Duane ” Dog ” Chapman has issued an apology in attempt to bail himself out from a controversy involving a phone call he made using racist language that led to his popular show “The Bounty Hunter” being pulled from the A&E Network.
At issue: use of the “n-word” which also derailed comedian/actor Michael Richards’ career. The link to the phone call (we won’t embed it on this site) is HERE.
The A&E network said Dog the Bounty Hunter, starring Duane “Dog” Chapman, would be off-air “for the foreseeable future”, but had not been scrapped.
The National Enquirer released a recording of a conversation involving the star, repeatedly making derogatory remarks about his son’s girlfriend.
He issued an apology but several civil rights leaders want his show ditched.
They have written to A&E, branding his comments “a vicious attack on… interracial relations, as well as an incitement to violence”.
Tucker’s programme sees him and colleagues trying to find people who have absconded in Hawaii and other US states.
The question is whether sponsors will want to sponsor a show featuring someone who has been publicized as using that notably-unwelcome language. It may be difficult for the show to come back if there is a strong campaign against Chapman — even with an apology.
And unlike radio talk show host Don Imus, whose joke about young black women got him dumped from his regular gig, Chapman’s show, while lucrative, may be more dispensable than Imus’ long running show. Imus has risen from the professional grave and will debut on a new radio network (and probably do better than ever in the ratings after all the publicity) on Dec. 1st.
The AP’s story says advertiser ire is already being felt:
Chapman, 54, has been under fire and accused of being a racist ever since the private conversation with his son, Tucker Chapman, was posted online Wednesday by The National Enquirer. Chapman used the N-word repeatedly about his son’s black girlfriend.
At least two advertisers have pulled out from the show and civil rights groups have called for its cancellation.
Soon after the clip was posted, Chapman issued an apology and A&E suspended production of the series.
In the conversation, Chapman urges Tucker to break up with his girlfriend. He also expresses concern about the girlfriend trying to tape and go public about the TV star’s use of the N-word. He used the slur six times in the first 45 seconds of the five-minute clip.
Chapman has said he was “disappointed in his choice of a friend, not due to her race, but her character. However, I should have never used that term.” He also said he was ashamed of himself and pledged to make amends.
His attorney, Brook Hart said his client is not a racist and vowed never to use the word again. Hart said Tucker Chapman taped the call and sold it to the Enquirer for “a lot of money.”
David Perel, the Enquirer’s editor in chief, would not comment on how it obtained the tape.
E! News’ story, headlined A&E Houses Dog, suggests his show isn’t dead yet…but then it’s early in the outrage stage:
An A&E spokesperson insisted the network’s flagship series—one of the top-rated shows on cable with around 2 million viewers per first-run episode—has not been canceled.
The network had already suspended production on the show on Wednesday, shortly after Chapman’s N-bomb-laced conversation was posted online by the National Enquirer.
“When the inquiry is concluded, we will take appropriate action,” A&E said in an earlier statement.
On CBS’s Public Eye blog, Matthew Felling notes that this is yet another indication that we are in a new era:
In 1970, love meant ‘never having to say you’re sorry.’
In 2007, celebrity means ‘never being off-the-record.’
As with Alec Baldwin’s less-than-fatherly feedback to his daughter earlier this year – where he called his 11-year old a ‘rude, thoughtless little pig’—we’ve got ourselves another family dispute dragged out into the public, courtesy of a voicemail for a family member.
A&E’s Duane Chapman…..is in big trouble because of a horribly intolerant voicemail he left on his son’s phone.
Felling offers a long list of celebrities, celebrity wannabes and politicos who have gotten into hot water due to things that might not have come to the public attention years ago, and he also notes how the infosystem is now set up so they immediately go to the forefront.
And, this is the era of YouTubes, the 24 hour news cycle, weblogs (where controversies rage about everything, including the use of private emails), and newspapers trying to find new angles to compete in a world turned upside down by the impact of the new Internet news media.
Add to that the competition between the tabloids and the mainstream media which started full scale in the 1980s when the supermarket tabloids began to move away from just celebrity news into covering political scandals…and beating some of the mainstream papers.
Since that time, the tabloids have lost circulation due to on-line news sources and the mainstream media stealing some of the tabloids’ techniques (and absorbing their news values). More than ever, the “bloids” are willing to pay big bucks for stories that jolt.
Add to that an increased demand that certain kind of language be banished — and if you had to place money it would be on Chapman’s show not returning…or him having to offer a much bigger apology or take some other action.
Otherwise, The Dog’s show will be put to sleep.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.