Cooler heads have prevailed now that everyone’s had a chance to digest Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar’s walkout after Bill O’Reilly’s comments on yesterday’s very special episode of The View. Perhaps grown women who host television shows should be able to continue a discussion even after someone fires off a loaded statement. Maybe the best way to respond to someone like Bill O’Reilly is with a level head. It’s possible Whoopi could have picked a better day to wear light-up shoes. Actually, no, there will never be a day when we don’t want to see Whoopi Goldberg’s footwear blink like ratings beacons as she walks off the set. On his show last night, O’Reilly, looking like a cat who swallowed a free publicity canary, gave his take on the situation from the moral high ground of being able to stay seated during an interview.
It’s true, no one refers to the bombing of Pearl Harbor as perpetrated by Japanese extremists, perhaps because Japan is a country and not a religion, and extremism during a World War could sound redundant. Japanese people in America at the time also probably couldn’t hear what we were calling them from their internment camps.
We imagine at least some of the people O’Reilly knows want to insult Muslims. Nonetheless, his point about political correctness is a fair one. It doesn’t really seem like the tenor of the national discussion on Islam and 9/11 is erring on the side of caution to us. But maybe pointing out the religion of a terrorist, no matter how much you intended to mislead or incite hate, shouldn’t necessitate a walkout. As for his foolproof plan for stopping terrorism, we hope someone passes it along to the authorities — it seems like they could use the help.
Bill O’Reilly Defends Himself Against The View Walkout On The Factor [Mediaite]
Related: Bill O’Reilly Inspires Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar to Walk Off The View
