Roseanne’s Cancellation Was Inevitable

ABC Entertainment has cancelled the revival of its hit show Roseanne after actress Roseanne Barr posted a racist tweet describing former Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett as the product of the Muslim Brotherhood and Planet of the Apes.

“Roseanne’s Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values, and we have decided to cancel her show,” ABC Entertainment president Channing Dungey said Tuesday.

Barr had apologized for the tweet, claiming that it was a “bad joke” that was “in bad taste,” after she was hit with immediate backlash for her racist remark.

“I apologize to Valerie Jarrett and to all Americans. I am truly sorry for making a bad joke about her politics and her looks,” Barr said. “I should have known better. Forgive me-my joke was in bad taste.”

Should Roseanne have known better? Obviously.

But it doesn’t change the fact that Roseanne was not cancelled primarily because of what she said. It was cancelled because she’s not a hard-left progressive like virtually all key people at that network, and in the establishment media.

If top-rated comedians or entertainers were cancelled by major networks for their attacks on conservatives, libertarians, white people, males or heterosexuals, there would be an upheaval not seen like anything since the American Revolution. Of course, it will never happen.

If Roseanne wanted to seriously attack Valerie Jarrett, she didn’t have to make a poorly crafted joke. Instead, she could have pointed out that Obama was lazy, and because of his laziness, Valerie Jarrett did most of his dirty work for him. Such work includes providing a White House email address to report opponents of Obamacare before it was passed (remember that? I sure do); spying on President Trump’s presidential campaign in 2016; encouraging Obama to talk openly about using executive orders to raise taxes or ban guns; supporting Obama’s use of executive orders to unilaterally alter existing immigration law; and attempting to use government force to take ownership of the Internet. And then there was her support, as a key member of the administration if not the de facto president some claimed she was, of the threats to criminally prosecute people who question global warming or who criticize Islam, even after terrorist attacks by Muslims in places like Orlando.

And these are just a few of the things we know about.

Roseanne is a comedian, not a political commentator. But leftist rage with any form of successful dissension is so wild, and so mad with perpetual outrage that anyone would even tread slightly on their hard-core one-party Hollywood turf, that ABC was undoubtedly looking for any excuse to cancel the show. And it would have eventually happened anyway. I’m surprised it lasted as long as it did, or that it even got on the air in the first place.

Even when engaging in humor, the antidote to racism isn’t attacks on black people as a group. The antidote to racism is individualism. It’s about viewing people for the content of their character, not the color of their skin. Character is an INDIVIDUAL matter.

Self-conscious, preening outrage over Roseanne’s stupid and unfunny joke about Valerie Jarrett misses the point. Although Roseanne’s joke was in poor taste and arguably racist, its sin is nothing compared to the war that Valerie Jarrett and her lazy boss waged against the American Constitution for eight long years.

I’m a little surprised that Roseanne made such a clumsy error. I’m not at all surprised ABC seized on the first opportunity they had to cancel her show.

 

Follow Dr. Hurd on Facebook. Search under “Michael Hurd” (Rehoboth Beach DE). Get up-to-the-minute postings, recommended articles and links, and engage in back-and-forth discussion with Dr. Hurd on topics of interest. Also follow Dr. Hurd on Twitter at @MichaelJHurd1, and see “Michael Hurd” on MeWe.