A&E reinstates Duck Dynasty star after outcry in support of bigotry

Sarah Palin will just have to move on to the next outrage.

Sarah Palin will just have to move on to the next outrage.

A&E suspended Duck Dynasty star Phil Robertson for his detailed homophobic comments in a recent interview but that suspension has turned out to be brief. The network is reinstating Robertson after a public pressure campaign reminded them that the show about wealthy people making duck sex toys and an elaborate show of being rednecks down to earth is A&E's top-rated show.

The suspension stirred an uproar among fans of the show and also conservative political and religious leaders. More than 250,000 signed a petition demanding Phil Robertson’s reinstatement. Cries of anti-Christian bias from famous Republicans like Sarah Palin and Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana also followed.

More ominously, the family issued a statement saying in effect there would be no show without their patriarch.

On Friday, A&E bowed to the pressure and released a new statement, accompanying the news that Mr. Robertson would miss no episodes. The statement cited Mr. Robertson’s later comments that his views were in no way intended to “incite or encourage hate,” as well as the way the Robertson family’s interaction in the show demonstrated values like “unity, tolerance and forgiveness.”

Oh, well, of course. The family tolerates and forgives people in the family, therefore it's a moral lesson to us all.

It almost seems fair to ask, as some cynics have done, if the Robertson family planned this whole thing to sell a few thousand extra duck calls to fans who have no interest in hunting ducks but would go looking for a way to express their support for statements equating gay people with drunks and terrorists.