The View

Barack might have some 'splaining to do . . .

Appearing on The View, the president explained to Barbara Walters that he chose to come on the program because it's a show Michelle actually watches. According to PBO, the First Lady is "like eh" about news shows, grabbing the clicker [see screencap after jump] and turning away from them.

Was it really necessary for the President to dis his wife's interest in current events to explain his presence on the show?  Somehow I sense that a Republican president saying something similar would come in for a heap of feminist criticism.  Transcript after the jump.

Willie Geist introduced the segment on today's Morning Joe.

In the past couple of weeks, comedian George Lopez has made two noteworthy jokes during the monologue of his Lopez Tonight show on TBS with the premise that conservatives are racist. On Wednesday’s show, as he brought up President Obama’s interview recorded earlier in the day on ABC’s The View, Lopez took a swipe at right-leaning co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck as he cracked that she had "instinctively grabbed her purse and hit the imaginary door locks on her couch" when she saw Obama coming.

And on the Monday, July 12, show, Lopez portrayed the people of Arizona as racist for supporting the state’s new immigration law, as he suggested that Arizona would welcome Mel Gibson-style racism. Lopez: "Let’s see. He don’t like people of color, he don’t like Mexicans, he don’t like minorities, where can he go? Orale, Arizona!"

After acting out Gibson’s part by declaring, "I hate blacks, I don’t like Mexicans," Lopez then pretended to be an Arizona resident welcoming Gibson into the state: "Right this way."

On Monday’s Joy Behar Show on HLN, guest Ann Coulter answered host Joy Behar’s tendency to link the Tea Party to racism as the HLN host brought up former DNC chairman Howard Dean’s recent accusations that the Republican party are "appealing to its racist fringe." Coulter noted the vicious attacks the far left made against President Bush and alluded to the double standard that liberals try to hold the Tea Party to: "It`s silliness comparing Obama to Lenin and Hitler. Okay, it`s overheated, it`s not racist. And let`s go back to the Bush era. He was called not only a Nazi and Hitler all the time, he was called a monkey all the time. I`m not endorsing these signs, I think they`re stupid, but don`t scream racism over every stupid sign or every liberal plant at a Tea Party."

Behar had posed the question: "This Breitbart thing, in a way, is a perfect example of what Howard Dean, former DNC chairman, is talking about because the GOP is appealing to the racist fringe in order to get back in power. Am I wrong or right?"

Before noting Bush’s treatment by liberals, Coulter responded: "The more recent history is, consists of constant false accusations of racism against the Tea Party just like you made. The claim that John Lewis was called the ‘N’ word 15 times at an anti-Obama rally, well, that`s been as proved false as anything could be."

She continued:

 

As NewsBusters reported Monday, Barack Obama is taping a segment with the ladies of "The View" today to be aired on ABC Thursday. 

Moments ago, Joy Behar tweeted this picture taken of her and the President from "The View's" Green Room.

Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell on Tuesday came down on President Obama for going on ABC's "The View."

As NewsBusters previously reported, Obama on Thursday will become the first sitting president to appear on this daytime ladies talk show.

"I think there's got to be a little bit of dignity to the Presidency," Rendell told the crew at MSNBC's "Morning Joe." 

After some protests from host Mika Brzezinski and Willie Geist, Rendell said, "I wouldn't put him on Jerry Springer either" (video follows with transcript and commentary): 

President Barack Obama, the honorary chairman of the Boy Scouts of America, will not speak in-person before the group on Wednesday at Fort A.P. Hill in Virginia, as part of the organization's 100th anniversary celebration. However, the president is sending a videotaped message to the scouts for Wednesday, the same day he will be in Manhattan to tape an appearance for ABC TV’s talk show “The View.”
 
Bob Dries, chairman of national news and media at the Boy Scouts of America Jamboree – a gathering that happens every four years and attracts thousands of scouts from around the world – told CNSNews.com that the organization was told on Monday that the president had scheduling conflicts and would not be speaking in-person at the week-long event.

Barack Obama will make history this week when he becomes the first sitting president to appear on ABC's daytime ladies talk show "The View."

