A&E suspends Phil Robertson over his personal beliefs about homosexuals.

[Rucker61]

I don't think so. I would bet the vast majority of the people that watch the show either have the same beliefs or really don't care one way or the other. Therefore the advertisers would have nothing to worry about.

I think they were less concerned with a backlash against the show and more so with one against the whole network.

[Mtn.man]

And gays stayed in the closet,,, we knew who they were but no one worried bothered or cared. Now we gotta here about THIER rights daily.

[MarkCO]

My email is away...

To: 'feedbackaetv@aenetworks.com'

Subject: Phil Robertson

Message: You fired a man for stating his religious convictions. How INTOLERANT. Bye-bye.

[Ronin13]

I honestly don't think this is A&E shoving their beliefs down everybody's throat. They saw what he said as a threat to their ability to sell advertising on the show to companies that bend or break to the will of people. They made what they thought was the right BUSINESS decision for their advertisers. Advertisers this day in age don't want to alienate any group of people. They were thinking with only their pocket books and the black number at the bottom of the ledger. I'm sure they thought that if they kept Phil on the show that black number would turn red.

Wouldn't the simple thing they could have done have been just issue a statement that the opinions referenced in the GQ article do not represent the official stance of A+E Networks, their affiliates or sponsors? Instead they are so quick to distance themselves as far as possible from the man while trying to keep the show intact that in the end what it's really doing is creating a lot more backlash that they were trying to avoid. Recent reports show 5 Facebook support pages expressing support for Phil with over 600,000 likes, 2 petitions with over 100,000 individual signatures, a Change.org petition, and 4 letters from mass groups of Duck Dynasty fans condemning the decision to suspend Phil from filming... Yeah, I'd say their little plan to save face is backfiring, considering the LGBT community and GLAAD are severely outnumbered by the show's 14 million fans.

[Jeffrey Lebowski]

Well if I understand correctly Phil was suspended as a direct result of his comments. A&E's actions serve as a public shaming.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk

No, my friend, I politely disagree.
1A guarantees your free speech.
It does not guarantee you an audience and it certainly doesn't guarantee you a mechanism to reach massive amounts of the population when someone else privately owns this mechanism.

[n8tive97]

My email is away...

To: 'feedbackaetv@aenetworks.com'

Subject: Phil Robertson

Message: You fired a man for stating his religious convictions. How INTOLERANT. Bye-bye.

I sent mine, I typically don't get involved but I'm chapped!

[Bailey Guns]

Who gives a rat's ass where he chooses to stick his johnson? Why is that relevant?

Ummm....it's probably really relevant to the rat especially when it's his ass on the line.

[CO Hugh]

Love the show.
Love the family.
I believe it is a calculated move by A&E. Not that they need to boost ratings, but more is always better in their eyes.

I don't know if calculated by A&E but certainly GQ, probably the rest of the leftists. What was Phil thinking GQ is read by yuppies!!

[n8tive97]

More A&E Contact info:
A&E contact info Ms. Abbe Raven, CEO A&E Television Networks 235 East 45th St. New York, NY 10017 ABBE RAVEN (CEO) Abbe.Raven@aetn.com WHITNEY GOIT (SR. EVP) whitney.goit@aetn.com ROBERT DEBITETTO (EVP) robert.debitetto@aetn.com COLLEEN CONWAY (Director of Non-Fiction Programming) colleen.conway@aetn.com GENERAL EMAIL: ae.viewerrelations@aetv.com ABBE RAVEN (CEO) LINE: (212) 210-9007 GENERAL TELEPHONE: (212) 210-1400

[Big E3]

How amazing in the land of the free they are now firing people for there religious beliefs. Aren't these the same beliefs from the same bible that the founding fathers based the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights on. Aren't we the same country that sends it's solders all over the world to squelch religious persecution when it occurs. Now the liberals in this country have determined that religious persecution is justified. A citizen has read the bible and relates what he believes it to say in public when asked. I don't have any idea what it looked like in Hitler's Germany when they began persecuting the Jews. I just don't think we as a country want to just let this kind of thing go without kicking and screaming, it doesn't matter under what guise they try to justify it. I just think there is no way the anti religious liberals could allow somebody with this much of a following to witness the bible to the masses. Take off the head of the snake and keep chipping away at morality.