ABC Cancels 'Roseanne'

This is such a mess.

Roseanne Barr chose to tweet some crazy stuff. Within a few hours, she apologized.

Barr's enemies went ballistic and many of her colleagues piled on as well.

A couple hours later, ABC cancelled Roseanne.

From the New York Times:

Two months ago, Roseanne Barr was a star again.

Her sitcom “Roseanne” returned in March after a two-decade absence to enormous ratings on ABC. Network executives were celebrating their strategy of appealing to wider swaths of the country after Donald J. Trump’s surprising election win and the president himself called Ms. Barr to congratulate her on the show’s large audience.

But on Tuesday, that all came crashing down. ABC abruptly canceled “Roseanne” hours after Ms. Barr, the show’s star and co-creator, posted a racist tweet about Valerie Jarrett, an African-American woman who was a senior adviser to Barack Obama throughout his presidency and considered one of his most influential aides. Ms. Barr wrote if the “muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj.”

Ms. Barr later apologized, but it was too late. In announcing the show’s cancellation, ABC’s entertainment president, Channing Dungey, said in a statement that “Roseanne’s Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values.”

It all happened so quickly, as if ABC was waiting for the opportunity to pounce.

Without question, Barr presented ABC with the opportunity and ABC got rid of the show.

So, that's done.

Of course, going nuts on Twitter is a serious matter. It is a public statement and one should be held accountable for one's words.

I certainly don't know what Barr was thinking. I can only assume it was an intentionally self-destructive tweet, career suicide, or she was under the influence of some substance. She had to know there would be controversy unless she was completely out of her mind.

Obviously, Barr was not granted any mercy. Although she apologized, her apology was not accepted, and the outrage over her tweet continued to erupt.

I'm not defending Barr's tweet in any way. I'm not objecting to ABC's decision to cancel the show either. The network wants to make money and Barr was likely and rightly seen as a problem.

Here comes the "however."

However, the double standard has to be acknowledged.

Joy Behar, Joy Reid, Alec Baldwin, Jimmy Kimmel, Al Sharpton, Wanda Sykes, and Bill Maher are the faces of ABC, NBC, MSNBC, and HBO.

Behar trashed Christians. Reid and Baldwin trashed homosexuals. Kimmel trashed women. Sharpton trashed Jews and police officers. Sykes trashed Rush Limbaugh, calling him the 20th terrorist and wishing him dead. Bill trashed Catholics. No problem. In some cases, no apology was necessary.

Barr's apology wasn't enough, while so many others are allowed to repeatedly make vile remarks with impunity. It's ridiculous and it's wrong.

Moreover, so many people are slamming Barr as a racist, not just her tweet. People all over television and social media are calling her racist.

Again, I'm not excusing her racist comment on Twitter. But, I do think it should be noted that the original run of Roseanne included minorities and gay characters and treated them with respect. On the reboot, Roseanne's son is married to an African-American and his daughter appears as an integral part of the family. One episode took on the subject of bigotry against Muslims. None of that fits with the racist label. It just doesn't.

More disturbing fallout from the Roseanne mess--

Conservatives decided to adopt Roseanne -- a far left, Christian-hating fruitcake -- as one of their own. For their trouble, she has proceeded to embarrass them at every turn. Nicely done, guys. Give yourselves a round of applause.

— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) May 29, 2018

Good grief.

Barr has made it known she supports President Trump, but this "conservatives decided to adopt Roseanne as one of their own" stuff is BS.

That leap truly bugs me because it's simply false.

I don't think Barr is conservative. But that aside, it's wrong to require anyone identifying as a conservative to account for the words and actions of others.

Barr owns what she says and does. Trump owns what he says and does. We all own what we say and do.

I'm responsible for my words and actions, not anyone else.