Night Clerk of the Apacalypse.
He wasn't permanently suspended to begin with.
Who watches the watchmen?
Someone forgot to relay that to the people who made those petitions and stuff to get him unsuspended.
Splendid Ninja
I think a great deal of them knew, but just didn't care.
"With hard work and dedication, I will become a splendid ninja!"
Well, being suspended until shooting starts again doesn't really mean anything, so it's kind of hard to say that this isn't a reversal by A&E.
Suspending him in the first place was either really, really stupid or an intentional publicity stunt. First off, you're escalating the controversy. Suspending him is what put the story in the headlines, and it got his supporters doing things that put them in headlines.
Second, it meant that A&E had taken sides, which is not where they want to be. Taking a side is a no-win scenario for them. Either they lose their star or they condone his comments. It would have been much smarter just to issue a bog-standard "Does not reflect A&E's views" PR line and remain neutral.
Splendid Ninja
According to A&E, the suspension was lifted because of popular demand. They spoke to some human rights groups, and Phil now has to do some ads promoting acceptance of all people.
"With hard work and dedication, I will become a splendid ninja!"
By popular demand they mean "we made a truckload of money off people showing "solidarity" by buying cheap merchandise with redneck faces plastered on it, so now we remind everyone we care more about profit than how much people who dont watch the show anyways like us"
Never Trust
This of course will only encourage him to make even more outrageous statements.
Trump delenda est
Splendid Ninja
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Actually, Duck Dynasty is one of the most popular reality shows on TV, and the family has a huge fan base. I'm not sure merchandise is the sole reason they'd lift the suspension.
edited 4th Jan '14 3:16:32 PM by RockLeeYourFace
"With hard work and dedication, I will become a splendid ninja!"
to be fair, a huge fanbase means a lot of people willing to buy kitchshy products.
I'd never seen the show prior to this past week, but after all the fuss, my wife and I finally checked some DV Ds out of the library and watched the first season. I have to admit, it's a pretty funny show. I can see the appeal.
Publicity works. Maybe what A&E had in mind?
edited 9th Jan '14 1:33:03 PM by andersonh1
Looks like Phil Robertson's suspension has been lifted
, just barely a week after it started. A&E has agreed to resume the show with the entire family, including Phil.
Not sure what this says about Phil, his family, their fans, or A&E in general. But if I can guess, this shows that A&E simply made a poor decision to suspend one of their cash cows in the first place, and I'd reckon that this reversal of that decision would only increase this show's notoriety by way of No Such Thing as Bad Publicity.