days. And still going on the air and doing these reports for NBC, climbing out of that bed, where I was sweating off pounds, go up to the roof and sit there looking like a dead man, and do a report every hour, and never missed one. And I had that fever.
GIBSON [audio clip]: You tend not to get dengue fever in Los Angeles or Jersey City.
GIBSON: And my point is that, you know, the TB guy, his father-in-law works with TB, you know, swears he didn't bring it home on his shoes or something. You know, he had to have been -- he's a traveler or something, he had to have been going someplace to pick up this particularly virulent form of tuberculosis. Now, I could have called it Machu Picchu fever or Latino jungle fever or something. I've gotten sick in those places too.
ANGRY RICH: Potomac fever.
GIBSON: No, I probably wouldn't have called it that. So, today, the left-wing blogs erupted. Calling me a racist over the invented disease I called ooga booga fever.
AUDIO CLIP: Google it on Media Matters.
GIBSON: Media Matters is going after me. Think Progress is going after me. Now, Media Matters assures, assures me -- the fact that Media Matters has taken me on, put my picture up there, and quoted ooga booga fever as being racist. [laughter] It's guaranteed that I'm going to be the Worst Person in the World, in somebody's mind.
ANGRY RICH: When somebody climbs out of the bathtub on Monday.
GIBSON: Yeah, when the little boat is put away, and the bathtub's drained, I'll end up being the Worst Person. As a matter of fact, I just looked up, cause I knew that there was some place that I'd kinda got that word, and I had gotten out of, of all places, Joe Wilson's book. And I remember him writing that he flew into the -- that in order to get to Niger, you have to fly into the capital of the neighboring country, Burkina Faso, to the capital of Ouagadougou. And I said, "Now that cannot be true." So I got out my little MapQuest, and sure enough, up pops the map, and right there next to Niger is the country of Burkina Faso and the capitol city of Ooh-ga Doo-gu. So I, in making up ooga booga fever, I actually mispronounced the name of Burkina Faso. I should have said Ouagadougou fever.
ANGRY RICH [reading from comments in Think Progress post]: Think Progress: "Ooga booga fever. This summarizes the entirety of Republicans' knowledge of science."
CHRISTINE (producer): Think Progress: "Hey, Julia Roberts used to be 'America's Sweetheart,' then Meg Ryan. Uncle John Gibson is 'America's crazy uncle.' We've all had 'em or got 'em."
ANGRY RICH: ThinkProgress: "Ooga booga fever? Jeez. What's next? Gibson in blackface?"
GIBSON: I mean, these guys are going off the deep end. And I knew it. The second I said it, the crew in the studio laughed, four of whom are black. And I said -- they laughed -- you know, I've learned to sort of sense these things. I say something like that, I get a laugh, there's gonna be somebody who's offended. This is how they beat me over the head. That Media Matters, which, as it turns out now, as some investigating has revealed, was invented by the Hillary Clinton campaign -- they got together with David Brock and they just put this thing together, secretly. And he's been funded secretly by the Clinton campaign. And it is an attack machine on anybody who doesn't toe the liberal line, anybody who attacks Hillary or, in their view, misrepresents what she says or thinks, or anybody who just purports to explain any conservative idea. So they're after me now over this ooga booga fever. Ooga booga, is, from Wikipedia here, this is a video game. "Ooga Booga is an online multiplayer game for the Sega Dreamcast. ... The storyline is that Ooga Booga is a volcano goddess that creates islands, and has leaders of tribes, 'Kahunas', battle for her favor." You think, Rich, I should have reconsidered Ooga Booga fever?
ANGRY RICH: No.
GIBSON: Yeah, I don't either, actually. Ashley, was I being racist?
ASHLEY: You might have a problem against The Nightmare Before Christmas. There's a character in it, claymation, named Oogie Boogie man.
ANGRY RICH: Oh, no.
GIBSON: Oh. Oogie Boogie man?
