Overview
- On Wednesday, Roseanne Barr used a profanity-filled rant on the Can’t Be Censored podcast to insult Michael Fishman and tell him to “go and fuck yourself,” after he said in August that the 2018 Roseanne reboot “was rightfully canceled.”
- Fishman’s August remarks rejecting arguments that his view was simply political were widely reported, and he has not issued a new public rebuttal to Barr’s podcast attack.
- Barr reiterated her long-held defense that her 2018 tweet about Valerie Jarrett referenced geopolitics rather than race, a claim critics reject and that originally prompted ABC to cancel the reboot.
- The dispute highlights lasting career fallout: ABC retooled the series as The Conners without Barr, Fishman was written out of that show in 2022, and several original cast members say relationships with Barr remain severed.
- Beyond the personal feud, the exchange revived broader public debate about accountability and how dehumanizing language from high-profile figures can produce real-world harms and lasting consequences for colleagues and audiences.