Voters Split on Implications of Roseanne Remark

A majority of registered voters in a recent survey said that they support ABC's decision to cancel its reboot hit, Roseanne, after its star's racist tweet, though among Republicans, a majority of those polled said they do not.

Voters were about equally split when asked whether racist remarks indicate the speaker is racist.

That is according to a Morning Consult/Politico poll of 1,990 registered voters conducted May 31-June 4.

Related: ABC Cancels 'Roseanne'

The poll found that 57% of voters support ABC's decision versus 32% who do not.

The vast majority (77%) agreed Roseanne Barr's tweet about Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett was racist (only 13% said it was not). But they were less in agreement on what that meant.

Of those polled, 45% said that racist remarks usually mean the person making them is a racist, but 44% said that is not necessarily the case.

ABC's decision to pull the show from its fall lineup was supported by 57% of respondents overall, but among Republicans, 56% opposed the move. Both Barr, the actress, and Roseanne, her character, support Trump.

Related: Laff Joins ABC Canceling Its Reruns of ‘Roseanne’

Whether voters thought the tweet was racist varied somewhat by respondents' vantage point. Nine of 10 African Americans (91%) said it was, along with 83% of Hispanics and 75% of whites. Two-thirds (66%) of Republicans agreed.

Among all voters, 68% said racism is a major problem in the U.S., but respondents definitely split along party lines, with 86% of Democrats agreeing vs. 48% of Republicans.

The online poll has a margin of error of plus-or-minus two percentage points.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.