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  • February 20, 2019

Hate speech and hypocrisy

May 29, 2018 By SomervilleTom 3 Comments


Roseanne Barr

Tonight’s news feed is abuzz with the abrupt cancellation of the Roseanne Barr show. The cancellation was, of course, the necessary and correct response to her racist Twitter outburst.

For me, it immediately leads to the obvious question: why haven’t we acted to similarly cancel the Donald Trump show?

I’ve read the offending message from Ms. Barr. Mr. Trump has sent dozens of far worse Tweets, before and after taking office.

Why do our mainstream networks and their advertisers continue to give airtime to the hate speech from our President and his GOP collaborators, since their response to Ms. Barr shows that their boundaries are quite clear?

Valerie Jarrett, the African-American woman who was the target of Ms. Barr’s outburst, said “We have to turn it into a teaching moment.”

I agree. Here’s one of the lessons that we need to drive home:

When the offender is an aging woman, the reaction is swift and draconian. When the offender is a bigoted, misogynistic, and xenophobic white male (who happens to be President), our protectors of decency are paralyzed. The double standard is crystal clear.

The reaction to Ms. Barr’s hate speech is completely appropriate. How long must we wait for our courageous defenders of public morality to take the same action against Donald Trump?

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Charley on the MTA
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Charley on the MTA

There are no “defenders of public morality”, except … us. People.

The folks who run Disney may or may not be decent people, but they gave her a show because there was money to be made. They took it away because they would lose money. Shareholder value.

That’s less a criticism of Disney, and more to point out that consumers who still possess some moral dignity have power, and they can use it.

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8 months ago
Christopher
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Christopher

I assume you realize it’s much easier procedurally for a network executive to yank a TV show than it is for Congress to remove a President. Plus, as much as I think he has committed impeachable offenses regarding Russian connections and the investigation thereof, misogyny and bigotry are not impeachable offenses, and of course the voters themselves don’t get another chance to weigh in directly until November 2020. I didn’t like how much free media Trump the candidate got, but now that he is President his pronouncements are news whether we like it or not.

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8 months ago
SomervilleTom
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SomervilleTom

I fear you miss the forest for the trees. I’m not talking about procedures or impeachment.

ABC, the Disney Corp, and similar media outlets recognize bigoted hate speech when it comes from Ms. Barr. They can do the same when it comes from the Oval Office.

There is no legal requirement for any outlet to broadcast Mr. Trump’s hate speech. There is certainly no requirement that any media outlet restrains itself from clearly labeling it as such.

The media made Donald Trump, and the media can destroy him.

More importantly, the media have decided that America accepts Donald Trump’s hate speech and rejects Ms. Barr’s hate speech. That decision is something that the media can revisit whenever they choose.

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8 months ago
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