Rita Panahi: Rules don’t apply if you’re on the Left’s team
WHILE Roseanne Barr was rightly slammed for her racist tweet, another comedian was celebrated and defended for her misogynist rant. Those on the Left aren’t held to the same standards of behaviour demanded of everybody else, writes Rita Panahi.
Rita Panahi
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THE Roseanne saga exposes an ugly double standard in the entertainment world. Hours after her racist tweet at 1.45am likening an Iranian-born woman with African-American heritage to a primate, Roseanne Barr and the entire cast and crew of her top rating show were sacked.
Heartfelt apologies weren’t going to save the program or its creator and there would be no half measures like a fine, suspension or efforts to counsel the recalcitrant star.
Indeed, some networks not only pulled the current Roseanne episodes off air but also the old ones, which were actually funny, groundbreaking television that tackled issues that other programs still shy away from, including domestic violence and the struggles of the working poor.
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SAMANTHA BEE BLASTED FOR ‘VILE AND VICIOUS’ SLUR AGAINST IVANKA TRUMP
Now, I have no issue with US network ABC making a judgment call on the program and determining that it would be boned immediately, despite its stellar ratings. But compare that uncompromising response with what happened to another comedian fronting her own program, Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, as seen here on SBS.
The night after Roseanne’s axing, Bee delivered one of her painfully unfunny, Left-wing diatribes and thought it was wise to attack not just Donald Trump but the President’s daughter Ivanka because she had dared to post an image of herself cuddling her child.
“Let me just say, one mother to another, do something about your dad’s immigration practices you feckless c---!” said Bee.
“He listens to you. Put on something tight and low cut and tell your father to f---ing stop it.”
That demented misogyny, including the suggestion that Ivanka seduce her own father, did not result in Bee being sacked or sanctioned. Indeed she was applauded and defended by stars such as comedian Jon Stewart and actors Minnie Driver and Sally Field.
Last week Bee received an award from the Television Academy for “advancing social change”. Can you imagine an entertainer hurling similar abuse at Barack Obama’s daughters or Chelsea Clinton without sanction?
It is worth noting that the immigration practises Bee was railing against, under which parents and children separated, were in place under Obama.
However, last week a whole list of prominent journalists and commentators shared a heartbreaking image of immigrant children in cages at a border protection holding facility. Trump was, of course, labelled a monster for overseeing this horror.
Just a little problem: the image in question was taken and published in 2014 under the Obama administration. The same people revolted in 2018 were silent in 2014, too busy giving Obama a tongue bath to criticise his policies.
Large segments of the mainstream media seem determined to make Trump’s claims against them look credible by pushing half-truths, not reporting pertinent facts or straight out lying. It is becoming increasingly obvious that Hollywood and the entertainment industry as a whole has also lost any semblance of rationality when it comes to the US President and his family.
The “feckless c---” slur was not an off-the-cuff comment delivered on live TV or a tweet sent in the early hours; it was in a scripted piece in a program with a team of writers and producers. That is what happens when an industry is so hostile to diverse views that it creates an insular echo chamber where only like-minded “progressives” are employed.
One look at the twitter feed of Full Frontal’s head writer and executive producer and it’s clear why they all thought attacking the President’s daughter in the ugliest way imaginable was a superb idea.
Actor Charlie Sheen was among those publicly celebrating Roseanne’s axing, even though it meant a team of mainly Leftist writers, producers and crew were out of a job. This is a man with a long history of abuse against women but he is still seen as less toxic than Roseanne because politically he is typical Hollywood: a moral posturing activist for every Leftist cause.
Virtue signalling gives cover to those who behave atrociously. Those on the Left aren’t held to the same standards of behaviour demanded of everybody else. For decades Harvey Weinstein presented as a male feminist championing women’s rights alongside the likes of Hillary Clinton, while he preyed on dozens of women.
Weinstein, who is facing rape and criminal sex act charges in New York, even took part in the anti-Trump Women’s March.
Bee wasn’t the only example last week of double standards in the entertainment industry.
MSNBC host Joy Reid also kept her job despite being exposed as a serial liar who concocted an absurd hacking fantasy, even calling in the FBI to dodge responsibility for blog posts which were homophobic, anti-Semitic and pushed crazy conspiracy theories. Reid’s hacking claims have been discredited and yet she remains employed as a political pandit and host of her own news-based program.
As for Bee, she did apologise when a sponsor pulled their advertising but, like Roseanne’s apology, it was hollow and motivated by self-interest. Unlike Roseanne, Bee’s program is floundering in the ratings and she can’t afford to lose advertisers.
Rita Panahi is a Herald Sun columnist
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