What infuriates me about the Roseanne Barr fiasco isn't the comedian's questionable joke on Twitter, but ABC's knee-jerk reaction in abruptly canceling her show because of it.
Did Roseanne's joke go too far? Perhaps, but only because we live in a society where any mention of race or certain religions is automatically deemed irreversibly offensive. Did ABC's reaction go too far? Without a doubt. Roseanne made her joke; many people laughed; others did not. That should have been the end of it. Now, hundreds of cast, crew and support staff (many of whom are Muslims, immigrants and people of color) have lost their jobs, while millions more people are void of a valid entertainment option.
Perhaps the bigwigs at ABC, as well as those well-intentioned souls who swiftly called for the show's ouster, might want to actually watch an episode or two. If they did, they'd realize the show featured cherished black friends of the fictional Connor family, as well as one grandchild who identified as gender nonconforming and another who was black.
"Roseanne" was a ratings behemoth during its original run and again since its reboot this year. Did ABC solicit opinions about the show's status from viewers in the few hours between Roseanne's joke going viral and the network's decision to pull the plug? No, the network caved to the political left, most of whom are not "Roseanne" viewers given that both the comedian and her character support President Donald Trump. Why not allow the marketplace to dictate whether a show survives or fails, as is normal procedure? I'd wager the majority of viewers would have ignored a bad joke in favor of years of entertainment.
Jason Gabbert, Plymouth
• • •
I'm glad ABC fired Barr over her Twitter comments, but not because she may have deserved it. I'm glad because firing her and at the same time being perfectly happy with, if not outright praising, the vitriol and hateful language being used almost daily against Republicans and conservatives plainly reveals the utter hypocrisy of Disney/ABC and the rest of the liberal media.
Whether it's the boorish and often obscene remarks by so-called "comedians" on late-night shows, award shows or even White House Correspondents' Dinners that are aimed, often, at women, or the misogynistic rantings of leftist opinionistas like Keith Olbermann (whom Disney employs), or the racist and homophobic tweets of those like Joy Reid; these are all done with complete impunity. Because if you are a member of the protected class of liberal elites, another standard is applied to you — one that assumes the target of your attacks actually deserves it, so you are entitled to say whatever you like about them.
And so those on today's left (i.e., the Democratic Party) continue to show how out of touch they are with regular Americans. But their arrogance blinds them to what they have become, a bunch of self-righteous hypocrites.