Rosie Chooses a Different View

It was announced Friday, May 25, 2007 that Rosie O'Donnell would not finish the last three weeks of her contract with the morning talk show, The View. After the rather heated exchange between Rosie and co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck, Rosie decided not to return to the show as opposed to entertaining the potential for another round of contentious political debate with the conservative Hasselbeck. While it is obvious these two so-called friends disagreed on very touchy subjects we as a society must wonder if in losing Rosie we are also losing a source of consciousness easily lost in our information by media-driven community.

I've written previously on the discussion that ensued between Rosie and Elisabeth that began on Monday and spilled onto our television sets on Wednesday. To read that article click here. What is telling is that it was less fact and more feelings that ultimately drove Rosie to depart and not return to the set to finish her contractual obligations with The View. Certainly, these two pendulum opposites view on the very issues that divide our nation. Rosie O'Donnell, an openly gay comedienne and former talk show host is intensely liberal. While Hasselbeck is the picture image of generation-x conservatism.

Since Rosie joined The View last fall she has pined her opinions openly and candidly on a number of oftentimes controversial topics. Never one to shy away from sharing, Rosie was a force of opinion regardless of how insane that opinion might appear to be. When she charged the impossibility of one of the buildings at the World Trade Center being brought down by the two planes mouths of people all over the country dropped like cement blocks. Yet, she did not waver in pushing beyond our confusion and push the issue on other topics. During the debate this week hundreds of thousands of Americans learned that over 650,000 innocent Iraqis have been killed since we launched Iraqi Freedom. Regardless of how you feel about the war and supporting our troops that number is staggering.

Laying aside your moral objections or acceptance of Rosie's lifestyle there is an unavoidable reality. She brought things to the surface that many of us have been to blind or disenchanted to face. There is a reality in her words, a sense of consciousness that all of us should embrace. And in many ways, was probably the issue that caused her and Elisabeth Hasselbeck the most problems.

In recent episodes, a level of disbelief shared by Rosie O'Donnell and co-host Joy Behar when it came to Hasselbeck's seemingly blind commitment to President George Bush, the war surge, and our national security policy. If an individual were blind you would think she was a talking billboard for the Republican Party. Whereas initially the banter was purely humorous back in the fall when it came to policy and such matters, the more the war continued its downward spiral and after the midterm elections, Elisabeth seemed to almost dig in to carry the flag of the flailing party. This aloofness caused Rosie to sometimes belittle Elisabeth and other times feel sorry for her.

Through it all, we got an inside look at two women who believed what they said and said what they believed. We saw a staunch conservative who believed national security is the biggest issue standing before us as a country. While we also saw a liberal blue blood who saw national security as a fear tactic more than a real threat and saw other more critical issues be ignored or under-addressed by the policy of this presidency.

What the show did more than any other is get us to talk about how we view the world in which we live. This show forced us to talk about where we stand and what we think relevant to the views expressed on The View. Who loses now that Rosie has left? More than ABC and the five hundred thousand viewers who tuned in after Rosie came on the show, more than the gay and lesbian community who saw someone carry their message with strength and courage, more than all of them; we as a nation lose.

When Rosie came to the show many of us had undeveloped opinions about the war, this president, and the hot button issues that entangle us today. But everyday, we watched the discussion and formed our own opinions. So yes, we lose. We lose because we saw more than rhetoric during the morning time slow reserved for The View. We got more information, opinion, and plans from Rosie O'Donnell and Elisabeth Hasselbeck than we've gotten from any of the five hundred thousand men and women campaigning to spend the next four years at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. And for that we lose.

Ladies and gentlemen, the discussion has left the building.