Elisabeth Hasselbeck

As NewsBusters reported last week, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin called out vulgarian comedian Bill Maher for referring to her Down Syndrome son Trig as "retarded."

On ABC's The View Monday, co-host Barbara Walters astonishingly defended Maher saying, "I don't think he intended it to be mean-spirited" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

This posts builds on another by Noel Sheppard which appeared earlier today at NewsBusters. At ShowBiz411.com, Roger Friedman, who worked at Fox News for a decade until he was fired in 2009 over alleged film piracy, claims that Brooke Shields is “Likely” to join “The View” as Joy Behar and Elisabeth Hasselbeck depart. "Likely"? Wow, Rog, way to put yourself on the line.

Friedman went heavy on praise for Shields and took shots at Hasselbeck. Commenters certainly aren't supportive, as will be seen after the jump.

ABC might be getting rid of the lone conservative on its daytime talk show The View.

So claimed Us magazine Friday in a piece titled "Elisabeth Hasselbeck Leaving The View After Nine Years, Viewers Found Her Too Extreme and Right Wing'":

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]

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):

The Obamas found the time to appear on The View on Monday, and the hour-long special was shown on Tuesday. In yet another casual interview for the entertainment-focused media, the First Couple responded to a myriad of questions from the hosts of The View that only touched on issues of significance near the end. Did we really need to hear about the Obama marriage and courtship....again?

For example, Barbara Walters wanted to know how they were going to celebrate their twentieth wedding anniversary. Sherri Shepherd thought they should share the story behind their first kiss. Joy Behar wondered what time they go to bed and what they talk about. Elisabeth Hasselbeck asked about their daughters' extracurricular activities, but Whoopi Goldberg stayed uncharacteristically quiet until she could ask a more topical question.