ASHLEY: I figure if you're racist against anything, it's claymation.
GIBSON: Well, that's probably true.
ANGRY RICH: Clay hater.
GIBSON: Clay.
[Audio of song: "There's a way out, I say, yes, yes / It's shipping your cargo on the freedom express / Ooga booga / Ooga booga"]
GIBSON: There's another racist. Even saying the words "ooga booga," he must be a white man, he must be a racist. We're discovering all kinds of "ooga booga" references. Turns out the poet laureate of -- is this an American poet? Frederick Seidel? He wrote a book of poetry called Ooga-Booga. How many liberal websites am I now being trashed on, Angry Rich?
ANGRY RICH: You're on two of the biggest ones right now, front page.
GIBSON: We're pretty sure that come Monday, I'll be -- you think I'll make Worse, Worser or Worst?
ANGRY RICH: You'll probably be the -- well, for more than one reason, you'll be the worst.
GIBSON: Oh? Are you keeping something from me?
ANGRY RICH: Remember that bit we did earlier?
GIBSON: Yeah --
ANGRY RICH: We sang a song about [unintelligible] -- forgot that, didn't you?
GIBSON: Oh, it's all a blur.
If ooga booga means "butt sex" how do you say "butt licker"?
ooga paga
Well, Gibbie should know his diseases. After all He is a disease.
If you haven't checked, I wrote that song!
Colbert couldn't rival this through his parody ... Fox is turning into a parody of itself!
I predicted Worst Person for him. Hopefully Olbe won't let me down, I think Gibby really wants this. It's so exciting.
---Gibson: "...they [Media Matters] beat me over the head."---
Another poor, right-wing "victim". My heart bleeds.
? What? Are you a tool.. or just a 'tard...?
what he is is flagged.
So my theory is that posters with a bunch of numbers after a name are a Rovian tactic... I imagine a room full of racist, homophobic, neocons pounding away at the keyboard while Rove walks around with a whip, chastising them to type AGRIER and FASTER and to keep on spewing the hate...
basically, monkeys at a keyboard, right? ;)
HEY! The monkeys are offended... We work hard, it's the writers for SNL that tends to beat us to the punch for putting out mediocre material.
"So my theory is that posters with a bunch of numbers after a name are a Rovian tactic"
Well now, I wouldn't say that............. But hey who knows, I just might be a Rovian Spy using Rovian tactics after all.
:)
Preoccupied with "gays" and "penises" much?
It's off-topic, but I'm not gay, and I'd still date Brock. Nothing's sexier than politics.
Gibson is such a filthy liar that it's not even funny.
Turns out the poet laureate of -- is this an American poet? Frederick">[link to frederickseidel.com] Seidel? He wrote a book of poetry called Ooga-Booga.
This">[link to www.fsgbooks.com] technique should be known in the future as the "Magical Negro" defense.
Great, Gibson knows how to use Google.
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!
Someone check his chair! I think he peed himself! I have heard more believable strings of excuses from my 8 year old daughter. Now he is quoting Morris about Media Matters? Why doesn't he mention Bill O's red charts?
This is the funniest thing I've read here in weeks!
Well you didn't disappoint.
The point of your first half sentence would be? This I guess as close as you can come to talking about gay(horrors) sex I'm guessing. Mr. Alterman's case has not yet been decided. As your still carring on about it I'm guessing again, that you haven't read his article. I wasn't aware of any admin duties he has with regard to this site. Your info here is?
And Mr. Brocks sexual identity along with a disagreeable situation at a party, I think it was, is grounds for declaring a total lack of standards on the part of these two gentlemen. How?
On second thought, you do disappoint. Unless having your pesudo-literary ass contiously handed back to you is a special thrill for you, try harder.
Reinstate my sarcasm in the related topic...that wasn't "Say I got dengue fever..." but simply "I got dengue fever..."
