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Mary Elizabeth Williams, Salon: Don’t put Jenny McCarthy on “The View”
Thursday, Jul 11, 2013 07:54 AM PST
Dont put Jenny McCarthy on The View
The "warrior mother" is dangerous for television
By Mary Elizabeth Williams
http://www.salon.com/2013/07/11/dont_put_jenny_mccarthy_on_the_view/
Now that Elisabeth Hasselbeck has officially departed The View for the conservative echo chamber of Fox News, where she can spout crazy whatever she wants without having to defend herself to Whoopi Goldberg it makes a certain kind of sense that the leading candidate to join the show is another pretty, divisive blonde. But if ever there were a reason to write off The View entirely, the mere thought of Jenny McCarthy smiling out at America every morning ought to close the deal.
When reports first surfaced early this week that McCarthy was in serious talks to fill a hosts seat, the choice certainly seemed to make perfect sense. Like Hasselbeck, McCarthy is an attractive presence with a solid history as part of a television team cast (Singled Out: NEVER FORGET.) She is also, like Hasselbeck, pretty friggin nuts.
In recent years, McCarthy has been best known for her staunch stance against childhood immunization, her firm belief that it was vaccination that caused her son Evans autism, and what she has described as her sons recovery from the condition. No matter that the work of Andrew Wakefield, the man who first claimed a link between the MMR vaccine and autism, was later exposed as an elaborate fraud, or that McCarthy insists shes not anti-vaccination as the head of Generation Rescue, McCarthy still perpetuates the idea of environmental triggers and a correlation between autism and vaccination, as well as controversial, unproven advice on recovery treatments. Yes, by all means, let us give a woman like that an hour a day on network television to perpetuate junk science, and dissuade parents who may be staying at home with their babies from vaccinating their children. Because, hey, what could go wrong with that? Its not like wed have outbreaks of childhood diseases or anything.
Sure, a controversial blonde is a ratings grabber, which is problematic in and of itself. Wouldnt it be nice if you didnt have to have a reputation as a ridiculous crackpot to get a shot on The View? But take a deeper look. In addition to her potentially dangerous medical views, McCarthy has also evolved from the funny, self-effacing good-time girl she once was into a stone bore. Her Twitter feed is jammed with sponsored links in case youre wondering, she likes hair removal, Carls Jr., and insoles. Her blog posts are likewise cringe-worthy a woman asking for sex advice receives the humblebrag reply, Im a bit worried about giving you advice on this one, only because Im a Scorpio. Theres not much about her that doesnt reek of self-involvement, as well as an inability and unwillingness to engage in any kind of dialogue. Not great attributes in a host. Instead, McCarthy sees herself as a spiritual warrior and a mother warrior, a woman full of self-righteousness, alarming self-certainty and a truly uncharismatic penchant for tweeting about footwear. Its enough to make you miss Hasselbeck at least she could go all emotional loose cannon now and then and make for some interesting television. McCarthy, in contrast, is the worst kind of bore the kind who earnestly believes shes interesting and important, and who is fully convinced shes right.
Dont put Jenny McCarthy on The View
The "warrior mother" is dangerous for television
By Mary Elizabeth Williams
http://www.salon.com/2013/07/11/dont_put_jenny_mccarthy_on_the_view/
Now that Elisabeth Hasselbeck has officially departed The View for the conservative echo chamber of Fox News, where she can spout crazy whatever she wants without having to defend herself to Whoopi Goldberg it makes a certain kind of sense that the leading candidate to join the show is another pretty, divisive blonde. But if ever there were a reason to write off The View entirely, the mere thought of Jenny McCarthy smiling out at America every morning ought to close the deal.
When reports first surfaced early this week that McCarthy was in serious talks to fill a hosts seat, the choice certainly seemed to make perfect sense. Like Hasselbeck, McCarthy is an attractive presence with a solid history as part of a television team cast (Singled Out: NEVER FORGET.) She is also, like Hasselbeck, pretty friggin nuts.
In recent years, McCarthy has been best known for her staunch stance against childhood immunization, her firm belief that it was vaccination that caused her son Evans autism, and what she has described as her sons recovery from the condition. No matter that the work of Andrew Wakefield, the man who first claimed a link between the MMR vaccine and autism, was later exposed as an elaborate fraud, or that McCarthy insists shes not anti-vaccination as the head of Generation Rescue, McCarthy still perpetuates the idea of environmental triggers and a correlation between autism and vaccination, as well as controversial, unproven advice on recovery treatments. Yes, by all means, let us give a woman like that an hour a day on network television to perpetuate junk science, and dissuade parents who may be staying at home with their babies from vaccinating their children. Because, hey, what could go wrong with that? Its not like wed have outbreaks of childhood diseases or anything.
