I can totally understand why they walked out, to prove a point. If you’re an intelligent woman who watches the crap O’Reilly pushes every damned night, ya might want to take a stand via Walk Out. But, it really just plays what O’Reilly will spin it to,: Uppity Gals, and they should have known that.
And so it goes…
What point did they prove? That if you don’t agree with someone, you should just end the conversation?
As much as I consider O’Reilly to be a waste of oxygen, it doesn’t change the fact that he was invited to be on the show as their guest, and did they not expect him to say anything controversial? They knew what to expect, and when they got it they got all drama queen on him. They should have been immediately fired.
I agree. I love Whoopie, Joy, and Barbara (and sorta kinda Elisabeth), but you simply cannot get a sensible conversation, or opposing view, or knowledgeable response when you have five people yelling, trying to be heard. On one of The View show’s a year or so ago, Joy wondered why The View was not accorded the same respect as other news shows, and implied it was a sexist issue; i.e, programs hosted by men were taken seriously, and programs hosted by women were considered frivolous and fodder for housewives. Well, when you have a hundred or so people yelling, whistling, standing, and clapping to the point where you can’t hear the substance, well yeah, that’s a Jerry Springer show, not a serious discussion of culturl
Publicity?
Reminds me of some conversations on the SDMB.
Sure, but a lot of people have that reaction when they are confronted with a determined, articulate, and opposing point of view, and find themselves outmatched.
MSM types get this reaction sometimes - someone from outside their safe little bubble presents a point of view they never had to take seriously before. So they blow up and run away.
Boo hoo, bitches on the View. Your turf, your topic, and O’Reilly owned you.
Regards,
Shodan
You misspelled “Nancy Grace” and “CourtTV”.
I just wish SOMEONE, Whoopi or Joy or Babawawa or Sherri (because it would never come from Shut-Up-Elizabeth), would have asked him then if “the Catholics” were the ones setting bombs all over Britain for 30+ years.
True, but by the same token, Ellen’s nowhere near Behar’s league as a shrill, screaming harpy.
This pretty much nails it, IMO.
Seems to me that the minimum requirement to be employed as a Talk Show Host is to, you know, talk to people… Whether you agree with their opinions or not. Totally unprofessional of Whoopi and Joy.
I don’t think it was staged, but on the other hand I doubt anybody involved is upset over the publicity at this point.
Whoopie and Joy looked silly and unable to engage in a debate with Bill-O. Pretty lame-o. He’s such a blowhard, you’d think it would be easily accomplished.
As for the publicity angle, Sherri did mention in yesterday’s “Hot Topics” rehash, that during the break right after the walkoff, Bill was delighted, and turned to Sherri, Barbara and Elisabeth and said “this is gonna be dynamite for our ratings! Just watch… every network is gonna pick this up and we’ll be all over the news!” (or words to that effect). He knew he was provoking a big scene.
My personal take is that Bill is losing ground in the ratings to the rantings and ravings of the Glen Becks and the Breitbarts and wanted to throw a few stink-bombs around to amp up his exposure. Above all, he wants to sell more copies of his book. He flogged that book endlessly on The View.
I’ve never seen a whole episode of The View, but my take on it is that Whoopi and Joy - being foul-mouthed comedians and not professional interviewers - felt like they were about to start swearing up a storm (Whoopi let one fly before she left) and decided they needed to exit the premises before they got fined by the FCC.
Walters seemed just as appalled but she’s had 50 years of training not to swear at people, so she handled it with aplomb.
As a fellow foul-mouthed woman, walking out is what I would have done in this situation. I wouldn’t have been trying to make a point - just save face.
They knew who Bill O’Reilly was, and what he was likely to say and they should have been prepared. You don’t invite somebody like that on the show specifically to argue with and then act shocked when he says something offensive. That’s like being surprised at seeing Gallagher smash a watermelon.
Walking away from O’Reilly just makes them look scared and makes him look like a victor. It would have been much more effective to respond to him cooly and factually (ask him if “Christians” murdered Dr. Tiller, for instance), and let him look like the lunatic. Ice cold, Nurse Ratched style passive-aggression is the way to go with hotheads like O’Reilly. It drives them bonkers (and I know that because I say it as a fellow hothead).
Yep. And walking away when you’re wearing those ridiculous shoes that Whoopi was wearing makes you look even stoopider.
The worst thing about it is that they came back. It takes away from the power of the protest.
Speaking of “protest,” I think walking out is appropriate when it is an unequal medium (a speaker and an audience). When you are on the dais, stand and make your point. If the person gets personal and insulting to you, maybe walking off is a viable option.
As others have noted, you know what O’Reilly does… so either don’t engage him - there are other participants on the show - or don’t be at the interview. He was, in fairness, a complete dick. “Listen to me, you might learn something,” that kind of bullshit. But I do agree with Babwa Wawa in that it would have been far more appropriate to refute his idiocy.
The other thing, to me, it was not clear why they walked off. Because he was painting Muslims with a broad brush? Because he refused to let others speak uninterrupted?
Just the other day, ironically, they had Geraldo “Hey! I’m still relevant!” Riviera on. They showed a clip of him getting all purple-faced with Billo and finger-pointing, chest thumping, the whole 9. They are both blowhards and it was like watching two gorillas in some ritual display.
Bottom line, if you want to lose whatever credibility you may have built up over the years, host The View. Walters is in the twilight of her career, but I can’t say one thing positive about the other hosts. And I used to actually like Whoopi Goldberg.
Bill has been on their show several times before and they knew what they were getting and that there would be an argument.
I believe Bill only goes on the show when he’s plugging a book so the more he can stir shit up the better it is for him so it’s in his best interest to piss off the View ladies. They should know that by now.
I didn’t think it was possible for me to be any more embarrassed than I already was for sharing some of the same views as Joy Behar. She’s both cosmically stupid and bafflingly full of herself to an extent that makes her uniquely awful even among the rest of the View imbeciles. I can’t decide if it was better for her to walk off (an idiot move) or for her to have stayed and “debated” O’Reilly, which would also have been painful to hear.
I like Whoopi Goldberg as an actress, but she’s completely insane. I don’t really expect her to hold up in any kind of political discussion.
O’Rielly and the other TV conservatives will talk louder and louder and eventually scream over debate. It is a characteristic of the Fox type talking heads. On Maher there was a female righty last week who would not let anyone speak. It is very typical.
Never thought I’d reach this point, but the one who irritates me the most lately is Barbara Walters. I always appreciated her interviewing skills but recently she’s taken on a tone of scolding that is not attractive. Especially when accompanied by the constant circular waving of her crabbed hands. Is it an affectation? I wish she’d stop.
The View is or used to be a moderately entertaining show. But for big issues the ladies are all out of their depth.
The problem is too many comics. The thing is you’re getting the same view and that isn’t a good thing.
You never get places by walking out. If you want to prove your point you have to address the criticism and then refute it.
This was similar in the old days on Usenet when Holocaust Denial was big time. Most people chose the route of simply ignorinig it. But one man on Usenet, Ken McVay refused to accept this method and took it upon himself to refute all the claims post by post. This largely worked.
The ladies on the View are not mental heavyweights and simply don’t have the minds to refute anything.
Notice how often Elisabeth is right but looks stupid as she can’t explain why she feels like she does.
I also noticed the ladies cut so many celebrities slack. They had one teen pop singer who proudly said she dropped out of high school. When one of the ladies suggested she could go back to school and finish, the singer pointed out there was no need to. The ladies then all agreed that was OK.
Now that is a stupid thing to say after they stress the value of an education, and it was clear they were only kowtowing to the celebrity.
The View is fine when it doesn’t take itself seriously