Sometimes Free Speech Leads to Stupid

    Last week, Whoopi Goldberg told the audience of The View that Black people in America have it as bad, or worse, as people living in the terrorist/theocratic/one-party rule, state of Iran. One of the other co-hosts, Alyssa Farah Griffin pushed back some, but Goldberg maintained her stance. “I think it's very different to live in the United States in 2025 than it is to live in Iran,” Griffin interjected. “Not if you're black,” Goldberg responded. And we’re off...

    The View is hardly the epitome of honest, let alone intellectual, discourse. I have watched the show twice now (a small sample, I know), both times in the wake of Ms. Goldberg's “international sociology” dissertation. I've heard more intellectual conversations between amoeba. And to a degree, that’s an unfair shot. As far as I can tell, it’s not supposed to be William F. Buckley’s Firing Line, or This Week With David Brinkley. I think it’s supposed to be entertainment, with dashes of political and social events. The show has a bunch of lapdog fans in the audience who would screech in approval if one of the co-hosts farted during the taping. They have minimal, IF ANY, knowledge of complex matters, like international affairs in the Middle East. But at some point they started taking this latest iteration of themselves much too seriously. Whatever seriousness it had when Barbara Walters was the chief talking head, you simply cannot expect people to take you seriously when your current serious chief personalities are Goldberg and Joy Behar.

    ABC continues to list The View under the ABC News umbrella. You read that right. It is under the “NEWS” umbrella! The company sells the show to sponsors and viewers as a news show with opinion. Therefore, there ought to be repercussions for remarks as abhorrent as Goldberg’s were last week. By comparing life in America for black people, to religious and ethnic minorities in Iran, Goldberg downplayed the government-sanctioned atrocities to which the latter groups are subjected every day. 

    Dr. Sheila Nazarian is a plastic surgeon in Los Angeles near the Beverly Hills area. As a child, just 6 years old, she was smuggled out of Iran during the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Nazarian said, “While racism is a serious and ongoing challenge in the U.S., comparing this to life under a totalitarian theocracy like Iran is not only inaccurate – it’s offensive to those who suffer daily under that regime,” Nazarian said. “In Iran, the government controls nearly every aspect of life. People can be imprisoned, tortured, raped or even executed for peaceful protests, for criticizing the regime, or simply expressing their opinions online.”

    Life is even worse for women in Iran. In 2022, Iran’s morality police were accused of murdering Mahsa Amini, a Kurdish woman, for not wearing a hijab in public. “It is astonishing that Whoopi Goldberg would even suggest that life for black Americans is somehow equivalent to living under the rule of the Ayatollah in Iran,” Iranian-American journalist Lisa Daftari added in an interview. “The very fact that she, as a woman — and a woman of color — has a platform where she can speak freely, express dissenting views, and appear uncovered on national television is proof of the immense freedoms she enjoys.” Goldberg is also a staunch advocate of LGBTQ rights. At least she has claimed to be on the show. In Iran, homosexuality is punishable by death. She needs to do her homework. In America, black women have the opportunity to make millions of dollars. Per reports, ABC News pays Goldberg, a black woman, $8 million a year.

    Look, free speech is ingrained in the DNA of our nation as well the ethos of working in the media. However, Goldberg didn't just give an opinion. She lied. There is no plausible argument that black Americans face similar conditions to people in Iran. That’s not a matter of opinion, rather it is a statement of fact. And she did this, why? To score political points? To create even more racial unrest and hatred in society? Goldberg’s remarks were inexcusable. And ABC News cannot in good faith defend her – especially after firing Terry Moran earlier this month.

    ABC News said Moran’s distasteful post about Trump advisor Stephen Miller failed to meet company standards. Well, those same standards should apply to Goldberg, whose comments were even more appalling. On Thursday, ABC News was asked about Goldberg’s comments in comparison to firing Moran. The network has not responded. And no one expects it to. ABC News has lost complete control of The View. The ladies now run the asylum.

    In May, The Daily Beast reported that Disney CEO Bob Iger and ABC News President Kimberly Godwin asked The View co-hosts to tone down their anti-Trump rhetoric. According to the report, the women scoffed at the request and called it “silly.” If the CEO, Iger, can’t take charge of the show, seemingly no one inside Disney or ABC News can. They are all too cowardly. The women on set know that, especially Goldberg.

    And here’s the thing, Goldberg complains about the treatment of black women in America. Yet it is exactly her status as a black woman in America that grants her the license to spew vile, misinformed rhetoric free of accountability. Her bosses understand the risk in condemning a black woman’s comments about race, even comments as buffoonish as Goldberg’s. Black women like Whoopi Goldberg are not oppressed. They are privileged. Hey, here’s an idea; have one of Goldberg’s posse say, “Hey, Whoopi! You know when you say crazy shit like that, you sound just like The Donald! Lazy and stupid! Knock it off!” Wouldn’t that be the ultimate insult. Hmmm…it just might work!

Write to Peter: magtour@icloud.com