By now you’ve heard about the fellow from the television, um, series, Duck Dynasty, who said some hateful things about homosexuality, likening same-sex sex with bestiality and terrorism. He also suggested that all non-Christians are terrorists and murderers and that African-Americans were happier under Jim Crow laws.
Dean Obeidallah explains what happened next:
Robertson’s comments led A&E, the network that airs his megahit show, to suspend him indefinitely. They didn’t fire him. Nor did A&E pull Duck Dynasty off the air. They didn’t even say they weren’t going to pay Robertson. Bottom line: A&E acted swiftly to save the brand of Duck Dynasty, a show that generates millions in ad revenue for the network. A&E made the right call.
However, this measured response outraged many on the right. Some took to Twitter to scream that “freedom of speech†is being destroyed. GOP USA has blasted A&E.
Obeidallah and Steve M both point out that when somebody associated with the Left says some hateful, jerky thing on television, usually they lose their jobs. Martin Bashir and Alec Baldwin come to mind. Yet not a peep out of the Right about “free speech” in those cases.
And for the record, when an employer sees an employee doing something that will likely hurt the company brand and cost the company money, the employee is lucky to keep his job at all. I don’t see this as a free speech issue.
The richest response must be Erick Erickson’s. Just a taste:
A & E has now joined much of mass market culture in the Western World in picking sides in a fight — tolerance for gay rights, but not for Christians expressing honest answers to questions asked of their faith. The only surprise is that the Christians of Duck Dynasty could last there as long as they did. A&E has as much right to do this as you have to turn the channel. But they have clearly aligned themselves against us in the culture wars.
The world is at war with Christ and those who put their faith in Christ. The silver lining of this act is that many Christians who decided they could sit on the sidelines and not have to care will have a wake up call — particularly millennial Christians.
Don’t miss Alex Pareene’s hilarious spoof of Erickson (written before the Duck Dynasty flap), which ends:
Now I’ve just said a lot of vitriolic, mean-spirited things about Erickson, and obviously he deserves every one of them, but now is the part where I adopt a pious tone and talk about Christ and scripture for a paragraph. Christ teaches us to forgive our enemies, after you “joke†about the ones who were murdered by death squads.
It must be noted also that on the same day the Right rose up in solidarity in defense of the Duck Dynasty star, they are also engaged in a hate frenzy over “pajama boy,” a young man who posed in an Obamacare ad from Organizing for Action while wearing pajamas. They are so outraged by the photograph that they’ve identified the young man and are attacking him personally. Because they don’t like the way he looks.
Um, have they focused their eyes on Erick Erickson lately?
Why is it that people on the left can see why Alec Baldwin was fired, why Bashir was fired, why Dan Rather had to step down in disgrace, and appreciate, though often with regret, that there will be consequences for bad conduct and poor judgement. In circumstances which exactly parallel the ones I cited, there is total myopia on the right. They really, really can’t see the double standard.
IMO, this phenomenon has a cause. There is a class of people on the right who are aware of and terrified by the changing complexion of the US. It’s more Black, it’s more Hispanic and not only are these groups becoming more numerous, they sincerely believe they are equal to White, Anglo-Saxon, Protestants. In a lot of cases, the courts are protecting the equal rights of the colored classes and now the rights of homosexuals, even their right to marry. You and I can only dimly perceive the panic they are in. In other times, in other countries, the ruling class has been a minority but in the democracy the US has, they can’t figure out how to construct rules and legal mechanisms that will guarantee the status they believe is their birthright.
The equality of the colored races isn’t a problem for the elite. They have their mansions and castles. The group who suffer here identifies with the ‘Duck Dynasty’. These are good ‘ol boys who understand how things ought to be – and aren’t. Yep, the ratings will go up. A&E will protect the bottom line and this will blow over. But it illustrates the underlying ethic and underlying terror that people who are convinced of their racial superiority suffer from when that ‘reality’ is threatened.
So… Duck Dynasty is Christ? Seriously, is this the face EE wants to put on Christianity? Although looking at EE I could understand why he might find that image comforting.
I’m telling you, A&E has totally violated my free speech rights. They’ve never put me on the air at all.
Duck Dynasty, near as I can tell, is a “reality” show about the antics of a family of crude, ignorant rednecks. And guess what, when you interview one of them, he says things a crude, ignorant redneck would say.
For this he got suspended? Was anyone watching the show who thought he shared social perspectives with Dan Savage? Of course not. He’s a backwoods ass.
Now, is it legitimate of A&E to make a profit airing a show that revels in the antics of backwoods asses, while claiming to respect civilized values? That would be an interesting conversation. But that doesn’t appear to be happening.
It seems to me that being a crude, hateful jerk is pretty much what A&E has been paying Robertson to do, and they’ve been happy to air the less disgusting parts of it and make a profit doing so. Suspending him seems fairly hypocritical. Is their real issue is that he said those things to someone who wasn’t an A&E producer, who could quietly hide it away?
Is that randy Newman singing “sail away” in the background? Oh, the sweet watermelon and the buckwheat cake!
Biggerbox, you want to “suspend” me by making me take time off during my show’s vacation period, still pay me, and keep my show and me on the air after? Sorry, but I don’t see the outrage opportuniy there.
anthro– I don’t think biggerbox is saying the guy shouldn’t have been punished as much as he’s saying that A&E is being hypocritical to build programming around ignorant rednecks and then be shocked that their stars say ignorant redneck things.
Christian Conservative POV:
LIBTARDS, STOP POINTING OUT OUR INTOLERANCE!!!
AND STOP BEING INTOLERANT OF OUR INTOLERANCE!!!
“These are good ‘ol boys who understand how things ought to be – and aren’t”
Doug,
Spot on. These right wingers are the ones who feel entitled to all this country offers, they are the ones who built this nation and they alone should share in the spoils. That is why they cannot see the double standard. Entitlement combined with homophobia, xenophobia and outright racism, that is the modern wingnut merican! I really though the most offensive thing this flea bag said was:
†I never heard one of them, one black person, say, ‘I tell you what: These doggone white people’—not a word!… Pre-entitlement, pre-welfare, you say: Were they happy? They were godly; they were happy; no one was singing the blues.â€
I read that as before every black person on this country got on welfare they were happy? WTF!
Sigh. I remember when A&E started as Arts and Entertainment, and they put on shows I could enjoy. Hopefully this will help them to examine their business practices better.
Frankly, I don’t think someone who’s so obviously the product of intra-family breeding has the right to criticize gays, but I agree with Biggerbox. A&E is only getting the crap they’ve been paying for all along.
I’ve never watched a single second of that idiotic show, but it sounds like ‘The Beverly Hillbilles,” minus the yucks, and the ceeeeeeeeeement pond.
But the Beverly Hillbillies was funny. The “CE-ment pond” still cracks me up. Duck Dynasty is just a freak show.
Well, no one has the ability to express things better than Edward Gibbon:
“Actuated by these motives, and apprehensive of disturbing the repose of an unsettled reign, Julian surprised the world by an edict which was not unworthy of a statesman or a philosopher. He extended to all the inhabitants of the Roman world the benefits of a free and equal toleration; and the only hardship which he inflicted on the Christians was to deprive them of the power of tormenting their fellow-subjects, whom they stigmatised with the odious titles of idolaters and heretics.”
the only hardship which he inflicted on the Christians was to deprive them of the power of tormenting their fellow-subjects, whom they stigmatised with the odious titles of idolaters and heretics
Nice.
Uncledad: It’s a little-known historical fact that Robert Johnson first picked up a guitar after receiving his first welfare check. Hence his seminal song “Entitlement Blues,” which helped create a genre and influenced generations of musicians.
I like what Digby wrote:
Gatorgo – I’d say that “investment” in Robert Johnson’s musical career was money well spent, not unlike a college grant or loan.
