'Duck Dynasty' star's comments lead to new skirmish in America's culture wars
'Duck Dynasty' is a reality TV show. Unlike reality, it is a carefully-produced, semi-scripted and heavily-promoted entertainment vehicle. The stars appear as carefully produced versions of themselves. So when Phil Robertson made controversial comments to GQ magazine about gays, African Americans and non-Christian religions plenty of people took notice. That led to A&E suspending him from the hit show. Anderson takes a closer look at the fallout.
Anderson discussed the uproar over Phil Robertson's comments with social pundit and author Dan Savage, along with New York TImes op-ed columnists Charles Blow and Ross Douthat.
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Post by: AC360 Filed under: Charles Blow • Dan Savage • Duck Dynasty • Ross Douthat |
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So this is great. Now people are allowed to make bigoted remarks and it will be fine if it's their beliefs. Does that mean the next time the press gets all over someone like Paula Dean, they'll just give them a pass?
hes a good man keep the show running,proud of him
I appreciated the thoughtful discussion around the Duck Dynasty controversy. A&E had the *right* to take the guy off the air and not give him a platform but unless the rest of the family goes on without him (thereby tacitly distancing themselves from his statements) that's more likely to stir up anti-gay (or anti-liberal) fervor than quell Robertson's influence. Everyone wanted to know more about the man, now they know and what are they going to make of it? Too bad we couldn't just let him be who he was until we got sick of it and turned him off ourselves. A&E's GLBT support was all well and good, but what does it say about them that they didn't even comment on the ignorance of "blacks were all happy in the old days," and if that's a statement of opinion that they can let ride, why not the other?
I'm actually very proud of him. He's not afraid to say what he believes.
I guess now we are resigned to watch Honey Boo boo....God help us all.
American troops have been fighting sence 1776 so americans can have freedom of speech among other things for a&e to suspend phil for saying what he believes is sicking shame on a&e.