I guess when you're likely the most liberal Commander in Chief the nation has ever seen with poll numbers plummeting faster than a coin tossed off the Empire State Building there isn't a better place to have your ego massaged than on a couch surrounded by gushing females tossing softballs at you as the cameras roll.

Most interestingly, the announcement published at ABCNews.com referred to the President's sagging approval ratings giving one the impression that even the show's producers know why he's coming to chat with the girls (h/t NBer SickofLibs):

On Thursday’s The View on ABC, as the group hosted former USDA official Shirley Sherrod to talk about her experience of being fired by the Obama administration, after co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck got her to address comments she had made before the NAACP in which she accused Republicans of challenging President Obama on health care reform because he is black, co-host Joy Behar went on a tirade charging that the Bush administration "did not give a damn about poor people and everybody knows it," and suggested that President Bush was also indifferent to the black population as she declared that Obama "does give a damn about black people." Behar:

But I wanted to support what Shirley said before, which is that during the Bush administration, you had tax cuts for the wealthiest, and he did not, that whole administration did not give a damn about poor people and everybody knows it. That's why Obama was elected in the first place. I mean, even now, the Republicans are blocking an extension of unemployment insurance, and yet they're okay with tax cuts to the wealthy. Let me finish! So, now you have Obama in office, and he does give a damn about black people.

Kathy Griffin recently proved that she is a "D-list" comedian.

Bravo's "My Life on the D-List" star made headlines in the Huffington Post and E! online after telling "View" co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck to "suck it" in response to Hasselbeck's "scum" rebuke.

Griffin's comment came after Hasselbeck recently criticized the Bravo star for Griffin jokingly said her show that Massachusett's Sen. Scott Brown's two daughters are prostitutes. Hasselbeck said, "You defend your daughters against scum who comes after them and calls them something like a prostitute."

As the Texas State Board of Education worked to complete its once-every-ten-year revision of the curriculum for the state’s schools in May, much of the mainstream media promoted complaints and distortions from the left – many originating with the left-leaning Texas Freedom Network – about the nature of the changes in the guidelines and how they would effect textbooks that might end up in other states. One of the more incendiary distortions was that the conservative-leaning Texas Board of Education was trying to downplay or ignore the existence of slavery in America’s history as some on the left claimed that the term "slave trade" was being renamed "Atlantic triangular trade" thus removing the word "slave" or "slavery" from the curriculum. Joy Behar of ABC’s The View and of HLN’s Joy Behar Show went the furthest in slamming the board of education as she charged on the May 17 The View that "It's called revisionism. People do it about the Holocaust, and now Texas wants to do it about our country." She soon mockingly declared: "You know what, next they'll be burning books. Next step, burn books."

NBC’s Rehema Ellis mentioned the issue on the NBC Nightly News on two consecutive nights, on the May 22 show charging, "And the expression 'slave trade' would be changed to the 'Atlantic triangular trade.' Some critics see that as a move to deny slavery," while ABC’s Dan Harris on the May 21 World News asserted, "Here are some of the things the conservatives tried and failed to do: Have the President called by his full name, Barack Hussein Obama, which some called an attempt to raise questions about his faith, and even rename the 'slave trade' as the 'Atlantic triangular trade.'"

But CNN’s T.J. Holmes deserves credit because he actually took the time to inform viewers of the wording in question, first as he, on the May 22 CNN Saturday Morning, hosted a debate between NAACP President Benjamin Jealous and Jonathan Saenz of the Liberty Institute, with the CNN anchor revealing that the new wording still used the word "slavery" as he posed a question to the NAACP president. Holmes: "I want to make sure, because I read this thing as well and I did see 'Atlantic triangular trade' in there, but then in the next, almost couple of words I saw the word 'slavery' ... Now, what is the issue with that that you call it a 'triangular trade' and then you're still talking about slavery and you used the word ' slavery'? What's the issue?"

On her Bravo show last Tuesday night, Kathy Griffin trashed Sen. Scott Brown's two daughters as "prostitutes." CNN reporter Dana Bash, who was present with her husband John King, erupted into laughter.

Yesterday on ABC's "The View," co-host Joy Behar tried to throw a wet blanket on the ensuing outrage over the "joke," which included condemnations of Griffin's comments by Scott Brown himself and by Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.).

