Honoring Samantha Bee

 

Tonight the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS, or SATAN spelled backwards) will honor Samantha Bee during their 11th Annual Television Academy Honors. This is one day after Miss Bee referred to the President’s daughter — on air — as “a feckless [expletive that refers to a part of a woman’s anatomy].”

Bee, and her network TBS, have tepidly apologized for the remark. “I would like to sincerely apologize to Ivanka Trump and to my viewers for using an expletive on my show to describe her last night. It was inappropriate and inexcusable. I crossed a line, and I deeply regret it,” tweeted Bee. The network added, “Samantha Bee has taken the right action in apologizing for the vile and inappropriate language she used about Ivanka Trump last night. Those words should not have been aired. It was our mistake too, and we regret it.”

And it truly was a team effort. Turner has a Standards and Practices Office like the broadcast nets. All scripts, monologues, etc., are run through this office. (Listen to the GLoP episode at AEI.) Which means Bee’s comments were not on par with Roseanne Barr’s spur-of-the-moment idiocy on Valerie Jarrett. No, this makes it 10 times worse. It was conceived in a writer’s room, approved by executive producers and blessed by the network itself. Jim Spann, the head of S&P for Turner Entertainment Networks, once appeared on “Conan” to defend his office’s censoring of some of that show’s content.

Now, on to the Academy. These awards are separate from the Academy’s main raison d’être, the annual Emmy Awards. The purpose of these awards, according to Television Academy Chairman and CEO Hayma Washington, is to applaud those that use television as “a catalyst for raising awareness of relevant issues around the globe. We are proud to be part of an industry that spreads understanding, uncovers truth, encourages compassion and shines a light on darkness.”

Understanding. Truth. Compassion. Light. Yeah, Samantha Bee is all that and more.

From the Academy website, here are the reasons NATAS specifically chose to honor Bee and her show:

“Through the use of old fashioned journalistic integrity, plain logic, keen observational skills, and pop culture references, Full Frontal is a program that makes its audience think and laugh.

“Four days a week, Bee exercises 22 minutes of remarkable public courage. She is outspoken, yet implements tact. She gives respect where respect is due. She is willing to take on the uncomfortable, willing to dive into the gutter and embrace it as laughable common ground.

“But Full Frontal with Samantha Bee doesn’t just serve to inform and amuse. What Toronto native Bee and her team are doing is far more important and complex than just delivering the news or just writing a funny joke about a politician.

“It is no longer enough to simply know what’s going on, as great a challenge as that can be on its own. It is now essential to take the next step.”

Tact?

The Academy now not only honors the gutter, it, too, embraces it. And the “next step” is to fill the gutter full of runoff from a pig farm before diving in with a closed mind and an open mouth.

Maybe I should take my Emmy down from the mantle and mail it back to them. 

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  1. Judge Mental Member
    Judge Mental
    @JudgeMental

    The timing on this is just perfect.

    • #1
  2. Hoyacon Member
    Hoyacon
    @Hoyacon

    . . . willing to dive into the gutter . . 

    Well, we can’t say they didn’t warn us.

    • #2
  3. Ekosj Member
    Ekosj
    @Ekosj

    Im sure there will be several rounds of self congratulation for the TV Academy being ‘brave’ enough to honor someone like whatshername at a time when she is under fire.   

    • #3
  4. Kay of MT Inactive
    Kay of MT
    @KayofMT

    If you received an Emmy, it was probably at a time when it still meant something. So I would keep it. If you received it within the Obama years, trash it.

    I’ve never heard of this woman. Probably good for my blood pressure. How is it that she doesn’t lose her job and all of her media contracts? She used a vulgar word and all Roseanne did was to compare a person with a monkey. I would compare VJ with a whole lot worse than either of these two women.

    • #4
  5. Mike-K Member
    Mike-K
    @

    That woman said that remark in a script written and approved by her employer.

    I had never heard of her, either, but it is a sign of the times.

