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Colleagues from the film “The View” fought for the limits of freedom of speech in a tight fight on Wednesday’s show.
ABC’s daytime talk show discussed Metta’s decision on Tuesday complete a fact-checking program in what many saw as a “win” for free speech.
However, some panelists were concerned that this would lead to more “hate speech” on social media, which Sunny Hostin said was a different matter.
“There’s a difference between free speech and hate speech,” Hostin said. “We know that. I welcome freedom of speech, I think everyone does. This is your constitutional right. When you start to delve into the hate speech that’s going on all over social media, there’s a problem with that, when you start to delve into misinformation and disinformation, there’s a problem with that.”
The co-host of “The View” Alice Farah Griffin defended the right to offensive speech. (Screenshot/ABC News)
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Co-hosted by Alice Farah Griffinwho previously worked in Trump’s first administration, chimed in: “Of course there’s pressure because Trump is coming into office, but I think there’s a cultural and societal desire to be able to talk about things openly.”
She added that “liberals used to be the ones who stood up for free speech. A famous saying goes, “I don’t agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”
Co-host Whoopi Goldberg interrupted: “I will not defend to the death your right to call me . . .”
Griffin pushed back, complaining that she couldn’t “finish a sentence” and that Hostin needed to talk “for 20 minutes,” prompting Goldberg to admonish her to “be nice.”
“Okay, I’m trying to make the point that hate speech, anything that incites violence, is not legally protected under the First Amendment,” Griffin continued. “My ability to say that a housewife is a household item, I can say that it can offend you. I don’t agree with that, but you absolutely have a First Amendment right to say that, and the fact that we’re policing speech because it makes people uncomfortable, or they don’t like it, or it offends them.. .”
“If someone decides, as they often do on these social media sites, to call me…” Goldberg interrupted again, using profanity.
Griffin also argued with Whoopi Goldberg for not being able to finish his thoughts. (ABC/The View/Screenshot)
She later claimed: “There are some things we all agree on, boy, you shouldn’t say that. It’s not a restriction on your freedom of speech, it’s asking (someone) to respect the fact that people don’t want to hear that word when it’s related to them.”
Later in the segment, co-host Joy Behar argued that hate speech is mostly promoted by the “majority” against the “minority.”
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“Everyone was a pizza maker. As a kid, I felt like it was offensive to me, so I understand that I sympathize with people who don’t like it when you make fun of their group,” Behar. said. “People who do this are not minorities, they are the majority.”
Griffin pushed back, insisting that “every person at the table is perceiving the hate.”
Alice Farah Griffin and Joy Behar got into a heated exchange about free speech and hate speech. (Photo by Sylvain Gaboury/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images | Photo by Lorenzo Bevilaqua/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images)
“I guess no one can finish a sentence here anymore. Good,” Behar remarked as Griffin rolled her eyes.
Griffin called out the group for “everyone acting like we’re for free speech if that’s what we like,” which Goldberg insisted was “not true.”
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At the end of the debate, Griffin criticized Hostin for suggesting that President-elect Donald Trump’s first election in 2016 affected the the rise of hate speech.
“There’s never been a social media platform where you can’t call people names,” Griffin said. “It’s not because Donald Trump was elected that you can now call people names on social media, that’s just not true.”
