It was an own goal, though, and bolsters the fatuous both-siderism that the media are prone to. Over at “No More Mister Nice Blog,” sitemeister Steve M. has this to say:
cordially,
And yet it was clear that this was coming, because within hours of the cancellation of Roseanne Barr’s show, the right was looking for a non-conservative scalp. Attention was first focused on Bill Maher, who once joked that Trump seemed to have descended from an orangutan. The attack on Maher didn't work—comparing white people to non-human primates is clearly not historically linked to bigotry. But it was obvious that the right wanted blood, and would use all of its narrative-shaping resources to demonize the first left-leaning comic who walked into the ambush.The rest of the piece (not particularly long) is worth a look. Tactics, people!
[snip]
It was predictable that Bee would be the target if she used this word in this way at this time, and it might have made sense fore her to weigh the value of keeping her show on the air for the foreseeable future against the possibility—no, the likelihood—that this one naughty-word joke could sink her entire career. Was that one joke worth the risk? And wasn’t the risk foreseeable?
I'm not saying, “Liberals, censor yourselves.” I'm saying, “Liberals, don’t give the bastards an opening.”
cordially,