ABC Caves In To Radical Rightwing Clerics

[ruggerson]

From sludge:

ABC EXECS FORCE ROBIN WILLAMS TO CUT OSCAR SKIT
Sat Feb 26 2005 19:21:18 ET

A growing chill is in the air over Hollywood Saturday night after ABC executives forced Robin Williams to drop a comic song from the Oscars show!

Williams, the presenter of the Academy Award for best animated feature, decided last week that his one minute on stage would be a prime time to lampoon a conservative critic James C. Dobson, whose group Focus on the Family last month criticized the cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants for appearing in a video about tolerance that the group called "pro-homosexual."

[FreedomAngel82]

1. Why just SpongeBob?

I don't get it. I saw the commercial (like a few seconds of it from another show on tv) and they had all types of cartoon characters on there. Some are even on the Disney channel.

[tsuki]

20. We don't have to worry about Sponge Bob. Falafel saved him.

[tuvor]

2. I'm sure drudge will be happy to take credit for it

He's such a crusader. :P

[autorank]

3. No surprise there. I hope Williams walks or does it anyway.

I think Williams is a huge talent. After all, he was the choice for Johnny Carson's last guest night along with Bette Middler. That's better than any honor the entire entertainment industry has to accord.

I half way think he'll do something totally outrageous. I may watch the Oscars for the first time ever.

[Stop_the_War]

4. WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON WITH THIS COUNTRY?

I have some questions:
1. WTF?
2. Who gave Dobson the right to fuck with the Oscars?

[gulfcoastliberal]

5. I'm sure Williams will respect what the corporate suits tell him.

/s

NT!

[EVDebs]

8. Where there's a will, there's a way !

Remember that great flick Matewan ? And how the kid got the message through despite it all ?

So I set up a message info request at this link
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1625142

to demand ABC reinstate the censored skit, plus I recommended this here posting for the greatest page !

The email to protest to is [e-mail] Let's FLOOD THEM with emails and let Williams know behind every great comedian there's a deranged audience willing to follow !

[ruggerson]

9. This should be on the front page of DU n/t

[cry baby]

11. I wrote to them. thanks for the email address. n/t

[cynthia]

22. sent an email

let's hope Robin sneaks something past them.

My son is supposed to watch the show for homework, so I plan to watch with him, now, just to see what Robin does.

[verdalaven]

26. I have to know!

What class makes watching the Oscars homework? :)

[Warpy]

6. Meanwhile, Dobson is silent as a tomb on Gannon/Guckert

not only a real life hoe-moe-sekshul, but one for HIRE and one within the holy halls of the newly fundy, prayer meeting fueled White House!

Dobson and his pompadoured brethren have all been silent. Even Fred Phelps hasn't taken time out from harassing people at funerals for AIDS patients to comment on the pollution of government's halls.

[EVDebs]

7. Similar to 1307 when the Pope and French King went after KnightsTemplar

and especially Jacques DeMolay, their Grand Master, accusing them of supporting homosexuality. Now, some seven centuries later we find the church embrioled in its own most unseemly scandal in-house.

I say old boy Dobson, your man Bush's Gannon/Guckert is a splendid example of 'anti-homosexuality', not that there's anything wrong with that...

[trudyco]

10. sent -nt

[EVDebs]

12. Thanks... truly an "Alice's Restaurant" movement is taking shape here

btw, please "kick" this with a click onto the greatest page. The more the merrier.

[pilgrimsoul]

13. I sent them the following e-mail:

I am writing to express my outrage at ABC's shocking decision to cut Robin Williams' Oscars material. What kind of fascist police state is this country being turned into? Since when is the First Amendment of the Constitution OPTIONAL??? If we can no longer ridicule the ridiculous in this country, then our freedom is truly gone. Do you really want to help to throw our freedom of speech away by allowing yourselves to be intimidated by these self-appointed morals police? Please rethink this extreme decision. Do you REALLY want to set this precedent? I am begging you -- if you give these fundamentalists an inch, they will take a mile...and no matter how much you try to accommodate them, it will NEVER be enough. Please remember that the half of this country that still has a sense of humor and understands that free speech is a good thing also watches ABC. Thank you.

