Ridiculous, suspending her.
Inside ABC
Godwin's action capped a day that was, in the words of one ABC News source, "a shitshow." While Goldberg's apology had certainly quelled some anger, it did not satisfy everyone, according to conversations I had with sources throughout the day. Pressure had mounted on Godwin to take some form of action. As one ABC News source put it to me, many employees felt "if anyone other than Whoopi made that comment, they’d be fired on the spot." Former "The View" co-host Meghan McCain wrote a column saying "double standards" were at play.
But not everyone felt such action was warranted. One ABC News source I spoke with earlier said Goldberg's comments did not come from a place of malice, that she apologized and appeared to learn from her mistake, and that all of that is key when evaluating whether to accept her apology. And The Daily Beast's Lachlan Cartwright and Justin Baragona reported that Goldberg's co-hosts are furious with the decision.
Ana Navarro, a CNN political commentator who regularly guest hosts on "The View," separately told me, prior to the suspension, that Goldberg's colleagues "know what's in her heart" and that she's "not an anti-Semite." Navarro said, "When you have 5 women, discussing complex topics, in 5 minute segments on unscripted, live TV, sometimes things come out the wrong way. We are human and make mistakes. The difference between us and others is, we acknowledge it and try to correct it. Whoopi clarified and apologized without caveats."
Others clearly feel the same way. Just looking at my Twitter feed, it seems that most of the commentary is geared at criticizing ABC for the suspension. ProPublica's Jesse Eisinger put it like this: "We really need to stop punishing people for saying something ill-informed or stupid or mistaken, or a one-off. Especially when they apologize. Save the punishments for the truly despicable or the repeat offenders."
Do something positive.
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