CNN’s Stelter Predicts ABC Will Act On Roseanne Controversy Over Racist Tweets: ‘This Has Become a Wildfire’
Roseanne Barr‘s racist tweetstorm may be over, but CNN’s Brian Stelter thinks the public hasn’t heard the last of it.
While this isn’t the first time such behavior has been seen from Barr, Stelter predicts ABC will finally respond.
“In the past ABC has said basically she’s Roseanne, you can’t stop Roseanne, that’s what makes her a successful comedian,” he told HLN’s Carol Costello. “I think today, however, does feels different. This has become a wildfire of sorts with so much outrage about her racist posts, and I think we are going to see action from ABC, even if it’s just a condemnation.”
Barr, known for her starring role in ABC’s Roseanne reboot, went on a bizarre conspiracy-mongering rant Tuesday morning, attacking Chelsea Clinton, George Soros, CNN’s Chris Cillizza and former Obama aide Valerie Jarrett, whom she called the spawn of the Muslim Brotherhood and Planet of the Apes.
“What we’re seeing is conspiracy thinking spreading, and this is a celebrity who picks up on this nonsense on the web,” Stelter said. “She sees it on fringe websites and in chat forums and Twitter feeds, she embraces it, and then she promotes it to her millions of followers.”
A major concern, he noted, is that Barr’s rhetoric is reaching a huge audience.
“She is a powerful prominent celebrity of course, backed by ABC, and when she tweets about George Soros and lies about him, when she tweets lies about Valerie Jarret she’s misleading her audience,” Stelter told Costello.
Stelter said he’s awaiting a statement from ABC to see how strongly the network will respond.
Watch the clip above, via CNN.
[Image via screengrab]
