Last week, during a discussion of the “TB Man story,” Fox News anchor John Gibson declared that tuberculosis usually affects someone “from the third world” or who contracted “ooga booga fever” in “some godforsaken hellhole.”
Noting the criticism of his remarks from Media Matters and ThinkProgress, Gibson responded on the June 1 edition of his radio show.
Calling himself “the whitest man in America, who is the black man’s best friend,” Gibson said his comments were not racist because he had just “invented” the term. “Now, I could have called it Machu Picchu fever or Latino jungle fever or something. I’ve gotten sick in those places too.” (Gibson noted, however, that he wouldn’t have called it “Potomac fever,” after Washington, DC.)
Later, Gibson contradicted himself, claiming he learned the phrase from reading Joseph Wilson’s book, which references Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso. “So I, in making up ooga booga fever, I actually mispronounced the name of Burkina Faso. I should have said Ouagadougou fever.”
CLICK HERE TO LISTENThis is not the first time John Gibson has spouted such casual racism on the air. On a recent edition of his radio show, he claimed that the U.S. invasion of Iraq had “unmasked” the Iraqis as “knuckle-dragging savages from the 10th century.” In 2006, he directed his viewers to “make more babies” because in “[t]wenty-five years…the majority of the population is Hispanic.”
Transcript:
JOHN GIBSON: Now I am currently under assault on the internet.PRODUCER: Again.
GIBSON: Again. It arises from a My Word I did yesterday about the TB man, Andrew Speaker. It has me completely mezmerized.
TAPE OF GIBSON’S MY WORD: 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.
PRODUCER: Who had a 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: Gibson is a racist!
GIBSON: Now, in the next sentence after that, I described how when I was in…
TAPE OF GIBSON’S MY WORD: 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 deadman, and do a report every hour, and never missed one. and I had that fever.
TAPE OF GIBSON’S MY WORD: 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, swears he didn’t bring it home.
PRODUCER: On his shoes or something.
GIBSON: Yeah, he had to have been, he’s a traveler or something, he had to have been going some place 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.
PRODUCER: 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.
PRODUCER: Google it on Media Matters.
GIBSON: Media Matters is going after me. ThinkProgress is going after me. Now, Media Matters 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.
PRODUCER: 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 can not 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 Og-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.
PRODUCER: ThinkProgress: Ooga booga fever. This summarizes the entirety of Republican’s knowledge of science.
PRODUCER: ThinkProgress: Hey, Julia Roberts used to be America’s Sweetheart, then Meg Ryan. Uncle John Gibson is America’s crazy uncle. We’ve all had him or got him.
PRODUCER: ThinkProgress: Ooga booga fever. Geez, what’s next? Gibson in black face?
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 tow the liberal line, anybody who attacks Hillary, or, in their view, misrepresents what she says or thinks, or anybody who purports to explain any conservative idea. So they’re after me now over this ooga boog 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?
RICH: No.
GIBSON: Yeah, I don’t either, actually. Ashley, was I being racist?
ASHLEY: You might have a problem with The Night Before Christmas. There’s a character in it, claymation, named Oogie Boogie man. I figure if you’re anything, it’s racist against claymation.
GIBSON: Well that’s probably true.
PRODUCER: Clay hater.
GIBSON: Clay.
(Music plays)
GIBSON: There’s another racist. Even saying the words ‘ooga booga,’ must be a white man and must be a racist. We’re discovering all kinds of ooga booga references. Turns out the poet laurete of ahh, is this an American? Fredrick Sidel? 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 ahh — 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…
GIBSON: Oh, it’s all a blur.
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