Mention of Lewinsky Irritates Walters: "Let's Move On!" (The View)

MRC ^ | 12:05pm EDT, Friday May 30, 2003 | BrentBaker

[fight_truth_decay]

Don't count on seeing Barbara Walters raising with Senator Hillary Clinton any subject which the former First Lady would like to avoid. Though an ABC promo spot for ABC's June 8 special dedicated to publicizing Clinton's new book promises that "nothing's off limits" and on Thursday's The View Walters reported that when she sits down with Mrs. Clinton next week she'll "ask the really tough questions," the instant The View's Joy Behar mentioned Monica Lewinsky, an annoyed Walter raised her hands and made a pained facial expression as she demanded: "Oh, let's drop, let's move on!"

As quoted in the May 29 CyberAlert, a current ABC promo hypes the interview special: "Sunday June 8th: Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barbara Walters. The interview we've all been waiting for and the book that tells all. Sunday June 8th. Nothing's off limits."

On Thursday's The View, the daytime ABC show created by Walters who pops in a couple of times a week to take part in the gab session amongst the four of five women hosts, Walters recounted how on Wednesday she traveled in Illinois to capture video of Hillary Clinton in her home town, a session which followed Walters interviewing Clinton last week while the two walked on Washington's Mall wit the Capitol in the background.

As taken down by MRC analyst Jessica Anderson, on the May 29
The View Walters gushed over Clinton's small town upbringing and then promised she get to the "tough" questions in their next session:

"This was the first part of it [the interview]. We went back to her hometown, which is in Park Ridge, Illinois, near Chicago, on the tree-lined street where she had the most kind of, you know, stable, secure childhood."

Meredith Vieira: "Normal."

Walters: "Normal. Father, a staunch Republican; Hillary, a staunch Republican. And then we sat down -- this is the first part of the interview. It's going to be shown, the whole interview, in an hour, a week from Sunday, June 8th, from seven to eight o'clock. Okay, and then next week we sit down and ask the really tough questions, alright?"

The conversation continued and quickly got into penis size.

Vieira: "So did you get to you-know-who in this one? No?"

Walters: "Well, we got to him, we got to her husband, since we talked about how she met him at Yale and she's either the greatest actress in the whole world or this is really, you know, you understand why the marriage works when you see how she talks about him."

Joy Behar: "Maybe she's both, like the rest of Americans, American women, you know? We're actresses and we're for real at the same time with our husbands [audience laughs and applauds]. Everybody's got a little of both."

Walters: "And you know what attracted her the most -- I'll give one thing away -- when she first met him? His hands."

Star Jones: "You said that, Joy."

Vieira: "Oh, big hands, big hands."

Behar: "Yeah, he's got a big head, too. I love that."

Jones: "Yeah, Joy likes his hands and his head."

Behar: "His hair and his head -- it's huge."

Vieira: "But he doesn't have big feet. I met him, he did not have big feet, but he had big hands. I thought that was interesting."

At this point, Behar raised Lewinsky, which clearly irritated Walters.

Behar, joking: "Wait, let's call Monica and see if–" [Audience laughs and applauds]

Walters pompously reviewed her own work and found it wonderful: "That's so awful! I really protest that! I think it's going to be just a terrific interview."

Vieira: "So you liked her."

Walters: "I did, and she's very, then we had a lot of time to just, sort of, talk privately on the way home. We talked a little bit about Star [Jones], who's a friend, and she's going to come on the show one day, which we'll like, but you know, most of what this interview is about is how she felt about things, and that's, to me, very interesting -- how did you feel about this and how did you feel about that? So I hope you'll all watch it a week from Sunday...."

The discussion steered into how we know much more today than in the past about the private lives of public figures.

Re-joining the conversation, Walters opined: "It's a different time, and Hillary Clinton is probably -- look, today she's a Senator -- is one of the most accomplished and controversial First Ladies in our history."

Vieira soon brought up a newspaper report: "Did you see -- now, I don't know if this is true, it's in the New York Post today, Page Six -- a friend of Ken Starr's is saying that he now wants to have dinner -- you know, Ken Starr's the one who tried to get rid of Clinton, essentially, led the investigation -- he now wants to have dinner with Clinton and his wife, Hillary, according to the friend that's quoted."

