- "Racism is not a known side effect of any Sanofi medication."
Oh my god, I love people that work in marketing!
- Yeah, she said something pretty bad, but I mean, it's not as if people
on the left are innocent of doing that as well.
♪ (industrial intro) ♪
- (FBE) So today, we're gonna show you a series of tweets
that stirred up some controversy.
- Well, Twitter is always fun.
- As soon as we reacted to Roseanne Barr's new show,
or old show technically, I was like, "Well,
something's gonna happen to make it worse."
- Oh, no. Roseanne. Oh, that's so ugly
to even read out loud.
"Muslim Brotherhood and Planet of the Apes
had a baby." (groans)
- I saw this yesterday on the news. They were talking about it
on the news that she got fired, and the show was canceled.
- It's okay to make jokes about somebody's politics.
I mean, that happens all the time. It was more about her race,
and I think that is way out of line.
- She's always had crazy-ass, super...
just crazy tweets in general, especially when it comes to politics.
This isn't a reply that I'm surprised by.
- (FBE) So in this tweet, Roseanne Bar,
the star of ABC comedy, Roseanne, was responding to a comment
about Valerie Jarrett, who is black
and a former aide to President Obama
and compared her looks to an ape, while also alleging
a connection between Jarrett and the Islamist organization
known as the Muslim Brotherhood.
- I mean, I've heard that Roseanne's a little bit
of a conspiracy theorist.
- (FBE) Immediately, social media lit up with criticism,
some calling her racist, and others demanding ABC
to step in and respond. Roseanne did try to apologize
by releasing her own statements and here is one of them.
- "I apologize to Valerie Jarrett and all Americans."
Okay, that's so [bleep] general.
- "I should've known better. Forgive me. My joke was in bad taste."
I feel like that's most of her jokes.
- Good. She could've said, "I [bleep] up too."
She could've added that also.
- The same people who are happy that Roseanne was fired
are pissed off that Kaepernick is... Even if he nobody wants
to hire him because of what he did, that's totally fine,
because the NFL is a private organization
just the same as ABC. Now, the First Amendment says
that the government can't infringe on your free speech rights,
and the government's not involved in any of these cases.
- In this situation, if she's sorry, she's just sorry
because she's getting in trouble.
I was kind of surprised, 'cause I'm like, "Wow.
You have this show that's so...
Like, there's not a lot of shows like yours.
Why would you jeopardize that and say something stupid like this?"
- (FBE) ABC President Channing Dungey released a statement on their decision
regarding the show. The statement is combined
as you'll see in this next tweet by Bob Iger, the CEO of Disney,
who owns ABC. - "From Channing Dungey,
president of ABC Entertainment: 'Roseanne's twitter statement
is abhorrent, repugnant, and inconsistent with our values.'"
- "'And we have decided to cancel her show.'
There was only one thing to do here,
and that was the right thing." Yeah, that's fair.
- "There's only one thing, and that was the right thing."
I like that. - Honestly, with the whole
cancellation thing, when you talk about ABC stepping in,
I think ABC was just looking for an excuse to cancel it
in the first place. - (FBE) Like mentioned earlier,
Roseanne's initial tweet caused a social media frenzy
with several people sharing their opposing viewpoints
on both the statements and subsequent cancellation.
Some of her costars chimed in, so we have one example here.
- "Roseanne's recent comments about Valerie Jarrett and so much more
are abhorrent and do not reflect the beliefs of our cast and crew
or anyone associated with our show.
I am disappointed in her actions to say the last."
Yeah. I'm so curious what Sara Gilbert thinks
about Roseanne as a person, 'cause she's known her
since she was a child.
- That stinks for her and all the other people
who just got their big break on this show,
and now the whole thing has just gone to dirt.
- (FBE) Some celebrities chimed in on this too,
so here are some examples. - Okay.
- "This wasn't censorship. This was business.
She hasn't been prosecuted. She hasn't been silenced."
- "She can carry on saying what she wants.
It's just that her employers have decided they don't want
to employ her anymore. This is freedom."
Absolutely. - It's not even related
to her political views. Really, it's just the fact
that she made racial comments.
Everyone has political views and that's not what this is about.
- I agree. But again, the same thing has to apply
to cases that people on the left might not agree with.
I'd just like to see some more consistency
from people on the left on issues like this.
- "What Roseanne said was wrong. I'm sure she knows
that she made a mistake."
- "I don't know why fellow conservatives
are playing mental gymnastics trying to justify it.
Come on, wrong is wrong."
- I don't know if she knows that just for the record.
Also, it's weird agreeing with Tomi Lahren. (chuckles)
- You know [bleep] is bad when Tomi Lahren
is even saying that you are wrong.
- That's from Tomi Lahren, who, of course,
a lot of people on the left like to vilify.
Not all conservatives are racist. That's the caricature
that people on the left try to paint.
- Charlie Kirk!
