While in no way excusing the grossly offensive comments made by Rosanne Barr on Twitter about former top Obama aide Valerie Jarrett, there is without question a certain level of social engineering that can be seen in the selective outrage and cancellation of her hit television series, as compared with the treatment a number of other left-leaning comedians who have made a “jokes” that were every bit as “racist.” Barr frequently uses her Twitter account to deride progressive politics and is a Trump supporter.
President Trump actually called Barr to congratulate her when “Roseanne” drew record ratings for its premiere in March. Jarrett, a Muslim woman of African American descent, was born in Iran where she lived until moving to Chicago at the age of seven. While responding to a tweet about Jarrett, Barr wrote: “Muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby = vj.”
The tweet by Barr, who has been a lightning rod for criticism due to her extremely outspoken nature throughout her career, was quickly characterized as racist due to Jarrett’s African American ancestry, and a progressive media firestorm erupted. Barr, whose show’s reboot was the surprise hit of the television season, issued an apology to Jarrett and “all Americans,” but ABC nonetheless canceled their top-rated sitcom. “I’m not a racist, just an idiot who made a bad joke,” Barr told her fans.
In a response to a tweet from one of her Twitter followers, Barr said, “I honestly thought she was Jewish and Persian—ignorant of me for sure, but… I did.” Later, during a Tweetstorm, the comedian said the controversial tweet was partially a result of her use of Ambien, a medication used to treat insomnia that has been reported to sometimes result in strange side effects.
“Guys, I did something unforgivable, so do not defend me,” Barr said. “It was 2 in the morning and I was Ambien tweeting—it was Memorial Day, too—I went [too] far & do not want it defended—it was egregious, indefensible. I made a mistake I wish I hadn’t but…don’t defend it please.” Barr, an avowed Trump supporter—both on the show and in reality, through her selection of retweets, directly implied that she was fired over her support for President Trump.
A retweet, posted by Barr, quoted Herman Cain on Fox, saying, “I believe they were looking for a reason to cancel #Roseanne and here’s why. Even though the show was a ratings success, forces within ABC didn’t like the fact that her conservative defense of certain things was so popular.”
Incidentally, conservative actor Tim Allen had a similar experience with his ABC series Last Man Standing, when fans were left wondering why the blue-collar sitcom, which was ABC’s second most-watched comedy at the time, with 8.1 million viewers in Live +7, only behind flagship Modern Family (8.7 million), would be so unceremoniously canceled. “Stunned and blindsided by the network I called home for the last six years,” Allen tweeted in May after his popular comedy series was suddenly canceled.
Although ABC denied the cancellation had anything to do with Allen’s politics, the only logical conclusion as to why a hit series capable of bringing in strong ad revenue would be given the ax is that the promotion of more libertarian or conservative values is not part of the oligarchies’ plan as it empowers the individual, thus making it more difficult to centralize control.
Conversely, in July 2017, on HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher,” Maher called himself a “house nigger” during an interview with Republican Senator Ben Sasse. While discussing Sasse’s book, they bantered: “No, adults dress up for Halloween. They don’t do that in Nebraska?” Maher said. Sasse responded, “It’s frowned upon. We don’t do that quite as much.” “I’ve got to get to Nebraska more,” Maher replied. Sasse joked that Maher was welcome to come work the fields. Maher responded with his own joke: “Work in the fields? Senator, I’m a house nigger!”
While some viewers on Twitter called for Maher to be fired, arguing the obvious: that no white man should say the word “nigger,” Maher still has a show and there was no advertising boycott. See how that works? For the so-called progressive left-leaning individuals, racism seems to be something that is tolerable to the mainstream media pundits.
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