Actress Whoopi Goldberg has been suspended from The View for two weeks over her comments alleging race was not a factor in the Holocaust
Actress Whoopi Goldberg has been suspended from The View for two weeks over her comments alleging race was not a factor in the Holocaust.
ABC News President Kim Godwin announced her suspension Tuesday night, saying it was ‘effective immediately’.
‘While Whoopi has apologized, I’ve asked her to take time to reflect and learn about the impact of her comments,’ Godwin said in a tweet.
‘The entire ABC News organization stands in solidarity with our Jewish colleagues, friends, family and communities.’
Whoopi, 66, made the controversial comments on The View on Monday. She referred to Jews and Nazis as ‘two groups of white people’ and said that because they were both white, it was about ‘inhumanity’ and not race’.
The news of her suspension comes after the remarks sparked immediate international backlash with everyone from the Israeli Consular General in New York to the Auschwitz Memorial and Antidefamation League taking offense.
Several ABC staffers also called for her firing.
ABC News President Kim Godwin announced her suspension Tuesday night, saying it was ‘effective immediately’
Whoopi posted an apology on Twitter Monday night saying the Holocaust was about ‘both’ race and inhumanity.
‘On today’s show, I said the Holocaust “is not about race, but about man’s inhumanity to man.” I should have said it is about both. As Jonathan Greenblatt from the Anti-Defamation League shared, “The Holocaust was about the Nazi’s systematic annihilation of the Jewish people – who they deemed to be an inferior race.” I stand corrected,’ Goldberg said.
‘The Jewish people around the world have always had my support and that will never waiver. I’m sorry for the hurt I have caused. Written with my sincerest apologies, Whoopi Goldberg,’ she said.
On Tuesday, she made an on-air apology, then interviewed the CEO of The Anti-Defamation League, before moving on to other topics with her co-hosts.
Ahead of The View’s show on Tuesday, a senior ABC News source told DailyMail.com that staff are stunned by the network’s soft touch on her remarks, especially when it was so quick to fire Roseanne Barr over racist comments towards Valerie Jarrett.
‘These comments are absolutely abhorrent and outrageous and it’s time Disney and ABC grew a pair and fired her,’ the source said.
‘Disney took swift action and fired Roseanne Barr when she posted the awful tweet about Valerie Jarrett, yet Whoopi made her vile comments on ABC’s air and they do nothing about it? Where is the leadership from within Disney?
‘[Disney content chairman] Peter Rice needs to step up and do his job and fire Whoopi. How is this appropriate at all? What message do we send as a company? Why is there one rule for Whoopi Goldberg – who gets a pass on everything and another rule for everyone else?’ said the source.
‘There is a blind spot on The View when it comes to anti-Semitism. It is never a big enough hate crime for them.
They added that the comment on Monday was only the latest in a string of inflammatory claims made by Whoopi, who previously defended Bill Cosby on the show.
‘We were all outraged when Whoopi was defending Bill Cosby and ABC had to bring [legal analyst] Dan Abrams on the show to help her understand that her views surrounding Cosby were extremely problematic.
‘This was after fifty women, FIFTY, had come forward with serious allegations about him.’
‘People are livid within the news division as it completely undermines our credibility.’
The source also alleged that former host Meghan McCain previously pitched the victim of a Jewish hate crime as a guest on the show but that she was told to conduct the interview for online only.
Among those who fumed over Goldberg being allowed to stay on the show was Piers Morgan.
‘Sharon Osbourne was fired from The Talk for defending me against a fake charge of racism. Whoopi Goldberg said on The View yesterday that the Holocaust ‘wasn’t about race’, which for Jewish people is about as racist a comment as anyone could make.
‘Bet she doesn’t lose her job,’ he said.
Osborne was fired from The Talk, a CBS show, for defending Morgan against allegations he was racist because he did not believe everything the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle, said.
Others have compared Whoopi’s situation to that of Joe Rogan, the Spotify podcast host who was admonished by musicians because he hosted anti-vax opinions on his show.
Spotify is standing by him and adding a content advisory warning to his shows, ignoring the demands of musicians like Joni Mitchell and Neil Young who threatened to pull their music off the streaming site because they disagreed with Rogan.
Rogan has never disclosed his vaccination status. It’s unclear if he is pro or against it but the very fact he was giving a platform to the topic of anti-vaxxing was enough, they said, to constitute disinformation.
On Tuesday, Whoopi returned to The View and kicked off the show with an on-air apology.
‘Yesterday on our show I misspoke. I tweeted about it last night but I kind of want you to hear it from me directly. I feel a responsibility.
Whoopi posted an apology on Twitter Monday night saying the Holocaust was about ‘both’ race and inhumanity
‘My words upset so many people which was never my intention. I understand why. The information I got was really helpful.
‘I said the Holocaust wasn’t about race and was instead about man’s inhumanity to man.
‘It is indeed about race because Hitler and the Nazis considered Jews to be the inferior race.
‘Words matter and mine are no exception. I regret my comments and I stand corrected,’ she said.
She then went on to interview Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, who spoke generally about anti-Semitism and why it is still a threat, before cutting to a commercial.
Then, after the break, they resumed the ‘hot topics’ of the day including Rihanna’s pregnancy.
MEGHAN MCCAIN: There’s no point calling for Whoopi to be fired – her half-assed apology for antisemitism only shows again the double standards television holds for liberals and conservatives
In the six months since I left The View, I haven’t watched a single episode of the show.
My life has moved on.
Between this column and other projects and above all a toddler, who is the most demanding and adorable diva in my life.
The other day she insisted on having her bunny rabbit shoes and wouldn’t take no for an answer; see I just don’t have the time for my old friends on the show.
Nonetheless, when something goes viral from the show or ends up in the publications that I read I can’t help but feel a twinge of disappointment.
