ST. PAUL, MINN. (AP) - GOP presidential candidate Michele Bachmann lashed out Wednesday at NBC for not apologizing or taking immediate disciplinary action for an off-color song played during her appearance on Jimmy Fallon’s “Late Night.”
In her first comments on the flap, Bachmann said on the Fox News Channel that the Fallon show band displayed sexism and bias by playing a snippet of a 1985 Fishbone song as she walked onstage for Tuesday’s show. The title of the song is “Lyin’ Ass B——.”
“This is clearly a form of bias on the part of the Hollywood entertainment elite,” Bachmann said. She added, “This wouldn’t be tolerated if this was Michelle Obama. It shouldn’t be tolerated if it’s a conservative woman either.”
She went further on a national radio conservative radio show hosted by Michael Medved, calling the incident “inappropriate, outrageous and disrespectful.”
Fallon has tweeted an apology to Bachmann, saying he was “so sorry about the intro mess.”
Bachmann told Minnesota Public Radio News that Fallon called her on Wednesday to further apologize. She said the comedian told her he was unaware that his show’s band planned to play the song.
On Fox, Bachmann expressed surprise that she’s heard nothing from the TV network. She suggested that discipline for the show’s Roots band was in order. She said she believed Fallon’s comments to be sincere.
One of Bachmann’s congressional colleagues, New York Democrat Nita Lowey, had called on NBC to apologize for its “insulting and inappropriate” treatment of its guest.
An NBC spokeswoman didn’t immediately return a phone message from The Associated Press.
The Roots’ bandleader, Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, has said the song was a “tongue-in-cheek and spur-of-the-moment decision.”
Bachmann, who is lagging in presidential polls, has spent the week promoting her new autobiography in national television interviews.
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AP Television Writer David Bauder contributed to this report.
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