JUDY WOODRUFF: Even as Starbucks closed its doors for a few hours today for that training,
another major company, ABC Entertainment, had to deal with race and an offensive outburst
by one of its stars.
As William Brangham reports, ABC is suddenly parting ways with Roseanne Barr and her show,
which has been the network's most popular program this season.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Barr's tweet this morning went after Valerie Jarrett, a former senior
adviser to President Obama and a black woman.
It said, in essence, that if -- quote -- "The Muslim Brotherhood and Planet of the Apes
had a baby," that child would be Ms. Jarrett.
Barr tried to apologize, but, hours later, ABC canceled her series, which had just finished
its run, but was scheduled to return again next year.
Eric Deggans covers TV and culture for NPR.
He joins me now.
Eric, this obviously is not the first time that Roseanne Barr has said incendiary things.
She has issued racist tweets in the past.
She has promoted awful and vile conspiracy theories.
But I guess this was too much for ABC.
What do you make of their decision?
ERIC DEGGANS, National Public Radio: Well, this was first time she had done something
like that in the wake of the show's revival airing on ABC.
And it happened at a time when all eyes were on diversity issues.
This is the day that Starbucks, for example, chose to retrain a bunch of its workers in
the wake of its own problems with racism.
So I think ABC acted swiftly, sent a message that open racism wouldn't be tolerated, even
if it was expressed by one of its biggest stars.
And given that ABC is owned by Disney, I think perhaps they acted to counter something that
went counter to the Disney brand, which is all about inclusion, inclusivity, family-friendly
programming.
It seemed as if they had to act to preserve their larger brand.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: It seems when they recommissioned this reboot of "Roseanne" in the first place,
they did the calculus that the risk of bringing someone like Roseanne on board was worth the
reward, in essence.
But, today, it seems that that calculus just flipped up on its head.
ERIC DEGGANS: Exactly.
What we're finding with social media and also the level of political conflict that's out
there is that a statement like this can be recycled endlessly and can create a tremendous
amount of backlash.
I had heard on another news channel that the Reverend Al Sharpton was thinking of perhaps
organizing a boycott.
I think there were other people who may have been considering similar things, trying to
get ABC's attention by going to the advertisers who had patronized "Roseanne."
So perhaps there was a sense that they wanted to act quickly to forestall something like
that as well.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: This whole "Roseanne" reboot was in some ways sold as an effort to put
a prominent Trump supporter on television and to give a window into Trump's America.
Now that she is pushed out and the show is canceled, what do you think that effort -- what
happens to that effort among network executives?
ERIC DEGGANS: Well, I'm not sure that the show was actually doing that.
I wrote a column for NPR.org that was published last week where I called that show and that
idea the biggest head-fake in television.
I think they had a few jokes in the very first episode of the revival that spoke to Roseanne
Conner's -- the character being a Trump supporter, but they never really addressed it after that.
I do think that because Roseanne Barr, the real-life person, is a Trump supporter, they
thought it might make sense to have at least one episode where Roseanne Conner talked about
being a Trump supporter, and that they might get support from Trump viewers if they played
that balance delicately.
But what we have seen is that Roseanne Barr, the person, can be volatile.
I think, in the end , ABC was caught in a situation where they gave a star a platform
who had already said some incendiary things, and she said more incendiary things, and they
had to act.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Eric Deggans of NPR, thank you.
ERIC DEGGANS: Thank you.