MSNBC's Scarborough Skewers the Moral Relativism of 'View' Crew

On Tuesday's "Morning Joe," hosts Joe Scarborough and Willie Geist skewered the morally relative, anti-American comments made by the women of "The View" on last Friday's edition of the ABC program. As reported on NewsBusters, hosts Sherri Sheppard and Whoopi Goldberg assigned blame to a British schoolteacher who was being persecuted in the Sudan for naming a teddy bear Muhammad.

After playing a clip of the discussion, Scarborough disgustedly asked, "And I do wonder why these people who are so quick to defend extremism like this-- I do wonder if they have any idea what they are talking about, about these cultures that abuse women." Geist asserted that some violent societies aren't "worth understanding." That prompted Scarborough to retort, "Or if we do understand them, we'll understand how evil they are and they'll need to be neutralized. Possibly killed. I'm sorry. That's just the way it is."

As noted by Justin McCarthy last week, "View" host Sheppard appeared surprised that the teacher, Gillian Gibbons, didn't "know the rules and customs." Goldberg attacked Americans for not being interested in learning other nation's traditions Both these comments led the normally relaxed Geist to remark, "I'm going to bite my tongue for a second...I'm going to think hard of something to say that will not get us thrown off the air." (Although not replayed on "Morning Joe," it should also be noted that, according to Goldberg, failing to learn customs is "just one of the reasons we’re called the ugly Americans.")

A transcript of the segment, which aired at 6:59am on December 4, follows:

JOE SCARBOROUGH: All right. So this "View" deal. Listen, I, I'm a uniter, not a divider.

WILLIE GEIST: You are.

SCARBOROUGH: I, I, I want everybody to get along. The women of "The View," you know, they got their issues, that's okay. We got our issues.

GEIST: Sure.

SCARBOROUGH: But, I just got to show you something they said yesterday. You know, the teacher that almost got killed because she let a seven-year-old name a teddy bear Muhammad?

GEIST: Yeah, in Sudan. She was this British school teacher, went there to help the kids.

SCARBOROUGH: People waving machetes and wanting to hack her into little pieces. Guess what side "The View" is on?

GEIST: I don't think there are two sides. So, I'll be interested to hear.

SCARBOROUGH: Okay. Yeah, let's hear this.

["View" clip]

SHERRI SHEPPARD: You know, you would think with her being in the Sudan, she would know the rules and customs.

WHOOPI GOLDBERG: I find that maybe we are not- and I say we just as European and American, we’re not as anxious to learn the customs before we go places.

SCARBOROUGH: Okay, so, Willie. There it is. It's our fault.

GEIST: I'm going to bite my tongue for a second.

SCARBOROUGH: Are you really?

GEIST: And I'm going to think hard of something to say that will not get us thrown off the air. So, we should understand that culture a little better? There's another case going on right now that involving Islamic law where a woman was sitting in a car with another man and she was raped by six men, and she received 40 lashes for sitting in a car with a man, a male friend. So, I'm not sure we should understand that.

SCARBOROUGH: And I do wonder why these people who are so quick to defend extremism like this-- I do wonder if they have any idea what they are talking about, about these cultures that abuse women. And like you said, if a man rapes as a woman, it's assumed to be the woman's fault, and you have people going around with machetes, because a seven-year-old boy named a bear Muhammad. Good lord, I just-- I don't understand.

GEIST: We've been hearing a lot of this since September 11th-- by the way, it's the top of the hour. It's seven o'clock-- since September 11th. We need to understand their culture. And in a lot of ways we do. We have a lot to learn about, and I think we have over the last few years about Muslim culture, Islamic religion. But there's a lot of it we don't need to understand. Sometimes there is a right and a wrong and stoning a woman to death for appearing outside or looking you in the eye, that's wrong any way you slice it.

SCARBOROUGH: Or, or cutting off a woman's hand, as the Taliban has done because she reads books because she wants to improve herself.

GEIST: Yeah.

SCARBOROUGH: It's absolute insanity. There are-- We do, we do need to understand the world around us better. Americans have been arrogant for years, thinking our culture is the only culture that matters, but there are some people out there that --

GEIST: Not worth understanding.

SCARBOROUGH: Or if we do understand them, we'll understand how evil they are and they'll need to be neutralized. Possibly killed. I'm sorry. That's just the way it is.

GEIST: It's an option.

SCARBOROUGH: It's like Nazi Germany. This is the same argument, people in 1939, saying we need to understand the Germans. We need to understand Mussolini in Italy. He makes the trains run on time. You know, we don't need to fight them. They are our allies, and look at those people. I need to understand that guy that wants to chop a woman's head off because a little kid in her class name aid teddy bear Muhammad? I'm sorry, I don't.

GEIST: No.

SCARBOROUGH: I don't.