The gaggle spent a while debating whether they would be able to "bury the hatchet" themselves in a similar situation when, in Vieira's words, somebody "had so vilified you and gone after you."

Behar made the error of raising a Clinton scandal and got slapped down by Walters: "I mean, on the other hand, it would show that the Clintons are, you know, that they're over the Whitewater and the -- the Whitewater they never really got them on."

Vieira: "That was years and years of litigation."

Walters: "They never got them-"

Behar: "That's not true, that's not true. They got them on the fact that Monica was in the White House."

Walters raised her hands and made a pained facial expression as she sighed in disgust: "Oh, let's drop, let's move on!"

Behar: "No! Wait a second! I'm not defending Ken Starr, but his position was that Clinton lied under oath and that's why he was after him, so they did get him for that. I mean, it's not like they didn't get him on anything. They got him on that."

Walters, channeled a Clintonista talking point: "No, but the investigations that went on for years and years and years and years about every aspect–"

Jones: "Was Whitewater."

Behar: "Well, the Whitewater turned out to be nothing but just a rafting cruise, or something [audience laughs]."

This isn't the first time that Walters has become outraged at the mention of Lewinsky's name. As noted in the September 16, 2002 CyberAlert, Walters scolded a colleague on The View for daring to ask the audience on Friday whether they would let their daughters be an intern in Bill Clinton's office. "So unfair, that's so unfair," Walters chided, urging Joy Behar: "Let it go already."

See: http://www.mediaresearch.org/cyberalerts/2002/cyb20020916.asp#7

So much for "nothing's off limits."

-- Brent Baker

[Rummyfan]

Another question that won't be asked! This interview will be one gigantic wet kiss! As another Freeper stated, I will not watch it but will participate in the Live Thread!

[jagrmeister]

Walters says nothing's "off-limits" but cries a river when someone brings up Monica, Whitewater, or the impeachment. Nothing says journalistic integrity like refusing to ask the difficult questions. Now before I conclude the Walters is just a no-talent hack, a second-rate Democrat operative working for the media, let's see how objectively she approaches this interview...she calls Hillary Clinton the "most accomplished" first-lady in history? Hmm..I seem to recall that Elanor Roosevelt was effective in championing a number of social causes whereas H. Clinton was responsible for one of the biggest domestic policy failures in history- the socialized healthcare debacle. To say Barbara Walters is a disgrace to the profession of journalism isn't saying very much, given the pathetic state of journalism today.

[Let's Roll]

Can't believe that anyone still watches her interviews. She is so insincere. Talk about someone who is so over.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thank you so much for the heads up and the link to the DSL! Hugs!

[mountaineer]

To say Barbara Walters is a disgrace to the profession of journalism isn't saying very much, given the pathetic state of journalism today.

Apart from hair color, is there really much difference between Barbara Walters and Helen Thomas?

[NYC GOP Chick]

OK, would you New Yawkers care to explain why you have now put the rest of the country in this position?

Oops! It was actually a silly prank that we played on the rest of the free world, but it got out of hand. Sorry 'bout that. :(

[churchillbuff]

Barbara Walters can interview everybody else and ask hard questions

She never asks ANYBODY hard questions. Remember when Gov. Owens of Colorado criticized her on-air for going easy on the Ramseys? That was classic.

[Jeff Head]

Brian, it's going fine. Hope the same is true for you and particularly in your enlistment/service.

Keep us up to speed on that.

The DSL is a great archive for everyone...to make sure we never forget what Clinton did and how dangerous and damaging his administration was to our Republ;ic and the cause of liberty.

here's a link you may enjoy....

The Thrill of Victory and the Agony of Defeat at the Idaho State Track Meet

Best regards!

Jeff

[Jeff Head]

The Clintons are power lusting, lieing, thieving, murderous, traitorous tyrants. Their enablers, like Barbara Waters, are equally culpable in their designs.

God help us as a people to avoid giving them the reigns of power again. God help us be resolute enough, to be vocal enough, to be involved enough to keep such individuals from any positon of power or authority...New York, route that viper out!

"[N]either the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt. He therefore is the truest friend of the liberty of his country who tries most to promote its virtue, and who, so far as his power and influence extend, will not suffer a man (or woman) to be chosen onto any office of power and trust who is not a wise and virtuous man." Samuel Adams

Jeff

[Jeff Head]

You are very welcome AG ... the more people who are aware of the DSL the better.

