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Monday, June 04, 2018

The Roseanne Barr Double Standard Is Ruining Our Country

“Roseanne Barr is extremely liberal and clinically insane. I’m not a fan just because she’s back on TV doing a show that isn’t 100% hostile to conservatives.” – John Hawkins, March 29, 2018

“I think Roseanne Barr is crackers. Completely out of touch with reality. Hard to tell on the Left these days tho.” – John Hawkins, Aug 7, 2010

I include those quotes just to make it clear that I have never been a fan of Roseanne. I watched her show a handful of times in its initial run and didn’t even bother to watch the wildly popular new incarnation that gathered so much steam because it wasn’t entirely hostile to Trump.

All that being said, I’m not sure that Roseanne didn’t get a raw deal. For one thing, did she even know Valerie Jarrett is black? I do politics for a living and I sure didn’t. I thought she was Iranian. If Roseanne did know she is black, I would assume she was aware that comparing black people to monkeys has long been considered an offensive racist stereotype, but apparently not everyone knows that.

So, did ABC have the RIGHT to fire Roseanne? ABSOLUTELY. This is not a First Amendment issue because we’re talking about a private company that has the right to do what it wants. That being said, it’s hard to understand how Roseanne’s latest dumb comment is any different than her 5 bazillion other dumb comments. I suspect that the real reason she was fired is that she had gotten too popular with the wrong people in ABC’s eyes and so, management was looking for any excuse to get rid of her.

Once again, ABC certainly has a right to get rid of Roseanne if it wants to do it. However, why is it that there so often seems to be a “one mistake and done” standard for people that appeal to conservatives while offensive liberals need a wheelbarrow to carry around all the free passes they get?

Just as an example, as I write this, the big controversy of the day is “comedian” Samantha Bee calling the President’s daughter a “feckless c*nt” on air because Ivanka had the audacity to post a picture hugging her own child. There is no doubt that any host that aimed comments like those about Barack Obama’s daughters when he was in the White House would be out of a job – and that double standard is the real problem.

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