UPDATE: Since this article was written, A&E has lifted the suspension of Duck Dynasty star Phil Robertson.
I’m sure we have all heard about the comments made by A&E’s Duck Dynasty star Phil Robertson to GQ Magazine and have heard the media’s accounts of what happened. Robertson has since then been suspended from the show for an indefinite amount of time and many people have spoken out against him.
In case you have not heard, Duck Dynasty Patriarch Phil Robertson made some comments about how gay-marriage is unnatural and how it can lead to bestiality. While those comments can be considered absurd and wrong, it has potentially lost him his job and has lost many fans of one of the most-viewed shows on television. A&E has asserted that his actions were a breach of his contract which costed him his job.
Vice Principal Mark Zmuda at Eastside Catholic High School in Seattle lost his job this past week after the administration of the school confirmed his gay marriage. According to the school attorney, the decision was made by the Archdiocese of Seattle because the Catholic view of same sex marriage is contrary to the actions of Zmuda. Zmuda, like Robertson, was punished because of a breach in his contract.
However, the media, along with many Americans, have responded completely different to both cases. Many students have rallied around Zmuda, and there have been protesters at the school along with a lot of coverage by the media, depicting the school as wrong and immoral while also depicting Zmuda as a guy persecuted on behalf of his beliefs.
The approaches of CNN, ABC, NBC, The New York Times, and many other liberal media organizations to the Phil Robertson scandal have revolved around the idea that we have freedom of speech but not freedom of consequence. Freedom of Speech means that the government cannot prosecute you for your spoken beliefs. That’s why the Westboro Baptist Church members can protest soldier funerals or why Occupy Wall Street members can hold signs saying “Eat the Rich.”
The Great American Experiment is centered around the rule of law. The laws of our land, written by an elected legislature and administered by an elected president, constitute criminality and legality. Popular opposition, in and of itself, does not make an action illegal.
The contracts that both Robertson and Zmuda entered into with their respective employers are legally binding documents. Both A&E Network and Eastside High School have firm legal grounds off which to fire their employees for breach of contract. For the mainstream media to suggest that one of the punishments is just while the other one is unjust is frankly absurd.
Texas Senator Ted Cruz put the media’s response to Phil Robertson perfectly when he said, “In a free society, anyone is free to disagree with him, but the mainstream media should not behave as the thought police, censoring the views with which they disagree.” The contract Phil Robertson violated was with A&E, not the media, so there is no reason why the media needs to be taking the pro-management approach.
Similarly, the contract between Mark Zmuda and Eastside High School did not include the media and so, once again, it is not necessary for the media to take the pro-employee approach and to antagonize the school. The media has also painted Zmuda as a man facing persecution because of his views. In my opinion, the media’s approach has completely cheapened the term “persecution.” The Jews were persecuted by the Nazi’s, the American Indians were persecuted by the early settlers, and the Christians were persecuted by the Romans. Mark Zmuda was not persecuted by Eastside High School. Mark Zmuda was fired because he breached contract.
Breach of contract is a fireable offense, and you can’t say that Zmuda shouldn’t be fired but Robertson should. Both Robertson and Zmuda signed documents that stated things they could not do and both violated his respective contract; therefore, that is the real reason why both of their jobs are in jeopardy. It would take incredibly twisted logic to justify that Phil Robertson should be fired due to his breach of contract, but that Mark Zmuda should keep his job despite his breach of contract.
The media loves to tell us what is right and wrong, but if they would keep their opinions silent to validate the real reason why both of these men were punished, then the public reactions to these two stories would have been completely different.
