On Rosie Love Piece, 'Early Show' Ignores Inflammatory Statements

The April 26 edition of "The Early Show" reported on Rosie O’Donnell’s departure announcement with a very positive portrayal of "The View" co-host. Although reporter Jeff Glor briefly noted, with a sound bite, that Rosie has "gone after President Bush," they completely ignored her many controversies including September 11 conspiracy theories, Iran’s British hostage conspiracy theory, anti-Asian remarks, anti-Catholic remarks, and downplaying the terrorist threat several times.

The story included her famous feud with Donald Trump and the rest a puffy piece on the far-left personality. Glor interviewed two Rosie fans who said "she makes the show" and that Rosie is "talented" and "honest." Paraphrasing television critic Michael Schneider, Glor added that added that "O’Donnell turned ‘The View’ into the hottest show on daytimes TV." The entire transcript is below.

HANNAH STORM: Welcome back to "The Early Show." I'm Hannah Storm. By now, we expect Rosie O'Donnell to shock us. But it was still stunning to hear that she's leaving "The View" after only one year. Right now, we want to welcome the newest member of our "Early Show" family, national correspondent Jeff Glor, who has that story. It's nice to have you here. So she leaves, but we gain you Jeff. It's great to have you.

JEFF GLOR: Oh, how nice of you to say that. I'll give you that 20 a little bit later. Thank you very much. It is good to be here, great to be here. Rosie O'Donnell takes pride in what she calls provocative comments. As we've seen, her supply of them is seemingly endless. Her time on "The View" is not.

ROSIE O’DONNELL: Breaking news. I've decided that we couldn't come to terms with my deal with ABC so next year I'm not going to be on "The View."

GLOR: : O'Donnell is saying the negotiation came down to number, not dollars, years.

O’DONNELL: They wanted me three years. I wanted one year. And then they were like "okay, well, [grunts a groans]" I was like [grunts and groans]" and it just didn't work. And that's show biz, but --

GLOR: She joined the show last year at Barbara Walters' request.

BARBARA WALTERS: I hoped that it would be more than one year.

O’DONNELL: Yeah.

WALTERS: We have had, to say the least, an interesting year.

O’DONNELL: We certainly have.

GLOR: Rosie has gone after President Bush.

O’DONNELL: All the things that he's done, you know, the screwing up Katrina, the torture, habeas corpus, the war, illegal --

GLOR: The way "American Idol" is run, fellow talk show host Kelly Ripa.

JOY BEHAR: I'll tell you who is really sad.

O’DONNELL: Who?

BEHAR: Donald Trump.

GLOR: Her ongoing spat with Donald Trump that got the most attention.

O’DONNELL: He annoys me on a multitude of levels. He's the moral authority. Left the first wife, had an affair. Left the second wife, had an affair. Had kids both time. But he's the moral compass for 20-year-olds in America. Donald, sit and spin, my friend.

GLOR: Trump responded by calling her a loser and a slob. And was no less restrained about her impending departure.

DONALD TRUMP: I said she will self-destruct because she always does. Some executive at ABC day time made the decision. Give me a break. I mean, does anybody believe that? Ultimately Barbara got back at Rosie.

GLOR: Audience members we talked to were more sympathetic. You were sitting there, she makes the announcement. What do you think?

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #1: Very disappointed.

GLOR: Why?

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #1: Because I think she makes the show.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #2: She's so talented, and she's so honest. She sang. She danced. She told jokes.

GLOR: "Variety's" TV editor Michael Schneider thinks O'Donnell turned "The View" into the hottest show on daytime TV. Now she might need to cool down.

MICHAEL SCHNEIDER: Maybe it was tiring and maybe after a year she decided it was enough.

GLOR: Just don't believe she's gone for good.

SCHNEIDER: Well, she's managed to move on to the next thing so clearly it's not the last we've heard of Rosie O'Donnell.

GLOR: Indeed, O'Donnell will be with "The View" through June and says after that she'll still come back to guest host and even do one-hour specials on issues like autism and depression.

STORM: Heard she's interested in Broadway maybe?

GLOR: That's a possibility. Short term, they're talking about "Les Mis" on Broadway. Long term, possibly, getting her own one hour show back.

STORM: Yeah I think that's probably a very good possibility. Meanwhile "The View" has a couple holes to fill, right?

GLOR: They do indeed. Yesterday, Barbara Walters said they had not even thought about it because they wanted Rosie back. No doubt, by this morning, they had thought about it.