What Cancel Culture Actually Looks Like

If you ever want to know what actual cancel culture looks like and not the whiny, candyass, fictional wingnut version of it you see all over the internet like track marks on RFK Jr -- 

-- someday buy an OG Liberal blogger a beer and ask them what it was like to publicly question the wisdom of George W. Bush' Iraq Clusterfuck back when that was not a popular opinion.  

Welcome to Pariah Town!

But the willingness of media gatekeepers to snap their fingers and banish Liberals to the cornfield if they step out of line has a long and storied history in the country.  Like, for example (From Looper, December 2023)...

The Smothers Brothers Show Wasn't 'Canceled,' They Were Fired - That's Important

The death of Tom Smothers, 86, on December 26 has put the Smothers Brothers back in the spotlight. The comedy duo that consisted of him and his brother, Dick, starred on CBS' "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour" from 1967 to 1969. The trendy show soon became known for skits and content that actively made fun of the powers that be, including criticizing the Vietnam War. "We were moderate. We were never out there," Dick Smothers told the Associated Press. "But we were the first people through that door. It just sort of crept in as the '60s crept in. We were part of that generation." 

This approach earned the show a pair of Primetime Emmys, but it also painted a target on its back ... and, perhaps unsurprisingly, the controversial show came to a sudden end in 1969. However, the Smothers Brothers made it known that their show never actually got canceled — instead, they insisted that they were fired. They were pretty clear about this in a 1982 interview on "Late Night with David Letterman" when Letterman brought up the subject. "We were fired. We left under duress," Tom told the host in no uncertain terms. This wasn't a throw-off line, either — he used the same term onstage when he received an honorary award at the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards.

The determined distinction between being canceled and getting fired is understandable considering the way the show ended. Instead of officially canceling the show, CBS alleged that its censors hadn't received an episode of the show on time and used this to unexpectedly pull the plug on "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour." The Smothers Brothers weren't happy — and the law eventually sided with them, as they won $775,000 in the ensuing court case...

This is the skit that finally got them sacked.  CBS cut this skit from an episode of the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour that was to be broadcast in April 1969.  Then, CBS decided to fire Tommy and Dick Smothers and censored the entire episode, even after this skit was deleted.  Which, in turn, led to the 1970 lawsuit mentioned in the Looper article.

And, just for fun, this is from a 1970 NBC-TV special, "The Return of the Smothers Brothers", in which David Steinberg and the Smothers Brothers crack wise about TV Censorship. The video is wreck, but the audio is still good.

 

As I have mentioned many times on this here tiny blog 'o mine, the problem with the media is absolutely not and never has been the "cancelling" of toxic conservative opinions and lies. As you may have noticed, we are practically drowning in toxic conservative opinions and lies.   Elmo Mush spent 44 billion dollars just to make sure that the madness and treason of MAGA degenerates and traitors would have yet another route to roar unimpeded through the American media.

No, the real problem with the legacy media is and always has been "Shelter Culture".

Shelter Culture (tm) is my trademarked antonym for "Cancel Culture" -- to describe organizational cultures which actively protect smarmy always-wrong hacks who definitely would have been sacked for incompetence long ago in any other enterprise.  Personally, I prefer “Cultured Pearl Clutching Culture” (tm) but it doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, or “Cloister Culture” (tm) but too many people have no idea what “cloister" means.

So Shelter Culture (tm) it is shall be...

 

Update:  Reader Anon reminds us that the biggest example of cancel culture in modern American history are Conservative Christopaths cancelling the peace-loving Jesus who preached welcoming the stranger, generosity to the poor, feeding the hungry, comforting to the widow, decency to the imprisoned and who gave away health care for free...

...and in His place substituted their angry, paranoid, gun-toting, minority-hating, prosperity-gospel Fake Jebus.   

I Am The Liberal Media