ABC deserves praise for quickly canceling Roseanne: "This is how you teach civil and moral behavior"

The Baltimore Sun

In fact, ABC deserves "double praise" for a "clean, quick, moral call in a corporate media world drowning in executives talking out of both sides of their mouths," says David Zurawik of ABC Entertainment president Channing Dungey's statement that Roseanne Barr's racist tweet is "abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values." Zurawik adds: "After decades of seeing network executives bend themselves into knots trying to keep bad people in hit shows on the air, I salute Dungey and ABC for ditching a show that came out of nowhere to make tens of millions of dollars for the network. This is how you teach civil and moral behavior: You make people who transgress the way Roseanne did pay a huge price. You make them pariahs no matter how much it hurts your bottom line."

ALSO:

• Roseanne reruns yanked from Paramount Network, TV Land, CMT -- and Hulu
• Roseanne Barr's ugly hatred isn't new. ABC's rejection of it, however, is: "That the show’s star had become a rabid conspiracy theorist who used her platform to push baseless rumors was brushed off like a mere annoyance, like Barr was an embarrassing grandma the network tolerated with an affectionate eye roll because hey, she’s family," says Cynthia Littleton. "That she had previously made racist statements like the one she made Tuesday was straight-up ignored. The inconvenient truth of the matter is that while the (Valerie) Jarrett insult was particularly awful, it wasn’t a particularly unusual statement for Barr to make. It was, despite her apology that she 'should have known better,' exactly in line with the persona Barr herself has cultivated — one ABC had to be aware of when it decided to get back in business with her."
• This was the problem all along: Having Roseanne back meant having Roseanne back: "If we’ve learned anything from this," says Hank Stuever, "it’s that Roseanne is Roseanne is Roseanne. TV still needs a contrary, can­tankerous character from which to tell the story of American life and politics in 2018. But Barr was never the right person for that job."
• Did Channing Dungey being the first black woman network entertainment president make a difference?: "We can never know for sure what would have happened if a white person were in charge of ABC at this moment," says Willa Paskin, "but it strikes me that that person would have been much more likely to administer the aforementioned wrist slap, continuing to put up with the polarizing circus act that is Barr. Dungey, instead, saw Roseanne’s tweet comparing a black woman to an ape for what it was: too much, too far, enough."
• Last August, Dungey said Roseanne's son would take over her Twitter feed: "Why was ABC comfortable with Barr's son running a gross Twitter feed in her name, one that featured a verified check mark and was assumed to be coming from Roseanne? Why was that better?" asks Daniel Fienberg. "When did that experiment with her son running the Twitter feed end? Did anything change? Why does it matter? And why DIDN'T ABC ask Barr to take a break from Twitter? Or to take a break from specific aspects of her Twitter?" Fienberg adds: "Roseanne Barr's Twitter feed has been abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with what should have been ABC and Disney's values since long before the show was picked up, and also subsequently. Barr's Twitter feed has trafficked in vile and disproved conspiracy theories and ample content that walked lines many considered racist or xenophobic or prejudiced or judgement-clouded in a number of ways. She's engaged in hostile and insulting fights with Twitter followers high and low. She's shown no interest in controlling herself."
• Dungey's decision feels like a gutsy move: "It looks like a stand against racism, a line drawn in the sand to delineate what is reasonable and what is not. It even looks like a data point in the 'How do we separate the art from the artist?' debate," says Kathryn VanArendonk, "and it offers a heartening answer: We don’t have to, because, in this case, ABC will not finance that artist. It’s somehow even more heartening because it comes from a massive corporate conglomerate that might lose money by making this decision. It feels remarkably just. It feels decent."
• ABC doesn't deserve all this praise for Roseanne's cancelation when they put her back on TV following her history of racist/homophobic/Islamophobic tweets
• Valerie Jarrett responds to Roseanne Barr tweet on MSNBC's "Everyday Racism in America" forum, calling it "a teaching moment"
• ABC suspends Roseanne's Emmy campaign
• White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders declined to address Roseanne's cancelation, saying there "a lot bigger things going on in the country right now"
• Roseanne's cancelation leaves a huge crater on ABC's fall schedule
• Inside the cancelation: Dungey made the decision with Disney CEO Bob Iger's support -- Disney feared Barr's tweet would hurt its diversity efforts
• Carsey-Werner Television sees its syndication revenue vanish with axing of Roseanne and The Cosby Show reruns
• Michael Fishman tweeted he's "devastated": "I feel devastated, not for the end of the Roseanne show, but for all those who poured their hearts and souls into our jobs, and the audience that welcomed us into their homes...The words of one person do not exemplify the thinking of all involved...I condemn these statements vehemently."
• Tom Arnold praises ABC for Iger for cancelation, saying "I called out Roseanne Barr & her dangerous tweets"
• Bill O'Reilly says ABC had no choice but to cancel Roseanne: "@ABC/@Disney could not continue with the show without insulting millions of Americans"
• ABC quickly removed all traces of Roseanne from its website
• Roseanne could've brought in $60 million in ad revenue next season
• A rerun of The Middle will replace tonight's scheduled rerun of Roseanne
• Celebrities suggest Roseanne-less Roseanne reboot ideas
• Charlie Sheen suggests filling ABC's Roseanne timeslot with a Two and a Half Men reboot
• Before Roseanne was canceled, many media outlets bent over backwards to not use the word "racist" to describe Roseanne's tweet