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The View' Ladies Discuss O'Reilly Live: 'Condescending' and 'Disrespectful

The View' Ladies Discuss O'Reilly Live: 'Condescending' and 'Disrespectful

"This is just what he wanted."

On Monday, the hosts of "The View" had their first chance to discuss the Bill O'Reilly show which saw Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar walk off set. In sum, Barbara Walters continued scolding her partners, while Goldberg and Behar still see nothing wrong with what they did.

O'Reilly, Walters explained, has always been provocative. His comments, no matter how shocking, should not have been met with a walk-off:

We must be able to have conversations, that means all of us, without fury, without rage, without screaming, without obscenities, without walking off. It's very dramatic, people love train-wrecks, people want us to do more of it because it's good for the ratings. You don't walk out of your own home. You can walk out of somebody else's home, you don't walk out of your own home. He was someone we invited. We are used to Bill O'Reilly. He loves this, he loves to pull your chain, he loves to get you angry. This is just what he wanted. ... I know that part of the reason this program is  successful and people want to copy us is because of the passion and the conviction that you all have. Having said that, I think it was the wrong thing to do.

Behar continued defending her actions to thunderous applause from the audience: "On this show we always speak about standing up to bigotry, so I stood up."

Goldberg said that walking out was better than the alternative -- a profanity-laced tirade:

I hit my saturation point, because what we didn't show was when Mr. O'Reilly came out, he started with me as soon as he sat down. ... And I'm not the greatest person in the world, I don't walk on water, but I had enough. And as soon as I said the 'b' word I knew to get up and leave because I knew what was coming next. I was going to cuss him out. So I was done.

Sherri Shepherd spoke to those who accuse the show of staging the incident. "It was not staged," she assured, and said that O'Reilly boasted during a break that the ordeal would boost the show's ratings.

"I'm glad I left," Goldberg added, "because my threshold was done. I don't have a very high tolerance for it."

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