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Just when we thought the media furor between NBC’s Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and Rep. Michele Bachmann was finished, this could stir things up again: Fallon’s bandleader and drummer ?uestlove says “Tea Party extremists” are hurling racial slurs at him on Twitter.
“I’ve seen some really colorful epithets in the past four days, but ‘n—er f–khead ghetto stick’ is probably the one that takes the cake,” the Roots musician told Pitchfork.com. “I’m still trying to get my head around that one. Blocking 3,500 Tea Party extremists [on Twitter] in a three day period is no fun, especially when you’re a drummer dangerously close to carpal tunnel.”
Of course, it’s highly doubtful the alleged Twitter attackers actually identified themselves as Tea Party members in their Tweets, so he’s presumably making an assumption there.
The band played “Lyin’ A– B—-” during the Republican presidential candidate’s appearance on the show last week. She demanded an apology from NBC and got it (though was reportedly miffed the apology came from the network’s late night chief rather than the NBC president). NBC promised the band would be “severely reprimanded.”
It doesn’t sound like the musician was trying to reignite the situation, however. He says he deeply regrets the “kamikazi” incident (he says he forgot the word “b—-” was in the song’s title) and at one point thought he might get fired.
“In the end, was it worth it? “Absolutely not,” ?uestlove said. “It deeply offended a lot of women’s groups and non-Bachmann supporters, and for that I’m deeply sorry. I’m not parading like I’m the poster boy for the feminist movement, but those who truly know me know that that’s not me. I was really just going with her whole revisionist history angle, I wasn’t calling it out on her being a woman.”
NBC had no comment.
Read more:
NBC apologizes to Michele Bachmann, ‘severely reprimanded’ Fallon band
Michele Bachmann: ‘If that song had been played for Michelle Obama, I have no doubt that NBC would have apologized’
Jimmy Fallon apologizes to Michele Bachmann for the Roots’ song choice
Roots hit Michele Bachmann with musical snark on ‘Late Night’
