Barbara Walters

It appears this time it's more official than the last Barbara Walters is retiring rumors in March.

The Hollywood Reporter claimed moments ago ABC's longtime newswoman will announce on Monday's The View that she will retire next summer:

After intense media speculation over the weekend surrounding Elisabeth Hasselbeck’s future on ‘The View,’ on the March 11 edition of the talk show, host and creator Barbara Walters shot down any speculation that Hasselbeck had been fired.  Speaking on Monday morning, Walters denied the rumors and stated that:

“The truth is we love Elisabeth. I like her personally, and she's just a wonderful person. But beyond that we value and appreciate her point of view, it's important to us, because Elisabeth helps give the show perspective and balance. And believe me she's tougher than she looks. She’s had to sit here for a decade and take the kind of guff we give her. So we have no plans for Elisabeth to leave this show.”

What a surprise that the ladies of The View are outraged over a new NRA commercial that addresses President Obama’s hypocrisy over having armed guards in schools across America.  Discussing the ad on Wednesday, January 16, the women of The View had some harsh words for the "sick" NRA spot.

After playing the ad, the entire cast expressed outrage, furiously talking over one another in a rush to bash the NRA as “nuts." Host Barbara Walters claimed to be particularly offended at the reference to President Obama’s two daughters in the advertisement, failing to point out the true message the NRA was arguing.  [See video after jump.  MP3 audio here.]

ABC’s Barbara Walters' "interview" with the Obamas on Thursday's Nightline ran much more like a celebrity infomercial. Walters was her usual self, asking questions void of substance and fawning over every detail of the First Family.

With the fiscal cliff looming just weeks after the interview originally took place, Walters had no questions on any matter of political significance. She did find time to discuss the family's dog Bo, pressing Mrs. Obama, "Does he follow you around all day?" and "What is Bo getting for Christmas?"  [See video after jump.  MP3 audio here.]

ABC News had to wait two weeks to get on air Barbara Walters’ interview with the Obamas -- and then the network’s evening newscast decided to focus on her asking Barack and Michelle Obama about their sex life.

“An ABC News exclusive,” fill-in World News anchor David Muir teased, “Barbara Walters at the White House, asking Michelle Obama if she’ll run for office next. And a personal question, too.” Viewers were then treated to a clip of Walters with the Obamas: “How do you keep the fire going?” The two laughed as Mrs. Obama giggled: “That’s a good question!”

The anti-gun Obama isn't so anti-gun when it comes to protecting his own family.

During a predictably gooey interview with Barbara Walters on ABC's Nightline Wednesday, the President joked about his daughter Malia dating boys saying, "I always talk about how one of the main incentives for running again was continuing secret service protection so there are men with guns around at all times" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

ABC’s Good Morning America barely talked about the upcoming fiscal cliff on Wednesday but found time for another Obama-promoting fluff piece. Previewing Barbara Walters's upcoming interview with Mr. and Mrs. Obama on Wednesday evening’s Nightline, GMA picked a clip of Walters fawning over the couple's romance.

Walters touted "the most-shared photograph in the history of Twitter" of the President and his wife hugging. She later asked, "How do you keep the fire going?"  [See video below jump.  MP3 audio here.]

Barbara Walters is known for asking ridiculous questions during her famous interviews, but this time it appears she has gone too far, annoying even the liberal co-hosts of MSNBC’s The Cycle.

The day after Barbara Walters’ annual Most Fascinating People Special Wednesday night, the cast of The Cycle, most notably co-host Toure, savaged Ms. Walters for her “embarrassing, dereliction of duty” interviews with Hillary Clinton and Chris Christie.  [See video below page break.  MP3 audio here.]

Good Morning America on Friday offered a fawning preview of Barbara Walters' exclusive interview with Barack and Michelle Obama. Walters gushed over the "touching," "charming" couple and asked the President softballs such as "What's your favorite app?" [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

The journalist couldn't get over just how adorable the two Democrats are, fawning, "Together, she teases him. He teases her. It's a whole other look." Quite pleased with herself, Walters declared that such moments are what's "charming about this interview."

Add Barbara Walters to the list of journalists pushing for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to run for President in 2016.  For the third time now, Ms. Clinton has been featured on Barbara Walters’s annual 10 Most Fascinating People special.

Given that Ms. Walters  had a one-on-one sit-down interview with Clinton, it would seem logical that the topic of the Benghazi fiasco would come up.  It didn't, despite the fact that, as Secretary of State, Mrs. Clinton oversees all U.S. Embassies, and is directly responsible for protecting our diplomats around the world, especially in troubled regions where security threats are more acute.  [See video below break.  MP3 audio here.] 

Apparently, Barbara Walters's idea of balance is grilling Chris Christie about being too fat and unhealthy to be president. Yet, during the same 10 Most Fascinating People of 2012 program, she conducted a girl talk session with Hillary Clinton, laughing with the Secretary of State about her hair. Walters appeared on Wednesday's Good Morning America to promote the show. Talking to Christie, she derided, "I feel very uncomfortable asking this question when I'm sitting opposite you. But you are a little overweight." [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

After Christie retorted, "More than a little," Walters actually wondered, "Why [are you overweight]?" To this, the governor reminded, "If I could figure that out, I'd fix it." The journalist interrogated, "There are people who say you couldn't be president because you're so heavy. What do you say to them?" In contrast, Walters gently asked Clinton: "So, I have to ask you this very personal question. Your hair?" After Clinton chuckled, the host enthused, "Nobody asks the men that." The two then shared another laugh.

