Phil Robertson, the leader of the “Duck Dynasty” clan, confronted producers of the hit A&E reality series over questionable bleeps suggesting profanity that was never spoken, as well as cutting any mention of Jesus.
Robertson revealed the clash during an April interview (above) with Christian sports magazine, Sports Spectrum, which has only just begun to go viral on the web.
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“They inserted fake bleeps, like someone had used profanity, but no one had used profanity,” Robertson, the founder of Duck Commander, said. “So I asked those guys that produce the show. I said, ‘What’s the point of the fake bleeps?”
The editing trick, as Robertson explains, was used because the Los Angeles-based editors “probably thought that there was some profanity going on.” But there was, in fact, “zero,” which led Robertson to pressure producers to stop the practice.
“If you want that, oh, you can get all of that you want. Just turn the station. There’s plenty of that. If we’re not using profanity, why make it look like we’re using profanity? What is the point?” Robertson continued. “Why don’t you just run it, and say what we say. They’re like, ‘You got a point.’ So they quit doing that.”
Another issue Robertson had with the content featured in the episodes making it to air? Not enough Jesus.
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“The other thing was when we prayed, we said, ‘In Jesus name, amen’ … they would just have me say, ‘And thank you, Lord, for the food, thank you for loving us, amen.”’ Robertson added. “So I said, ‘why would you cut out in Jesus’ name?”
According to Robertson’s paraphrased conversation with producers, it was because editors “don’t want to offend some of the Muslims, or something.”
Robertson isn’t worried about offending anyone by saying Jesus on national television, because our calendar year, 2013, is labeled Anno Domini (A.D.), which is translated from Medieval Latin as “in the year of Our Lord.“
“I said, ‘You Hollywood cats are counting time by Jesus just like I am.’ I would think that out of all of the people that walk planet Earth, if we’ve all decided in America to count time by just one of them, Jesus of Galilee, I don’t think it hurts to throw his name in there from time to time,” Robertson said. “So I noticed now, every once in a while, they’re leaving it in there.”