As soon as the rebooted sitcom “Roseanne” became network TV’s highest-rated series, its home network wanted to shun it. If that doesn’t seem counter-intuitive, what does?
When the show’s star, comedian Roseanne Barr, tweeted a racist insult of Barack Obama’s close friend and adviser, Valerie Jarrett, earlier this week, ABC pounced. In a flash, they cancelled their most popular show, one projected to deliver $60 million of revenue in the coming year, and to provide employment for scores of people. “Roseanne” was also a valuable platform for ABC and its owner, The Walt Disney Company, to promote theatrical films and other programming. Cancelling “Roseanne” is a significant, self-imposed financial hit for ABC and Disney.
In addition, three Viacom Inc. channels and E.W. Scripps Co.’s Laff TV have said they will pull reruns of the original 1990s “Roseanne” series out of syndication. And so, within two days, the most popular show on TV appears to no longer exist.
Why are entertainment executives so quick to eradicate a property that makes so much money and provides meaningful employment to so many people? It seems they don’t care about lost jobs or lost revenue so much as they care about maintaining their ‘lib-cred’ (think ‘street-cred’ for pampered, leftist elites). It is now baked into the Liberal Media Complex’s bottom line, a guiding principle — increasingly a driving force — of entertainment, sports and news programming. Witness, as well, CNN and ESPN, both losing audience, while stridently pursuing leftist political agendas. Some in the Liberal Media Complex are even blaming President Trump for … you guessed it … the racist comments of Rosanne Barr.
A related query: Is it not patently offensive to compare a sitting U.S. President to an ape (which is what Bill Maher did to President Trump)? Or to call a sitting U.S. President the “c*ck-holster” of a foreign despot (which is what Stephen Colbert called President Trump)? Or to call the daughter of a sitting U.S. President a “feckless c*nt” (which is what Samantha Bee, just last night, called Ivanka Trump)? Those three comedians have lucrative TV gigs on HBO, CBS and TBS, respectively, and are drawn from a deep pool of ugly illustrations. Just try to imagine a comedian insulting a President Obama or one of his family members in such a manner … and keeping their job … yeah right!
Supporters of Mr. Trump, or any other conservative, will grow old waiting for consistency from a liberal media culture that values left-wing narrative over self-respect. Meanwhile, as American culture becomes increasingly polarized, each of us must examine the content and message that various media sources wish us to absorb, and decide whether they deserve our respect and our patronage.
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