ABC News president Kim Godwin has handed Whoopi Goldberg a two-week suspension from The View, one day after she falsely and bizarrely claimed on the program that the Holocaust was “not about race,” and instead about “man’s inhumanity to man.” Goldberg’s co-hosts pushed back on her claim, one which caused an uproar among viewers and of course on social media.
Goldberg went on to apologize Monday night and again Tuesday on-air during an interview with ADL president Jonathan Greenblatt. However, Godwin said she still felt the need to act.
“While Whoopi has apologized, I’ve asked her to take time to reflect and learn about the impact of her comments. The entire ABC News organization stands in solidarity with our Jewish colleagues, friends, family and communities,” Godwin said in a prepared statement released Tuesday night.
In a separate internal memo to ABC News staffers, obtained by CNN’s Oliver Darcy, Godwin said that such decisions “are never easy, but necessary.” Godwin said it was important that Goldberg “had a chance to address her comments” on Tuesday’s show with Greenblatt. And Godwin said she appreciated Greenblatt accepting Goldberg’s apology.
Here’s the a look at the memo:
Here’s the full note that ABC News president Kim Godwin sent staffers tonight about @WhoopiGoldberg. She said such decisions “are never easy, but necessary.”
“Words matter and we must be cognizant of the impact our words have.” pic.twitter.com/vMK5kSPAmj
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) February 2, 2022
Some ABC staffers reportedly felt Goldberg’s remarks merited a suspension, if not worse. However, according to The Daily Beast, Goldberg’s co-hosts are angry about Godwin’s decision to suspend the longtime View moderator.
For instance, Ana Navarro, a frequent guest-host on the program, told The Daily Beast that her colleagues “know what’s in her [Goldberg’s] heart,” adding, “I love Whoopi Goldberg. I love The View. This was an incredibly unfortunate incident. Whoopi is a life-long ally to the Jewish community. She is not an anti-Semite. Period. I am sad. And I have nothing else to say.”