The View

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):

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.”

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'":

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.]

As 2012 winds down, we're reliving some of the worst media bias of the year with our Best Notable Quotables of 2012. Yesterday, I recounted some of the nastiest barbs journalists threw at the GOP ticket; today, a look at some of the most egregious favors committed on behalf of Barack Obama's campaign.

While conservatives like Rick Santorum were often cast as radical or weird, journalists lovingly fawned over President Obama as if he was still the rock star of Campaign 2008. Sherri Shepherd, co-host of ABC's The View, won our "Let Us Fluff Your Pillow Award," for obsequious Obama interviews, after a September 25 encounter in which Shepherd seemed intent on casting the President as the Romancer-in-Chief.

A few weeks ago, tennis player Caroline Wozniacki during an exhibition match did a comical impersonation of Serena Williams that some in the media immediately called racist.

On Wednesday, Williams told USA Today that she considers Wozniacki a friend and didn't agree with those that were offended by the gag:

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]

MSNBC's token Republican Joe Scarborough appeared on ABC's The View, Friday, to do what he does best: Trash conservatives. The Morning Joe co-host lectured the Republican Party to "stop listening to the most extreme people." Naturally, the bashing of his own party delighted the mostly liberal View panel. [Video to appear soon. See MP3 below.]

Elisabeth Hasselbeck seriously asked Scarborough if he would "consider being on the [2016] ticket." Scarborough didn't dismiss this as silly. He simply suggested such an undertaking would mean he'd "be home even less" than he is now. When asked by liberal comic Mario Cantone what the solution is for the GOP, Scarborough seethed, "They've got to stop listening to the most extreme people in their party." A delighted Whoopi Goldberg marveled, "Say it one more time. One more time. One more time, Joe, please say it."

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):

Sherri Shepherd, one of the co-hosts of ABC's The View, issued a strong challenge to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney Friday.

Appearing on NBC's Tonight Show, Shepherd asked, "How can you handle a country if you can't handle five women on The View?" (video follows with transcript):

The ridiculous media narrative continues, in spite of the mounting evidence that has proven otherwise. A movie clip posted on YouTube months ago is still being blamed for the unspeakable acts of violence that occurred over two weeks ago. The media has effectively demonized an amateur filmmaker for allegedly inciting more rage and violence in the Middle East. It's almost as if they are equating hate speech with murder, and absolving the angry mobs for what they did. They just couldn't help themselves.

One of the actresses from The Innocence of Muslims was invited on The View on Wednesday morning to share her side of the story. What ensued was a peculiar interview that dragged on for over 7 minutes. While the rest of the cast was said to be in hiding, Cindy Lee Garcia 'bravely' made an appearance on national television to set the record straight. (see video below, MP3 audio available here)

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.  

Comedienne Joy Behar on Tuesday weighed in on the growing controversy over President Obama spending time on ABC's The View rather than meeting with foreign dignitaries in town for the United Nations General Assembly.

Commenting on Twitter, Behar said, "Maybe he'd rather talk to me than Netanyahu."

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."

Fox News's Chris Wallace on Sunday asked senior Obama campaign adviser Robert Gibbs an absolutely delicious question about the current White House resident's schedule.

During a Fox News Sunday interview, the host said, "The President has blocked out time to appear on The View on Tuesday. So, he has time for Whoopi Goldberg but he doesn’t have time for world leaders?" (video follows with transcript and absolutely no need for commentary):

NewsBusters continues to showcase 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 on Thursday, September 27.

Click here for blog posts recounting the worst of 1988 through 2006. Today, the worst bias of 2007: ABC fawns over newly-installed Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi; Rosie O’Donnell insults the troops; and a McClatchy headline writer finds a downside to good news in Iraq. [Quotes and video below the jump.]

Whoopi Goldberg clearly isn't happy that Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney considers the ladies of The View "high-risk" and "sharp-tongued."

On Wednesday, she mounted an epic rant against the former Massachusetts governor on Twitter calling him "a man who sheds ideas faster than a snake sheds skin":

NewsBusters continues to showcase 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 one week from tonight.

Click here for blog posts recounting the worst of 1988 through 2005. Today, the worst bias of 2006: ABC’s Terry Moran gets a thrill for Barack Obama (“Is he the one?”); AP touts the “comforts” of Castro’s communist dictatorship; and daytime talk show host Rosie O’Donnell declares: “Radical Christianity is just as threatening as radical Islam.” [Quotes and video below the jump.]

Are public figures allowed to have an opinion anymore? Are private companies allowed to donate to the charitable causes of their own choosing, no matter how unfashionable they might be?

Shockingly, the ladies from “The View” say yes (with differing levels of enthusiasm) to both questions. On July 26, “The View” addressed the media-manufactured controversy arising from comments Chick-Fil-A President and COO Dan Cathy made more than a week ago. “We are very much supportive of the family – the biblical definition of the family unit,” Cathy told the Baptist Press. 

Joy Behar, the unabashed Obama-lover, took some cheap shots at Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fl.) Monday.

Shortly after his appearance on ABC's The View, Behar sent a Twitter message to her followers mocking the Senator as a "religious flip-flopper":

Whenever Barack Obama has gone on ABC's The View, he's been gushed and fawned over like a rock star.

Despite this, Joy Behar Tuesday, while filling in for Eliot Spitzer on Al Gore's farce of a network Current TV, actually whined to her guests, "I haven't seen any indication that [Mitt Romney] is coming on The View" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

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)