The Media Research Center’s Nicholas Fondacaro isn’t the only person in the ConWeb who’s angry at the co-hosts of “The View” for not being good, servile right-wing Trump-bots. Nin Privitera — described in his bio as “a former freelance writer for Jay Leno and ‘The Tonight Show,'” so you know he’s all about insulting who’s not sufficiently right-wing — served up some incredibly lame insults at “The View” over Pete Hegseth in a Nov. 28 post:
My research staff was playing around with their new AI Super Duper Ear the other day when they happened to tap into the green room backstage at “The View.” You know, that’s the gang of ladies who try to find a threat to democracy from right-handed baseball players.
As you will discover, Pete is the new Hitler enemy, according to the American left elite. According to what my staff heard on the Super Duper Ear, the discussion among the ladies on “The View” came from looking at published pictures of Pete’s tattoos that cover a lot of his well-toned torso. Here’s the transcript.
We won’t bother with repeating any of that, but suffice it to say that involves a purported conflict between Hegseth’s muscular body and the tattoos on it — which probably says more about Privitera’s lame obsessions than that of “The View.”
The next day, James Zumwalt whined that “The View” is “one of the most liberally focused political opinion television programs ever produced” — complained that the show’s hosts had something to say about the election:
The hosts of “The View” are renowned for their liberal attacks, regardless of the issue. Why, for example, did Kamala Harris lose to Trump?
Co-host Sunny Hostin proffered that, “As a country, it’s very difficult for people to believe that racism and misogyny, they’re just alive and well. My lived experience tells me that it does still exist, even if your lived experience doesn’t tell you that it exists. The facts support that. It’s not only clear by race, it’s also clear by education. Those who attended college voted for her at a higher degree than those who didn’t.”
But Alyssa Farah Griffin – a member of the Trump administration who voted for Harris – rebuked Hostin’s claims. She said that the “biggest common denominator in this election is people want a good life and ability to provide for their family.” When Hostin escalated the discussion by questioning why more blacks failed to vote for Trump, Griffin corrected her saying that “more of them voted for Donald Trump than [they] had, historically.” Griffin told Hostin she was “missing it” entirely if she believed a “vast majority in this country voted because of racism and misogyny.”
Hostin “tripled down” on her position as if there were no other basis for Harris’ rejection – an ironic claim about a vice president who was among the most unpopular in modern times. Trump won the election by the most votes ever cast for a Republican presidential candidate in our history, but that apparently was insufficient to convince Hostin his victory was rooted in anything other than misogyny and racism.
But the claim was supported by Hostin’s co-hosts – who collectively form a five-person female panel. As such, the man-bashing could easily lead one to believe panel members are philogynists themselves as “The View” has never included a male co-host. And, when male guests appear on the show – mostly fellow liberals – the co-hosts have tended to treat them disrespectfully whenever they have ventured into unfriendly territory in promoting conservative values.
Zumwalt then made a point of highlighting the legal notices the guests occasionally have to read:
It is interesting that ABC lawyers, who monitor “The View,” felt it necessary to impose the delivery of “legal notes” on the hosts whenever they made inaccurate allegations about people that might trigger litigation. The co-hosts clearly were frustrated by having to read such legal notes handed to them right after making such a claim. The show’s producer revealed that 75 such notices have been read on the program.
Hostin, who is a lawyer and a regular offender, was visibly verklempt as she had to read notices twice in one week after trashing Trump’s Cabinet selections. It had to be particularly embarrassing for her as she is a senior legal correspondent and analyst for ABC News. Hostin’s uncontrolled rants have hurt the program’s viewership. Apparently, Hostin’s contribution to this was clear enough for executives not only to withdraw their commitment to increase her $8 million salary to $12 million but to cut it to $5 million.
Hostin’s chain of mea culpas in having to read, stone-faced, one legal note after another brought back memories of a late 1970s “Saturday Night Live” “Weekend Update” skit. Gilda Radner portrayed Roseanne Roseannadanna – a dimwitted political commentator who continuously misconstrued things, resulting in her having to be corrected by her co-anchor (Dan Aykroyd). Recognizing her error, Radner ended the skit by turning to the audience and sheepishly saying, “Never mind!”
In the play “Macbeth” by William Shakespeare, the witches engaged in a chant while mixing a stew – the ingredients of which symbolized their malevolent plans for the Scottish king. As “The View” co-hosts engage in their own chant, we realize it symbolizes their malevolent plans to twist the truth.
(Note: No legal notes were issued by this opinion column!)
Actaully, Zumwalt is long overdue to issue one of those legal notes. In December 2020, he wrote a column uncritically repeating bogus claims from a far-right podcaster, Joe Oltmann, that an executive for election-tech company Dominion claimed he was going to use the company’s machines to make sure Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election. Dominion has since sued Oltmann and others who spread the falsehood and keeps on winning procedural actions in a buildup to the trial. Weirdly, the original column — which included other false and unproven claims of election fraud — remains live and uncorrected, devoid of legal notes that would reduce Zumwalt’s and WND’s legal culpability.
Given that status — and the fact that there’s nothing stopping the Dominion executive from adding Zumwalt and WND to his list of defendants — Zumwalt might want to think about drafting that legal note soon.