ABC bosses urged The View to tone down its Trump-bashing. But are Whoopi & Co. listening?

Independent

4 days ago

In the days since it was reported that the top executives at ABC News and its parent company Disney urged The View to tone down its politics, the largely Trump-bashing hosts of the daytime talk show have only grown more strident with their rhetoric.
At times, it's even seemed like the show's panelists — specifically long-running moderator Whoopi Goldberg and outspoken Never Trumper Ana Navarro — have made a point of defying the corporate request to pull back on their politically charged commentary.
'You know, people always want us to be respectful and do the things and talk about the stuff we talk about. We can do all of that,' Goldberg exclaimed last Thursday, holding up a pocket Constitution while condemning the president for accepting a luxury jet from Qatar.
'But when you are blatantly giving the country the middle finger, that is blatant,' she added. 'You're not supposed to do that!'
Navarro, who recently spoke to Disney chief Bob Iger about the show's political tone and coverage, wasted no time going after Trump this week after returning from the Memorial Day break.
'If Joe Biden said that, we'd be talking about his cognitive skills and cognitive decline for days,' she said after the show aired a clip of Trump flubbing the word 'cryptologic' during a recent speech. 'You know, he calls the way he speaks the weave, I call the thing on his head the weave.'
That was just one small blip, meanwhile, in a lengthy opening segment on Tuesday that focused intently on Trump using his Memorial Day speech and soxcial media post to attack and slam his political rivals. And much as she did on a few days prior, Goldberg appeared to deliver a not-so-subtle message to the C-suite about the editorial direction of the show.
'Whatever it is, it's on us. We have work to do,' she proclaimed to applause from the in-studio audience. 'We have to get out and make sure we put the balance back into this country.'
Meanwhile, Wednesday's broadcast represented the third straight episode in which The View kicked off with a lengthy segment tearing into Trump and his administration, this time over the president issuing a pardon to reality TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley. The MAGA-backing couple, whose daughter spoke at the Republican National Convention, were convicted of tax evasion and bank fraud in 2022 for defrauding community banks of $30 million in fraudulent loans.
And at the end of the A-block on the show, Goldberg once again waved around her pocket Constitution while chastising the Trump White House, all while suggesting it is a moral imperative that the show call out the actions of this president.
'When you want to know 'does this pass the smell test,' all you've got to do is check it out here. See, because there are things you don't do in America that we — the Constitution says it. It's not us saying it. It's saying we don't do this in America,' she exclaimed.
'I get that your whole family has figured out a way to make money from the country. I get it. OK. That's what you do,' Goldberg continued.
'That's what you've always done. What I don't like is that you get pi**y with other people doing the same thing. Either it's not good for everybody, or it's good for everybody. Somebody make up their mind!'
The Independent has reached out to ABC News for comment.
The impassioned anti-Trump screeds, of course, are nothing new on this show. In fact, it has become a feature for the better part of a decade, even when Joe Biden occupied the White House for four years.
Additionally, the past week's new shows have continued the basic format that has been in place in recent months. While the show typically leads off with a 'Hot Topic' centered on political news, the rest of the program tends to feature a variety of other issues that the panel tackles.
For instance, on Wednesday's telecast, the Chrisley segment was followed by discussions centering on drama with a Real Housewives cast member and Gen Z taking 'adulting' classes, alongside interviews with Julianne Moore and Ashley Tisdale.
However, with Trump back in the White House, and Disney welcoming him back into office by paying him $15 million to settle his lawsuit over Good Morning America host George Stephanopoulos' inaccurate on-air assertion that Trump had been found civilly liable for raping writer E. Jean Carroll, the media landscape has suddenly shifted.
Now, the massive conglomerates and mega-billionaires who control the legacy media have shown their willingness to cozy up and capitulate to a temperamental commander-in-chief who has made attacking the free press a hallmark of his new administration.
It is within this current environment that ABC News chief Almin Karamehmedovic and Disney boss Bob Iger asked the outspoken hosts of The View, which Trump and his allies have long complained about, to tone down the political tenor of the show and lean more into general interest coverage and celebrity interviews.
'The move was not framed as an edict, one source said, but the suggestion alone rankled the hosts,' the Daily Beast reported about the meeting Karamehmedovic had with the show's stars and executive producer, which featured him pointing out the celebrity guest who drew high ratings.
'The group pushed back forcefully, with hosts like Navarro noting the show's audience routinely seeks out its perspective on politics, especially when the administration's radical attempts to upend the government can potentially affect their daily lives,' the Beast added.
A source familiar with the matter told The Independent that the network 'constantly has conversations with talent based on viewer feedback, and this instance was no different,' adding that the meeting was merely 'about balance in the show on topics' and not necessarily 'talking about Trump.'
While the meeting wasn't framed as an edict, and the hosts reportedly found Karamehmedovic's request to tamp down the politics 'silly' since it would 'look kind of bad' to their audience, the issue remained a sticking point for Navarro. She would eventually broach the subject with Iger, whom she ran into during Disney's recent upfront advertiser presentation.
After Navarro thanked him for allowing the hosts to continue to do 'their job in a politically turbulent environment,' the Beast reported, Iger said that while he does support The View, he 'reaffirmed that the show needed to tone down its political rhetoric.' The conversation with Navarro revealed that the 'suggestion to tone down the politics went all the way to the top.'
And though the corporate effort to tamp down the political coverage could very well be nothing more than an attempt to find the right balance for a talk show to broaden its viewership, it is impossible not to view it through the lens of the current administration's war against the media – which includes ABC.
Despite Disney's settlement on the Stephanopulos interview, the president has continued to rail against the news network. Earlier this month, he fumed at an 'ABC fake news' reporter for grilling him on the luxury jet that the Qatari royal family gifted him. 'Let me tell you, you should be embarrassed asking that question,' he growled.
Days later, he would threaten to sue ABC News over the way the network has reported on the $400 million jumbo jet from Qatar, wondering why Iger doesn't 'do something about ABC Fake News' while referencing his previous defamation suit against the network.
Trump is also in talks to settle a $20 billion lawsuit against CBS News over a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris, even though legal experts have called the complaint frivolous and the network itself says it is 'completely without merit.'
However, because the network's corporate parent Paramount is looking to complete a mega-merger with Skydance that it needs the administration to approve, Paramount chair Shari Redstone has urged the board to settle with Trump to push the deal through.
The potential payment to Trump has resulted in the resignations of CBS News chief Wendy McMahon and 60 Minutes executive producer Bill Owens, who made it clear they would not apologize as part of any settlement.