Posted by By now, you’ve probably heard Phil Robertson’s comments on segregation and homosexuality. A&E “indefinitely” suspended Robertson, then reinstated him just a few days ago.
The Left wins because they got to fight it out and make Mr. Robertson look bad in the eyes of their constituents (who mostly didn’t watch the show anyway). The Right wins in the eyes of their constituents because A&E “backed down” and reinstated Mr. Robertson.
But most of all, capitalism wins all the monies. I will let the commenter Darth Thulhu from Rod Dreher’s website explain it better than I can:
Unless you know details of the contracts about how much money A&E and the Robertsons were each taking home before this, and know revealing details of the recent negotiations about how much money A&E and the Robertsons will each be taking home going forward, it is the height of fact-free speculation to claim that A&E “caved”.
Also, given that A&E announced an “indefinite suspension” a week before Christmas (when no shows were being filmed and no media was being scheduled), which immediately drove Christmas sales through the roof and spiked all ratings of show broadcasts … any lifting of that “indefinite suspension” just after Christmas is, by definition, not “caving” but rather “concluding the manufactured “scandal” now that it has served its purpose”.
A&E very pointedly never fired Robertson, entirely in contradiction to some of the headlines and outrage here. They “suspended” him when he wasn’t doing anything anyway, raked in a mountain of money on the “scandal” and the “backlash”, and got a ton of free publicity out of you and several other media outlets during a traditionally slow-news period. Then, after privately negotiating whatever deal they privately negotiated in regard to filming Season 5 of Duck Dynasty, A&E then announced an end to the “suspension” before it ever actually interfered with Phil working a single day or giving a single media appearance.
That is rather the opposite of “caving”, except in the pro-wrestling and “reality” TV senses of the term. That is, instead, laughing all the way to the bank on a completely manufactured “crisis” with no actual downside. Vince McMahon himself couldn’t do any better.
This whole ordeal can be nothing was one big, manufactured crisis. And no crisis can ever go un-wasted (or un-capitalized).
