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Roseanne Barr Says She ‘Begged’ an ABC Exec Not to Cancel Her Show

Aric Jenkins
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Aric Jenkins
Aric Jenkins
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Aric Jenkins
By
Aric Jenkins
Aric Jenkins
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June 1, 2018, 12:10 PM ET

Disgraced comedian Roseanne Barr said on Twitter last night that she “begged” an ABC executive not to cancel her show Roseanne after she made racist comments about a black woman.

In a a now-deleted tweet, Barr tweeted that she pleaded with Disney-ABC Television Group President Ben Sherwood “2 let me apologize & make amends. I begged them not to cancel the show.”

“I told them I was willing to do anything & asked 4 help in making things right,” Barr added. “I’d worked doing publicity4 them 4free for weeks, traveling, thru bronchitis. I begged4 ppls jobs.”

Earlier this week, ABC President Channing Dungey canceled Roseanne — a reboot of her popular sitcom from the ’80s and ’90s — after Barr tweeted that former President Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett looked like “Muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby.” Dungey, in turn, followed with a statement: “Roseanne’s Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values, and we have decided to cancel her show.”

Following the decision to cancel Roseanne, Barr attributed her Twitter comments to her use of Ambien before later adding that she “mistakenly thought she was white.” Prior to that claim, she said in a tweet that she thought Jarrett “was Saudi” — and then tweeted hours later that she “honestly thought [Jarrett] was Jewish and Persian.”

i thought she was saudi

— Roseanne Barr (@therealroseanne) May 30, 2018

i honestly thought she was Jewish and Persian-ignorant of me for sure, but…i did.

— Roseanne Barr (@therealroseanne) May 30, 2018

yes, I mistakenly thought she was white

— Roseanne Barr (@therealroseanne) May 30, 2018

On Thursday, Barr doubled down on her claim that she thought Jarrett was white. Referring to her conversation with Sherwood, she said in a now-deleted tweet, “He said: what were you thinking when you did this? I said: I thought she was white, she looks like my family!

“He scoffed & said: “what u have done is egregious, and unforgivable.'” Barr added. “I begged 4 my crews jobs. Will I ever recover from this pain? omg.”

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Aric Jenkins
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