I predicted this, but I picked the wrong pundit.
When news of Roseanne’s firing broke, I figured it would be just a matter of time before right-wingers called on HBO to censure Bill Maher for suggesting Donald Trump’s mother might have been an orangutan. (For the record, she wasn’t.)
If they've been making that argument (and I’m sure somewhere in the dark backwaters of the web they have), I haven’t seen it yet.
Instead, Fox News has zeroed in on Keith Olbermann, a well-known Trump critic who has pulled no punches when it comes to our shared national disgrace:
A harsh new spotlight is falling on the vulgar social media history of ESPN star Keith Olbermann after the network’s parent, Disney, fired Roseanne Barr for a racist tweet.
On Tuesday, ABC pulled the plug on the wildly popular reboot of "Roseanne" after its namesake posted a racist and offensive tweet about former President Obama’s aide and close friend Valerie Jarrett. Last week, ABC’s cable sister, ESPN, announced that anti-Trump pundit Olbermann would return to the network despite a foul-mouthed Twitter account that includes countless offensive remarks directed at the president and his surrogates.
ESPN personality-turned-political commentator Britt McHenry told Fox News that “Olbermann has proven time and time again how irrationally angry, prejudiced, and outright bigoted he truly is,” but none of that apparently matters to Disney executives.
“The message is clear: If you’re a liberal, any free speech is allowed. Same rules don’t apply,” McHenry said.
This is Olbermann’s sixth stint at ESPN and the time in between has been largely spent as a far-left political pundit on MSNBC and an assortment of other networks. Most recently, he anchored an anti-Trump online program for GQ, “The Resistance,” and authored a book titled, “Trump is F*cking Crazy: (This is Not a Joke).”
While Olbermann is not racist, he can certainly be considered offensive and has used profanity when attacking the president, whom he has called a “Nazi” on a regular basis. In Aug. 2017, Olbermann tweeted at first daughter Ivanka Trump and called her father a “neo-Nazi,” and “racist.” He has also written “f—k you” to Trump numerous times, but ESPN’s newest star doesn’t bother to use the sanitized version of the cuss word.
Sorry, not the same. Ain’t the same fucking ballpark, it ain’t same league, it ain’t even the same fuckin’ sport.
Interesting how breezily the article’s author glosses over the key distinction between Olbermann and Roseanne — (i.e., “while Olbermann is not a racist”).
Uh huh. That’s kind of the whole enchilada, don’t you think?
If ABC wanted to fire Roseanne for simply being vulgar, it would have done so a long time ago.
And the fact that Olbermann uses cuss words to convey his growing disgust for the most disgusting man on the planet means exactly nothing — except that his powers of observation remain quite keen.
Calling Trump a neo-Nazi and “f*cking crazy” is telling it like it is. (I thought Trump fans liked that kind of brutal honesty.) Calling him a racist? Holy hell, what is he if not a racist?
Nice try, Fox.
Try harder next time.
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Aldous J. Pennyfarthing’s Dear F*cking Lunatic: 101 Obscenely Rude Letters to Donald Trump is now available at Amazon (or at one of the other fine online retailers carrying it). Check it out!