By: Fern Sidman
Seems like actress and television talk show host, Whoopi Goldberg is seething with anger and resentment over ABC’s decision to suspend her from her duties on the “The View.” Goldberg made headlines earlier this week when she erroneously claimed that the Holocaust was “not about race” because the Nazis were white and the Jews they systematically slaughtered were also white.
Goldberg said on “The View” that: “The Holocaust isn’t about race. No, it’s not about race. It’s about man’s inhumanity to man”.
Her controversial remarks were made in the context of a discussion about a Tennessee school district’s decision to ban “Maus,” the Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel about a Holocaust survivor.
Goldberg appeared on “The View” to apologize for her ill-conceived comments and even invited Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt on the show to discuss her remarks. Greenblatt apparently enlightened and informed Goldberg to the fact that the Nazis believed that they were indeed a superior race and that Jews were an inferior race and even sub-human.
Goldberg issued an apology for her remarks and said that she stood corrected. She also spoke of her long-time support of the Jewish community. For his part, Greenblatt told CNN’s Don Lemon on Tuesday evening that he did not consider Goldberg to be anti-Semitic but refused to comment on ABC’s decision to suspend her.
Greenblatt suggested to Lemon that Goldberg spend the next week two weeks interviewing Holocaust survivors, visiting a Holocaust museum and even volunteering for the ADL. Greenblatt also noted that just last week, International Holocaust Remembrance Day was observed by communities around the world.
On Tuesday, however, ABC News president Kim Godwin announced her decision to suspend Goldberg for two weeks, telling staffers that such decisions “are never easy, but necessary.”
“Words matter and we must be cognizant of the impact our words have,” Godwin wrote in a memo to employees that dubbed Goldberg’s initial comments “wrong and hurtful.”
The New York Post reported on Wednesday that a well-placed insider told them that Goldberg, 66, feels “humiliated” at being disciplined by ABC execs after she followed their advice to apologize for the ill-conceived comments.
Speaking to the Post, the source added that “while Goldberg is taking the suspension hard and says she wants to leave the show, insiders believe she’s likely just sounding off.”
The source also told the Post that “She (Goldberg) feels ABC executives mishandled this. She followed their playbook. She went on ‘The Late Show With Stephen Colbert’ and then apologized again on ‘The View’ the next day. Her ego has been hurt and she’s telling people she’s going to quit. Suspension from ‘The View’ is like getting suspended from Bravo. The bar is very low.”
Goldberg’s co-hosts on “The View” were also not pleased with ABC’s decision to suspend Goldberg.
The Post reported that when speaking to the Daily Beast on Tuesday evening, Ana Navarro said, “I love Whoopi Goldberg. I love ‘The View.’” This was an incredibly unfortunate incident. Whoopi is a lifelong ally to the Jewish community. She is not an anti-Semite, period. I am sad. And I have nothing else to say.”
