Barbara Walters was not very happy last week when Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar walked off the set during a guest appearance by Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly, and gave them a stern lecture about their behavior.
This is one of the few time in my life that I actually agree with Walters and it was priceless to see Whoopi, and especially Behar, having to listen in silence while Walters explained why they were wrong.
O’Reilly has been on
The View several times and, as Walters said, they knew what he was like. Maybe they thought he went too far but he was an invited guest of the show and he deserved to be treated accordingly.
What O’Reilly did with his statement on Muslims and the Park 51 mosque was to cross the politically correct boundary of never speaking ill of Muslims, even if is true.
Walters wasn’t the only member of the mainstream media that had a problem with the walkout. Meredith Vieira and Matt Lauer of
The Today Show, not exactly known for their conservative credentials, also disagreed with Whoopi and Joy’s stunt.
Only time will tell if the ladies of
The View have been sufficiently cowed into better behavior in the future, but at the very least they have been warned.
Don Irvine——
Bio and Archives
Don Irvine is the chairman of Accuracy in Media and its sister organization Accuracy in Academia. As the son of Reed Irvine, who launched AIM in 1969, he developed an understanding of media bias at an early age, and has been actively involved with AIM for over 30 years.
