Roseanne Barr isn’t new to incendiary tweets. Here’s why ABC decided to act

ABC canceled rebooted sitcom "Roseanne" on Tuesday over an offensive outburst by its creator and star. Roseanne Barr wrote a racist tweet about Valerie Jarrett, a former senior advisor to President Obama. William Brangham talks with Eric Deggans of NPR about ABC parting ways with what had become one of its most successful shows.

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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.

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.

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.

Eric Deggans of NPR, thank you.

Thank you.