BAD MOVE – AT 1:21 P.M. ET:  The Tony Awards are scheduled for CBS tonight.  They honor excellence in the Broadway theater, a community with a large number of gay members.  The question is how to give out awards as we contemplate Orlando, which was an attack on a gay club.  Apparently a decision has been made.  From Variety:

The devastating news of the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history has left Tony Awards producers and CBS and scrambling to figure out the right way to address the tragedy on the three-hour live ceremony that is just hours away.

Police in Orlando, Fla., report that at least 50 people were killed inside a gay nightclub early Sunday morning by a lone gunman. Some 53 others were wounded before the shooter was killed as police entered the nightclub after a three-hour standoff.

Tony Awards producers said the show would go on as scheduled and be dedicated to the victims of the Orlando massacre. Details of the shootings were just surfacing as the Tony team gathered early Sunday at Manhattan’s Beacon Theater for the show’s dress rehearsal. The ceremony will be hosted by James Corden, frontman of CBS’ “Late Late Show.”

“Our hearts are heavy for the unimaginable tragedy that happened last night in Orlando,” Tony producers said in a statement. “The Tony Awards dedicate tonight’s ceremony to them.”

COMMENT:  Very bad move.  The Tonys should be postponed, first out of respect for the tragedy, and, second, because of the real possibility that participants, at a time of grief, will make some tasteless comments.  It always happens.

It's an awards show.  It can wait. 

June 12, 2016