I'll expound on it here. I am not commenting on the social unacceptability of the words. I am arguing that it is a marketing plan by the show and it's producers.
First, we heard how Phil had not shown up for an interview with Barbara Walters. So he apparently doesn't care about what those in the media think of him. But he attended an interview with GQ. Now, let's be honest. GQ and their readers are not the target demographic of this show. People who use hair care products beyond shampoo and nasal hair trimmers are probably not the kind of people who watch the show. So why would the cast of the show do the interview? Why would the studio set it up? Are they expecting to expand their target audience? No that isn't a realistic expectation. Their target audience is suburbanite middle class white folks. So GQ isn't really the kind of magazine that would reach that target audience of blue collar and lower level management types.
So what would be gained by doing the interview? Well, GQ is read by the people who worry about fashion trends for men. That means people in cities, not suburban types. So what questions could almost certainly be guaranteed to be asked? Questions about race and homosexuality especially considering the ongoing legal fights for equality.
They set up the interview, and let the questions go by, and let the answers go. They being the shows producers. They didn't ask for editorial rights, nor the ability to mark a question off the record. They wanted the information out there knowing that it would help their ratings. Yes, I said help their ratings.
Ever since Proposition 8 passed in California, the image is that a majority of people are opposed to Gay Marriage. The courts have ruled consistently that it's a question of equality, but the image is what I'm talking about. Remember the laughter from the RW when Prop 8 passed and they all crowed that even in California the people opposed Gay Marriage.
So if that image is the one you accept as reality, then what harm can come from insulting a group that honestly, isn't watching your show in the first place. Oh you might offend the left leaning members of the audience, which almost certainly make up less than a fraction of a percentage point of viewers. But you'll probably pick up several percentage points from the target audience. Suburbanite white folks.
So why would they do it? Well, their largest audience was 14 million for the series premier. We haven't heard about any huge audiences since, so we can assume (rather safely) that the numbers haven't been as high, or at least no higher. Their Christmas special was around Thanksgiving, which is way too early, and which didn't do shit numbers wise. So they needed to pump up the audience.
So what works? Limbaugh showed that you insult some liberal types, you get days or weeks of press from it. Everyone rushes over to see what is so offensive, and the numbers jump. Then you can charge more money to advertisers like Cracker Barrel that caters to the same audience for the exposure.
What does A&E lose? Well, I wasn't watching the show anyway. So they lose me as a viewer, from a show that I wasn't watching. Cracker Barrel loses me as a customer which is no big loss since I haven't eaten there since my Grandfather died a decade ago. No big loss to them either.
A&E publicizes that Phil is suspended indefinitely, which many will call fired for all intents and purposes. But they say they'll use all the shows they've already filmed. That is the entire next season, so another year of Duck Doofus on the channel. Each show will be prefaced by a disclaimer where A&E says that they do not support or share the opinions of the characters in the show.
It's a scam, intended to get free press for the show. We on the other hand, we Liberals are very predictable. When someone insults a woman like Sandra Fluke, we immediately and publicly denounce the individual and demand that they be taken off the air. When someone insults or demeans the GLBT community, we again denounce and demand.
What business is A&E in? They are trying to get as large a share of viewers as possible. They may have terrible shows, but if they get viewers, the terrible shows will continue. I saw one on iTunes called Bikini's and Boardwalks. I didn't watch it, but I can imagine that it is scantily clad women drinking and yelling Whooo at the camera while laughing and bouncing about. A more PG version of Girls Gone Wild is what I'm figuring on.
Now, I'm not going to watch the show, so my boycotting of them means nothing. A&E is doing what they're supposed to do, get viewers. Their advertisers will pay more because there are more viewers.
Imagine this now. Imagine if when this story broke the folks at GLAAD has said this instead. "Phil who? What show? What is it a cartoon version of that awful weekly soap opera from the 80's?"
What news play would that get? "Spokespeople from GLAAD and the NAACP expressed confusion on the show and promised to look into it if they could find the time to watch a ridiculous show." What would the Duck Doofus gang say then. We're a serious show about awesome things like family sticking together and killing things while espousing politically incorrect ideals?
How much impact does the story lose if the image is one of fringe. A member of a fringe group said something stupid, and the rest of us don't care because he is a fringe group. Duck Doofus would die slowly from poor ratings, the advertisers would move on to Sister Wives or whatever. We lose nothing, they lose something, and the fringe beliefs remain on the fringe instead of mainstream.
A&E will renew the show, they'll hoist the flag of free speech. It won't have anything to do with free speech. It will have everything to do with ratings. More ratings means more money.
We will never get everyone to agree with us. What we can do is get a majority of the people to agree with us, and we can do that by labeling such behavior as the purview of asinine morons like Fred Phelps. Nobody likes Fred, and the reason is he is a real example of extreme fringe behavior. Phil could have been there too, but we put him in the spotlight and have turned him into a household name.
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