Best!

[Alamo-Girl]

Thank you! Hugs!!!

[backhoe]

A majority of U.S. to Walters: We'll "move on" when Slick Willy does. Take him and his cronies off the air and we'll "move on".

That is precisely what I feel- I would dearly love to forget about anything remotely related to anything Clintonian- but the press, and the media keep shoving them in our faces.

Bill and Hill are so 9-10... so last century- that it isn't even remotely amusing, but the media jackals hang on their every word and promote them as shamelessly as they did to get them into power.

So until all of them give me a break, I will keep posting variants of this theme:

"Has that clinton "legacy" made you feel safer yet?"

Lest Americans ever forget why the clintons, and all their enablers need to be hectored, hounded, and harried into silence, until "clintonese is only spoken in Hell," look here:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/765080/posts

The Clinton Files
various links | 10-08-02 | The Heavy Equipment Guy

 

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/723210/posts

Liars-- and Sleaze, Incorporated... ( my files on the clintons and friends )
various links | 7-27-02 | The Heavy Equipment Guy

 

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/611951/posts

Hodgepodge O' Hillary
various links | 01-20-02 | backhoe

 

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/771000/posts

The Atomic Genie- what we have about North Korea's Nuclear program
various FR posts | 10-17-02 | The Heavy Equipment Guy

There are, of course, what I consider my "most damaging" set of hard-core links:

The Cost of Life (Clinton/Gore Sellout of Security for Campaign Contributions) **FR EXCLUSIVE** #2

CIA Officials Reveal What Went Wrong – Clinton to Blame

Is Bill Clinton Responsible for September 11?

Catastrophic intelligence Failure - Clinton's Bin Laden GATE

-Murder, Inc.--

-The number of "suicides" for people linked to this and other Clinton-related cases--

-ATTENTION BLOODHOUNDS--

-Women in the Clinton Era: Abuse,Intimidation and Smears--

-SEND JUANITA BROADDRICK VIDEO TO THOSE WHO WANT CLINTON TO SPEAK--

Nothing phony about response to Hillary at fete

Hillary's delegates spit on and taunt Police Honor Guard at her Convention

-Sen. Hillary Clinton--NewsMax.com Hot Topics--

Boo Hillary! The Video***

[gatorbait]

Let's hope that no further attempts at political debate will dominate "The View's" airtime because with suckpoop correspondents like Walter's, Hillary in 2008 is a far more serious threat then we thought.

Bingeaux.

[tuna_battle_slight_return]

"Who would have thought that Barbara Walters was a lesbian?"

A lot. When Julianne Moore kissed Walters, Barbara said, "That was a short kiss; but I'll take what I can get". No kidding either.

[Ichneumon]

She never asks ANYBODY hard questions.

But she does ask stupid questions. Remember, this is the woman who once asked an interview subject, "If you were a tree, what kind of tree would you be?"

Anyone who could possibly ask such a question doesn't deserve to be taken seriously at all.

[crusher999]

a session which followed Walters interviewing Clinton last week while the two walked on Washington's Mall wit the Capitol in the background

Geee, but there's no "staging" here, is there?

I guess the Navy wouldn't oblige Hilly and let her meet Babs on the deck of the USS John F. Kennedy after a F14 landing.

[CyberAnt]

Even without a job - you can't pay me enough to watch such drivel!!

[weegee]

the instant The View's Joy Behar mentioned Monica Lewinsky, an annoyed Walter raised her hands and made a pained facial expression as she demanded: "Oh, let's drop, let's move on!"

Not until Bill Clinton is censured (tap tap tap). That was the deal the "moron.org" crowd wanted, "Censure Bill Clinton, don't remove him from office, and then move on". As soon as he was safe to finish out his years the talk of censure was dropped.

It is an important subject because Bill Clinton launched an unprovoked missile attack on Iraq in December 1998 just days before the vote on impeachment (as a sign that "we have work to do and you don't want to change horses midstream"). Bill now says that those strikes were just a delay tactic for dealing with Iraq. He knew that the next administration would have to deal with Saddam and his weapons program (see my bookmark for the Atlantic Interview where he acknowledges this).