[Rex]

14. Good! We can't have a first amendment! Private business owns us.

Shut the fuck up consumers! :evilgrin: Drink Coke not Pepsi!

[Guaranteed]

15. He shouldn't show, then. Fuck them. nt

[hvn_nbr_2]

16. He should tell what happened, then stand there silent for a minute.

[Guaranteed]

17. NICE.

That would be a HUGE FUCK YOU.

[walldude]

18. Agreed, I imagine he'll have something to say about it

He's not one to keep his thoughts to himself. They are on a time delay so they can beep out whatever they want. I wasn't planning to watch the Oscars but I guess i'm going to have to now...

[tsuki]

19. Radical Rightwing Clerics...I thought this was a thread about

the Muslims. But you are absolutely correct. They are radical rightwing clerics.

[hvn_nbr_2]

23. Yes, I like that term too. Always refer to them as...

Radical Rightwing Clerics
Radical Rightwing Clerics
Radical Rightwing Clerics
Radical Rightwing Clerics

[RBHam]

21. The ABC's of Propaganda...

Making fun of phony, mythical, stratified and anti-sexual "family values" is verboten.

[paineinthearse]

24. Contact Robin Williams

Robin Williams
C/O Blue Wolf Productions
725 Arizona Ave., Suite 202
Santa Monica, CA 90401

[charlie]

25. Oscars is live innit?

Good luck stopping him, then. His skit is cut, but I'll bet he'll do something that'll stick in their craw.

[Sapphire Blue]

31. I think 'live' is on a 5 second delay now

They all caved in after the 'wardrobe malfunction'.... now they can intercept & censor free speech.

[kbm8170]

27. ABC has been increasingly pandering to the Right

I started boycotting 20/20 and their advertisers last November after an overly-hyped "special" interview with the killers of Matthew Shepard. The producers did nothing but dig up old speculations about the influence of drugs in the case (and offered no new information) while hyping the program as new "surprising" discoveries. Their little propaganda adventure (in which opposing viewpoints were naturally underrepresented again) managed to fuel the religious right's contention that Shepard wasn't killed because he was gay, even though the network tried to deny leaving that impression. Then again, the network also did nothing to take responsibility for the shoddy presentation and speculation of the show, either.

I'll skip watching the Oscars this year. . .I don't feel like patronizing a network that establishes a censorship policy exclusively on the basis of pandering to an extremist political group.

[killbotfactory]

28. The insane rightwing religious nuts HATE HOLLYWOOD

Stop appeasing them, morons.

[agitpropagent9]

30. censorship, schmensorship...

conspicuous by its absence in the original post is williams' comment: "For a while you get mad, then you get over it. They're afraid of saying Olive Oyl is anorexic. It tells you about the state of humor."

sounds like there's equal pressure from the usual PC suspects...

after the williams showing his ass at the independent spirit awards yesterday, i can't see any real loss in him taking his hackneyed, played-out comedy somewhere else.

...which he CAN do, you know.

[seabeyond]

29. chris rock gonna be there. i think robins and rock

should get together for that minute and have some laughs

[indigonation]

32. May be time to start boycotting ABC/Disney along with Faux ...

List is growing...

Censorship...

Disney refusing to produce Fahrenheit 9/11

Disney Prez supporting GOP fundraiser with Dennis Hassert

Lack of MSM coverage on important news events that make BushCo look bad...

More Censoring and caving to James Dobson...

What else?

Although I still like the anchors on Morning/PrimeTime News.

[paineinthearse]

33. Will ABC censor Carlos Santana, too?

Carlos will be performing. He arrived wearing a Che Guevara shirt. Think he'll be wearing it during the performance?

See photos and discussion at http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3190764