"It's just a joke," Behar repeatedly affirmed during a heated exchange with co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck, who vehemently disagreed.

"No, no, no, no, no!" Hasselbeck exclaimed. "We've always said politicians' kids are off limits! If someone went around calling Barack Obama's two girls prostitutes, people would be up in arms. Laybacks! Kathy Griffin's got to back up on that one right now!"

On June 15, 2010, View co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck declined to fight with lefist comedienne Kathy Griffin, who was appearing on that day's show. This despite the fact that the entertainer had previously had previously slammed the conservative as a "f—ing Survivor reject."

Hasselbeck demurred, "It's cool, we're cool." The host remained quiet, even as Griffin taunted her by mocking, "Bring it." 

Yet, on July 15, 2010, liberal Joy Behar showed no such restraint with conservative radio star Laura Ingraham, promoting her new book, The Obama Diaries. The two got into a heated discussion over whether wearing a burqa in society is acceptable. Behar lectured, "Then all religions subjugate women."

The rumor mill concerning Rosie O'Donnell landing a new daytime show heated up Monday when Gossip Cop reported the comedienne is in talks with NBC.

Apparently, the stumbling block is that the broadcasting company wants an out clause in case Rosie implodes like she did on ABC's "The View" three years ago.

As NewsBusters reported on May 23, 2007, O'Donnell and Elisabeth Hasselbeck got into quite a fight about the war in Iraq that was so caustic it ended up being Rosie's last day on the show. She and ABC agreed to terminate her contract days later.

With this in mind, according to Gossip Cop, NBC isn't taking any chances:

It's already been documented that the media have, at least initially, ignored the allegation that global warming alarmist-in-chief and former Vice President Al Gore faced a sexual assault charge in 2006. But why?

Although not know for its enlightening commentary, ABC's June 24 broadcast of "The View" offered an answer for that question. Subbing as a moderator for the show's panel was MSNBC "Morning Joe" host Joe Scarborough, who explained their decision to ignore it was based on "insufficient evidence" despite the police report documenting the allegation.

"This is an interesting story," Scarborough said. "A 2006 police report surfaced of a masseuse claiming former Vice President Al Gore repeatedly attempted, quote, ‘unwanted sexual contact with her during a hotel room massage which lasted for three hours.' Detectives found insufficient evidence to support the allegations, which leads to my question first, Joy. Should we be talking about it at all? This was in The Oregonian. We decided this morning not to talk about it on ‘Morning Joe' because there was insufficient evidence. The Oregonian picked it up, then the National Enquirer. Everybody's going to be talking about it. Should we?"

Oh, Joy of little faith.

On the June 22 episode of "The View," co-host Joy Behar criticized prayer, saying it "takes the place of logical thinking, then I think that's dangerous."

Behar's attack on prayer came as she defended comedian Janeane Garofalo, who during a June 16 appearance on Behar's Headline News show called prayer "anti-intellectual" in criticizing President Obama's reference to prayer during his speech about the Gulf oil spill. Behar said Garofalo should have said prayer was "un-intellectual," not "anti-intellectual."

"Faith is something that you feel," Behar said. "Thinking is something that you do with your brain. It's different."

Behar's criticism of prayer riled co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck, who challenged the attack.

Appearing as a guest on Tuesday’s The View on ABC to promote her My Life on the D List show on Bravo! -- left-wing comedian Kathy Griffin took a shot at Sarah Palin by recalling her visit to Wasilla, Alaska – where Palin was once mayor – and by mocking the town by linking it to crystal meth: "I wanted to, you know, see what it's really like because when Sarah Palin was telling us that she should run the whole country the way she runs Wasilla, I just had to go for myself. And if you like crystal meth, you're gonna like Wasilla."

Griffin went on to admit that her mother – who sometimes takes part in her show on Bravo!, is a fan of Palin, Bill O’Reilly and Fox News. Griffin: "My mother, of course, loves her, and my mother loves Fox News and she loves Bill O'Reilly, and we get into big fights about it. She calls Bill O'Reilly her boyfriend because she's crazy."

