During an interview on Sunday's edition of the new Fox News Channel program Media Buzz, Barbara Walters told host Howard Kurtz that The View -- the weekday program she created for ABC on August 11, 1997, and is retiring from next summer -- is neither political nor news-oriented since it was intended to be “entertaining and upbeat.”
“The View is not Meet the Press,” Walters said even though she admitted that “a lot of people do get their news” from the show, which features a discussion among five female co-hosts on a wide variety of topics. However, she noted that there was no panel on what Kurtz called “the national melodrama over the federal shutdown” because, the 84-year-old newscaster said, “I didn't think that was entertaining or upbeat.”
Tipper Gore
If you're like me, you've been waiting for feminist claims that global warming is harder on women and therefore should be a greater concern to the public.
Actress Sigourney Weaver of "Alien" fame did just that Thursday with an astonishingly ludicrous article published at the Huffington Post - a website rife with astonishingly ludicrous articles:
The guys at the Glenn Beck radio show had some fun at Al and Tipper Gore's expense Thursday creating a mock interview where the host questioned the separated couple about the former Vice President's antics with a masseuse in a Portland hotel room back in 2006.
The role of the Global Warmingist in Chief was marvelously played by Pat Gray with Stu Burguiere doing an adequate Tipper.
The interview began with Beck asking the Nobel Laureate what happened in the hotel Lucia that fateful evening.
Al/Pat deliciously responded, "The global warming just became overwhelming as I was receiving massage" (video follows with more highlights and commentary):
Good Morning America's Claire Shipman on Wednesday continued to tout the "storybook" nature of Al and Tipper Gore's failed marriage, reminiscing, "Al and Tipper. Tipper and Al. Their very togetherness, always part of the appeal."
Recounting the news of their separation after 40 years, the journalist seemed to wonder if any marriage could survive: "Of course, storybook endings aren't easy to come by. But this twist makes them all seem that much more out of reach." [Audio available here.] In a follow-up piece, ABC's Cokie Roberts contributed an odd aside about how political wives tend to not sing the praises of their husbands enough.
She opined, "And [a politician's] wife knows he puts on his pants one leg at a time. You know? And she's there reminding him of the mortgage payments and of the fact that he's just a regular person, not a god. And you know, who needs that? It's much more fun to be a god than a regular person."
After blaming the 2000 election for the breakup of the Gore marriage on Tuesday’s CBS Evening News, Sally Quinn of The Washington Post returned to CBS Wednesday morning for an interview with The Early Show, where she repeated the blame-Bush line, in a milder way: "You know one of the hard things is when you lose, this was their home. You can’t live here anymore." But mostly, Quinn suggested that if the Gores couldn’t make it, then maybe no one could:
And the interesting thing is that usually when something like this happens you get a sense of glee, people sort of saying, "I told you so, or I knew it," or whatever. I have only encountered sadness, and as you can imagine I’ve been on the phone with friends ever since I heard it yesterday and everyone feels as though somehow their own marriages have split up. You know watching the Gores is sort of looking at the possibilities of what a good marriage could be and when it doesn’t work for them you sort of think "oh my God, maybe it’s not possible."
People at CBS aren’t willing to consider that maybe someone’s selfishness is ruining the marriage. Quinn laid it on thick about how wonderful the Gores were in raising their children, and how talented they were:
Chris Matthews got off one of the all-time whoppers on this evening's Hardball. Seeking to explain why the Clintons have managed to stay together while the Gores haven't, Matthews claimed that Bill and Hillary are "committed to the core not to making money but to public life itself." H/t NB reader Ray R.
Is Chris simply clueless, or was he intentionally propagating a misperception of the lucre-hound Clintons, who as of more than two years ago had already raked in more than . . $100 million? Can't believe the number? Don't believe me. Believe . . . NPR.
Is there anything a journalist cannot or will not twist to bring the topic back to how life would be so much better if only not for that awful George W. Bush? On Tuesday's CBS Evening News, with the help of the Washington Post's Sally Quinn, Sharyl Attkisson managed to blame news, that Al and Tipper Gore are separating, on how they never got over being denied the presidency despite winning the popular vote in 2000. If only Bush hadn't taken it from them.Attkisson recalled “it's been ten years since that oddly public passionate kiss at the Democratic convention. That was followed by Gore winning the popular vote for President but losing the electoral vote. Family friend Sally Quinn says that may have done the marriage irreparable harm.”
Viewers then head from Quinn, who's married former Post Executive Editor Ben Bradlee and is now titular overseer of the paper's “On Faith” blog: “He obviously suffered a lot and still is suffering. He'll never get over that and neither will she.” (jpg of screen shot of Quinn)
Anchor Rick Sanchez brought on the senior political analyst 16 minutes into the 3 pm Eastern hour to discuss the announcement by the former "second couple" that they were separating after 40 years of marriage. After showing the famous kiss by the couple at the 2000 Democratic National Convention, Sanchez commented that "you can't be someone like myself or yourself, I would imagine, who's covered the Gores for quite some time, and not really be kind of taken aback, almost feeling a little sad for the end of this relationship, right?"
Borger replied with overwhelming enthusiasm over the Gores: