Honestly, this item makes one wonder what the producers of ABC’s “The View” – including host Barbara Walters – must have been thinking with regard to keeping the program a source of entertainment versus a platform for political advocacy.
On Friday, a video was posted at YouTube (h/t Allah at Hot Air) of Rosie O’Donnell talking to “The View” audience before a show began.
In it, O’Donnell conveyed her oft-cited conspiracy theory concerning what happened to the World Trade Center buildings on September 11, 2001.
As reported Saturday by the folks at Screw Loose Change:
Ro leads with Willie Rodriguez and the poor man with his skin falling off, as usual assuming this means explosives. But of course the man was burned by the fireball that traveled down the elevator shaft--even Willie used to admit that. She goes on to raving about WTC 7 being omitted from the 9-11 Commission Report, like the 9-11 Commission was concerned about a building in which nobody died, which was not a direct target of the attacks. The 9-11 Commission report also did not mention St. Nick's Cathedral, which was also destroyed. Oooooh, mysterious.
The piece went on to debunk many of the claims made by folks like O’Donnell – now disaffectionately referred to as “Truthers” – concerning 9/11.
Yet, the larger point is this: Why would audience members of “The View” be forced to listen to this kind of nonsense during the show’s warmup period?
It’s one thing for O’Donnell to make these statements during the program when others – certainly including Elisabeth Hasslebeck – were present to refute them. But, for ABC to allow O’Donnell to make such statements totally unfettered suggests that the producers support these conspiracy theories, and have no problem with Rosie sermonizing such vile propaganda prior to the show going live.
After all, if they didn’t agree with these views, wouldn’t they have prevented her from making such statements during the warmup?