"The View" It Is A-Changing

It was all so sudden.  One day Elizabeth Hasselbeck was on The View; the next day she was gone.  Just like that.  We heard the rumors, but a little notice might have been nice.  Sadly, our local ABC affiliate preempted the portion of the show where the announcement was made for severe weather coverage.  It was like Pittsburgh itself was weeping uncontrollably at the news, causing flash floods and closed roads throughout our area.   For me, this means after 10 years together, it was like she never even said goodbye.  The next day the show went on with Hasselbeck's photo still in the opening montage.  

Then, faster than you could say "token conservative panelist," the announcement was made that Jenny McCarthy would be joining The View.  Oh, I was afraid something like this might happen.  Jenny had been guest co-hosting a lot lately.

I think the producers are rushing into things.  What ever happened to trying out a lot of different co-hosts before making an announcement?  What about all the (admittedly unsubstantiated) reports I'd been reading that the show wanted to get rid of Joy and Elizabeth because they were "polarizing?"  Don't they know anything about Jenny at all?  I suspect that Jenny may make Joy and Elizabeth look positively mainstream once she's a regular on the show.

Being opinionated is one thing; presenting questionable or blatantly incorrect health-related information as fact is another.  Jenny is guilty of the latter in her crusade against childhood vaccinations because of her unwavering stance that vaccinations caused her son's autism, despite no medical evidence to support such claims.  I am not the only person who is concerned that giving her such a widespread platform for such an erroneous and potentially dangerous position is not a good idea.

Let me digress for just a moment to make a public service announcement to the young impressionable mothers out there in America who watch daytime television. You cannot trust everything you hear from a TV talk show host.  I learned this the hard way when I chose to buy a novel because Oprah recommended it in her Book Club.  I don't remember the name of the book because I tend to block out traumatic life events, but suffice it to say it was full of desperate, despondent people struggling to make it through everyday life who made for one of the unhappiest reading experiences of my life.  After that, I used Oprah's Book Club to determine what books to avoid.

What books to read or clothes to wear are one thing, but, if you never listen to another thing I say, please listen to this:  do not under any circumstances make potentially life-and-death decisions about your family's health and well-being based upon what Jenny McCarthy tells you.  Jenny is a college dropout who rose to fame by posing nude for Playboy.  Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it does not qualify her to dispense medical advice.

You might think I'm just bitter because The View never answered my open letter about giving me a chance as a guest host, but I'm more of a Joy Behar type, so it's not too late.  Of course, I'd have to sit on the same panel as Jenny McCarthy, but that would give the show some of those spirited debates they like so much.