Sheer quackery
Celeb opinions? Many people have had their Phil
PURELY AS a media event, the Phil Robertson “Duck Dynasty” dustup offers a teachable moment for entertainers everywhere: SHUT UP AND QUACK. It’s a concept articulated by Laura Ingraham in a book actually titled “Shut Up and Sing!” Ingraham focused on left-wing entertainers like Barbra Streisand, who she lamented were subvert
ing their own perfectly good entertainment by lacing it with incessant political commentary.
Flip the politics today and you’ve got Robertson, whose views on gays and happy Southern black people are presumably not the reason most people watch his lovably oddball TV hit.
They watch for the same reason we watch most TV shows — for the characters, in this case the quirky family dynamics. Whether those are real or exaggerated, viewers don’t care, just as they haven’t seemed to care that the Robertsons make no secret of their fundamentalist religious beliefs. That’s why Phil’s GQ interview, even laying aside its substance, was so puzzling and such a major potential misstep.
If Robertson sold duck calls out of a storefront, he wouldn’t plaster the walls with accusatory monologues about the immorality and evil of being gay.
Not because his First Amendment rights were in jeopardy, but because it just wouldn’t be smart business. When your potential market is “everybody,” why drive a bunch of everybodies away?
With his GQ interview, he has now plastered his views, in the most strident terms, all over the figurative walls of his TV show. Why? Truth is, strong personal views on sociopolitical issues, even controversial ones, don’t have to be a dealbreaker for audiences.
Lefties for years have patronized the movies of John Wayne, Clint Eastwood and Mel Gibson, all openly conservative, because “The Searchers,” “Unforgiven” and “Lethal Weapon” were great films.
Ingraham seems to like Streisand’s singing just fine. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has attended dozens of Bruce Springsteen concerts despite disagreeing with almost everything Springsteen has publicly advocated.
No one gets indignant when an artist solicits donations for food banks or wounded veterans.
Still, with a few exceptions, even deeply activist entertainers spend most of their time entertaining — not because they’ve been intimidated into silence, but because that’s their day job. They understand why the overwhelming majority of their fans are there.
It’s flattering, when you’ve become suddenly famous like Phil Robertson, to have prestigious media outlets ask your opinions.
It’s the answering that’s problematic.
Sometimes you just need to shut up and quack.