Roseanne cancelled: ABC scraps sitcom after star's 'abhorrent' tweets
Network pulls Barr’s revived show and condemns racist tweets towards ex-Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett
Roseanne Barr’s revived sitcom has been cancelled after she posted a racist and Islamophobic tweet that attacked former Obama White House adviser Valerie Jarrett.
The sitcom star falsely alleged that Jarrett, who was born in Iran to American parents, has connections to the Muslim Brotherhood, and compared her to an ape. Barr wrote: “Muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj,” using Jarrett’s initials.
ABC swiftly announced the show’s cancellation. The network said in a statement: “Roseanne’s Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values, and we have decided to cancel her show.”
Bob Iger, the chief executive of Disney, which owns ABC, supported the decision. Iger wrote on Twitter: “There was only one thing to do here, and that was the right thing.”
In Australia, Network Ten announced it was pulling the sitcom from both of its channels, saying it was “appalled and disgusted” by Barr’s tweet.
Barr later apologized. She wrote: “I apologize to Valerie Jarrett and to all Americans. I am truly sorry for making a bad joke about her politics and her looks. I should have known better. Forgive me – my joke was in bad taste.”
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In a second statement she said: “Today my words caused hundreds of hardworking people to lose their jobs. I sincerely apologise to the audience that has embraced my work for decades.”
Barr tweeted throughout the night, at one point asking her followers not to defend her actions.
MSNBC reported that Jarrett received a call from Iger before news broke of the cancellation. “This should be a teaching moment,” she said.
Jarrett responded later on Tuesday during a town hall on race hosted by the cable news channel, saying she believed ABC made the right decision in canceling Barr’s television show.
“I’m fine,” she said at the event titled Everyday Racism in America. “I’m worried about all the people out there who don’t have a circle of friends and followers coming to their defense,” she said. “The person who’s walking down the street minding their own business and they see somebody cling to their purse or walk across 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.”
“Those ordinary examples of racism that happen every single day,” Jarrett said.
The White House declined to offer a reaction from the president, who earlier this year personally called Barr to congratulate her on the show’s ratings.
Sarah Sanders, the White House press secretary, told reporters aboard Air Force One there were “a lot bigger things going on in the country right now”, while adding that Trump was focused on negotiations with North Korea.
Barr, one of Donald Trump’s most high-profile supporters, apologized for the post as outrage grew, and announced she’d be quitting Twitter. She also deleted the tweet.
Barr was replying to a post from a user that accused Jarrett, a long-serving adviser to the president, of covering up the Obama administration’s alleged “misdeeds”.
When a Twitter user told Barr that her tweet was offensive and racist – Jarrett is African American – Barr responded by writing: “Muslims r NOT a race.” Shortly after, Barr reiterated her stance in another post: “ISLAM is not a RACE, lefties. Islam includes EVERY RACE of people.”