On Wednesday’s The View on ABC, co-host Joy Behar defended author Joe McGinniss’s decision to purchase a home right next door to Sarah Palin as he plans to write an unauthorized biography of her, and his recent comments on NBC's Today show comparing her criticism of him to the behavior of Nazi troopers of the Third Reich. Behar found no agreement from the other co-hosts, and faced stiff resistance from Elisabeth Hasselbeck, in particular. Behar: "He's not saying she's a Nazi. He's saying the tactic was Nazi-like. ... This is the inference Ms. Palin put on her Facebook: ‘Wonder what kind of material he'll gather while overlooking Piper's bedroom?’ ... so now she writes something like that, she unleashes hatred among the Palinites who are very dittohead-ish and carry guns..."

Hasselbeck objected to being called a "dittohead," prompting Behar bring up Rush Limbaugh embrace of the term as a description of audience members, but also mocked Hasselbeck by calling him and Palin her "idols."

Catching up on an item from the Thursday, May 20, The View on ABC, comedian George Lopez appeared as a guest and made a few anti-Sarah Palin cracks as he joked with the group about the new immigration law in Arizona, asserting that if Palin were to become President, he and other Latinos would flee the country: "This is the answer to immigration, I'm going to tell you right now. This is how to get every Latino to go back to where they came from: Elect her President in 2012. ... We will leave voluntarily. We'll leave. We'll go voluntarily and take Canadians with us."

He soon joked about Palin fitting the "profile" of a Latina: "Sarah Palin needs to be careful because she fits the profile of a Latina. ... Her and her daughter have a kid the same age. ... She works and her husband don't. ... She talks a lot of smack and he don't say one word. That's very Latino. But he's a stay-at-home dad. Where I come from, if you're a stay-at-home dad, your ass is unemployed."

On Thursday's edition of "The View," Joy Behar and her mostly left-wing co-hosts attempted to associate a strong, independent woman with liberalism. The occasion, actress Rachel Weisz appeared on the program to promote her new role in the upcoming movie "Agora."

The film is set in Roman Egypt during the fourth century and focuses on the life of Hypatia, a female philosopher and scholar. Behar insisted the character must have been a "liberal."

During the exchange, Weisz began discussing her role as Hypatia and how her character, “believed in having the people from different backgrounds with different political views, rather like you ladies sitting here.” Immediately following this assertion, Joy Behar announced, “Oh, so she was liberal” and “bipartisan.”

He may be out of office, but Cheney Derangement Syndrome lives on.

This time, and just like other times in the past, "The View" co-host and host of her own HLN show, Joy Behar used the BP oil spill to attack the Bush administration, specifically former Vice President Dick Cheney by suggesting he was really behind the oil spill.  Her source - it was an outspoken critic of the Bush administration and aid to former Secretary of State Colin Powell, Lawrence Wilkerson.

"There is a lot of blame to go around, obviously," Behar said on the May 25 broadcast of "The View." "But I was listening to this guy, Lawrence Wilkerson. Who was the -- he is now a retired army colonel and he worked with Colin Powell during the Bush administration. He was the undersecretary to him. And he says, and I quote him, ‘The whole oil spill can be laid at Cheney's feet.'"

Catching up on an item from ABC’s The View from Monday, April 26, as the group discussed the new immigration law in Arizona that attempts to enforce federal immigration law, co-host Joy Behar invoked Nazi Germany and suggested that those who oppose the law should be inspired by the story – which is apparently just a legend – of King Christian X of Denmark and other Danes wearing the Star of David on their arms during World War II to make it difficult for Nazi occupiers to discern who was Jewish. After making her first Nazi reference of the day by asserting that "this smells very much of, ‘May I see your papers?’" she soon continued:

During World War II, in one of the countries where the Nazis were occupying – I believe it was Denmark – the king of Denmark also wore the Jewish star. So then everybody had the star, and the Nazis did not know who was Jewish and who wasn't. I suggest that the people in Arizona all get out there and protest this and get some kind of thing to show that they don't like this.

