“You all saw the news.  Whoopi will be back here in two weeks.”  
– Joy Behar addresses Whoopi Goldberg’s suspension from The View.  And that’s the way it is.

When Sharon Osbourne was pushed off The Talk for defending free speech, I said it was a slippery slope.  And here we are, with Whoopi Goldberg being suspended from The View.  If I belonged to the Barbara Walters School of Journalism – the graduation ceremony took place at Stonehenge – I’d feel compelled to regurgitate details of both instances.  Suffice it to say, Osbourne defended her friend Piers Morgan’s right to express an opinion about Meghan Markle – and suddenly was branded a racist.  Likewise, Whoopi expressed an opinion about the Holocaust which was not altogether wrong.  She said, “The Holocaust isn’t about race…it’s about man’s inhumanity to man.”  What a difference one word makes.  Had she said, “The Holocaust isn’t ONLY about race”, she would have been fine, because obviously the Nazis also targeted gay people and various religious groups.  One could easily consider the Holocaust under the umbrella of “man’s inhumanity to man”.  It’s like when people say “All lives matter”, instead of just “black lives” or “gay lives” or any one group’s lives matter.  They can all be true simultaneously.  Anyway, Whoopi apologized on the air, and led a lengthy discussion with Jonathan Greenblatt of the Anti-Defamation League.  Shortly after that show, ABC announced she was being put on a 2-week unpaid suspension.

It’s worth noting that in 25 years of vitriol, hate speech, split-screens, arguments, and walk-offs, this is the first time ABC has suspended a View co-host.  Things that make you go “Hmmm”.  I’m curious – when did intent become irrelevant?  Clearly Whoopi’s statement was not meant to offend anyone.  Her friend and frequent collaborator Bruce Vilanch points out that not only has he never found Goldberg to have even a speck of anti-Semitism, the stage name she chose is Jewish!  Bill Geddie, co-creator and former executive producer of The View said the following: “It scares me that we’ve come to this crossroads and now we as a culture need to get a handle on this insanity before it chokes us all.”  If the co-hosts are not free to have honest and open discussions, what’s the point of the show?  It’s called The View, after all!  I was curious if any of Whoopi’s co-hosts would speak up on her behalf?  Other than Ana Navarro, they were all predictably silent.  It begs the question – will Whoopi return?  Remember – Sharon was initially suspended, too.