A show that has seemingly never been more than two steps away from a scandal of some kind, ABC's The View is embroiled in its latest controversial situation following some backlash-sparking remarks from host Whoopi Goldberg. The network suspended Goldberg for a two-week stretch in response to her outrage-causing comments about race's role in the Holocaust, and the topic is clearly still one that many are talking about. (Even former Mandalorian star Gina Carano weighed in.) It’s to the point where View co-host Sara Haines felt the need to get defensive after a social media pic with Goldberg inspired some less than positive comments.
Following Whoopi Goldberg’s suspension news, which the apologetic co-host herself was reportedly not too pleased with, Sara Haines took to Instagram to share a throwback picture someone took of her and Goldberg in the midst of trying to take a selfie on the set of The View, using what appeared to be a disposable camera. And while it’s safe to say the majority of the comments left on the photo were of the kindhearted variety, quite a large number of them were specifically related to the comments and suspension news, meaning there were definitely some that skewed quite negative indeed. Which caused Haines to share her own reactionary comment (via People), saying:
I'd like to invite people trolling the post to go play somewhere else. To learn from a moment is all we can ask of anyone. And prioritizing punitive measures at the expense of the message/issue (and teaching moment) are misguided.
Among some of the remarks made, some commenters questioned why Whoopi Goldberg is meant to be so quickly forgiven while former co-host Meghan McCain — who also commented on the matter — took as much flak as she did for certain comments made over time. Not that every controversial moment on The View is equal to all the others. And not that every negative social media comment is equal to all the others.
As it often goes when celebs make comments out of ignorance, whether they were malicious or not, people are going to call for said celebs to lose their jobs, or to lose authority within those jobs. Joe Rogan’s Spotify ordeal is another higher-profile example that’s currently lording over the zeitgeist, but these are hardly the only two examples.
While Sara Haines likely didn't mean to cause a new wave of negativity by sharing her throwback pic with Whoopi Goldberg, it'll be interesting to see if she and other View hosts scale back on such public posts, so that they can avoid similar reactions. It'll also be interesting to see how things play out once Goldberg is back in the hosting chair.
The View airs weekday mornings on ABC at 11:00 a.m. ET. Incidental to everything mentioned above, both Whoopi Goldberg and Sara Haines having recently missed episodes to COVID-related reasons that didn’t spark any backlashes.
