So I Guess I'm No Longer Going to Enjoy The View

My internet is up and successful (hooray!), so we'll be getting another OVP later this evening.  However, considering we just discussed it, I wanted to point out that at least one of the spots has been filled on The View by former Playboy Playmate and host of MTV's Singled Out Jenny McCarthy.

And with that, I have to quit a show I've watched for roughly five years.  I can support the right a person has to a number of opinions on the program, but not the ones that Ms. McCarthy has in regard to vaccination.  The damage that her public crusade against vaccinations has had has already been significant.  Some studies claim that one in five Americans are aware of Ms. McCarthy's admonishment of vaccines, and of those one in five, 40% have started to doubt or question whether they should vaccinate their children.  Those are startling statistics, particularly when there is no scientific evidence to back Ms. McCarthy's claims, and that vaccinating children saves countless lives, and not just one's own children.  Unvaccinated children can pass disease to children that are too young to be vaccinated, and this activism isn't the same as McCarthy's views on "indigo moms" and her child being a "crystal child" (another of her more controversial topics).  In this case, it has a horrible real-world effect: it can damage the health of and even cost the life of young children.

The View has always flourished by having a wide breadth of opinions, and while some of the opinions of the panel have had me quarreling with the television (particularly Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Sherri Shepherd, but as a loyal viewer, all of them have had me arguing with the television at least once or twice), I never stopped watching because the point of the discussion was to have an honest debate about a particular topic.  While I may disagree with someone's stance, there are arguments on the opposite side against abortion, the death penalty, school prayer, the debt ceiling, and gun control, amongst the myriad of topics regularly brought up on The View, that hold water, and that discussion should be respected.

But not when it costs people their lives and hasn't the remotest base in fact.  Ms. McCarthy, as an American, has every right to her own free speech, but the First Amendment gives me the right not to listen and unfortunately that's what I'm going to do, despite my long-standing fandom of this program.  If the show decides against having Ms. McCarthy as a host, I'll certainly return.  If Ms. McCarthy publicly states that she had bad information, and that she was wrong, I will also return (I agree with Barbara Walters when she said that McCarthy is likely to be outrageous; she'll certainly be fun on the panel, likely have the bawdy sense of humor that will be missing from the show once Joy is gone, and will be an enjoyable interviewer on the couch).  But until then, I'll be taking a little time to enjoy The View somewhere else.