- "Wait, Bill Maher makes comparisons
to Trump being a gorilla all the time?"
- "They get classified as 'jokes' by the media,
and he is, of course, allowed to keep his show
and not have his life ruined."
- "The difference? Bill Maher is a liberal.
Roseanne is a free-thinking Trump supporter."
(speaking gibberish) Whatever.
- I can see where he's coming from. Some of the liberal thinking
gets away with a lot of [bleep].
- White people aren't called gorillas out of a racist sort of statement.
It doesn't have the same impact when you're calling
a white guy a gorilla versus a black man.
- Oh! Donald Trump's was my favorite.
It always comes back around to him.
- "Bob Iger of ABC called Valerie Jarrett
to let her know that 'ABC does not tolerate
comments like those' made by Roseanne Barr."
- "Gee, he never called President Donald J. Trump
to apologize for the horrible statements
made and said about me at ABC. Maybe I just didn't get the call?"
People should treat him better, but at the end of the day,
he's the most powerful man in the free world.
Why does he care what some people say about him?
- The fact that the president of the United States
will get on Twitter and tweet [bleep] is a joke.
Donald Trump is like a teenager.
- This is blowing my mind, because at first, I thought one thing,
and now reading these, I'm thinking another thing,
because it's just hard.
There's a total double standard going on.
People say tons of terrible things to so many people,
and then she's getting her show taken away.
- It's actually pretty awesome of him to call them out on that.
It's absolutely disgusting some of the the things
that people have been saying about conservatives,
especially affiliated with the Trump administration.
- (FBE) Valerie Jarrett, who was the subject of the tweet
that started this responded to all of this on MSNBC.
We have some of those comments to show you next.
- Ooh, fun stuff.
- (Valerie) Well, first of all, I think we have to turn it
into a teaching moment. I'm fine.
I'm worried about all the people out there who don't have a circle
of friends and followers who come right to their defense.
- Yeah, I saw this.
- (Valerie) ...minding their own business,
and they see somebody cling to their purse
or wanna cross the street, or every black parent I know
who has a boy who has to sit down
and have a conversation, "the talk," as we call it...
- She's taking this with complete grace.
- (Valerie) ...examples of racism that happen every single day.
- I really like the way she handled that.
- She's taken the whole situation and turned it
into a learning experience for everybody.
This is the type of [bleep] we have to tell our kids about
to prepare them for, which is [bleep] true,
'cause I've had this pretty similar talk myself
from my parents. This is the type of basic,
daily racism that affects all of us.
- (FBE) So, later that night, Roseanne ended up going back
on Twitter, after she said she was leaving Twitter,
and released a flurry of tweets apologizing for
and also defending her actions. - No.
- "I'm sorry for my tweet, and I will also defend myself
as well as talk to my followers."
- "So, go away if you don't like it."
- "I will handle my sadness the way I want to.
I'm tired of being attacked and belittled
more than other comedians who have said worse."
Have they?! - It's not really fair
that she's having her show taken away, but she should've known better.
- At least that last part is for sure fair.
Again, it just keeps coming back to the double standards.
Yeah, she said something pretty bad, but I mean, it's not as if people
on the left are innocent of doing that as well.
And there seem to be no consequences for them.
- "Guys, I did something unforgivable so do not defend me.
It was two in the morning, and I was Ambien-tweeting.
It was Memorial Day, too. I went too far."
What does that have to do with Memorial Day?
Was she drunk or something?
- "It was egregious and indefensible.
I made a mistake. I wish I hadn't,
but don't defend it, please. TY," thank you.
So, you wanna defend it or you don't?
You're digging yourself into a deeper hole.
- I shouldn't be empathetic towards this type of person,
but I'm also trying to find the human within her.
- (FBE) And last one, one of the companies
that makes those pills, Ambien, tweeted this.
- "People of all races, religions, and nationalities
work at Sanofi every day to improve the lives
of people around the world. While all pharmaceutical treatments
have side effects, racism is not a known side effect
of any Sanofi medication." Oh my god,
I love people that work in marketing!
- That is amazing. Of course it's not the medicine.
Don't try to fake it like that.
- Even if you were super drunk and that made you lose control,
I still think when you're that intoxicated,
what you're really exposing is your unconscious.
You're not actually saying things that you wouldn't say otherwise.
- She did try to use it as a little bit of justification
kind of thing, where it's like, "Guys, I was taking medication."
I get it, though, 'cause any time your name
is brought up in any sort of controversy,
you wanna make sure you're not attached to that.
So, I mean, it was both a joke, but also they were like,
"This is not a justification."
- (FBE) So, one complaint people are talking about is the fact
that according to some industry sources,
at least 200 jobs will be affected by the cancellation
of Roseanne's show. - That's a lot.
- (FBE) Do you think the actions of one cast member
is worthy of the whole show being canceled
and all the innocent bystanders who have been working
on this should have their lives negatively impacted?
