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‘30 Rock’s’ Tina Fey and NBC honcho Bob Greenblatt respond to Tracy Morgan’s homophobic comments

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The bosses have spoken.

Following Tracy Morgan’s apology early Friday regarding his homophic comments at a Nashville comedy gig, NBC Entertainment Chairman Bob Greenblatt and “30 Rock” creator/executive producer/star Tina Fey have issued their own statements on the matter.

Greenblatt, the first openly gay man to head a broadcast network, had this to say: “I speak for NBC and myself personally when I say we do not condone hate or violence of any kind, and I am pleased to see Tracy Morgan apologizing for recent homophobic remarks in his standup appearance. We will always recognize an artist’s freedom to express him or herself, but not when reckless things are said no matter what the context. Unfortunately, Tracy’s comments reflect negatively on both ’30 Rock’ and NBC — two very all-inclusive and diverse organizations — and we have made it clear to him that this kind of behavior will not be tolerated.”

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Fey’s statement, which acknowledges the artistic rights of comedians, denounced Morgan’s comments — and she also managed to poke a little fun at Morgan:

“I’m glad to hear that Tracy apologized for his comments. Stand-up comics may have the right to ‘work out’ their material in its ugliest and rawest form in front of an audience, but the violent imagery of Tracy’s rant was disturbing to me at a time when homophobic hate crimes continue to be a life-threatening issue for the GLBT community.

‘It also doesn’t line up with the Tracy Morgan I know, who is not a hateful man and is generally much too sleepy and self-centered to ever hurt another person.

‘I hope for his sake that Tracy’s apology will be accepted as sincere by his gay and lesbian co-workers at ’30 Rock,’ without whom Tracy would not have lines to say, clothes to wear, sets to stand on, scene partners to act with or a printed-out paycheck from accounting to put in his pocket.

‘The other producers and I pride ourselves on ’30 Rock’ being a diverse, safe and fair workplace.”

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— Yvonne Villarreal
twitter.com/villarrealy

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