@hawkeye10,
Quote:these A&E boys and girls aren't too bright, they should not be breaking their deal within a hour of announcing the end of the conflict.
You're very naïve. A & E's very bright.
The Christmas shopping, for Duck Dynasty merchandise, was over, the Duck Dynasty marathon ran for a day and a half and now it's over. A & E just pulled off a brilliant publicity stunt, just in time for the new season of DD to attract more viewers.
There never was any conflict between A & E and the Robertsons. A & E just didn't want to be associated with his comments, and some of their own staffers were offended by them. So, they distanced themselves from his remarks, which no one should have thought reflected the opinions of the network in the first place. And, as a symbolic gesture, they "suspended" him, but, since the show isn't filming at the moment, it was a meaningless suspension, in terms of their relationship with Robertson, or his employment with A & E.
There is no "new deal" with Robertson, they are just continuing with the old deal they had with him. The "new deal" is actually with the advocacy groups for gay rights--it's A & E's commitment to run a campaign urging tolerance.
A & E didn't cave to anyone. They still have their top-rated show, and, unless someone has been living under a rock, they've now heard about Duck Dynasty, thanks to the free publicity media blitz about it--they even got me to watch a few episodes out of curiosity--because the whole country has been buzzing about this nonsense. When A & E released their latest statement a little while ago, CNN considered it "Breaking News". This whole situation, about a reality show, has been blown way out of proportion, mainly by the likes of Palin, Cruz, and Jindel, who took it as an opportunity to throw red meat to their religious political base, and get their juices salivating, over a non-issue about Christians allegedly being persecuted and deprived of their "freedom of speech" by the big bad media. Meanwhile, Phil Robertson was laughing all the way to the bank, as these politicos helped to sell merchandise, with his image on it, that put money in A & E's pocket.
This was one big publicity stunt. The right-wing can't claim victory, because Robertson's job was never in doubt. Had A & E wanted to fire him, they would have fired him, not given him a meaningless pretend suspension. When networks want to fire, they just fire--as was done with Paula Dean, Bashir, and Baldwin. And they've known what was in the GQ interview for sometime, an A & E rep was present at the interview, and A & E may have leaked the interview remarks to deliberately hype controversy and publicity, just as the new season of DD was about to go on the air.
The alleged controversy, or pseudo-conflict with the Robertson family, was good for generating some suspense about the outcome, and for drumming up viewership interest for A & E and Duck Dynasty--and it accomplished its purpose. Their top-rated show may now attract even more viewers. But, if new people tune in expecting controversial remarks from the duck crew, or preaching of religion, they'll be very disappointed, the DD show is really insignificant fluff, not controversial, or really serious, at all, and the only evidence of religion I saw, in the few episodes I watched, was the family saying grace before dinner at the end of each episode--less than 30 seconds--and, If I'm not mistaken, Jesus wasn't even mentioned during that, just God.
