JBond

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By Dan Gainor

Published December 19, 2013

Talk about defecating in Sarah Palin’s mouth? You are allowed to resign a few weeks later. Be known as an actor with a violent temper and anger issues who even called his daughter a “pig,” you get rewarded with your own MSNBC show. But run afoul of the LGBT police at GLAAD and you are pulled from one of the most successful shows on cable TV.

That’s not reality television, that’s the reality of television, where traditional values are hated even when they bring in big ratings. And liberal attacks are tolerated until even liberals can’t stomach the result.

“Duck Dynasty” star Phil Robertson was quoted in GQ describing how homosexuality is, newsflash, a sin. (He also discussed many other sins, but they don’t all have activist defense organizations – yet.) Yes, he did so in his typical folksy way which some might call inartful, but what he said was straight from the book. THE book – the Bible.

And the network execs couldn’t stand it, bowing instantly to the gay agenda as practiced by GLAAD. Free markets have nothing to do with TV. It’s all now about not offending some victim group.

And it’s not about free speech either. TV networks want nothing to do with that archaic concept. They only support free speech they agree with and that most diehard lefties approve.

The conflict was inevitable. Television used to love people from what the media call flyover country. TV scored with hits such as “The Beverly Hillbillies,” “Green Acres,” “Hee-Haw,” and “Mayberry RFD.” Those were celebrations where Americans were reminded of their roots. And when country met city, it was always country that won out with homespun wisdom triumphing over big-city egos and fancy degrees.

But “Duck Dynasty” comes from another era where TV doesn’t celebrate ordinary people, it mocks them. This is the time of “Honey Boo Boo,” and “Buckwild,” the “Jersey Shore” style shows about rural people. These programs were designed so coastal liberals could watch and mock and feel better about themselves while reading their New York Times. That’s likely what A&E bosses thought they had with “Duck Dynasty.”

Boy, were they wrong.

A&E created a show that tried to make fun of rustic rubes and discovered it had inadvertently created the opposite. Instead of Hollywood values triumphing as we watched the stars’ backward ways, traditional values won out every time. They weren’t Obama’s bitter clingers. They cared for each other and kept their faith close. Each episode even ended in a family prayer. Before network execs could try to figure out what John 3:16 meant, they had created a program where faith, family and freedom ruled.

And it became wildly popular.

The bearded stars soon were everywhere, with promotions seemingly in every store. That success didn’t matter. The network still wanted to rein in its stars. Back in April, Phil Robertson said the network had even wanted to delete mentions of “Jesus” from the family prayer, trying to bleep the Savior like He was a four-letter word.

A&E didn’t want its high-profile stars mentioning Jesus. And it sure didn’t want them saying anything else out of the Bible. When Phil did, GLAAD cried foul and that was it.

That’s GLAAD’s typical strategy. It’s a hardcore lefty organization that wants to ban opponents to gay marriage from the airwaves – even the news shows. It even helped get liberal Alec Baldwin kicked off MSNBC. It runs its Commentator Accountability Project that tries to brand traditional marriage supporters as “extreme” and not worthy of TV time. Its list of commentators reads like a Who’s Who of the conservative movement. Yet to GLAAD, they “do not accurately represent the ‘other side’ of” gay issues.

To the left there is no other side. There’s only their side. All other views must be silenced.
 
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Was wondering when this story would make the forum. I totally agree with this article. Phil's comments may have been a little "in your face," but they weren't offensive at all IMO.
 

Jon88

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I just like how the far left thinks they set the rules for everyone. Here's what Gov. Bobby Jindal had to say about it:

"The politically correct crowd is tolerant of all viewpoints, except those they disagree with," Jindal said in a late-night statement. "I don’t agree with quite a bit of stuff I read in magazine interviews or see on TV. In fact, come to think of it, I find a good bit of it offensive. But I also acknowledge that this is a free country and everyone is entitled to express their views. In fact, I remember when TV networks believed in the First Amendment. It is a messed up situation when Miley Cyrus gets a laugh, and Phil Robertson gets suspended."


All that being said, I'm certain this is just a manufactured crisis to get everyone talking and fighting each other. There's always one of those going on.
 

JBond

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Was wondering when this story would make the forum. I totally agree with this article. Phil's comments may have been a little "in your face," but they weren't offensive at all IMO.

I was waiting for someone else to post it. I really want to participate on the football side, but damn it is hard when the team sucks and there is no hope.

Anyway, here is a follow up article by a gay writer I found interesting.
==================================================

The Duck Dynasty Fiasco Says More About Our Bigotry Than Phil’s

Read more: The 'Duck Dynasty' Fiasco Says More About Our Bigotry Than Phil's


Last night, GQ released a story about Duck Dynasty that quotes Phil Robertson’s thoughts about homosexuality:

"It seems like, to me, a vagina — as a man — would be more desirable than a man’s anus. That’s just me. I’m just thinking: There’s more there! She’s got more to offer. I mean, come on, dudes! You know what I’m saying? But hey, sin: It’s not logical, my man. It’s just not logical.”

