Elisabeth Hasselbeck Leaving The View

I was never a fan of Elisabeth Hasselbeck and never understood why a “Survivor” contestant was chosen to co-host on such a popular show. There were certainly many more popular and well known personalities around who would have been glad to sit at the table for daily discussions. Elisabeth was basically a nobody. And besides not being well known, she also distinguished herself from the others on the panel by her strong, conservative, republican views. She has always held those views and it has sparked many a lively political discussion over her 10 years on the show.

So this morning I was a bit confused to see that she was fired yesterday because of her political views, which the audience finds offensive? All of a sudden viewers finds her offensive and won’t tune it? Excuse me if I find that unbelievable. I also am of the opinion that no one should be fired for their beliefs. We are all entitled to our own opinions and this show is about sharing different points of “view.” Now they are telling us they only want to hear one point of view? The liberal point of view? I am not satisfied with this explanation. So I search a little more on Google to see if there is more behind this story. I don’t watch The View every day, and figure I might have missed something. Elisabeth has been known to make, shall we say, stupid comments. My daughter has had many a melt down over the words that come out of Elisabeth’s mouth over the years, so I need to find out what else might be going on.

I Google the firing of Elisabeth Hasselbeck and find an article about some comments she made back in 2010. They were offensive comments concerning Erin Andrews’ wardrobe on Dancing With The Stars. Elisabeth criticized Erin, an ESPN reporter, for wearing next to nothing on the show. Apparently, Erin had been the victim of a peeping tom 3 months previous to doing the show and Elisabeth joked that if the “peeper” had just waited 12 weeks he could have gotten an eyeful without the jail time. Well her comments were like the shot heard round the world. Erin was extremely offended and didn’t even want an apology. Elisabeth apparently felt very bad and may have made up a story that her 5 year old daughter told her to apologize for her remarks. Barbara Walters is reported as having a hard time believing the story about her 5 year old, and told Elisabeth to make a public apology. Whoever suggested it, she apologized. However, because it was thought that she said what she really meant at the time, the apology carried little weight. This is just one example of the type of comments that are a liability to the show and make her unlikable. It was actually thought that she would be fired at that time, but she wasn’t.

Now, do I think she should be fired for her political views? Absolutely not. That is what the show is supposed to be about, differing views. Do I think that it’s the real or only reason she was fired? No, I don’t. I think there is more to the story than ABC is revealing, even through “anonymous sources.” I won’t be sorry to see Elisabeth go, but I want it to be for the right reasons and I personally don’t want to be fed a line of BS. The truth always comes out and it will in this case too. Nothing is confidential any more. I imagine Elisabeth, herself, will have a lot to say about it soon enough.

P.S. Barbara Walters announced that this story was a rumor. They love and appreciate Elisabeth and have no intentions of firing her. I don't know, I always feel where there's smoke, there's fire. However, for now Elisabeth is safe.