Poor old media companies.

They can’t win. Even when they do.

ABC pretends to take the high ground on Roseanne Barr by ending a number one rated comedy for words said by an actor everyone knows is a jerk. Roseanne’s still rich, she’ll be fine. Everyone who worked on the show walked the plank. Audiences who were getting an insightful comedy about working-class Americans didn’t matter in this cold calculation.

If you ask me, what Samantha Bee said was arguably worse than the Roseanne tweet flap. I mean, Bee’s vulgar insult was on her show aired by the TBS network. It’s a word that seems as unacceptable to me as any racist comment. Maybe I missed the memo that women are now ok with the C word. Please clarify.

By comparison, what Roseanne did was make a racist comment using the modern day equivalent of CB Radio. Twitter is just text. Not broadcast unexpectedly to anybody. In fact, you have to subscribe to someone, and isn’t that the same as approving of their right to free speech?

I’m not excusing her. At all, if you’re paying close attention. And if her contract allows the network to fire her, and they want to, that’s their business.

But please don’t pretend it’s about standards. Or that it’s a win of any kind for the good guys.

Because we are all willingly being duped.

We’re herded and coerced into creating “reality shows of your own” on social media. Zuckerberg gets insanely wealthy. You get squat. Your “culture war” is an illusion and a waste of time.

Samantha Bee keeps her show and Roseanne doesn’t… Can you come up with a good excuse for the double standard? If not, #MeToo.

Let me say that I don’t think the answer is firing everyone who makes a hateful comment.

In fact, the long tail of social media wagging these tired old media dogs is only distracting us from our higher purpose.

Remember the Peace Sign? We could sure use a “Peace and Love” generation right now, couldn’t we? And for those of us old enough to remember, how about some protest songs!

Is there a modern-day Joan Baez or Bob Dylan out there?