Cyndi's Two Cents

First amendment doesn’t apply to rodeo clowns

What do Johnny Carson, Jay Leno, David Letterman, the cast and writers for Saturday Night Live, political cartoonist Michael Rameriz and aging rodeo clown Tuffy Gessling have in common? They made fun of a president. Had Mr. Gessling performed his skit on a television set in front of millions of viewers instead of an arena in front of a few hundred spectators at a rodeo during the Missouri State Fair, he wouldn’t have been banned for life from the fair, held up as a hero by some and suffered condemnation (even death threats) from others.

Most of you have heard about the skit performed during a Saturday night rodeo in Sedalia, Missouri. In a nutshell, it involved a rodeo clown, a dummy wearing a Barack Obama mask, and a bull. For those of you who don’t know, rodeo clowns try to draw the bull’s attention away from the rider once the rider is no longer on the bull. They provide entertainment for the spectators while protecting the bull riders. On this particular evening, the clown asked the audience if they would like to see the bull “smoke Obama” or something along those lines. Rodeo-speak for “Do you want to see the bull go after the dummy wearing the Barack Obama mask?”

Anyone who attends rodeos on a regular basis has seen this same skit performed time and again over the years. A friend of mine who rides bulls in rodeos told me last night he’s seen a similar skit using masks of George Bush, Sr., Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. Did the NAACP jump up and down, calling the skit a “racially intolerant act” when the face on the mask was any of the former presidents? Did anyone call foul when an African American rodeo clown wore a Hilary Clinton mask in the same skit? If someone is calling this act racist, they must have their own unresolved issues with prejudice.

As a journalist I am appalled by the absolutely irresponsible reporting of this “story” by media outlets in all platforms. An opinion piece, rife with misinformation, posted to the internet, was used as the base for most of the “news” coverage of this event.

I was horrified by the initial response on social media. A veritable witch hunt was underway within hours. The poor clown was denounced as a racist and traitor. The announcer – who was in no way involved with the skit – became the target of an online crusade to get him fired from his job as school superintendent. One of the hardest things for me to swallow was that I know a lot of the people who posted baseless, tasteless remarks on Facebook and Twitter. They refused to listen to the truth. It was mob mentality.

I find it shameful that some in media and a whole lot of individuals have made one little rodeo skit at a state fair about the color of your skin or whether you are a liberal or conservative instead of what it was really about, which was simply having fun.

The First Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits the making of any law abridging the freedom of speech. Somebody forgot to tell Tuffy that rule just doesn’t apply to him.