Gibson's ongoing commentary just demonstrates how ignorant he is of infectious diseases. If you travel alot - especially to warmer climates - you're more likely to be exposed to diseases for which you have little resistance. It's one of the perks.
By the way, Gibson's implying that dengue fever isn't limited to "third world countries" is just plain ignorant. A check of the CDC website shows it's prevalent, e.g., northeast Australia, Puerto Rico. There was also a significant outbreak in Hawaii in 2001-2002. But wait...there's more...you can also get dengue fever in the continental U.S! (The mosquito that carries it infests the southeast U.S. occassionally, though outbreaks are rare.)
Let's see. Gibson ADMITS to travelling to exotic locations as a reporter, and contracting all kinds of diseases. So he's an expert on spreading infection. He realizes the importance of quarantine, of keeping those germs from spreading.
Ah, but he also BRAGS about having no interruption in performing his JOB, interacting with his crew and participating in the filming of every update he was required to produce. He wishes to project strength of will and a strong work ethic, but what he portrays INSTEAD is a sick man exposing his disease to all around him, his co-workers, any interviewees, hotel personnel charged with the care of his party.
No quarantine for GIBSON! No sir, the show must go on!
Hahahah !! Good point !!
How secularly progressive of him!
Hey all black people... with friends like Gibson- you need no enemies! lol...
I see, it's all Joe Wilson's fault. Gibson and his cohorts are twisting themselves in knots while they parse the phrase "ooga booga" in order to distract from the undeniable truth about Gibson's rant. No matter what excuse he picks for "ooga booga" (I made it up...wait, no, Joe Wilson...I mean, video games are racist too...er, claymation? Wait...buttsex! That's it!), his rant was STILL xenophobic and racist, and it STILL reveals his need for and expectation of a pre-established news "narrative" based entirely on ignorance and prejudice. There is simply no excuse he can come up with that will erase those facts.
Gibson continued: "So I, in making up ooga booga fever, I actually mispronounced the name of Burkina Faso. I should have said Ouagadougou fever."
***
Is it just me or this beginning to sound like the many explanations of George Allen's macca remark?
The funny thing about the Ouagadougou excuse is that, even if weren't just nonsense that he pulled out of his butt, it doesn't change a darn thing. "Mispronouncing" Ouagadougou as "ooga booga" is still just as ignorant, xenophobic and racist as anything else he said. And to make his explanation even more ridiculous, Gibson continues to mispronounce Ouagadougou during his explanation. According to my dictionary, it's pronounced wä'gə-dōō'gōō.
"Black man's best friend?" If that presumption wasn't enough, do I have to bring up his panic about whites becoming a minority in America? The one he had to issue TWO corrections to, when he explained he was actually GLAD that Mexicans were having more babies because that meant more Christians to counter Europe's Muslim population?
John’s eyes only open half wide
Other races he’s ready to chide
But when he is caught
His comeback is naught
Just a frump trying to salvage his pride
John Gibson sent me an e-mail a few months ago asking me to call his radio show. I called and must have got the Angry Rich producer "kid." He started to grill me on why I called. I told him I was calling because Gibson wrote me asking me to call. He wanted to know what I wanted to talk about. I told Angry Rich I have no idea except that I was a Combat Engineer in the Army in the Korean War and I'm opposed to the Iraq war. The producer wanted to know why I was opposed to the war. I asked him if he had been in the military. He told me it was none of my business. I could see the conversation was going nowhere so I told Angry Rich to tell Gibson I called as he asked me to do and then I hung up the phone.
I wouldn't have wasted the dime on the phone call.
BTW: Did anyone else notice on his June 4 "My Word" Gibson claimed the JFK airport plot was the work of AL QAEDA. Not a single news service has stated AL QAEDA was behind the JFK plot. Plus it was only in the planning stages and that is why the NY Times put the story on page 30 where it belonged.
Next time someone says "gotta fight 'em there so we don't have to fight 'em here" toss the alleged JFK Airport plot in their face. THEY'RE ALREADY HERE!
