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ABC drops Roseanne show after racist tweet

ABC TV network has cancelled comedian Roseanne Barr’s sitcom after she posted a racist tweet likening an African-American former Obama aide to an ape.

ABC said: “Roseanne’s Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values and we have decided to cancel her show.”

Barr’s tweet said Valerie Jarrett was the child of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Planet of the Apes film.

The reboot of her hit ’90s sitcom Roseanne has been a ratings hit.

The comedian deleted Monday night’s post and said she was leaving Twitter, but later posted a flurry of tweets including one that said she was “tired of being attacked & belittled”.

“I apologise to Valerie Jarrett and to all Americans,” Barr wrote following the outcry, defending her remarks as a “joke”.

“I am truly sorry for making a bad joke about her politics and her looks. I should have known better. Forgive me-my joke was in bad taste.”

Barr’s initial tweet came in response to another Twitter user, who accused Mrs Jarrett of helping to conceal purported spying during the Obama administration.

Mrs Jarrett was a senior adviser to former US President Barack Obama, and worked with him during his early days in Chicago politics.

She was born in Iran to African-American parents.

Mrs Jarrett was not the only target of Barr’s Twitter tirade in recent days.

On Monday, the 65-year-old entertainer claimed Chelsea Clinton – daughter of former US President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton – was married to a relative of billionaire investor George Soros in a tweet.

Barr tweeted an apology to Ms Clinton on Tuesday.

Barr also alleged Mr Soros, who is Jewish, was a Nazi collaborator – a claim his spokesman labelled “an affront”.

On Sunday, the comedian criticised the Obama family for signing on with Netflix to produce TV programmes and movies.

The comedian wrote on Tuesday she was “leaving Twitter”, but returned shortly after with a string of tweets addressing the cancelation of her sitcom.

“I will handle my sadness the way I want to,” she said. “I’m tired of being attacked and belittled more than other comedians who have said worse.”

“I’m not a racist, just an idiot who made a bad joke,” she said in another.

In another post, Barr said reruns of her sitcom had also been cancelled by other networks.

A spokesman for Viacom, which owns various networks including Paramount, earlier said it would stop airing old episodes. The streaming service Hulu also said it would be removing the sitcom from its library.

Barr also tweeted directly at Mrs Jarrett to apologise for her original comment, which she said was “insensitive & tasteless”.

Speaking at a prescheduled MSNBC town hall event on racism, Mrs Jarrett said the Roseanne Barr controversy was “a teaching moment”.

“I’m fine, I’m worried about all the people out there who don’t have a circle of friends and followers coming to their defence,” she said.

She added that Robert Iger, chief executive of Disney, ABC’s parent company, had called her to apologise and said he had “zero tolerance” for Barr’s tweet.

Following ABC’s cancellation notice, Barr’s talent agency, ICM Partners, dropped her as a client.

Entertainment media report an internal email to ICM employees called Barr’s tweet “disgraceful and unacceptable”.

Sara Gilbert, who plays daughter Darlene on the series, posted on Twitter that Barr’s comments were “abhorrent”.

Emma Kenney, who plays Darlene’s daughter Harris, said “the racist and distasteful comments from Roseanne are inexcusable”, adding: “Bullies do not win. Ever.”

Following Barr’s offensive tweet, one of Roseanne’s consulting producers, Wanda Sykes, had said she would not be returning to the show.

Danny Zuker, a writer for the original 1988 Roseanne show, said it was “nauseating” to see what Barr had become.

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