Why Roseanne Barr was fired and Samantha Bee was not: TBS bears some responsibility for C-word airing

Entertainment Weekly

Roseanne's Twitter account -- which ABC knew was problematic as far back as last August -- contains her own tweets. Bee's Full Frontal show is pre-taped. "Those words should not have been aired. It was our mistake too, and we regret it," TBS said in a statement yesterday. As James Hibberd notes, "it’s hard for a network to fire a host when it’s partly responsible for what the host said." He also points out that ABC is a family-friendly broadcast network, while Bee's show airs on a basic cable channel that allows for limited profanity. Finally, what Barr tweeted and what Bee said are different. "Obviously, most people wouldn’t consider racist slurs and a profane word anywhere close to the same ballpark of offensive — coming across as a cruel vulgarian is often survivable (Trump himself is known for his unpresidential use of profanity)," says Hibberd. ALSO: Megyn Kelly calls out White House hypocrisy on Bee.