Here is what John Gibson said on his June 4 FOX NEWS show:
It's going to be interesting to watch what the Democrats, especially the Dems' far-left wingoids, do about what could be for them an unfortunate confluence of events.
Saturday morning comes the news that an Al Qaeda cell in New York — possibly aided by a long sought after UBL protégé called "Shuk," short for Shukrijumah — was planning to blow up JFK by igniting fuel lines and fuel depots.
The next night, former Sen. John Edwards still felt confident enough about his anti-war, anti-Bush base that he could say the following: "...but what this global War on Terror bumper sticker, political slogan — that's all it is, that's all it's ever been — was intended to do was for George Bush to use it to justify everything he does: the ongoing war in Iraq, Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, spying on Americans, torture. None of those things are OK. They are not the United States of America."
I still want to know where Gibson comes up with the idea that it was an AL QAEDA cell in New York planning on blowing up the pipe lines at JFK.
John Gibson - resign! Your repulsive racist rhetoric is rationalized in retarded righteousness while wrongly reacting to rational resentment.
Alliteration is the last refuge of a scoundrel. =)
Not to defend Gibson...Heaven forbid...but why has "vague racism" supplanted good old fashioned American hard core "porch monkey" racism (see Clerks II if you don't believe this is racist)?
Why can't the racists rely on old standbys like "n**ger" and "jig-a-boo"?
I find it tiresome to have to interpret precisely how racist "ooga booga" and "macaca" are meant to be. They sound "wrong" somehow, but what is the racial cue? Is "ooga booga" a Tarzan movie onomatopoeia or an utterance stereotypic of black people, and if so, where, in Chicago or Uganda, and if Uganda, how is it racist if in fact black people in Uganda do occasionally let loose with an "ooga booga"?
But what about "macaca"? I am supposed to hearken to the jungles of Borneo or...what? I know it's racists but I can't seem to "color associate" or "nationalize" the word "macaca". Brown, black, yellow? South America, Africa, Saudi Arabia, China?
Help me out, folks!
Free-floating aspecific racism has got to stop!
Please, I beg all racists to stick to the classics, so we all know exactly how and to what degree to hate and despise you.
Randy
If you google 'ooga booga' you'll find links to a art-books-clothing-music shop ,a video game and a book of poetry just to name a few, which all use that phrase. Maybe it's not as racist as some here think? Just saying.
http://www.google.com/search?q=ooga+booga&hl=en&start=0&sa=N
Racists and race baiters are vultures from the same species.
Racists are hideous creatures who use their racial bigotry to put down others in hopes of elevating themselves.
Race baiters manipulate and insinuate a false racist motivation in hopes of disguising their own bigotry.
Every decent person should denounce real instances of racism for it's a cancer on us all. However, to falsely inject a racial component where none exists only serves to desensitize and cheapen real racism.
I mostly agree with your post Tommy. I would just hope that you will be consistent when condeming both instances of racist rhetoric and race baiting regardless of the political leanings of the people who engage in it. Good Post.
Lynn, I hope so too. And I did appreciate you keeping me honest the other day when you called on me to be consistent........you're an honest straight up lady and I respect that.
Oh, what a load of b.s. You just spent an entire thread defending Gibson's ugly rant and now you're going to get on your high horse and throw accusations of bigotry at the people who are pointing out Gibson's undeniable racism? You pull this crap all the time, and you can't keep getting away with it. You defend and excuse every racist from Mark Fuhrman to Beck to Buchanan to Coulter, then you turn around and attack black civil rights leaders as "racists" and "race baiters." You even called Bryant Gumbel a racist. Your m.o. is very clear: Defend white conservative racists, and accuse minorities of racism. And yes, I will provide however many links you like.
And as an aside, I'll repeat something that someone pointed out to you the other day: It doesn't matter how polite or civil you pretend to be or how many polished apples you hand out to your fellow posters. It doesn't disguise all the nonsense and bile.
