In discussing a March 12 appearance on ABC's This Week by journalists Jay Carney and Claire Shipman, who are married to each other, nationally syndicated radio host Rush Limbaugh characterized their relationship as “slave owner and husband.” Limbaugh, who made his comments during the March 13 broadcast of Premiere Radio Networks' The Rush Limbaugh Show, then restated: “I take it back, slave master, not slave owner.” Carney is Time magazine's deputy Washington bureau chief, and Shipman is the senior national correspondent for ABC's Good Morning America.

As Media Matters has documented, Limbaugh recently referred to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) as sounding like a “screeching ex-wife.” On the February 21 broadcast of his show, Limbaugh said that Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter is “a girl” and claimed that Jack Carter, son of former President Jimmy Carter, “has been castrated by the feminization of this culture.”

From the March 13 broadcast of Premiere Radio Networks' The Rush Limbaugh Show:

LIMBAUGH: Now, how worthwhile is that? They all, you know, these people are not even focused on winning. They just want people to know they're mad. So here's Jay Carney, said, “Oh, no. It will keep heat. This is, uh, you know, it's not going to do any great harm for Democrats.” Jay, who, by the way, is the husband of Claire Shipman, who is always also on the roundtable.

You didn't know that? Yeah, Claire Shipman and Jay Carney are, are uh, slave owner and husband. Well, husband and wife, if you prefer that, and, and slave master. I take it back, slave master, not slave owner. Slave master and wife -- husband. You got me off track here. I was in the middle of a brilliant point, capable only of being made by me on this program, particularly on a Monday.