- I mean, in this case, when Roseanne [bleep] up,
and the show's called "Roseanne"... (chuckles)
There's not that many options.
- It kind of sucks the way this went down.
There was no way that a cast member
who represents themselves badly
should affect their cast members this much.
- Of course, I don't want all these people to lose their jobs
and lose their way of making money and providing for themselves
and their family, but do you wanna be affiliated with that person?
- It kind of just makes me think of Saturday Night Live
and Jimmy Kimmel. They are so political,
and they make jokes. But people could be offended,
and you don't see their shows getting canceled.
I feel bad for all the people that are gonna lose their jobs
just because of one comment where other people
are making comments all the time, and it's okay.
- Backstage, you don't-- probably, they didn't get along.
They probably had issues. They probably went through things.
And if it was not a nice environment for them to work at,
they're happy getting out of there.
- I'm in favor of at-will employment. I don't think anyone
should be employed under any circumstances
if the employer doesn't want to employ them.
So, it's unfortunate, but, I mean,
it's in line with my principles.
- In the entertainment industry, these people are all aware
that their jobs are always gonna be temporary.
- Yeah, it's horrible. And yeah, it got canceled
earlier than expected, 'cause it had already
been picked up for a second season.
But they knew that this was a possibility.
- (FBE) Roseanne is no stranger to controversy,
often making politically-charged statements
on Twitter, sometimes spreading false accusations
and being negative towards people.
Some sources have said that ABC executives
knew that some of her previous posts and comments
had already been problematic. And they may have decided
that the rewards of hiring Roseanne and giving her a show
outweighed the risks. Do you think that the decision
to cancel the show over yet another tweet
was right when she has a track record of doing things like this?
- I think, in this case, they just got caught.
- It's a private organization. Their reason doesn't have
to be justified to anybody but themselves.
They're totally within their rights to do it.
- I did not want Roseanne speaking for me.
I think she's just hurting their conservative cause.
She's making us look bad.
- Being in that position, having to decide what to do
when you have on your hands so many workers
and so many people relying on you,
but then you have all these other people
that are counting on you to make the "right" decision.
Whatever decision you take, it's not gonna necessarily change
the essence of the person.
- I don't think they should've done the show in the first place.
They're saying it would make them more money
than it would lose them. Was it worth it
to cause this controversy and then have to drop
and force people to lose jobs?
- You have to give them credit where credit is due
for at least making the decision out of humanity
rather than money at the end.
- (FBE) Another criticism is people feeling ABC is hypocritical
as they took a stand in this instance,
but earlier this year, another ABC sitcom, Black-ish,
agreed not to air an episode over creative differences
that some believe stemmed from the fact that the episode
touched upon the rights of athletes to kneel
during the national anthem at football games.
- Yes, yes. I saw that.
- That just shows me that they're a business.
They care about the money. They don't care who is on who's side.
They're caring about providing to everybody,
'cause everybody has money.
- (FBE) Many on the left were upset about this move
just as some on the right are upset about the cancellation with Roseanne.
What do you think about ABC as a network making a stand here
for Roseanne, but is also not willing to take on other issues
such as racism and kneeling at NFL games?
- Yeah, I feel like that is really interesting,
because kneeling at a game if you're an athlete,
that's a personal decision. And the thing with Roseanne is racism.
- It's erred more towards the liberal/leftist side.
I would like to see more people in the media like me,
you know, with my beliefs.
- Even though they might've made a mistake by not
taking a stand on that particular issue,
they have taken a stand on this particular issue,
and I think they've initiated a conversation
of what people expect from media.
- They're trying to play to so many different demographics,
'cause these shows aren't necessarily made
for one audience. They're made
for the biggest audience they can possibly get.
It's important, at the end of the day, to kind of allow
as much freedom as possible for speech,
'cause it is all about free speech.
- (FBE) So finally, after hearing about all of this,
what do you hope or think the general public, celebrities,
and TV networks as a whole will learn from all this, if anything?
- Well, I think the big takeaway is that conservatives are willing
to call out bad behavior on their own side.
We need to also see some consistency from the left.
- This is not gonna change any of the racism issues,
'cause there's idiots out there who will still think that, you know?
And that's a way deeper issue that we have to tackle.
- Instead of dwelling on mistakes, I think it's more important
to move forward and better ourselves as a society
and try to make things better for everyone.
- I really just hope that we get into a better moral place,
where we're not just looking at things from a business standpoint.
Like, "Okay, this race is gonna make us a lot of money,
so we need 'em on the show," and instead just,
"We need people who are gonna best represent us."
- It's always just gonna be humanity over money.
And I think there are gonna be so many decisions
that are always gonna be fueled by money,
because that's what these companies run on.
But at the end of the day, if there's just one moment
where they can just sit down and look at it, and be like,
"Money or human?" Just always go with the humans.