Sure, a controversial blonde is a ratings grabber, which is problematic in and of itself. Wouldnt it be nice if you didnt have to have a reputation as a ridiculous crackpot to get a shot on The View? But take a deeper look. In addition to her potentially dangerous medical views, McCarthy has also evolved from the funny, self-effacing good-time girl she once was into a stone bore. Her Twitter feed is jammed with sponsored links in case youre wondering, she likes hair removal, Carls Jr., and insoles. Her blog posts are likewise cringe-worthy a woman asking for sex advice receives the humblebrag reply, Im a bit worried about giving you advice on this one, only because Im a Scorpio. Theres not much about her that doesnt reek of self-involvement, as well as an inability and unwillingness to engage in any kind of dialogue. Not great attributes in a host. Instead, McCarthy sees herself as a spiritual warrior and a mother warrior, a woman full of self-righteousness, alarming self-certainty and a truly uncharismatic penchant for tweeting about footwear. Its enough to make you miss Hasselbeck at least she could go all emotional loose cannon now and then and make for some interesting television. McCarthy, in contrast, is the worst kind of bore the kind who earnestly believes shes interesting and important, and who is fully convinced shes right.
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Mary Elizabeth Williams, Salon: Don’t put Jenny McCarthy on “The View” (Original Post)
Amerigo Vespucci
Jul 2013
OP
longship
(40,416 posts)1. Of course, before she found Wakefield, Jenny was an Indigo Mom!!
Wooooo!
Read all about on Orac's Respectful Insolence Blog.
Here
Excerpt:
...
But its Friday, and that means its fun day. That means its time for an excursion into camp woo, and one area of woo that Ive meant to look into for a while is the woo that apparently formed McCarthys views of science. You see, before she discovered antivaccinationism last year, there was a gentler Jenny, a less angry Jenny, a Jenny who was into gentle, New Age woo, rather than into toxic, ranting antivaccinationism in which she followed a vision of a greater world, where special children with special powers would bring about a golden age. Wait, you say. What are you talking about? Surely you remember Indigo Children, dont you? You dont? Well, perhaps you should. After all, if you do, you might come to realize, as I have, that perhaps we should all be nice to Jenny. After all, she means well, and she is a special woman. She has a special son, a son who is a crystal child.
Of course if you go looking for Jenny McCarthys IndigoMoms.com website, you wont find it. It disappeared around July 3, 2007 as demonstrated by The Wayback Machine. After all, that was about the time that Jenny McCarthys autism woo book was about to be released, and it just wouldnt do to have a website up that shows just what a flake Jenny was. Oh, no, she was about to be reborn as the warrior mom and crusader for safe vaccines. However, also due to the glory of the Wayback Machine, you can still see a lot of it right here, which was last updated on November 12, 2006.
...
But its Friday, and that means its fun day. That means its time for an excursion into camp woo, and one area of woo that Ive meant to look into for a while is the woo that apparently formed McCarthys views of science. You see, before she discovered antivaccinationism last year, there was a gentler Jenny, a less angry Jenny, a Jenny who was into gentle, New Age woo, rather than into toxic, ranting antivaccinationism in which she followed a vision of a greater world, where special children with special powers would bring about a golden age. Wait, you say. What are you talking about? Surely you remember Indigo Children, dont you? You dont? Well, perhaps you should. After all, if you do, you might come to realize, as I have, that perhaps we should all be nice to Jenny. After all, she means well, and she is a special woman. She has a special son, a son who is a crystal child.
Of course if you go looking for Jenny McCarthys IndigoMoms.com website, you wont find it. It disappeared around July 3, 2007 as demonstrated by The Wayback Machine. After all, that was about the time that Jenny McCarthys autism woo book was about to be released, and it just wouldnt do to have a website up that shows just what a flake Jenny was. Oh, no, she was about to be reborn as the warrior mom and crusader for safe vaccines. However, also due to the glory of the Wayback Machine, you can still see a lot of it right here, which was last updated on November 12, 2006.
...
Lots more Jenny woo-woo at link above including excerpts from Jenny herself about her apparently gifted son.
She also hates toxins but loves Botox, which is short for botulism toxin, or so I've heard.
This gal is just ignorant.