After co-host Barbara Walters pointed out that 70 percent of the people of Arizona "like" the new law, Behar looked for a silver lining in the poll numbers:

On Thursday’s The View on ABC, during a discussion of Laura Bush’s recent revelation that she disagrees with her husband on the issues of abortion and same-sex marriage, normally right-leaning co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck voiced agreement with the former First Lady, but also used a surprising choice of words as she recommended that conservatives talk to gay couples about the issue rather than "hating on it." Hasselbeck:

I think there are a lot of, maybe, conservatives out there who are talking about gay marriage and not necessarily with someone who wants to have gay marriage or has been in a gay marriage. You know, I had Melissa Etheridge over, we had dinner, we talked for hours about gay marriage, and I would really challenge people: Get out there. Instead of just talking about it and hating on it, actually talk to someone who’s loved someone else and have the conversation about what can be done...

Below is a transcript of the relevant portion of the Thursday, May 13, The View on ABC:

On ABC’s The View on Tuesday, as the group discussed a new law in Oklahoma that requires an ultrasound of an unborn baby be performed and the image offered to a pregnant woman before an abortion could take place, none of the panel members spoke up in favor of the Oklahoma law, although right-leaning Elisabeth Hasselbeck supported "nudging" pregnant women to look at an ultrasound to be informed about the life signs of their unborn babies.

Whoopi Goldberg became emotional as she dismissed the effectiveness of viewing an ultrasound in encouraging women not to have abortions, but also seemed to worry that making such images available would make a woman more upset as she decides whether to have an abortion. She went on to express concern that if some women facing difficult circumstances chose not to have an abortion, that the baby would be murdered later in life at the hands of its desperate parents. Goldberg: "Let me tell you something. There's not a woman that goes, there's not a woman out there who makes a decision to have an abortion lightly. It is a tough, a tough, but to have someone compound what you are already carrying, you are already going in there with that pain because maybe you didn't want to have an abortion, maybe you can't have a baby. Maybe you can't afford it."

After Hasselbeck posed, "Are you going in there with all the knowledge of what's actually going on inside of you at 16 weeks?" Goldberg started losing control: "But what difference does it make if you can't have the baby? What difference does it make if you're going to bring a baby in and you can't feed it and you can't take care of it and then people end up killing their kids? I hate it!"

Our friends at CNSNews.com -- which is owned by NewsBusters parent organization the Media Research Center -- have a story today about ABC "The View" co-host Sherri Shepherd's reaction to Arizona's new anti-illegal immigration law.

Reported Nicholas Ballasy: 

When asked, in the context of Arizona's new immigration law, about a Justice Department  report showing that one-out-of-five American teenagers uses illegal drugs and that most of those drugs come out of Mexico, Sherri Shepherd, a co-host of ABC’s “The View,” said she did not care. Arizona’s new law against illegal immigration is “very unfair,” she said, and America has got to do better.

Shepherd spoke with CNSNews.com at the White House Correspondent’s Dinner on May 1 in Washington, D.C. CNSNews.com asked her, “A lot of celebrities have come out against the Arizona immigration law recently, what’s your stance on it, do you have an opinion on the law?”

Washington Post TV critic Lisa de Moraes was taking after her colleague Tom Shales in hating Elisabeth Hasselbeck, whom she called the "token pretty blond Republican" on ABC's The View. (Shales suggested she resembled an ABC sitcom character who was blond, witchy, and threw nasty tantrums.). Ms. de Moraes wanted to shake her and mock her for asking the vice president  about whispering that health reform was a "big f---ing deal" into open microphones:

Biden did not take her by both wrists, waggle her about a bit and call her a nincompoop -- which explains why he's the vice president and we're only entrusted to run a TV column. Instead, he said, good naturedly/contritely: "I was just thankful my mother couldn't hear it. It was a little embarrassing."

Clearly, de Moraes is more the type who would buy the Democrats' "BFD" T-shirt and revel in the profanity. She called it Biden's "girlish enthusiasm over the historic nature of the moment."

On Wednesday’s The View on ABC, during a discussion of former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s standup comedy routine from Tuesday night’s Tonight Show on NBC, The View co-host Joy Behar downgraded Palin’s performance asserting that her confidence on stage came across as unusually "delusional" for a woman trying to do standup, and suggested that Palin is "almost delusional" to believe she could be President: "The thing that fascinates me about her is her confidence as a standup. It took me so long to get that confidence. It’s the same confidence that she has that she thinks she could be President. It’s almost delusional."

