But leave it to the weekend crew to expose TMZ's... ahem... black heart. Obviously comprised of the same breed of youthful amateurs and Santa Monica Boulevard pickups who are sent out to harass celebrities with home video and cellphone cameras, this group of Harvey Levin acolytes has historically been the weak link in the Time Warner-AOL tentacle’s defense of its slimy tactics and cultural debasement (they spread the Will Smith-Hitler-loving lie and called Chelsea Handler a bigot, among other big boners).
Today, however, they've clearly gone too far, with a story headlined:
"SNL" Creating Sambo-Obama?
Posted Mar 1st 2008 11:26AM by TMZ Staff
Either "SNL" came back from the writer's strike completely color blind or extremely one-sided. The show debuted their new Barack Obama character, which as a surprise to many -- is played by someone who isn't African-American…
Sambo-Obama? The (non) story, oddly, is cribbed from a post here on TabloidBaby.com, a week ago, on Sunday morning February 24th, when we mentioned that the night before, Saturday Night Live had decided to use castmember Fred Armisen, who is of Venezuelan- Japanese descent, to portray mixed-race presidential candidate Barack Obama, thereby sidestepping the “blackface” issue (we pointed out that the SNL’s sole African American player, Kenan Thompson, was too fat for the role-- as did TMZ today).
In the days to follow, lazy columnists, missing out on the past decade of multiculturalism, accused SNL producer Lorne Michaels of latent racism for using Armisen, but the case was easily deflected-— in part because Armisen could portray Obama credibly, without the use of burnt cork.
Today, however, for some reason, the TMZ weekend crew picked up on the story a week late-— mentioning our points that they read while on duty last Sunday-- and ignoring Lorne Michael’s well-publicized defense earlier in the week.
It seems obvious that the TMZ weekend crew, like the LA cops that TMZ pays off, is faced with a quota-- in their case, of story posts and outrageous headlines. It’s also apparent that the week-old Obama item was planted so the TMZ boys could high-five over the noxious and, in Harvey Levin’s world, “clever,” “Sambo-Obama” headline.
The pathetic ploy three days before what could be a decisive primary vote also reveals a lack of historical context and knowledge. TMZ's use of the word “Sambo” is apparently meant to refer to “The Story of Little Black Sambo,” the children's book from 1899 about a resourceful boy named Sambo who outwits a group of hungry tigers and returns safely home, where he eats 169 pancakes for his supper.The story is set in India (there are no tigers in Africa), and Sambo is obviously Indian-- not African American or Negro. Although the word “Sambo” has become a derogatory racial term targeted at blacks, it most frequently refers specifically to illustrated racist caricatures and not blackface performance.
Forget Jon Stewart and Gaydolph Titler. Let's see who's brave enough to make an issue of a totally gratuitous “Sambo Obama” headline for a week-old story on a site that’s known for up-to-the minute reports of Britney Spears’ bowel movements. The mainstream media likes to complain about “The TMZ effect." Now they can investigate which presidential candidate Harvey Levin, his corporate overlords and his chiropractor sent their checks to.
No one cares because no one takes you seriously.
ReplyDeleteThe name circulating, Michelle Omarosa Obama is also kinda funny.
ReplyDeleteTMZ is just bleh... late or boring... or both. He's definitely late on this one.
SO whats wrong with the word SAMBO is just a word damn it that means curly hair person nothing else people in other countries are called SAMBOS because they have curly hair they can be whiter then the snow still they are called SAMBO it just means CURLY HAIR
ReplyDeleteevery word here has to be racist damn people grow up join the world