I didn’t see The View, but caught a clip on Hannity and Colmes. The transcript is posted at Newsbusters, but it does not do justice to the segment — be sure to also watch the video posted at Hot Air. The condescending tone of Rosie O’Donnell when insulting our men and women in harm’s way was sickening. I honestly don’t think she has a clue that she spouted wrong information (with amazing conviction, by the way) or that she insulted the troops she claims to love and support “financially and emotionally.” Here is an excerpt of the transcript posted at Newsbusters.
O’DONNELL: Wait, can I just say something? Why do people enlist in the Army?
RICKI LAKE: To get an education, and they’re poor-
O’DONNELL: Thank you.
LAKE: -and that’s the only way to get one.
O’DONNELL: The vast majority- Yes, Elisabeth. It’s true!
According to a recent study by the Heritage Foundation, military enlistees are “better educated, wealthier, and more rural on average than their civilian peers.” Additionally, “recruits have a higher percentage of high school graduates” and “the distribution of household income of recruits is noticably higher than the entire youth population.”
Token non-liberal Elisabeth Hasselbeck responded harshly and Rosie continued to smear volunteer soldiers before she claimed that she does support the troops.
HASSELBECK: First of all, in the past year, the testing scores of our armed services have been higher than ever, so the education level-
O’DONNELL: You are wrong. We have more convicted felons in the Army because we’re allowing them to get through.
HASSELBECK: So they’re awful. They’re awful then.
O’DONNELL: Elisabeth, I do everything I can to support the troops financially and emotionally. I love them as much as you do. I’m as much of a patriot. I want them home.
What are the chances that Rosie will correct the record about the economic and education levels of those in the US military? Read the rest at Newsbusters.
Update: I watched the first 20 minutes of The View today to see if anyone slipped Rosie the statistics quoted above that show her comments about the troops economic and education levels to be incorrect, thinking that maybe she would correct the record. Nope. Not a peep. I don’t think she has corrected the record on the “fire melting steel” misinformation either. She did say she is in favor of the system in England that requires the losing party in a lawsuit to pay the other side’s legal fees. She did not mention that it was Republicans who have been pushing for that, and other measures of tort reform, for many years while being thwarted by Democrats. She also criticized Fox because they did not match the 70 million dollars raised on American Idol last week. She didn’t mention how much of that 70 million was contributed by Fox in the first place. I understand that ABC wants ratings and Rosie’s rants have given them that, but you would think they could exercise a little responsibility and correct at least some of the misinformation she has put out over the past year.
