I'm somewhat ambivalent about Barbara Walters. I guess I never could get past the late Gilda Radner's lampooning of Walters as "Baba Wa Wa" on Saturday Night Live in the 70's. While I don't tune into The View regularly, I have some admiration for Walters who will turn 83 this coming September. She is a role model for senior citizens who love their work, and have a desire to keep working. What's grating on me though is her series of actions on The View yesterday when Sandra Fluke was a guest.
After trying unsuccessfully to cut off her co-hosts as they waxed enthusiastic about the advertiser bailing on Limbaugh’s show, Walters seized control of the kitchen table at the heart of “The View” and brought them into line:
“No, advertisers should not drop out, if they like Rush Limbaugh in general,” Walters said sternly. “I’m speaking for this show. We say things on this show that people do not like. And that is one of the important parts of the show. It’s one of the reasons that I have been so proud of it, is that we have different opinions and advertisers do not drop us.
Walters isn't merely the most prominent contributor to The View. She actually owns a nice chunk of The View, and the bailing of sponsors is taboo to her. She would hate to see it happen to her own show. Therein lies the rub. The problem I have with Walters is the cutting off her co-hosts which is in and of itself a form of censorship. Money is at stake in her talking over her co-hosts such as Whoopi Goldberg, not principled discourse on Limbaugh's absolutely disturbing comments.
Walters abhors Rush Limbaugh's comments, but she doesn't seem willing to support the only action that will work against Limbaugh which is a tried, tested, and true, good old fashioned boycott, now made far more effective with social media in the internet age. How else to hit Limbaugh where it counts, in the engorged pocket book through a dismantling or gouging out of his sponsors? Taking down Limbaugh with a series of letters to newspaper editors and some Facebook posts accomplished nothing. In the 80's/90's/Naughts/ And Teens we see more clearly than ever that words without action have very little effect.
Walters comes off as weak in all of this. Money and corporate sponsorship trumps principled ideas, and in this she is very much part of the problem that has been ailing this nation of ours for quite some time with a further erosion of principles in order to protect vested corporate interests. Perhaps a better name for her program would be "A Waltered Down View So As Not To Offend The Corporate Money Gods."
Follow the link for more thoughts on Sandra Fluke's appearance on "The View."
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