I usually stay away from stupid pop culture stuff, but this one has a lesson to it and maybe some on the left can learn from it (yeah I know; don’t say it).
GQ Magazine has every right to bait the Duck Dynasty dude in an interview.
Duck Dynasty dude had every right to fall into the trap, providing GQ with some juicy stuff about homosexuals to peddle their stupid magazine to stupid people.
A&E had every right to lay off Duck Dynasty dude or fire him outright, or do nothing, or whatever they wanted, so long as it’s within their contractual prerogative.
The Duck Dynasty stars have every right to stay or to leave A&E, so long as it’s within their contractual prerogative.
A&E watchers have every right to quit watching, or keep watching, that stupid network as they choose and/or as they can afford it.
Any other network has every right to take on the Duck Dynasty people in a new show, and everyone has the right to watch that one, or not, as they choose and/or can afford it.
See? That’s how freedom works. No one goes to jail or gets robbed or beaten up, no one has to sign a contract at gunpoint, everyone has free choice so long as it doesn’t violate anyone’s rights, and no one has the right to be free from the inevitable consequences of their own stupid mistakes.
No politician on the face of this Earth properly has anything to say, in any official capacity, about any of it. That’s not their job, and they should be smart enough to say so when questioned about it, though unfortunately they’re not that smart. Not by a mile.
Fake moral controversy resolved. Now mind your business.
A&E is effectively a branch of the state. If the state has every right to fire anyone who does not parrot state ideology, we get an official state religion.
Now I am inclined to agree a state has every right to an official state religion, but our official state religion stinks. I favor a different state religion – almost any other religion would be better – any religion that has been around for a thousand years has refrained from being grossly self destructive for a thousand years.
Now suppose I had my way, and we had some other religion as our official state religion, would you be just as equable about it being imposed?
In theory, I agree.
In practice, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the EEOC mean that freedom of contract is circumscribed. The Robertsons couldn’t legally fire someone for being gay, and A&E cannot legally fire the Robertsons for being practicing Christians.
The issue isn’t that they are Christians. The issue is that they spoke where they shouldn’t have. The Robertsons, as stars of a reality tv show, have signed contracts that cover all these things. This is why Charlie Sheen, Alec Baldwin and a host of other “stars” have lost gigs. They spoke when they shouldn’t have.
Entertainment contracts are very very tough because a huge number of people depend on these shows for their livelihoods and they can’t afford to have “stars” go bad This may end up in court with A & E and the production companies suing the Robertsons for breaking their contracts.
If the Robertsons couldn’t keep up with their end of the bargain, they never should have signed the contracts.
The LA Times has a good story on this with more back-story: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/showtracker/la-et-st-duck-dynasty-ae-warned-phil-robertson-about-speaking-out-too-much-20131220,0,7276941.story?track=rss#axzz2oBzOwfFZ
And what is the contractual rule that prohibits them from speaking as they did?
That the Robertson’s are in violation of their contract presupposes that that failure to support homosexuality is immoral, and therefore obviously violates the morals clause.
But, of course, A&E would never dare to put in their contract that failure to support homosexuality is immoral.
I am pretty sure that there is nothing in those contracts that said, in so many words, “Christianity is forbidden”
Indeed, a large part of the appeal of the show is that it is pretty much the only show on television that does not depict Christians as baby eating monsters.
And of one wanted to watch or not watch A&E network shows, that would be their own choice.
Channels from A+E Networks include:
A&E
Bio
Crime & Investigation Network
History
H2
History en Español
Lifetime
LMN
Lifetime Real Women
Military History
If I was an A&E stock owner I would be concerned about their business sense. First, they were gobsmacked that their self-professed bible-thumping redneck TV star turned out to be a bible-thumping redneck. Then they effectively killed or lost the most popular show in cable history and opened another front in the culture war on most disadvantageous terms. The only thing I can say for them is that they were smarter than Cracker Barrel which intervened in a fight that was not theirs and managed to piss off both sides.