Justin's Political Corner

The legendary newscaster will leave TV journalism next summer

For decades, Barbara Walters has inspired millions with her groundbreaking interviews — but after 37 years with ABC News, the newscaster is announcing on “The View” Monday that next summer, she will retire from TV journalism. Until then, she will continue to anchor and report for ABC News, appear on “The View,” and anchor specials throughout the year including a “20 Years of 10 Most Fascinating People” special in December, an Oscars special, and a May career retrospective.

Walters will remain Executive Producer of “The View,” the show she created in 1997.

“I am very happy with my decision and look forward to a wonderful and special year ahead both on ‘The View’ and with ABC News,” she said. “I created ‘The View’ and am delighted it will last beyond my leaving it.”

Walters began her career in 1961 at NBC’s “Today Show,” where she eventually became a co-host.

Gina Loudon was there at the foot of the Gateway Arch when the St. Louis Tea Party held its first demonstration back in February 2009. She went on to gain national fame for organizing a Buycott of Arizona products in support of the state’s controversial immigration laws. She even got her own radio show as “Dr. Gina Loudon.”.

And now the good doctor (she apparently has a PhD in a “psychologically related field”) has landed a gig on reality TV. Because, let’s face it, what else is there for Loudon to accomplish? That’s right television fans, set your DVR to ABC tonight when Loudon trades places with a free-lovin’ woman in Wife Swap.

Yep, it’s about to get real uncomfortable in the conservative Loudon house, which, btw, is no longer in St. Louis. Gina and her husband, former Missouri State Senator John Loudon, now call San Diego home.

The episode will air next Thursday night on your local ABC affiliate. In the Saint Louis DMA (where this blog resides at), it’s KDNL.

H/T: Daily RFT

After nine years with the show, Elisabeth Hasselbeck is joining Joy Behar in exiting The View, Us Weekly reports. Citing an unnamed source, the report says viewers found her token conservative voice to be “too extreme and right wing.”

RELATED: Joy Behar Is Leaving ABC’s The View This Summer

Polling showed that viewers were turned off by Hasselbeck’s presence on the show, not tuning into the program because of her, the Us Weekly notes. Hasselbeck joined the show in 2003, and her perspective has, not surprisingly, resulted in tense moments and arguments with her co-hosts.

UPDATE: In a statement to TVNewser, a spokesperson simply said that Hasselbeck has a long-term contract. Their report also notes that “two sources familiar with the matter” say she won’t be returning to the show.

h/t: Mediaite

The View is losing Joy Behar.

“Joy Behar has been instrumental in the success ofThe View from the very beginning,” read a statement from ABC. “We wish her all the best in this next chapter, and are thrilled that we have her for the remainder of the season.”The actress and comedian’s contract will not be renewed when it expires at the end of the current season, The Hollywood Reporter confirms. A panelist alongside creator Barbara Walters from the very beginning, Behar leaves the ABC News vet as the last original member of the daytime show.  

The View is losing Joy Behar.

OUR EDITOR RECOMMENDS

Barbara Walters Returning to ‘The View’ Next Week

The actress and comedian’s contract will not be renewed when it expires at the end of the current season, The Hollywood Reporter confirms. A panelist alongside creator Barbara Walters from the very beginning, Behar leaves the ABC News vet as the last original member of the daytime show.  

“Joy Behar has been instrumental in the success ofThe View from the very beginning,” read a statement from ABC. “We wish her all the best in this next chapter, and are thrilled that we have her for the remainder of the season.”

h/t: THR

PPP’s annual poll on TV news finds that there’s only one source more Americans trust than distrust: PBS. 52% of voters say they trust PBS to only 29% who don’t trust it. The other seven outlets we polled on are all distrusted by a plurality of voters.

When it comes to asking Americans which single outlet they trust the most and least out of the ones we polled on, Fox News once again wins both honors. 34% say it’s the one they trust the most, compared to 13% for PBS, 12% for CNN, 11% for ABC, 8% for MSNBC, 6% for CBS, and 5% each for Comedy Central and NBC. Fox News is the choice of 67% of Republicans, while Democrats basically split their allegiances four ways between ABC and CNN, both at 17%, and MSNBC and PBS, both at 16%.

Even more Americans identify Fox News as the outlet they trust the least- 39% give its that designation to 14% for MSNBC, 13% for CNN, 12% for Comedy Central, 5% for ABC and CBS, 3% for NBC, and 1% for PBS. 60% of Democrats give it their lowest marks while Republicans split between MSNBC (24%), CNN (19%), and Comedy Central (14%) on that front.

Full results

H/T: Public Policy Polling

On Sunday, economist Paul Krugman hit back against GOP claims that public sector employment has increased under Obama, and that such jobs consist mainly of wasteful bureaucrats and somehow count less economically than private sector ones. Back in September it was tea party Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) toeing that line, and this morning it was former Republican gubernatorial candidate Carly Fiorina.

