In yet another eye-roll-worthy segment on Thursday’s The View, host Whoopi Goldberg bragged about President Obama’s record with the media, again. After saying last week that the media was more biased against Obama than they were against Trump, Whoopi had more baseless analysis to give this week on Obama’s record with reporters.
It began with the panel complaining about the incident in Montana where a Republican congressional candidate shoved a reporter to the ground. An emotional Sunny Hostin worried that this was a sign that the media was “under attack,” but touted that journalists needed to remain “on the front lines,” to protect the First Amendment, which has been her rallying cry since Trump was elected.
HOSTIN: I will say as a journalist, I feel that the media is under attack. Constantly under attack, we are on the front lines, and it's a very uncomfortable place to be, but it's such an important place to because it’s of the first amendment. We have to report these things--
Host Sara Haines then asked why this congressional candidate even ran for office if he “couldn’t take a tough question.” That prompted Whoopi to assert that Obama didn’t and could take a “tough question.”
HAINES: Why would you run for public office though--sorry to cut you off Sunny--Why would you run for public office if you can't take a tough question? [ Applause ]
WHOOPI: Because we’ve seen that -- we have seen that people who can't take tough questions seem to be able to -- things peel off of them. But I think people are getting tired of seeing that because regardless of what you thought of Obama, he could take a tough question. [cheers and applause]
Really Whoopi? Your own show constantly came to Obama’s defense and attacked his conservative critics. Not to mention that when Obama came on your show, he faced “tough” questions like these:
July 2010: Why is the right wing hijacking the narrative of your successes? Do you think America’s still racist? Should Snooki run for mayor?
May 2012: Do you know what 50 Shades of Grey Is? Do you embarass your daughters?
September 2012: “Describe your first date,” What’s Obama’s “personality” really like?
The media ate up these Obama’s appearances as well. After his 2010 appearance, Newsweek writer Daniel Stone gushed, “Obama certainly wooed the ladies and the audience at home.” New Republic writer Michelle Cottle agreed, writing "He knows how to charm the ladies."
The media consistently gave Obama softball questions when they had the chance to interview him as well. This was so routine that we have multiple roundups of this gushy treatment from reporters in our archive.