As you can imagine, everyone had an opinion about this statement, including GLAAD and Phil’s check-signer, A&E, who suspended the star indefinitely.

One of the conservative tweeters I follow — one of those Christians convinced that Obama is going to have him killed for his faith — lives for stuff like this. He quickly took to the Twitterverse and posted a side-by-side image of Pope Francis and Phil, with the following caption: “Both preach truth on homosexual sin. One is TIME’s Person of the Year. The other JUST GOT FIRED.”

The point is worth considering. Even though Phil used crass, juvenile language to articulate his point, what he was getting at was his belief that homosexual “desire” is unnatural and inherently disordered. This opinion isn’t unique to Phil. It’s actually shared by a majority of his fans.

It’s also shared, to some extent, by the Pope. Yes, that Pope — the one on the cover not just of TIME but also of The Advocate.

Of course, The Advocate knows the Pope’s thoughts on LGBT issues, including marriage equality. But as they note, Francis’ “stark change in rhetoric from his two predecessors” has set a positive example for how religious people ought to treat LGBT persons — an example that Phil, an elder at the White’s Ferry Road Church of Christ, ought to have followed in his GQ interview.

To compare Papa Duck to Papa Francis, as conservatives are doing, is, in my opinion, to misrepresent both of them. Francis, though he privately holds to certain doctrine which some might see as “anti-gay,” has not used any of his public-speaking opportunities to share these with the world. Instead, Francis has repeatedly offered grace to the LGBT community. At one point, he even uttered what might go down as the expression of public humility that singlehandedly saved the church: “Who am I to judge?”

Phil, on the other hand, went on record as rhetorically asking how any man could ever enjoy gay intercourse, since vaginal intercourse is better. (Which certainly makes you wonder how he’s able to make the comparison.)

There are two notable differences between the Pope’s views on sex, and Phil’s. First, the Pope is a trained philosopher, and has undoubtedly spent countless hours examining, challenging and refining his views. Phil — if we are to take his brief statements on homosexuality as representative of his position — seems to hold a view on sex that manages to reduce the entire orthodox understanding of “desire” down to nothing more than a juvenile “tooshie = bad, vagina = good.”

The second difference has to do with tone. In fairness to Phil, the tone of his off-the-cuff statements may not accurately represent his philosophy on this issue, but I do think it’s a fair representation of what many see as his Southern charm. There’s a way to disagree with majority opinion without coming across as disagreeable. The Pope knows how to do this. Phil does not. As a result, we respect Papa and shame Phil.

For the record, I’m undecided on whether or not I think Phil actually is homophobic, although I certainly think his statement was offensive, and not only to the LGBT community. But I also think that if I were to spend a day calling ducks with Phil, I’d probably end up liking him — even in spite of his position on gay men. It’s quite possible to throw one’s political support behind traditional, heterosexual marriage, and yet not be bigoted.

I’m reminded of something Bill Maher said during the height of the Paula Deen controversy: “Do we always have to make people go away?” I think the question applies in this situation too.

Why is our go-to political strategy for beating our opponents to silence them? Why do we dismiss, rather than engage them? One of the biggest pop-culture icons of today just took center stage to “educate” us about sexuality. I see this as an opportunity to further the discussion, to challenge his limited understanding of human desire, to engage with him and his rather sizable audience — most of whom, by the way, probably share his views — and to rise above the endless sea of tweet-hate to help move our LGBT conversations to where they need to go.

G.K. Chesterton said that bigotry is “an incapacity to conceive seriously the alternative to a proposition.” If he is right — and he usually is — then I wonder if the Duck Dynasty fiasco says more about our bigotry than Phil’s.

Brandon Ambrosino is a writer and professional dancer based in Baltimore.


Read more: The 'Duck Dynasty' Fiasco Says More About Our Bigotry Than Phil's | TIME.com http://ideas.time.com/2013/12/19/th...e-about-our-bigotry-than-phils/#ixzz2o1y6OZwm
 

ThoughtExperiment

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Was wondering when this story would make the forum. I totally agree with this article.
Yep, so much right in that article. I'm not a rural type, I've never owned a truck or a gun and I'm not religious. But I'm so sick of the media acting like if you fit any of those, you're an idiot rube deserving of nothing but contempt and ridicule. I hate the overused term bullying these days, but it really is almost like bullying for the entertainment industry and media to continually beat up on these people without recourse. As the author said, it seems to be about making them feel better about themselves, which is pretty pathetic.
 