The exchange commenced immediately after Krugman made the point that, had government employment in the current recovery followed the same path it followed under previous recessions in the Bush and Reagan years, unemployment now would be slightly above 6 percent:

CARLY FIORINA: I think it’s important to remember, when we talk about the economy, that a private sector job and a public sector job are not the same things. They’re not equivalent. I’m not saying public sector jobs aren’t important. But a private sector job pays for itself. A private sector job creates other jobs. A public sector job is paid for by taxpayers. […]

PAUL KRUGMAN: But when we say public sector jobs, it is not a bureaucrat in Washington, D.C.

FIORINA: Oh, it is, actually.

KRUGMAN: When we talk about public sector jobs — when we look at the ones that have been lost in large numbers in this — it’s basically school teachers. Don’t think about bureaucrats. It’s school teachers. What we’ve laid off hundreds of thousands of school teachers.

And when we talk about the cuts in public spending that have happened, they are not, you know, some god awful who knows what. It’s actually public investment. It’s largely fixing potholes and repairing bridges.

So, you know, you have this image of these wasteful bureaucrats doing god knows what. What we’ve seen is an incredible drought of basic infrastructure, and laying off hundreds of thousands of school teachers.

FIORINA: It is a fact that virtually every department in every organization in Washington, D.C. has seen its budget increase for the last 40 years. That money is being paid to hire people. The number of people who are — of course there are some teachers…

KRUGMAN: The vast bulk of public sector employees are at the state and local level. They are largely school teachers plus police officers plus firefighters. And your notion that it’s all these bureaucrats — that’s a myth that’s used…

FIORINA: It’s not a myth, it’s a fact. It’s not a myth, it’s a fact. We don’t have enough private escort job creation.

It’s a myth. Public sector jobs at the federal level have actually remained pretty stable over the last forty years. They began and ended the period around approximately 2.8 million, with a bounce to about 3.1 million circa-1990. Public sector jobs at the state and local levels increased significantly over those forty years, peaking at a bit over 19 million total when President Obama entered office. (They’ve fallen since, accounting for the decline in overall public employment.) But nearly all of that growth was in teachers and support staff for the education system, who now total nearly 7 million of those state and local workers.

The other major categories of jobs in state and local public employment are, as Krugman noted, police, firefighters, health care workers, and maintenance workers and drivers for the country’s transportation infrastructure. And the overall population of the country has also been growing, so even though the raw number of state and local workers increased significantly, the ratio of those workers to the overall population did not — 59 per 1000 in 1980 versus 65 per 1000 today.

h/t: Jeff Spross at Think Progress Economy

ABC News’ White House correspondent is leaving the network for a new role at CNN.

He will host a new weekday program on CNN and serve as chief White House correspondent for the network beginning in 2013, CNN said in a statement on Thursday.

“We are thrilled to have Jake join CNN and take the helm of a brand new weekday program,” said CNN executive vice-president Ken Jautz. “Jake is an exceptional reporter and communicator, and we look forward to developing a program that takes advantage of all of his strengths, his passion and his knowledge of national issues and events.”

His departure now comes as ABC News shows no indication that it will appoint a new host for “This Week” anytime soon. When George Stepanopoulos stepped down as host in 2010, many thought that Tapper would replace him. Tapper was the interim host, but Christiane Amanpour was chosen to host the show instead. When she stepped down in 2011, Tapper was passed over again.

ABC News announced Tapper’s departure in a statement Thursday. Jon Karl, formerly senior political correspondent, will become the network’s new chief White House correspondent.

h/t: Huffington Post

Just days after several key Republicans sought to distance themselves from Indiana senate candidate Richard Mourdock in the wake of his misogynistic comments on rape, top-level Romney surrogate and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich tried a different approach, taking the time to defend Mourdock’s comment that a forced pregnancy resulting from a rape was a “gift from god” as a mainstream Christian value on Sunday’s episode of This Week with George Stephanopoulos:

STEPHANOPOULOS: Finally, Mr. Speaker, you heard Stephanie Cutter bring up the issue of Richard Mourdock, the Republican Senate candidate in indiana, saying that it’s wrong for romney to stand up for him. and say that his comments were wrong. your response?

GINGRICH: My response is, if you listen to what Mourdock actually said, he said what virtually every catholic and every fundamentalist in the country believes, life begins at conception.…

STEPHANOPOULOS: Mr. Speaker, what Mr. Mourdock said exactly was that this life after rape, as horrible as it may be, is something that god intended to happen. Do you agree with that?

GINGRICH: And he also immediately issued a clarification saying that he was referring to the act of conception and he condemned rape. Romney has condemned rape. One part of this is nonsense. Every candidate I know, every decent american i know condemns rape. Okay so, why can’t people like Stephanie Cutter get over it? We all condemn rape…

Despite Gingrich’s statement, Republicans, including Vice Presidential nominee Paul Ryan, have actually spent more time qualifying and redefining rape than condemning it. In just the last year, Republicans at every level of government have sought to manipulate the definition of rape, introducing such terminology as “legitimate rape,” “forcible rape,” “honest rape,” and more.

No, Pig Newton, we will NOT get over it! So shut your fucking piehole!

h/t: Adam Peck at Think Progress Justice