     

    Roseanne, as nutty as she is, was not reading a script.

    • #5
  6. Chris O. Coolidge
    Chris O.
    @ChrisO

    Natas, by the way, is also a fairly atypical male name in Iceland or another Scandinavian country (can’t remember). The feminine equivalent is Natasha, of course.

    To me, that’s more interesting than Samantha Bee’s honors. @eherring had it right today, and Samantha is a good example.

    • #6
  7. Misthiocracy, Joke Pending Member
    Misthiocracy, Joke Pending
    @Misthiocracy

    So, wait, NATAS has its own awards show in addition to the one it produces in cooperation with ATAS and IATAS?

    Also, why the heck are there three academies of television arts and science?

    • #7
  8. Misthiocracy, Joke Pending Member
    Misthiocracy, Joke Pending
    @Misthiocracy

    Kay of MT (View Comment):
    If you received an Emmy, it was probably at a time when it still meant something. So I would keep it. If you received it within the Obama years, trash it.

    I still think the Emmys are the best of the big awards shows these days, thanks to the current “Golden Age Of Television”.

    The Grammys are pointless.  The Oscars are pointless.  The Tonys are pointless.

    The MTV Movie Awards haven’t been the same since they eliminated the Lifetime Achievement Award category, which was virtually the only reason I ever watched the show.

    The Emmys, by contrast, still have some value.

    • #8
  9. Kozak Member
    Kozak
    @Kozak

    Wait her show wasn’t immediately canceled?

    I thought calling another women a c##t is the same kind of unforgivable Line That Must Not Be Crossed.

    • #9
  10. Kozak Member
    Kozak
    @Kozak

    Mike-K (View Comment):

    That woman said that remark in a script written and approved by her employer.

    I had never heard of her, either, but it is a sign of the times.

     

    Roseanne, as nutty as she is, was not reading a script.

    So is that better or worse? Rosanne fired off a nasty tweet something many many people do to their regret.

    She did this in a knowing and premeditated way.

    • #10
  11. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    Misthiocracy, Joke Pending (View Comment):

    So, wait, NATAS has its own awards show in addition to the one it produces in cooperation with ATAS and IATAS?

    Also, why the heck are there three academies of television arts and science?

    Because there is so much art and so much science! One academy couldn’t deal with it all.

    • #11
  12. Scott Wilmot Member
    Scott Wilmot
    @ScottWilmot

    I’m so glad we don’t watch network or cable television any more. That these clowns give themselves awards is just pathetic. Outside of their world, who cares?

    • #12
  13. Joseph Stanko Coolidge
    Joseph Stanko
    @JosephStanko

    Kozak (View Comment):

    Wait her show wasn’t immediately canceled?

    I thought calling another women a c##t is the same kind of unforgivable Line That Must Not Be Crossed.

    She even admitted it:

    It was inappropriate and inexcusable. I crossed a line, and I deeply regret it.

    • #13
  14. Joseph Stanko Coolidge
    Joseph Stanko
    @JosephStanko

    Ah, but it’s different you see b/c Samantha Bee is woman, so she can use that word, according to feminist attorney Lisa Bloom:

    OK, but a white woman (Roseanne) invoking slavery-era racism about a black woman is miles away from a woman using the “c” word to insult another woman.

    See, women can use the c-word, just like black rappers can use the n-word, but no one else can.  Presumably if, say, Stephen Colbert had delivered the exact same monologue as Samantha Bee then we could expect his show to be canceled immediately…

     

    • #14
  15. EJHill Podcaster
    EJHill
    @EJHill

    Update: Auto Trader and State Farm have asked to have their ads removed from her show.

    • #15
  16. Mike-K Member
    Mike-K
    @

    Everybody knew Roseanne is a nut. Tom Arnold apparently told the cast members to get her phone away from her. He used to be married to her.

    The script was far worse. That was planned.

