by Brent Baker
On May 28's The View, Joy Behar recalled how on a show the week before, she had exclaimed about her diet plan coming to an end: “Yes, and thank you, thank you, Jesus, is all I have to say! Goodbye to that damn scale and this whole diet. I'm sick of it!” But for the West Coast feed of that show, ABC bleeped out the name “Jesus.”
Though it was created by and on some days features Barbara Walters, The View is not an ABC News program but one produced by ABC’s entertainment division. The daytime talk show, produced fresh each day in New York City so it can address topical issues, is hosted by Meredith Vieira with Joy Behar, Star Jones and Lisa Ling.
The exchange in question on the May 23 show is as follows:
Meredith Vieira: “So yesterday, yesterday if you saw this show, you know it was the last day of the weigh-in, the scale is gone.”
Joy Behar: “Yes, and thank you, thank you, Jesus, is all I have to say! Goodbye to that damn scale and this whole diet. I'm sick of it!”What ABC bleeped from the West Coast feed of The View: Joy Behar saying “Thank you Jesus.”
Fast forward to the May 28 show. Behar complained:
“You know, the other day, as a point of order here, the other day when we were on last week, I used the phrase 'thank you Jesus' because my diet was over and we got, I was, it was bumped out of the, what do you call it?”
Star Jones: “They beeped it.” [yes, she said “beeped” not “bleeped.”]
Behar elaborated: “For the West coast, they took it out. They would not allow me to say 'thank you Jesus.' I think that's wrong. I mean, and [The View Executive Producer] Bill Geddie got about, you know, hundreds of letters saying — about a hundred actually, right?”
Geddie, sitting in the front row of the audience: “About a hundred.”
Behar: “A hundred, which represents thousands of people.”
Geddie: “Well, they bleeped the word 'Jesus.'”
Behar: “Because they bleeped the word 'Jesus.'”
Geddie: “So it's 'thank you bleep.'”
Lisa Ling: “Well, is that using the name of–”
Jones: “I've said 'Jesus' so many times.”
Behar joked: “Yeah, that's right. How come the black girl can say it and the white girl can't? I protest!”
Jones suggested an odd explanation: “Actually, I think it actually has more to do with the fact that I've expressed my faith on television.”
Behar: “Well, geez, so what? I'm a Catholic!”
Jones: “Not to suggest that you are not Christian, but I think it was to suggest that since I have professed my faith on television–”
Behar: “No, no, no, no.”
Vieira: “But you don't have to profess your faith!”
Jones: “In theory, I don't know. I think it was stupid to beep that. They let us say all kinds of things on TV, but they beep Jesus? That makes no sense!”
Behar: “I don't understand that, and just for the record I was baptized, I had holy communion and I've been confirmed, I got married in the Catholic Church.”
Vieira: “If anybody can say 'Jesus,' you can.”
Behar: “Jesus and I are pals, okay? Get with the program!”
But the name of a religious figure apparently instills fear with some at ABC.
The View’s Web page: http://abc.abcnews.go.com/theview/main.html.
For pictures of the cast: http://abc.abcnews.go.com/theview/hosts/hosts.html.
For a bio of Joy Behar: http://abc.abcnews.go.com/theview/hosts/behar.html.
(This update courtesy of the Media Research Center.)
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