In what was a transparent attempt to scrutinize how conservative a black actress can really be, the ladies of The View invited Stacey Dash on the program to substitute for Elisabeth Hasselbeck. Immediately following her summary of what was to come, Whoopi Goldberg inquired how Dash was doing after the vicious attacks she had endured on Twitter for simply endorsing Mitt Romney.

Without resorting to the same animosity, the liberal hostesses were seemingly just as incredulous. Why would someone like her -- a black woman who works in Hollywood -- vote for anyone but Obama? They made it their mission to find out, pushing her to explain herself. Perhaps they were too busy to read the 3-page essay that she posted online before the election. [video below, MP3 audio here]

Over the past week, the media have been obsessively attributing the GOP’s election loss to the party’s embrace of conservatism. It began with a predictable assault on the standard bearer of conservative thought over the airwaves, Rush Limbaugh. On election night, NBC’s Brian Williams opined that Rush was a liability for the GOP. And it didn’t stop with Williams.

On MSNBC’s Morning Joe David Frum seconded that sentiment by claiming that Republicans were “fleeced, exploited and lied to” by the “conservative entertainment complex,” another obvious dig at Limbaugh and talk radio. Scarborough agreed, proclaiming that the GOP needs to stop listening to the “most extreme people” in the Party. Rounding out the week on Sunday, the all-liberal panel on NBC’s Meet The Press, piled on the anti-Limbaugh message: the loss was due to Limbaugh and the “loons and wackos” of the conservative base.

ABC journalist Barbara Walters took to the airwaves on Wednesday to assail the Republican Party for being "behind" on social views. Walters and her View co-hosts looked to analyst Matt Dowd for post-election spin. Per usual, he spent his time lecturing the Republican Party, repeating an assertion that the GOP represents "Mad Men" and not "Modern Family" America.

Walters, who sometimes pretends she's still an objective journalist, derided, "You look at their platform. You looked at things that were said about rape – I mean they were behind in their social views." [See video below. Mp3 audio here.] Earlier, replying to Dowd's gloomy predictions, she wondered, "So does that mean that Democrats are going to win and win and win?"

The View has a long reputation for its liberal slant, but when one of its own calls out the liberal bias among celebrities, hysteria ensues. 

Such was the case on Wednesday when the lone conservative Elizabeth Hasselbeck spoke out against the overwhelming liberal presence that dominates Hollywood.   [See video below break.  MP3 audio here.]

As NewsBusters reported last week, Westgate Resorts CEO David Siegel recently warned his employees that he will likely have to lay people off if Barack Obama is re-elected.

With total disregard for the truth, ABC's Whoopi Goldberg on Monday's The View said it was "the president of Koch Industries" that did this (video follows with transcript and commentary):

George Stephanopoulos and Barbara Walters on Tuesday fawned over the "fun," loving marriage of Barack and Michelle Obama. Walters appeared on Good Morning America to promote the President's appearance on The View.

Stephanopoulos, a former Democratic operative, hyped Walters' "lighter stuff." He gushed, "The President seemed to mix politics and fun, when he talked about coaching his daughter's basketball team." Walters was positively impressed with the couple: "He's funny. She says she's funnier. But he's very relaxed with her."  [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

He clearly doesn't suffer from a shortage of chutzpah.

According to the Politico's Josh Gerstein, President Barack Obama was asked the following question by The View's Barabara Walters in a Monday appearance to be broadcast on Tuesday: "What would be so terrible if Mitt Romney were elected? Would it be disastrous for the country?" His response: "We can survive a lot. But the American people don't want to just survive. We want to thrive. I've just got a different vision of how we grow an economy. We grow fastest when the middle class is doing well."

For the past two weeks, NewsBusters has been showcasing the most egregious bias the Media Research Center has uncovered over the years — four quotes for each of the 25 years of the MRC, 100 quotes total — all leading up to our big 25th Anniversary Gala September 27.

If you’ve missed a previous blog, recounting the worst of 1988 through 2001, they are here. Today, the worst bias of 2002: Bill Moyers gets the vapors after Republicans win control of Congress; ABC’s Barbara Walters champions Cuban dictator Fidel Castro’s dedication to “freedom;” and Reuters charges that “human rights around the world have been a casualty of the U.S. ‘war on terror.’” [Quotes and video below the jump.]

American liberals continue to be clueless (willfully or otherwise) as to the nature and purpose of the Catholic Church and its relationship to its members. The latest proof comes in the case of theVatican’s condemnation of left-wing nun Margaret Farley’s book, “Just Love, A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics,” which advocates gay sex and marriage, divorce, and female masturbation. These practices are contrary to Catholic theology as practiced since the beginning of Catholicism. 

But the Church’s reaction to the book is, to liberals, another example of the Vatican stifling women. Here’s how one Sarah O’Leary described it in the Huffington Post: “Sister Margaret A. Farley, a scholarly woman of faith who taught Christian Ethics at Yale University and served as president of the Catholic Theological Society of America, is being brought to the woodshed by Rome for penning "Just Love.” How dare she use her God given gifts of cognition to share her educated point of view with the world!” 

Barbara Walters either deeply adores Michelle Obama or she was just acting like an extreme guest-coddler on The View Tuesday. She suggested that if President Obama lost the election – and she then lifted her hands to her mouth in horror – Mrs. Obama could have a career of her own since she would be “a very popular candidate.”

Walters began: “There have been rumors – if the president is not reelected [dramatic ‘God forbid!’ face], or that in the future, that you might consider running for political office.” Mrs. Obama was dismissing that talk, at least for now: (Video and transcript below)