If you think racism is all about a particular word, then you don't get it.
"Macaca" was followed by comments that suggested that the American citizen the slur was directed at would want to see how great it is here in this country and in that state. Turns out the person being slurred had been a resident of that state longer than Allen. And probably better understood American values better than the one doing the slurring.
Same with Gibson's remarks. It's not about "ooga booga" specifically. It's about the "we're better than them" attitude that drips from the remark. That White American doesn't get those crazy diseases (which is false just on the face of it) and that usually it's those dark skinned people from those crazy places. It's called Xenophobia, regardless of whether a shocking word was used or not. And it's not a value true Americans embrace.
Latino jungle fever?
Gibson's not a very quick learner is he?
it's remarkable how scared these rightwing imbeciles are of MMA ... they became so accustomed to getting away with lying and insulting that they cant handle being called on it. typical bully syndrome. gibson's fumbling nonsense is especially ripe.
Another FOX "macaca" moment... ooga booga y'all
So on Friday several times it was mentioned by rightwing trolls that the Fox News transcript said "Say I got" this illness, when Media Matters' transcript said ""I got" this illness. They acted all upset and offended that Media Matters would have gotten the transcript wrong.
The audio of the show, the actual words said, is what Media Matters provided in their transcript, and they were accurate. It was the Fox News transcript that was wrong. Nary a peep from those posters correcting their error in scolding Media Matters.
Now Gibson confirms that he said "I got" this illness, and they still cannot come back here and admit their error. They seemed obsessed with pointing out the non-existent speck in Media Matters' eye, but they fail to recognize the log in their own eye!
This is a great example of their hypocrisy. If acknowledging errors is so urgent, why have none of the posters who pointed out a non-existent error not come back and admitted to their own gross error?
They're trolls not because they were wrong about the transcript, but they didn't even bother checking the Media Matters provided audiotape, which disproved their allegations, but because even if they had been right, it was irrelevant. That (not)missing word didn't change his comment about Ooga Booga fever in any way.
That's how the Right Wing tends to fight such things. Don't debate the issue. Debate the issue and you've already lost. Instead, attack those raising the issue.
Sadly, it appears to work. Worked on Dan Rather and worked on John Kerry. Rove will get some sort of medal for it when it's all said and done.
Saying you're "the black man's best friend" is like David Duke saying the same about Israel
Just for the record my American Heritage Dictionary defines "Ooga Booga Fever" as an especially virulent disease that attacks the brains of rightwing pundits leading to political dementia & professional death. There is no known cure.
No one is asking the obvious question, namely why would Hillary waste precious campaign resources attacking this tiny man?
Gibson: "Media Matters, ...was invented by the Hillary Clinton campaign -- they got together with David Brock and they just put this thing together, secretly."
For crying out loud, is it Hillary Clinton or George Soros who's funding this site???
Gibson and Bill-O need to get their story straight!
"This is how they beat me over the head."
Either I missed the beating part (darn!) or Gibson can't tell the difference between blunt force trauma and a web article.
Perhaps that's why he has no compassion for our troops being caught in the middle of a civil war in Iraq. Perhaps he imagines that his embarassment of being criticized is just as traumatic as having an IED go off under your Humvee.
to be fair, gibbie did say it was ok for asians and blacks to have babies, too. he never responded to my email asking if it was ok for Jews to have kids.
Wasn't there a disco song called "Booga Ooga Ooga?"
Hey John, we're watching yoooouuuuuu !!!!!
John Gibson mentions Frederick Seidel (described by Calvin Bedient as "the most frightening American poet ever") on Fox News. My head just exploded. Please, can John Gibson read a poem from Ooga-Booga on the air? Pretty please? How about "Kill Poem"? Or "The Death of the Shah?"
Can we start a collection to send Gibson to Ougabadouga or wherever it is he thinks the Macaca's live?