Duck Dynasty star Phil Robertson, 67, has really stirred up the swamp sand in the last 24 hours with his comments in a GQ magazine interview where he compared being gay to bestiality and terrorism.
According to Business Insider, A&E quickly put Robertson on an “indefinite hiatus.”
“We are extremely disappointed to have read Phil Robertson’s comments in GQ, which are based on his own personal beliefs and are not reflected in the series ‘Duck Dynasty,’” said a statement from A&E. “His personal views in no way reflect those of A&E Networks, who have always been strong supporters and champions of the LGBT community. The network has placed Phil under hiatus from filming indefinitely.”
But in a statement, Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal has jumped to Robertson’s defense like a frog to a log.
“Phil Robertson and his family are great citizens of the State of Louisiana. The politically correct crowd is tolerant of all viewpoints, except those they disagree with. I don’t agree with quite a bit of stuff I read in magazine interviews or see on TV. In fact, come to think of it, I find a good bit of it offensive. But I also acknowledge that this is a free country and everyone is entitled to express their views. In fact, I remember when TV networks believed in the First Amendment. It is a messed up situation when Miley Cyrus gets a laugh, and Phil Robertson gets suspended.”
However, A&E is a private company, not affiliated through the government, which does not make this a First Amendment issue.
According to E Online, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin also put in her two cents on Facebook and Twitter.
Free speech is endangered species; those "intolerants" hatin' & taking on Duck Dynasty patriarch for voicing personal opinion take on us all
— Sarah Palin (@SarahPalinUSA) December 19, 2013
In the past, Palin has bonded with the Duck Dynasty cast at the National Rifle Association convention and her Good Tidings and Great Joy: Protecting the Heart of Christmas book tour in Louisiana.
“Phil Robertson offered some of their refreshing trademark plainspoken talk that so many crave from our leaders in Washington,” Palin wrote in a Facebook photo caption on Aug. 21. “Speaking on the issue of the sanctity of life, Phil reminds us that all life is God-given, no matter how small or how special.”
As long as that life is not gay though, right Phil?
In the GQ interview, Robertson also commented on how “content” the black population were under Jim Crow.
“I never, with my eyes, saw the mistreatment of any black person. Not once. Where we lived was all farmers. The blacks worked for the farmers. I hoed cotton with them. I’m with the blacks, because we’re white trash. We’re going across the field…. They’re singing and happy. I never heard one of them, one black person, say, ‘I tell you what: These doggone white people’—not a word!… Pre-entitlement, pre-welfare, you say: Were they happy? They were godly; they were happy; no one was singing the blues.”
However, the loss of the $200,000 per episode paycheck Robertson was getting might perhaps have him singing the blues really soon.
Image via Facebook