Some conservatives are crying foul over the hit comedy Roseanne was abruptly canceled on Tuesday, a consequence of star Roseanne Barr's racist tweet against a former aide to President Barack Obama.
"Muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj," Barr tweeted about Valerie Jarrett Tuesday morning. Shortly after intense Twitter backlash, Barr issued an apology to Jarrett, saying her "joke was in bad taste."
Later in the day, ABC canceled her show, citing Barr's "abhorrent" and "repugnant" tweet. "Roseanne's Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values, and we have decided to cancel her show," ABC Entertainment President Channing Dungey said in a statement.
Social media erupted on Tuesday in response to Barr's comments and the subsequent cancellation of her show, which was only a few months away from airing its second season. Amidst overwhelmingly positive responses to ABC's decision, however, some conservatives on Twitter bemoaned what they perceive as a double-standard.
Conservative political comedian Tim Young cited ESPN's Keith Olbermann, who often posts tweets that are brutally critical of President Donald Trump, as an example. "The last thing ABC stands for is supporting someone who tweets awful things," Young said, insinuating that cursing about Trump is equivalent to comparing a black woman, in this case Jarrett, to an ape, as Barr did in her tweet.
Former baseball pitcher Curt Schilling also invoked Olbermann, whom he referred to as "scum," and said that black Disney executives were "race-baiting frauds."
Conservative commentator Eric Erickson also compared Barr to Olbermann, however, he noted that her "batcrap crazy" statements should have always been seen as "troubling."
Right-wingers also targeted MSNBC host Joy Reid, who recently came under fire for homophobic remarks that appeared in her blog roughly a decade ago.
Others expressed general support for Barr.
But there were dissenting voices as well. Bill O'Reilly called Barr's tweet a "vicious personal attack," and that letting Roseanne stay on there air would have been "insulting to millions of Americans."
"It is an outrageous comment," conservative personality Sean Hannity said on his radio show. "She was right to apologize."
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