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Pretty much in agreement with the others. I don't think what he said was refined by any means, but certainly not bad. I'm not a homophobe but the PC pressure to openly love and embrace everything gay has gotten a bit out of hand these days. I love how it's only PC if they're cool with what you say. If not, then all hell breaks lose and you automatically are deemed a terrible person. GTFO of here.
 
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My guess is that Phil and A&E knew exactly what they were doing with all of this, and couldn't be happier with how it turned out. You can't buy this kind of publicity.
 

SixisBetter

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I think it's a over reaction by everyone involved,but that's typical these days.
All I know is,if I see one more picture of that Osama Bin Laden looking hillbilly on my Facebook feed,I might have a godamn seizure.
 

junk

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My guess is that Phil and A&E knew exactly what they were doing with all of this, and couldn't be happier with how it turned out. You can't buy this kind of publicity.

Exactly. It'll be a story arc on the show. They energize their main viewing demographic. They'll pull in new viewers, including homosexuals, to see what the fuss is about

Great marketing really
 

JBond

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Actually I think Phil does not give a flying fuck about the ratings. They made $400 million last year on merchandise alone. It appears the guy says what he believes not for attention, but because he believes it.
 

junk

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Actually I think Phil does not give a flying fuck about the ratings. They made $400 million last year on merchandise alone. It appears the guy says what he believes not for attention, but because he believes it.

And people believing that will endear him to the fan base......so they buy more shit
 

NoDak

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Exactly. It'll be a story arc on the show. They energize their main viewing demographic. They'll pull in new viewers, including homosexuals, to see what the fuss is about

Great marketing really
Doesn't look that way.

The Robertson family official statement:

We want to thank all of you for your prayers and support. The family has spent much time in prayer since learning of A&E's decision. We want you to know that first and foremost we are a family rooted in our faith in God and our belief that the Bible is His word. While some of Phil’s unfiltered comments to the reporter were coarse, his beliefs are grounded in the teachings of the Bible. Phil is a Godly man who follows what the Bible says are the greatest commandments: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart” and “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Phil would never incite or encourage hate. We are disappointed that Phil has been placed on hiatus for expressing his faith, which is his constitutionally protected right. We have had a successful working relationship with A&E but, as a family, we cannot imagine the show going forward without our patriarch at the helm. We are in discussions with A&E to see what that means for the future of Duck Dynasty. Again, thank you for your continued support of our family.

http://duckcommander.com/news/robertson-family-offical-statement#.UrPVUDpUTa4.facebook
 
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I think they're the only family who is involved in a "reality" show that could pull the plug on it in a heartbeat. I believe Phil is exactly like he is shown on TV... a no nonsense redneck who ain't taking any shit from no one. And if you cross him, game over.

They may keep the show together on a new network, but I don't think they'll do any more shows on A&E, unless there's some contractual requirements left to fulfill. And even then, they'll probably try to get out of that.
 

SixisBetter

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The first thing I thought after reading the original GQ article was,"He sure does think about gay sex a lot for a straight Christian guy".
 

JBond

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I think they're the only family who is involved in a "reality" show that could pull the plug on it in a heartbeat. I believe Phil is exactly like he is shown on TV... a no nonsense redneck who ain't taking any shit from no one. And if you cross him, game over.

I will be surprised if there are any more episodes other than the one that have already been recorded. I don't see A&E apologizing for the suspension and I don't see that family going on without him.
 

JBond

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The first thing I thought after reading the original GQ article was,"He sure does think about gay sex a lot for a straight Christian guy".

It was an obvious set-up interview. He knew exactly what he was saying and media is doing exactly what the media does. He feels called to witness regarding his faith. The media enjoys trying to destroy men of faith. The latest Pope gets a pass because he is a leftist big government guy.
 

Jon88

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All this was set up like Peplaw and I said to get attention away from the NSA and the Obamacare fiasco. Have you noticed that there's always something like this going on?

This is so stupid. The show is stupid also. I've watched at most 1 minute of it.
 

boozeman

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Yep, so much right in that article. I'm not a rural type, I've never owned a truck or a gun and I'm not religious. But I'm so sick of the media acting like if you fit any of those, you're an idiot rube deserving of nothing but contempt and ridicule. I hate the overused term bullying these days, but it really is almost like bullying for the entertainment industry and media to continually beat up on these people without recourse. As the author said, it seems to be about making them feel better about themselves, which is pretty pathetic.

Well, let's be honest...isn't the entertainment industry run by people who racist and anti-gay conservative types would have a problem with?

I am just tired of this idiotic new moral compass that makes any stupid comment someone makes worthy of dumping them.

OMG that's RACIST!

OMG that's ANTI-GAY!

I IZ AOFFENDEDZDED!
 
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