While both NBC’s Today show and CBS Mornings devoted full segments to the controversy swirling around View host Whoopi Goldberg’s offensive Holocaust comments, ABC’s Good Morning America completely ignored the incident that occurred on its own broadcast network. NBC and CBS hammered Goldberg’s argument that the Holocaust “isn’t about race” and even noted how her attempts to clean up her remarks actually “raised more questions.”
“Under fire. Whoopi Goldberg facing criticism for this controversial comment about the Holocaust,” co-host Hoda Kotb told viewers at the top of the Today show. A soundbite then ran of Goldberg declaring on Monday’s The View: “If you are going to do this, then let’s be truthful about it because the Holocaust isn’t about race.” Kotb added: “Her overnight apology amid the growing fallout.”
Introducing a full report on the topic in the 7:30 a.m. ET half hour, Kotb reiterated: “...the controversy that’s swirling around actress and co-host of The View, Whoopi Goldberg.” Fellow co-host Savannah Guthrie explained: “Yeah, she’s under fire for a comment she made on yesterday’s show about the Holocaust, she said it was not about race.”
Correspondent Miguel Almaguer reported: “After making those controversial comments on The View yesterday, Whoopi Goldberg eventually responded to the outcry and apologized. But a new TV appearance overnight raised more questions.” Following another clip of her View comments, Almaguer pointed out:
The outcry was swift, with many pointing out the Nazis used racist propaganda during the Holocaust. The head of the American Defense League [sic] tweeting, “The Holocaust was about the Nazi’s systemic annihilation of the Jewish people – who they deemed to be an inferior race.”
He mentioned Goldberg “Later weighing in further during a Stephen Colbert appearance.” In that appearance, she tried to explain away her insensitive remarks:
When you talk about being a racist, I was saying you can’t call this racism. You couldn’t tell who was Jewish. People were very angry and they said, “No, no, we are a race.” And I understand. I understand. I felt differently. I respect everything everyone is saying to me and I, you know, I don’t want to fake apologize, you know. I was – I am very upset that people are misunderstood what I was saying.
Almaguer concluded the report: “Goldberg has a history of controversial moments, including defending Bill Cosby on The View, which she later retracted.” He added: “NBC News has reached out to Goldberg and The View, but we have not yet heard back.”
After playing Goldberg’s Holocaust comments on CBS Mornings, correspondent Vladimir Duthiers summarized: “Alright, so others at the table, along with critics, pointed out that the Nazis, in fact, did see Jewish people as an inferior race. On The Late Show With Steven Colbert, she appeared to stand by what she said.”
A clip ran of Goldberg telling Colbert: “I was saying, you can’t call this racism. This was evil. This wasn’t based on the skin.”
Duthiers continued: “Alright, so Goldberg issued an apology on Twitter last night, saying, quote, ‘I stand corrected. I’m sorry for the hurt I have caused.’” He offered Goldberg a history lesson: “Hitler, if you read his odious diatribe Mein Kampf, or if you even read the Nuremberg Laws of Nazi Germany, saw Jews as an inferior race and they set about to systematically wipe them out, off the face of the Earth, six million souls.”
Co-host Gayle King chimed in: “He called it an inferior race repeatedly. It was clearly about race for him.”
While GMA couldn’t be bothered to mention fellow ABC employee Goldberg’s controversial comments, in the 7:30 a.m. ET half hour, the broadcast did manage to devote nearly three minutes to a report on a pizza delivery labor shortage and a new promotion from Domino’s to encourage customers to pick up their food.
Perhaps the network morning show was waiting for Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt to grant Goldberg absolution before it touched the story – something which occurred later Tuesday morning on The View.
Here are full transcripts of the February 1 coverage of Goldberg on NBC’s Today and CBS Mornings:
Today
7:01 AM ETHODA KOTB: Under fire. Whoopi Goldberg facing criticism for this controversial comment about the Holocaust.
WHOOPI GOLDBERG: If you are going to do this, then let’s be truthful about it because the Holocaust isn’t about race.
KOTB: Her overnight apology amid the growing fallout.
7:33 AM
HODA KOTB: Alright, let’s move now to the controversy that’s swirling around actress and co-host of The View, Whoopi Goldberg.
SAVANNAH GUTHRIE: Yeah, she’s under fire for a comment she made on yesterday’s show about the Holocaust, she said it was not about race.
CRAIG MELVIN: NBC national correspondent Miguel Almaguer joins us now with more. Miguel, good morning.
MIGUEL ALMAGUER: Guys, good morning. After making those controversial comments on The View yesterday, Whoopi Goldberg eventually responded to the outcry and apologized. But a new TV appearance overnight raised more questions.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Whoopi Goldberg Under Fire]
This morning, Whoopi Goldberg under pressure.
WHOOPI GOLDBERG: And I’m getting, you know, all of the mail from folks and very real anger.
ALMAGUER: Trying to backtrack and apologize after making controversial comments Monday.
GOLDBERG: If you are going to do this then let’s be truthful about it because the Holocaust isn’t about race.
ALMAGUER: It happened during a debate on The View over the banning of Maus, a graphic novel on the horrors of the Holocaust, by a Tennessee school board.
