GOP presidential candidate Michele Bachmann thinks NBC should apologize, after its late-night show house band The Roots performed the1985 Fishbone tune “Lyin’ [Heinie] [Female Canine]” by way of introducing her as she walked out on stage to visit Jimmy Fallon Monday night.
But, so far, the peacock network’s only plan appears to be appointing Fallon as in-house canary, and sending him down the political coal mine shaft to see exactly how toxic is the air.
After word of the Roots’ tune selection filtered out to the mainstream media Tuesday, Fallon first tweeted that Roots’ drummer, Questlove – who’d taken credit for the tune -- “is grounded.”
Hahaha!
Oops! Air still not clear.
Fallon was sent in again. This time he tweeted: “I’m honored that Michele Bachmann was on our show yesterday and I’m so sorry about the intro mess. I really hope she comes back,” adding, “Actually it was a really fun interview. She helped me with my Minnesota accent. (I still sound Irish.)”
Hehehe?
Bachmann spelled out her thoughts about the song choice on Fox News Channel’s morning show, “America’s Newsroom.”
“I don’t have anything against Jimmy Fallon. I love him, he’s a kick. It was a great opportunity to be on the show. I’d love to go back again.”
But, she said, “the point” is that if it had been First Lady Michelle Obama that The Roots had been serenading, “I have no doubt that NBC would have apologized to her and likely they could have fired the drummer – at least suspended him.”
“None of that happened from NBC,” Bachmann said, concluding, “this is clearly a form of bias on the part of the Hollywood entertainment elite, but it’s also, I think, sexism as well.”
By “Hollywood,” she means Philadelphia – where NBCUniversal’s owner, Comcast, is headquartered, or maybe Rockefeller Center in midtown Manhattan where NBCUniversal is headquartered and Fallon’s show shot. Hollywood being, as we all know, more a state of mind than a geographic location.
When asked by a reporter, Bachmann said she accepted Fallon’s apology, “but this really needs to come from NBC and this is an outrage that happened.”
After word of the tune choice got out, Democratic Congresswoman Nita Lowey had jumped in with both feet, issuing a statement saying the song choice used to introduce Bachmann “was insulting and inappropriate.”
“I do not shares Michele Bachmann’s politics, but she deserves to be treated with respect,” Lowey continued. “No female politician – no woman – should be subjected to sexist and offensive innuendo like she was…The Roots, Jimmy Fallon, and NBC should apologize.”
Meanwhile, drummer Questlove, aka Ahmir Thompson, said, after knickers began to get knotted, that the tune choice was “tongue-in-cheek” and a “spur of the moment decision.”
He also said the show was not aware of the choice and “I feel bad if her feelings were hurt. That was not my intention.”
And by “was not my intention” he means (as tweeted before the show aired): “aight late night walkon song devotees: you love it when we snark: this next one takes the cake. Ask around, cause I ain’t tweeting title.”
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