The Liberal Celebrity Double Standard

Authored by Christian Toto

Jim Gaffigan is the latest celebrity to trash President Donald Trump on social media.

Nothing unusual there. What followed that rant, though, is another matter. 

Gaffigan called the president a con man, a fascist and more on Twitter. It’s the standard litany from the Hollywood Resistance. The “Most Wanted” star followed that Twitter rant up with an Instagram post suggesting Democrat-run cities are perfectly fine – despite the frightening videos flashing across your smart phone screens.

Gaffigan tweeted “Thanks to everyone who came to my show tonight in Philadelphia. It felt good to get on stage. Amazingly there was no violence given it’s one of those dangerous Democratic run cities. Oh that’s right, that is just another lie from Trump and his cronies meant to frighten suburban voters and distract from the fact 180,000 Americans died from a hoax disease.”

Now, let’s consider the facts:

• The cities under siege are, indeed, under uniformly Democratic control
• Progressive Portland has endured 90-plus days of violence
• Multiple cities told local law enforcement to stand down rather than stop the looting and riots 
• Crime is spiking in several major cities, all run by Democrats, in the wake of the George Floyd riots and ‘defund the police’ narrative
• Trump never called COVID-19 a “hoax”
• The cities experiencing massive looting, riots and violence include New York City, Denver, Portland, Seattle, Minneapolis, Chicago, Oakland and, more recently Kenosha, Wisconsin.

It’s hard to pack as much misinformation into a single paragraph as Gaffigan did. So how can a star of Gaffigan’s magnitude get away with it?

Call it liberal celebrity privilege.

The mainstream media, social media and the Cancel Culture elites collectively look the other way or spin on celebrities’ behalf when they step over the line.

Let’s start with Twitter. Liberal celebrities spread false information routinely on the platform. They push conspiracy theories about President Trump. Others literally wish him dead.

Veteran actress Ellen Barkin both hoped for Trump’s demise and for disgraced comic Louis C.K. to be raped and shot.

Yet while Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and co. will yank select Trump tweets down and deplatform conservatives like actor James Woods they leave liberal celebrities alone.

The mainstream media does its part to protect liberal stars by downplaying or ignoring their worst impulses.

Robert De Niro once said Rupert Murdoch wasn’t “even an American” while bashing the Fox News leader to The Daily Beast. The news cycle went on with barely a mention of it.

The same held true when director Joss Whedon of “Avengers” fame shared violent fantasies against then-Speaker of the House Paul Ryan. The media elites snored right through it. They mostly did the same when Whedon mocked the appearance of cancer-stricken teens who dared to meet with Ryan in the first place.

That one snagged the attention of a few outlets, but hardly the kind of wall-to-wall coverage most celebrity missteps generate. Imagine if Jon Voight or Dean Cain had said what Whedon did?

Even more baffling? Media outlets refuse to fact check stars if they share progressive narratives.  Outlets including The Associated Press will regurgitate far-left talking points from Late Night TV, “Saturday Night Live” and more without pressing them for the whole story.

By comparison, when “SNL” attempted a few sharp critiques against President Barack Obama both CNN and The Washington Post fact-checked the sketches.

Now, how many times did the provide a similar service to “SNL’s” anti-Trump cold opens?

Cancel Culture, which allegedly exists to protect women and marginalized groups, often stands down when liberal stars behave badly.

Comedy Central talker Jim Jefferies once sexualized First Lady Melania Trump, calling her “wooden” and “dirty.” Far-left comic Tom Arnold similarly slammed the First Lady in a gross manner. The National Organization for Women, along with other like-minded groups, ignored the latter attack.

Bette Midler recently mocked Melania Trump’s accent while comic Sarah Silverman called FLOTUS a “pig.” Neither star faced the woke mob as a result.

Liberal stars can escape Cancel Culture’s clutches, assuming they’re leaning to the left while it happens.

So Gaffigan and co. can say almost anything they want, be it the truth or 100 percent falsehoods, knowing that the culture at large has their back.

The American people? That’s another story.