Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal has weighed in on the cable network A&E’s decision to suspend the patriarch of its popular show, “Duck Dynasty,” saying it is “a messed-up situation when Miley Cyrus gets a laugh, and Phil Robertson gets suspended.”
The Republican issued a statement Thursday as news spread that Mr. Robertson had been suspended for his remarks on gays in a new GQ profile.
“Phil Robertson and his family are great citizens of the state of Louisiana,” Mr. Jindal said. “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.”
Among Mr. Robertson’s comments to the magazine, according to GQ: “Start with homosexual behavior and just morph out from there. Bestiality, sleeping around with this woman and that woman and that woman and those men.”
The comments quickly generated outrage, a suspension announced by the cable channel, and a rally to the sidelined star’s side from Mr. Jindal and other supporters.
Mr. Robertson may have another headache on his hands, CNN reported, citing comments in the same article that suggest black people in pre-Civil Rights movement Louisiana did not seem unhappy.
An excerpt from the GQ article: “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.”
The article can be found at https://www.gq.com/entertainment/television/201401/duck-dynasty-phil-robertson.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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