Larson plays spoof “Barney Frank for President” ad encouraging people to vote for “Barney Fag”

Radio host Lars Larson played a spoof “Barney Frank for President” advertisement, in which a person said: “Now remember, this Erection Day -- Election Day, vote for Barney Frank for President. I'm Barney Fag -- uh, Frank and I approve this massage -- message.” Larson also baselessly suggested that Frank allowed his relationship in the 1990s with a Fannie Mae official to improperly influence his conduct as a member of the House Financial Services Committee. In fact, Frank repeatedly took actions over the years to strengthen oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

On the October 31 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Lars Larson played a spoof “Barney Frank for President” advertisement, in which a person said: “Hi, everybody. I'm Barney Frank and I'm running for president of the United States. Why? Well, because Nancy Pelosi pissed me off. Harry Reid pissed me off, and so did ol' Barack. Ol' Barack himself pissed me off too. I'm pissed at the Repubicans and the Democraps, and I'm going to run as an independent sort of fellow.” The ad concludes: “Now remember, this Erection Day -- Election Day, vote for Barney Frank for President. I'm Barney Fag -- uh, Frank and I approve this massage -- message.”

Later in the broadcast. Larson stated, “Barney Frank had a boyfriend who he was sleeping with who was with Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, one of the two. He had a dog in the fight,” baselessly suggesting that Frank allowed his relationship in the 1990s with Herb Moses, a Fannie Mae official at the time, to improperly influence his conduct as a member of the House Financial Services Committee, which was responsible for oversight of Fannie Mae. As Media Matters for America has noted, Frank repeatedly took actions to strengthen oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac while Moses was employed by Fannie Mae.

Talkers Magazine lists Larson among its "Heavy Hundred," which it describes as the “100 most important radio talk show hosts in America.”

From the October 31 broadcast of Westwood One's The Lars Larson Show:

ANNOUNCER: The following announcement is being brought to you by Barney Frank for President.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Hi, everybody. I'm Barney Frank and I'm running for president of the United States. Why? Well, because Nancy Pelosi pissed me off. Harry Reid pissed me off, and so did ol' Barack. Ol' Barack himself pissed me off too. I'm pissed at the Repubicans and the Democraps, and I'm going to run as an independent sort of fellow. Now remember, this Erection Day -- Election Day, vote for Barney Frank for President. I'm Barney Fag -- uh, Frank and I approve this massage -- message.

[...]

CALLER: The one thing that really bothers me is this Barney Franks [sic], who supposedly was supposed to be one of the key people on this bailout procedure, how he couldn't possibly understand since he was responsible for giving all of this money to these corporations that people that have fraud -- that have done fraud or unethical practices with the money that they had, that they wouldn't bother to think about giving themselves raises once they got all this billions of dollars in their hands?

LARSON: Well, you have to remember and go back to something the mainstream media didn't spend a lot of time on. Barney Frank had a boyfriend who he was sleeping with who was with Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, one of the two. He had a dog in the fight.

Lauryn Bruck is an intern for Media Matters for America.