We are extremely disappointed to have read Phil Robertson’s comments in GQ, which are based on his own personal beliefs and are not reflected in the series Duck Dynasty. His personal views in no way reflect those of A+E Networks, who have always been strong supporters and champions of the LGBT community.
(Variety, December 1, 2013)
This, in part, is how A+E explained its decision to suspend Duck Dynasty’s Bible-thumping “patriarch” from his family’s reality-TV show. Here’s just a sample of his inspired utterings that supposedly left it no choice:
Regarding gays:
Start with homosexual behavior and just morph out from there: bestiality … the adulterers, the idolaters, the male prostitutes, the homosexual offenders, the greedy, the drunkards, the slanderers, the swindlers — they won’t inherit the kingdom of God. Don’t deceive yourself; it’s not right… It seems like, to me, a vagina — as a man — would be more desirable than a man’s anus.
(TPM, December 18, 2013)
Regarding Blacks:
I never, with my eyes, saw the mistreatment of any Black person… The Blacks worked for the farmers … they’re singing and happy…
Pre-entitlement, pre-welfare, you say: Were they happy? They were godly; they were happy; no one was singing the blues.
(Yahoo! December 18, 2013)
No doubt you’re aware of the way fundamentalist Christians and right-wing politicians began complaining about A+E persecuting this idiot the way Romans persecuted Jesus Christ. But what you may not know is that the other members of this family called A+E’s bluff by insisting that they would not tape a single episode without their patriarch.
This presented the network with a moral/commercial dilemma: cancel the show and forfeit the billions it generates in revenues; or eat its words and look like venal cowards. But was there ever any doubt which way A+E would go?
After discussions with the Robertson family, as well as consulting with numerous advocacy groups, A&E has decided to resume filming ‘Duck Dynasty’ … with the entire Robertson family.
(Washington Post, December 27, 2013)
After all A+E reinstating this unapologetic and unrepentant redneck was as predictable as a crackhead returning to his pipe after just a few days of sobriety. The only difference is that A+E’s drug of choice is the almighty dollar. Not to mention that it could not have paid for more ratings-generating publicity/interest than this controversy has stoked.
In other words, the network is daring offended gays and Blacks to prove that their outrage/boycott could do more damage to its bottom line than canceling this show.
But forget A+E; because the real story here is that a show about nothing more than the (scripted) rantings and antics of rednecks is the highest-rated show in the history of cable TV – more than filling the void left by Honey Boo Boo. Yet I suppose this should come as no surprise given the popularity of Twitter, which thrives on the snarky, ignorant, often homophobic and racist tweets of attention-seeking twits.
And don’t get me started on the delusions of grandeur inherent in these redneck peddlers of duck paraphernalia referring to this nincompoop as their “patriarch.”
Talk about the dumbing down of culture; given this, how can one not fear for the future of American civilization….