Barbara Walters Denies Elisabeth Hasselbeck Leaving 'The View'

After intense media speculation over the weekend surrounding Elisabeth Hasselbeck’s future on ‘The View,’ on the March 11 edition of the talk show, host and creator Barbara Walters shot down any speculation that Hasselbeck had been fired. Speaking on Monday morning, Walters denied the rumors and stated that:

The truth is we love Elisabeth. I like her personally, and she's just a wonderful person. But beyond that we value and appreciate her point of view, it's important to us, because Elisabeth helps give the show perspective and balance. And believe me she's tougher than she looks. She’s had to sit here for a decade and take the kind of guff we give her. So we have no plans for Elisabeth to leave this show. [See video after jump. MP3 audio here.]

The original report came from USWeekly, which has shown in the past they don't put a lot of energy toward vetting their stories.

US Weekly Reports Satirical Palin Story As Real News
Posted on February 09 2011 - 9:33 PM - Posted by: Stacy Drake

BUSTED!
US Weekly published a story on Wednesday that turned out to be false. In fact, the “source” for their article was a parody website called “SuperTuesdayNews.com.” US Weekly has subsequently scrubbed the story from their site, but not before another site by the name of “Gossip Cop” captured a screen-shot of the shoddy journalism.
.
Gossip Cop reports:

This is really bad.
Us Weekly has published what it claims are comments made by Sarah Palin, in which the former vice presidential candidate blasts Christina Aguilera’s performance of the national anthem at Super Bowl XLV.
Except the over-the-top “quotes,” which Us Weekly attributes to a Monday radio interview with Sean Hannity, were actually written for a satire website.
Again: Palin’s Aguilera comments are fabricated.
They come from a satire piece.
Only Us Weekly posted the “Palin” comments as real.
Therefore, according to the outlet, Palin calls Aguilera a “demanding beauty queen who’s clearly in over her head.”
The fake “Palin” also talks about wanting to “deport” Aguilera, because “spicy Latin princesses” shouldn’t be allowed to sing at the Super Bowl.
“Unemployment is at nine percent, yet we have to suffer through a performance by a foreigner with a poor grasp of the English language,” the fake “Palin” supposedly tells “Hannity” in the phony interview.
It boggles the mind that a major outlet could read these obviously satirical, fake quotes and treat them as the real deal.

US Weekly proves once again why the public cannot trust everything they read from the media. Maybe they should consider setting some new standards for their writers in the future. At the very least, to avoid embarrassing situations like this one.
Mediaite also weighed in here

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.