‘Duck Dynasty’ and the First Amendment
I’ve never seen Duck Dynasty. I don’t think I’ll ever see it, either. I have a hard time watching an hour-long reality show populated by people I’d have little in common with — if they lived in my neighborhood. That’s just me.
That said, I did read, and with some interest, that controversial GQ Magazine spread about Phil Robertson and his “Duck Dynasty” clan. I can’t say it’s not interesting.
I learned that Robertson looks the part of a country bumpkin but that he’s certainly smarter than he looks. He once enrolled at Louisiana Tech, where he played quarterback, but he dropped out after one year to pursue duck hunting. He was replaced by another guy who’s smarter than he looks named Terry Bradshaw.
Mr. Robertson proselytizes a lot. He’s a Bible-thumper, whose Bible-thumpin’ can be hackle raisin’.
I’m not averse to strong opinions. I’ve been accused of having a couple of those myself.
The most I can say is I don’t agree with Robertson’s takes on homosexuality or his pre-civil rights philosophy. Neither does the network that carries Duck Dynasty — A&E. He’s been suspended.
I wish I could say I’ll miss him, but I can’t miss what I’ve never experienced.
The fallout over Robertson’s suspension was immediate.
Since “Duck Dynasty” is shot in Louisiana, that state’s Republican governor, Bobby Jindal, was first among conservatives to defend the bearded TV-superstar.
“I remember when TV networks believed in the First Amendment,” Jindal claimed.
Well, here’s the entire First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
Surely Jindal knows that A&E isn’t Congress, and A&E isn’t tampering with the First Amendment. It has, though, invoked something that I’d thought was near-and-dear to the hearts of conservatives everywhere — free enterprise. I guess I was wrong.
Jindal was hardly the only right-wing defender of Phil Robertson, who pulled out that old free speech argument. His isn’t the silliest, either. Cue Sarah Palin.
“Free speech is an endangered species. Those ‘intolerants’ hatin’ and taking on the “Duck Dynasty” patriarch for voicing his personal opinion are taking on all of us,” Palin wrote on her Facebook page.
I’m not going to question Palin’s knowledge of the First Amendment. I don’t have to. She knows nothing about it. And that’s not entirely my assessment.
Her favorite TV interviewer, Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren, tried valiantly, but to no avail, to explain how A&E’s actions had nothing to do with anything contained in the First Amendment. She even told Palin that some people are simply misusing the term “free speech.” Cue Sarah Palin, again.
“That’s right. That’s why I say attorneys can discuss and argue whether it’s a legal free speech issue or not,” she replied — and without the least hint that what she was saying didn’t make a lick-a sense.
It’s just pure Palin. Take a political stand, and try to support it with word-salad, and hope that anybody with any discernment isn’t paying her any mind. Yet, there’s more.
Susteren, who clearly wanted to help Palin not appear to be, well, Palin, implied that Robertson’s statements might have been a little less blunt.
“You know, there are two ways to say different things, and, in the article and I know he’s a graphic-type guy, but do you have any objection on the manners aspect, how he said it?” Susteren asked. Oh, boy. Cue Palin, again.
“I haven’t read the article. I don’t know exactly how he said it,” Palin revealed.
In September of 2008, when vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin was asked by Katie Couric what newspapers and magazines she read, she failed to name one. Opting for “Any of them. All of them, that, ah, that, ah, have been in front of me over all of these years.”
I’d suggest Palin would, at least, pick up a copy of GQ Magazine.
Edward A. Owens is a three-time Emmy Award winner and 20-year veteran of television news. Email him at freedoms@bellatlantic.net