The View is a very popular daytime talk show. While it doesn’t appeal to me, I can appreciate that some people find it entertaining. The hosts of the show often take on current events in the form of political discussion, which is ultimately, usually, a good thing. They run into trouble when the discussion degrades into ideological, emotional blather. They go off the rails when they let demonstrably false information get put forth with minimal (if any) counter argument. My lament isn’t that they exist, but that Barbara Walters lets this happen and is still taken seriously.
Mildly whacky is Whoopi Goldberg saying that the moon landing was faked:
Unacceptable is Rosie O’Donnell saying that 9/11 was a government conspiracy (the fun starts around 5:50):
I’d recommend that Whoopi take an hour out of her life and watch Mythbusters on Discovery Channel. They did an episode on this subject, debunking just about everything she says, and its “light reading.” Otherwise, there is plenty of information available from the scientific community on the subject.
Rosie O’Donnell is a horse of a different color; she is probably in the camp of people so far gone ideologically that there is just no hope. That said, Popular Mechanics did an incredible piece debunking the 9/11 Conspiracy theories, as did History Channel. She actually says at one point that they ought bring in a physicist, which would be a great idea since pretty much any scientist with a cursory knowledge of metallurgy can tell you that most metals lose about half of their strength at temperatures near 60% of their melting point.
Somewhere along the line there is individual responsibility in realizing that talk shows and comedy shows are not “news”, and that what they hear needs to be taken with a grain of salt. Before there is a chance to get to that point however, this sort of nonsense gets into the public consciousness, and that is problematic.
Also problematic is underlying media bias in its most insidious form. Rosie is beloved in Hollywood, so no one is going to come out and completely debunk her for fear they might humiliate a friend. The same goes for Whoopi, who is additionally very funny, and uses that humor to lambast those she disagrees with. I find it difficult to put into words how the incestuous world of celebrity feeds into its own myopia, but the very fact that neither woman was roasted by any late night show’s host, or hamstrung by The Daily Show serves as example.
