‘The View:’ Meghan McCain Says It’s A ‘Miracle’ She’s Still on the Air
Meghan McCain of The View is known for her outspoken demeanor. Never one to shy away from a debate, the ABC co-host recently gotten into a discussion with her fellow panelists on today’s cancel culture noting they have all been subjected to it.
‘The View’ star comments on hostility from studio audience
Though McCain and her co-hosts Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, and Sunny Hostin are now appearing on the show from home due to the coronavirus crisis, The View is typically filmed in front of a studio audience. McCain has previously commented on how her conservative perspective often clashes with audience members, where several can be vocal with their disdain.
“The audience is extremely combative,” she told Andy Cohen in September on Watch What Happens Live. “The booing and heckling, it’s a lot everyday… I’m paid to give a different view, and so I would like us all, when people come, to roll it back.”
The political pundit noted the reaction again when she spoke one-on-one with Behar in November for Entertainment Tonight.
“This is a very hard job,” The View panelist told Behar. “It’s like, lots of intense emotions on this show and part of it is the political climate we’re in. Part of it’s just the nature of the show. Getting booed is very hard. I’m still not used to it. I don’t like when the audience does that.”
Meghan McCain calls out The New York Times
McCain is no stranger to cancel culture. Often harassed on social media for her political stance, the television personality was even the target of a New York Times article in January.
“In the early days after her arrival, her on-air spats made for fun TV. Now it’s just exhausting,” Shamira Ibrahim, wrote in the op-ed piece. “Post-2016, we are presented with a platform that is devoid of the varnish of the genteel, yet is still asking us to take a little time to enjoy the view. The problem is, with Ms. McCain still on the show, there’s not much to enjoy.”
In a series of tweets, McCain fired back to call out the slanted article. “If the NY Times wants to understand the country, maybe they should try having one woman in the room who doesn’t accept their groupthink on guns, abortion, and religion. Apparently that’s too much for them,” McCain posted.
“The writer of the hit piece on me admitting how much they hate conservative women. At least everyone is being honest,” The View panelist continued. “Everyone already knows how much you despise red state, pro-life, pro #2A conservative women, and wish we would all just go away.”
‘By some miracle, we’re all still here’
Tuesday’s show kicked off by discussing Fox News host Tucker Carlson having a writer fired from his show due to anonymously posted racial comments online. While McCain was adamantly in favor of the writer being terminated, she commented on the growing trend of cancel culture.
“I think about cancel culture a lot. I think every person who’s in mainstream media that has a platform probably… thinks about it,” McCain told her co-hosts. “Every woman on this show, at one point or another, cancel culture has tried to remove one of us from this show for one reason or another.”
Noting the previous NYT piece calling out her stance on the The View, McCain shared that she is surprised she’s still on the air.
“By some miracle, we’re all still here. And I think the greatest miracle is still me somehow being here,” the TV panelist shared. “The New York Times put out an op-ed about 6 months ago saying that it was basically dangerous to have a conservative woman with this kind of platform on this show. So I am against cancel culture.”
McCain again noted that there is never a place for racism, while alluding to a double standard when it comes to the media.
“No one wants racism on national television that’s a rational person,” McCain explained. “But I think when you are a conservative… or someone who is saying something that’s different, it is just hostile territory in mainstream media. You are put in a different box… I worry we are going down a slippery slope where we will not have the kind of diversity of opinion that I think all of us celebrate and want on this show.”