The Beverly Hillbillies had class…DD not so much…
“Duck Dynasty is just a freak show”
The weird thing is that A&E and other networks have been airing these “reality” shows I think with the intention of showing how these backwoods types live, people will get a good laugh at the backward rednecks expense. Who knew that the entire right wing and cultural conservative base would consider these miscreants as role models. Or that they would become billion dollar empires?
I’d like to advance a disturbing theory on Duck Dynasty and shows like it. It’s a win-win.
The people who want to have someone to laugh at can laugh at them. The people who want a down-home real red-blooded cast can relate to them. The cultural conflict means MORE viewers.
Agree with the above. There is a precedent from the early 1970s where “All in the Family” was popular, and there were people who saw Archie Bunker as the hero of the show and assumed that his son-in law was the goat.
I’ve just been glad that the people wanting to be Christians but who were unable to have the concepts explained to them have found a source of religious explication. It must be so nice to have the whole universe and philosophy clarified by a fellow whose being is no threat to ignorance, laziness or self-righteousness.
We have lots of guys in Florida who look like the d.d. boys; most seem to like daytona beach. I agree that I liked the Beverly hillbillies and their ceement pond; I wish I had a ceement pond, l’d have it stocked with tilapia.the d.d guys are creepy; if they carried ak’s they’d be ringers for Taliban.
I think I understand what Biggerbox was saying. I was just pointing out that you can’t very well say that the network is being hypocritical by punishing Robertson when there’s no actual punishment. In fact all the network is doing is protecting its investment and with it Robertson’s future income from the show.
“I never, with my eyes, saw the mistreatment of any black person. Not once. Where we lived was all farmers. The blacks worked for the farmers. I hoed cotton with them. I’m with the blacks, because we’re white trash.”
This is the preface to one of the statements by Robertson. He continues.
“We’re going across the field …. They’re singing and happy. I never heard one of them, one black person, say, ‘I tell you what: These doggone white people’—not a word! … Pre-entitlement, pre-welfare, you say: Were they happy? They were godly; they were happy; no one was singing the blues.”
I’m inclined to take Robertson at his word. He’s not a bigot in his mind. He has never, probably would never, participate in a lynching. But read the first part, the first paragraph, for the implication.
“Where we lived was all farmers. The blacks worked for the farmers. ”
Implication – the ‘farmers’ were all white – the 1950-something equivalent of plantation owners. (There are ‘plantation owners’ in every industry.)
“I hoed cotton with them. I’m with the blacks, because we’re white trash.â€
The vision is of a society dominated by a white ruling class, which is OK, in Robertson’s mind. He accepted his humble position in that society when he was “with the blacks” . Now he’s moved up to a TV show and big money, which is in his mind, natural in a society where any white person can aspire to wealth and success. To indulge in mind reading, (which I shouldn’t do) he probably believes in the right of some blacks to succeed – as long as they accept, endorse and acquiesce to a world ruled by white ‘plantation owners’.
The conclusion about a ‘pre-entitlement, pre-welfare’ society where the lower class was content is part of the vision he wants to have – needs to have– to justify a structure which divides wealth and opportunity along racial and class lines, guarantees a special status to the ‘plantation owner’ and gives white trash a shot at success that the blacks would never have.
The Test – I wish that, point by point, Robertson could respond to questions about the justice of segregated schools, and the disparity in quality. (Black schools were -still are -underfunded, crowded and starved for resources.) What about the Civil Rights Act? Specific provisions, like the one which refused the ‘right’ to discriminate when selling land or a home, or which prohibited the right to refuse service along racial lines and the attempt to equalize schools through busing. What about school equality as a concept? How does that fit with Head Start, for example?
I know, A&E has Roberson under media ‘house arrest’ and will script every word he says while there’s a dime to be extracted from the ‘Dynasty’. Which is a shame – I would have liked an actual exchange of ideas, a debate, and Robertson might spoken his mind honestly without political posturing.
It was also probably the case that the African Americans Robertson knew had a long-instilled habit of not expressing anger in the presence of a white man.