After co-host Sherri Shepherd theorized that having confidence would help Palin run for President, Behar went on to suggest that Palin does not really plan on such a run because choosing to work at FNC would make her seem too conservative to appeal to moderates and, though she may have been referring to Democrats with presidential ambitions as she seemed to ignore MSNBC figures like Chris Matthews, Lawrence O’Donnell, Chuck Todd and Howard Dean who all have histories of involvement with the Democratic party, Behar went on to assert that "you don’t see the Democrats hosting shows on MSNBC."

Behar: "Don’t you think that the fact that she’s a commentator at Fox positions her to be too far to the right to be attractive to middle Americans, to people who are moderate? ... but if you’re too far, you don’t see the Democrats hosting shows on MSNBC."

Below is a transcript of relevant portions of the Wednesday, March 3, The View on ABC:

Fox's family-friendly "American Idol" is headed down the tubes if Howard Stern and Perez Hilton have anything to do with it.

Stern, while now on XM Sirius Satellite Radio, dominated the public airwaves for more than 20 years as a shock jock. Regular discussions on his show revolved around celebrities' sexual proclivities, complete with explicit language. Strippers and porn stars were regular guests. As of 2005, the FCC had fined him more than any other radio broadcaster to the tune $2.5 million. He migrated to satellite radio to escape FCC rules.

Gossip blogger Hilton built his career by enhancing paparazzi shots of celebrities with crude white drawings of genitalia and bodily fluids and posting them on his site, PerezHilton.com, and outing gay celebrities. He injected politics into the Miss USA pageant last spring as a judge when he asked about same-sex marriage. He continually harassed former Miss California Carrie Prejean on his Web site after she expressed a belief in the traditional view of marriage in response to his question.  

After "Idol" judge Simon Cowell, known for his brutal honesty, announced on Jan. 11 that this would be his last season as part of the wildly popular singing competition, Stern and Hilton both pitched themselves as his replacement, and entertainment journalists applauded. 

Comedian Joy Behar is known for saying some pretty absurd things on television, but her comment on Wednesday's "The View" was nothing less than disgraceful.

When co-host Barbara Walters brought up the issue of Sarah Palin, and how White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs had made a joke to the press pool by writing some notes on his hand, a rather heated discussion broke out with lone conservative Elisabeth Hasselbeck making the case that such behavior is beneath the office of the President.

"When the Press Secretary is up there being the mouthpiece for the White House during a time of crisis like we've been in for so long, don't make a joke and write on your hand. You are the Press Secretary of the White House."

This didn't sit well with Behar who actually responded (video embedded below the fold, h/t Story Balloon):

It was a metaphysical certitude the classic battle between Fox News's Roger Ailes and liberal publisher Arianna Huffington on Sunday's "This Week" would send many in the mainstream media over the top, and comedian Joy Behar didn't disappoint.

As "View" co-host Whoopi Goldberg gave the audience the background of the matter Monday -- "Fox News president Roger Ailes pointed out that on the Huffington Post he's been called quote a malignant tumor with a face like a fist" -- Behar interrupted, "It's not true."

Moments later, the opinionated comedian demonstrated her astounding lack of knowledge saying, "According to what I've read, first of all, the guy who wrote this tumor thing was not talking about him. He was talking about Fox."

She erroneously continued (video embedded below the fold, h/t NB reader Carla Brehm):

If it isn't obvious already, Joy Behar doesn't know when to keep her mouth shut. On Jan. 26's "The View," a clueless Behar accidentally tipped the agenda of much of the gay and same-sex marriage movement.

"They," she said, referring to gays, "don't take monogamy and infidelity the same way that the straight community does."

Such things as fidelity, she added, don't have the "same weight" with gays as with straights, and - you might want to sit down for this - Behar was actually right for once.

With the latest battle over same-sex marriage brewing in a California federal court, gays are claiming that they simply want the right to participate in traditional marriage. But that couldn't be further from the truth. As a previous CMI article noted, many gays don't want to just participate in traditional marriage. They want to radically change it.