It’s not that I expect compelling or nuanced political discussions from daytime television, but it’s sad to see the recent litany of embarrassing moments from a show I invested so much time and effort in trying to elevate to a more serious level.
The notorious disaster of the non-interview with Vice President Kamala Harris was the most prominent incident, until yesterday, when my old co-host Whoopi Goldberg engaged in a series of bizarre, incoherent, and even dangerous comments about the Holocaust.
I went back and forth in my mind as to whether this column was even worth writing, because as much as possible I have moved on.
The show doesn’t define me like it has so many other people who have worked there over the years, and I have found liberation and satisfaction in my career working here at DailyMail.com.
It’s not that I expect compelling or nuanced political discussions from daytime television, but it’s sad to see the recent litany of embarrassing moments from a show I invested so much time and effort in trying to elevate to a more serious level.
The freedom to adjust my priorities in life after the pandemic came at the best time for me personally, and I don’t want to dwell on the past.
Unfortunately, what Whoopi said yesterday was too serious to avoid addressing it.
Even during my time working at The View, I became very deeply engaged as an activist against the growing rise of antisemitism in America.
The American Jewish Committee released a report in October detailing the rise of antisemitism in America.
In the survey, one in four American Jews said they have been targets of antisemitism in the last 12 months.
Four in 10 American Jews have changed their behavior out of fear.
Four in 10 of all Americans have personally witnessed anti-Semitic incidents.
And 82% of American Jews say antisemitism has risen over the last five years.
There is more staggering data, but anyone who has been paying attention over the last few years has seen it.
In January 2019, I called out the founders of the Women’s March live on ABC, after they were accused of intolerance and antisemitism by their own members.
They subsequently refused to condemn statements equating Jews to termites and claims that the Holocaust didn’t happen.
That was three years ago.
I was flooded with thousands and thousands of comments on social media that I will not repeat – but it was a baptism by fire.
It was an experience that made clear the intensity of antisemitism that still permeates our society, and it was an eye-opening look at the degree to which some extremists are willing to engage in such abhorrent racism.
Since that moment I can best describe my experience in media, and yes at The View, as discovering just how un-seriously people take the rise in antisemitism.
There is a serious cultural downplaying in the media of these threats.
Even the FBI downplayed the recent hostage crisis in Colleyville, Texas, during which British national Malik Faisal Akram held Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker and four congregants at gunpoint.
The Bureau was reluctant to say the shooter was motivated by antisemitism – despite the fact that he was specifically targeting a rabbi and a synagogue.
Antisemitism is truly the last socially-accepted form of bigotry.
The hatred of Jews is an ancient trope.
Like so many forms of hatred, it’s as old as the existence of human tribes themselves.
The difference is that today, in an era when so many forms of insult or criticism are labeled bigotry, true or not, actual bigotry toward the Jewish people is not just tolerated but defended in ways I find abhorrent.
For many years, this has been an underlying aspect of leftist politics, particularly of the campus variety.
They use the excuse that this is really about Middle East foreign policy or Palestine or even the friendly relationships between Benjamin Netanyahu and conservative politicians here in America.
We all know that’s just making excuses.
What we’re talking about here is just racism, pure and simple.
The unequal standard here is obvious, too.
I was lectured to thousands of times on The View, there is a belief that ‘cancel culture’ is really ‘accountability culture’ among the woke left.
Which seems to be a belief that’s quickly forgotten whenever it’s Whoopi who has to be held to account.
I am not calling for Whoopi Goldberg to be fired, if only because I don’t believe there is any universe where she could possibly do anything that could get her fired – she is the crown jewel of The View and a pop culture icon.
But I hope this can be used as a teachable moment to explain to millions of Americans why conflating the Holocaust as something that is specific and limited to ‘white people’ is insane, ahistorical and anti-Semitic.
For as much as the left is fond of using Nazi comparisons and imagery, the truth of the Holocaust, who it targeted and why, deserves to be known and understood by all.
Deny the Moon landing if you will, call the Earth flat, question who really shot JFK — but framing the Holocaust as just a dispute among one ‘race’ isn’t just wrong, it’s dangerous.
I also think ABC and The View at large need to take a hard look at why some hosts — and let me be completely candid here – why some liberal hosts are held to an entirely different standard than anyone else.
Whoopi has said a slew of insanely-controversial and hurtful things over the course of her tenure at The View.
Some of the more notorious ones include defending Roman Polanski for raping a 13-year-old (calling it ‘not rape, rape’) and defending Bill Cosby after over 50 accusers had come out publicly with their stories.
With age and status comes protection at The View.
This goes for the other liberal hosts as well.
Instead of half-assed apologies and bringing in experts in the antisemitism space, maybe dedicate an entire ‘Hot Topics’ segment to discussing why what was said was so deeply offensive and dangerous.
In the world of media, there are people who will never face the same ramifications and repercussions that others will.
There’s a double, triple, and even quadruple standard if you are conservative.
If this isn’t an enormous problem for ABC News today, it will grow to be a bigger one.
People have less and less tolerance for overpaid celebrities, with every access to education themselves, using their platforms to spew bigotry.
And from my experience working in television, the ugly things said casually backstage always have a way of coming out into the light when the camera is on.
All of that being said, there are those who will be given protection and coverage for their bad behavior from networks and executives no matter what.
Those people aren’t Sharon Osbourne and Roseanne Barr.
The View was founded by one of the most famous Jewish American women in American history – Barbara Walters.
I don’t believe a show of one myopic opinion was her intention.
American viewers deserve a better class of debate, especially on a topic of such importance to understanding the capacity of evil in the world.
And for those who hope and work against anti-Semitic forces in our country, we cannot afford to forget what was done, and why, and know this evil for what it is.