    • #16
  17. Hypatia Member
    Hypatia
    @

    Oh come on, you can’t blame Samantha Bee.  I mean, whose fault is this, really?  As Valerie Jarret said, th president sets the tone.  So anything a trump supporter says is attributable to him.  And, anything a Trump hater, like Griffin or Bee, says is also  attributable to him!  See?  

    Now tell Samantha you’re sorry.

    • #17
  18. Ansonia Member
    Ansonia
    @Ansonia

    It wasn’t just the filthy hateful word (though that certainly would have been enough). The lead up to it, which is usually edited out in reports on it, was especially vile. Nothing even remotely comparable would ever have been tolerated by anyone, if said in reference to Obama’s wife or daughters.

    We need a boycott.

    The apology should not be accepted. We need to get her fired.

    • #18
  19. DonG Coolidge
    DonG
    @DonG

    The NATAS folks really owe George Carlin a lot of awards for pioneering “Light in Darkness”(tm).

    • #19
  20. She Member
    She
    @She

    Never heard of the woman. What’s the “B” stand for, again?

    • #20
  21. EJHill Podcaster
    EJHill
    @EJHill

    Update 2: The Academy has barred the press from the event. Democracy dies in darkness, folks. But we are all “…proud to be part of an industry that spreads understanding, uncovers truth, encourages compassion and shines a light on darkness.”

    • #21
  22. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    EJHill (View Comment):

    Update 2: The Academy has barred the press from the event. Democracy dies in darkness, folks. But we are all “…proud to be part of an industry that spreads understanding, uncovers truth, encourages compassion and shines a light on darkness.”

    They shine a light on darkness … in secret.

    • #22
  23. James Lileks Contributor
    James Lileks
    @jameslileks

    According to people on Twitter, the administration has demanded that the show be cancelled, and this is a sign of fascism. 

    They actually believe that.  They get such dark excitement from wanting this to be true.

    • #23
  24. Justin Hertog Inactive
    Justin Hertog
    @RooseveltGuck

    Is this post a joke? She’s really getting an award. She has a filthy mouth. I wonder what she’ll say when she accepts the award: “Thanks, from the bottom of my c**t.”

    • #24
  25. Mike-K Member
    Mike-K
    @

    This is how you get more Trump. I hope somebody in the RNC is saving all these clips for TV ads in October.

    • #25
  26. EJHill Podcaster
    EJHill
    @EJHill

    Justin Hertog: Is this post a joke? She’s really getting an award. 

    The complete list is here. A veritable SJW dream.

    • #26
  27. CRD Member
    CRD
    @CRD

    I truly do not understand the outrage about the use of the vile word. What about the content before that? If someone was shot, then had a pebble thrown at her, I don’t think she would even notice the pebble.

    • #27
  28. Old Bathos Member
    Old Bathos
    @OldBathos

    The awards panel feels they have to pretend she is an artist just as her viewers must pretend she is funny. The left puts heavy burdens on its adherents.

    Like political meetings under Saddam Hussein in which he would always receive a standing ovation and the first ones to stop applauding expected to be arrested, the lockstep approval of patently disgusting, immoral or simply stupid ideas is a tribal pre-req for our increasingly mindless lefty friends. The Dark Side must be tiresome.

    • #28
  29. Henry Castaigne Member
    Henry Castaigne
    @HenryCastaigne

    The left is losing its ability to persuade anybody. That is part of the reason they are going crazy. As Jonah likes to say, “A failed man often takes to drink and becomes more the failure.” Trump hatred is like gut-rot hooch to the left.

    • #29
  30. Kozak Member
    Kozak
    @Kozak

    Justin Hertog (View Comment):

    Is this post a joke? She’s really getting an award. She has a filthy mouth. I wonder what she’ll say when she accepts the award: “Thanks, from the bottom of my c**t.”

    Sally fields is all in on C##t…..

     

    I would say Sally is a gigantic one.

    • #30
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