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Whoopi Goldberg Goes off on Language Rules on ‘The View’: “You Can Say This, but You Can’t Say That”
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Whoopi Goldberg had a personal reaction to one of today’s Hot Topics on The View, getting heated at the mention of a news anchor who was pulled from her show for an on-air comment.
While discussing Mississippi news anchor Barbie Bassett, who was removed from her program after quoting Snoop Dogg on TV, Goldberg couldn’t resist hinting at her own live television slip-ups and the consequences she’s faced since.
“People have to understand that sometimes, stuff comes out of folk’s mouths, and you might want to start with, ‘Hey, maybe that wasn’t the smartest thing to say.’ As opposed to, ‘You’re out.’ That’s just me, having been in the situation before,” Goldberg said.
Later in the segment, she reiterated that firing an employee doesn’t help, then complained that networks “never let you” come back on air to explain. She closed out the chat with a fiery speech about the rules of what she can and cannot say on air.
“There are too many things— y’all need to make a book of stuff that no one can say. There has to be a book of stuff that nobody can ever say,” she said. “Ever, ever, ever. Include everything!”
She continued, “Because I’ll tell you, the things that change: you can say this, but you can’t say that. Next week you might not be able to say this. It’s hard to keep up … and if you’re a person of a certain age, there’s stuff we do and we say. You know what I’m sayin’!
“We have no idea until somebody says, ‘Oh, by the way.’ You should know that just because we’re on television doesn’t mean we know everything,” Goldberg said. “We don’t know everything you’re not supposed to do.”
She added, “Saying, ‘You’re out,’ means you don’t want to hear what people have to say or the mistakes that they might have made that could help somebody else not make that mistake.”
Goldberg previously found herself in hot water just weeks ago, when she had to post an apology video hours after The View aired. In a clip posted to the show’s Twitter account March 15, the co-host said sorry for using the word “gy—d” during a segment on Donald Trump‘s hush money case.
“You know, when you’re a certain age, you use words that you know from when you’re a kid or you remember saying, and that’s what I did today, and I shouldn’t have,” Goldberg said at the time.
She continued, “I should have thought about it a little longer before I said it, but I didn’t, and I should have said ‘cheated,’ and I used another word, and I’m really, really sorry.”
Goldberg has also come under fire for antisemitic remarks. Late last year, she apologized for comments she made about the Holocaust after getting called out by the the Anti-Defamation League.
The View airs weekdays at 11/10c on ABC.