What I found interesting in this video of “The View’s” Barbara Walters defending Bill Maher, who reportedly calling Trig Palin a “retard,” is that the audience doesn’t buy it for a second.
Walters’s absurd defense, where she claims someone as smart and worldly as Maher might not have known how hurtful using the word “retarded” in that context is, is met with stony silence from the audience.
It is only after right-leaning Elizabeth Hasselbeck points out how ridiculous Walters sounds that the audience vote against Walters and applauds wildly:
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It is highly unlikely Walters would have embarrassed herself acting so obtuse had Maher used other words once considered okay but that society has since turned into pejoratives (“homo,” “gay,” “colored,” “negro”).
Calling a Down Syndrome child a “retard” in any context is about as low as it gets.
Dennis Miller has the best rule for boundaries in humor. He once said, and I am paraphrasing, “Everyone and everything is fair game, but I won’t target those who can’t defend themselves.”
Bill Maher is the worst, Barbara Walters isn’t much better, and even those who, for some deranged reason, want to sit in on a taping of “The View” can see that.