Phil Robertson, patriarch of the Robertson family and one of the stars of A&E’s hit show Duck Dynasty, has been suspended by the network for comments he made regarding homosexuality. Specifically, he told GQ magazine that the lifestyle is a sin, paraphrasing 1 Corinthians 6 while doing so. In announcing the suspension, A&E said:
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.’ 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.
Which makes me wonder: What, if anything, might cause A&E to bring Mr. Robertson back? Falling ratings? Would Robertson need to repudiate his previous statements? And if it’s the latter, wouldn’t that make this reality star a little less … real?
I’m certainly not surprised that people would take issue with Robertson’s comments: Earlier this year, a survey from Pew Research found that 60% of Americans believe that “society should accept homosexuality.” And there’s certainly things to quibble over when it comes to how Phil said what he said. (It was a bit course around the edges.) So I’m not amazed that A&E was pressured to take Robertson off the air.
But the fact that A&E did so shows just how freakishly two-faced the world of television can be.
I don’t pretend to know exactly how Duck Dynasty got greenlit in the first place. But I’d imagine that the Robertson’s air of “realness” was a prime selling point. They’d be unlike any other family on television, what with their beards and business and crazy Uncle Si—and a refreshing change from the more celebrity-saturated Kardashian brand of reality that most Americans can’t relate to.
And, of course, if that’s how they thought about it, they were right. People can’t get enough of Phil Robertson and his fam. Duck Dynasty has spent its four seasons smashing scads of ratings records, and its fourth-season premiere drew 11.8 million people—making it the most-watched reality show in cable history. Sure, people gravitated toward the show, obviously, because it was funny. But there was more going on here: Many also resonated with the Robertson family’s deep, sincere faith. They respected its rigid adherence to old-fashioned values. The Robertsons represented a way of life that felt real to many viewers—even those who regularly shaved—and one that has been woefully underrepresented on television.
Now it would seem that the people at A&E are shocked—shocked—that a member of this deeply religious, conservative, Southern family believes that homosexuality is a sin. A viewpoint, incidentally, that 45% of the country (again, according to Pew) also believes.
I loved James Poniewozik’s take on this on time.com: “Was he suspended for believing that being gay is a sin? For saying it out loud? For saying it in those terms?”
Focus on the Family stands on the same side of the issue of homosexuality as Phil, for the record. (Read our president’s blog on the subject here.) And most of our readers likely agree with Phil too. But I don’t think you need to believe as he does to take issue with A&E’s action. After all, the network asked he and his family to be a part of a reality television show. It has made scads of cash from the Robertson’s particular brand of reality. Is it fair to banish the Robertson’s grizzled patriarch for saying what he really believes?
A&E, of course, has every right to set whatever moral boundaries it likes for its shows. Robertson is endowed with freedom of speech, but A&E is not bound by the First Amendment to provide him a platform to do so. Still, it seems to me that if Robertson’s stance is A&E’s main problem—that people who disagree with the homosexual lifestyle have no place on the network’s schedule—it’d be best to close down Duck Dynasty completely, give all those conservative Christians their pink slips and rigorously quiz its other reality stars to avoid inconsistency. (And, of course, the other Duck stars may walk on their own.)
If the problem is not so much what Robertson believes, but how he said it … well, isn’t that one of the perils of reality television too? That its stars might sometimes say what they’re really thinking?
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