GOLDBERG: It’s not about race. It’s not about race.
JOY BEHAR: What is it about?
GOLDBERG: Because it’s about man’s inhumanity to man.
ANA NAVARRO: But it’s about white supremacy.
GOLDBERG: But these are two white groups of people.
ALMAGUER: The outcry was swift, with many pointing out the Nazis used racist propaganda during the Holocaust. The head of the American Defense League tweeting, “The Holocaust was about the Nazi’s systemic annihilation of the Jewish people – who they deemed to be an inferior race.” Goldberg taking to Twitter to explain: “On today’s show, I said that the Holocaust was not about race but about man’s inhumanity to man. I should have said it’s about both.” Adding, “the Jewish people around the world have always had my support and that will never waiver. I’m sorry for the hurt I have caused.” Later weighing in further during a Stephen Colbert appearance.
GOLDBERG: When you talk about being a racist, I was saying you can’t call this racism. You couldn’t tell who was Jewish. People were very angry and they said, “No, no, we are a race.” And I understand. I understand. I felt differently. I respect everything everyone is saying to me and I, you know, I don’t want to fake apologize, you know. I was – I am very upset that people are misunderstood what I was saying.
ALMAGUER: Goldberg has a history of controversial moments, including defending Bill Cosby on The View, which she later retracted. Now apologizing and saying she will approach discussions around the Holocaust with more consideration.
GOLDBERG: I will work hard not to think that way again.
ALMAGUER: NBC News has reached out to Goldberg and The View, but we have not yet heard back. Guys, back to you.
MELVIN: Alright, Miguel, thank you.
CBS Mornings
7:43 AM ETVLADIMIR DUTHIERS: We’re going to start today with Whoopi Goldberg on The View. She’s under fire for something she said after a Tennessee school board removed a graphic novel about the Holocaust from its curriculum. Listen to this.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Whoopi’s Controversial Comments]
WHOOPI GOLDBERG: The Holocaust isn’t about race. No, it’s not about race. It’s about man’s inhumanity to man. That’s what it’s about.
ANA NAVARRO: But it’s about white supremacy.
GOLDBERG: But it’s not about race – but these are two white groups of people.
DUTHIERS: Alright, so others at the table, along with critics, pointed out that the Nazis, in fact, did see Jewish people as an inferior race. On The Late Show With Steven Colbert, she appeared to stand by what she said. Listen to this.
GOLDBERG: I was saying, you can’t call this racism. This was evil. This wasn’t based on the skin.
STEPHEN COLBERT: Have you come to understand that the Nazis saw it as race? Because, like, asking the Nazis, they would say, “Yes, this is a racial issue.”
GOLDBERG: Well, see, this is what’s interesting to me because the Nazis lied. It wasn’t. They had issues with ethnicity, not with race, because most of the Nazis were white people and most of the people they were attacking were white people.
DUTHIERS: Alright, so Goldberg issued an apology on Twitter last night, saying, quote, “I stand corrected. I’m sorry for the hurt I have caused.”
During her Colbert appearance also last night, Goldberg also indicated that as a black woman – her experience as a black woman has led her to think of race as something that she can see. It’s skin.
GAYLE KING: About skin.
DUTHIERS: But here’s the point that needs to be made. The Holocaust, the Shoah, was not about race. It wasn’t about skin color. Race was irrelevant. Hitler, if you read his odious diatribe Mein Kampf, or if you even read the Nuremberg Laws of Nazi Germany, saw Jews as an inferior race and they set about to systematically wipe them out, off the face of the Earth, six million souls. And so –
KING: He called it an inferior race repeatedly. It was clearly about race for him.
ALMAGUER: I called it an inferior race repeatedly.
KING: Yes.
ALMAGUER: And you diminish the uniquely Jewish horror and tragedy, of which they’ve endured for millennia, by trying to say that it’s an all lives matter kind of a situation.
TONY DOKOUPIL: So the millennia is the key point here, right? So race is a social construct, it’s an idea. We lump people together, we say that’s one race. It’s not a biological fact.
DUTHIERS: Right.
DOKOUPIL: But the fact of prejudice against Jews for a millennia has lumped them together, regardless of whether or not they’re living in Venezuela or Iran or Germany, for that matter. They’re made into a people by the rest of us. And so that reality exists and Whoopi seemed to want to forget about it.
KING: Well, she seems – now she’s making the point that she should have made both points.
NATE BURLESON: Should have made both points, exactly.
KING: Yeah, that she should have made both points. That it’s about race, that it’s also about the imhumanity and evil.
BURLESON: It’s also about evil, as well.
DUTHIERS: She had a conversation with Jonathan Greenblatt of the ADL, who also informed her of what we just spoke about, that this was a uniquely Jewish tragedy. And as you pointed out and I pointed out, something they’ve endured for a millennia. This is something that Jews have had to deal with.
DOKOUPIL: And it wasn’t like you could renounce Judaism and then be saved by the Nazis, right? They saw it as a permanent factor of your existence.
DUTHIERS: That’s right.
DOKOUPIL: An immutable characteristic.
DUTHIERS: She did issue an apology on Twitter last night.
