ABC’s Barbara Walters: America Went to War Without ‘The Facts’

Perhaps the strident liberalism of Rosie O’Donnell and Joy Behar is emboldening Barbara Walters? On the Monday edition of "The View," the ABC journalist insisted that America went to war with Iraq without knowing the facts. Walters made her assertion follwing comments from the liberal O’Donnell, who touted the fact that she wore a "No War" t-shirt prior to the 2003 invasion, and co-host Behar’s claim that "they [the Bush administration] lied to us!" The veteran correspondent responded to these statements by sounding like more of an activist and less of a journalist:

Barbara Walters: "We didn't have the facts at that time."

Joy Behar: "That's right."

Walters: "We did not have the facts. And it is true that we have not seen– We have– We- The most brutal pictures we saw were the pictures of Saddam Hussein being hanged. We have not seen some of, some of the terribleness that have happened to our men and women. And I do think, and if you look at the polls, that the tide is turning. What the answer is, nobody seems to know."

A few seconds earlier, at 11:18am, token conservative Elisabeth Hasselbeck preceded the Walters comment by asserting that many media outlets, which she believed to be supportive of the Iraq War initially, have since grown biased in their coverage:

Rosie O’Donnell: "The war has been sanitized. We don’t see dead bodies. We don't see coffins coming home. We don't see funerals and we don't see the amputees. We don’t see them. This has been sanitized, this war, for us."

Behar: "They have to come up with a new idea."

Elisabeth Hasselbeck: "I'm sorry, but we're also saturated with media who are incredibly aware of what's going on and giving us updates all the time."

Behar: "Really? Then why don't they show the coffins?"

Hasselbeck: "Why? Ask them."

O’Donnell: "Because the President forbid it."

Hasselbeck: "I’m saying, everything out there in the media, you have to say, is awfully slanted in terms of what is going on with this war. When it was time to invade, everyone was on the same page."

Behar: "Because they lied to us."

O’Donnell: "Not me! I wore a ‘No War’ t-shirt on ‘Donahue.’"

[crosstalk]

Behar: "Listen to Barbara. Go ahead. Go ahead, say it!"

[Walters feigns shock about being listened to.]

O’Donnell: "You're on!"

[Applause]

Walters: "We didn't have the facts at that time."

Behar: "That's right."

Walters: "We did not have the facts. And it is true that we have not seen– We have– The most brutal pictures we saw were the pictures of Saddam Hussein being hanged. We have not seen some of, some of the terribleness that have happened to our men and women. And I do think, and if you look at the polls, that the tide is turning. What the answer is, nobody seems to know."

Walters, who recently named Nancy Pelosi "the most fascinating" person of 2006, is sounding less like a journalist and more like her (mostly) liberal co-hosts.