NEW YORK (AP) In the time it took to compose a 53-character tweet, Roseanne Barr went from a hero that ABC was banking upon to unemployed.
The network canceled its hit reboot of Roseanne Tuesday after Barrs racist tweet that referred to Valerie Jarrett, an adviser to former President Barack Obama, as a cross between the Muslim Brotherhood and the Planet of the Apes. Her agent dropped her, and other services pulled Roseanne reruns.
The swift developments rendered President Donald Trump at least temporarily mum.
Trump, who reveled in the success of Roseanne after Barrs character in the show came out as a supporter of his presidency, made no mention of the firing in a campaign-style rally in Tennessee on Tuesday evening.
We have a lot bigger things going on in the country right now, certainly, that the president is spending his time on, said White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
Jarrett, a black woman who said she was fine after the slur, urged in an MSNBC special Tuesday about racism that the incident become a teaching moment. She said that Robert Iger, chief executive of ABC parent Walt Disney Co., called to apologize and told her before it became public that the show was being canceled.
Tone does start at the top, and we like to look up to our president and feel as though he reflects the values of our country, Jarrett said. But I also think that every individual citizen has a responsibility too, and its up to all of us to push back. Our government is only going to be as good as we make it be.
