Whoopi Goldberg made her feelings clear as The View host criticized a Texas newspaper for leaking footage from inside the May 24 Robb Elementary school shooting that killed 19 students and two teachers of the Uvalde area school. After the Austin American-Statesman published more than an hour of footage from inside the school during the shooting that resulted in outrage surrounding local law enforcement’s response, Goldberg addressed the backlash during Wednesday’s episode of the ABC talk show.
Goldberg called it “indefensible” for the outlet to publish the footage without telling the parents of the students, especially as the committee investigating the shooting allegedly planned to show the video to Uvalde community members this weekend. “I find it indefensible. I’m sorry, you forgot that, attached to all those sounds are people’s children, and you didn’t have to do this,” she said. “They were going to see this video on Sunday, you did not have to release this and leak it.”
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“I think it’s appalling and you should be ashamed of yourselves for doing that, for being thoughtless about the parents who have to relive this every day because it’s on television every time you turn around,” the moderator continued before turning to spit on The View stage in a sign of disgust. “I don’t know if you guys over at that newspaper have kids, but, shame on you. I know it doesn’t mean anything coming from me, but shame on you.”
Goldberg’s co-host Sunny Hostin weighed in as well, calling it a “difficult balancing act” ethically. “It’s so important that we be able to, as the public… videos, in my view, lead to just results, increased training, awareness, it can really change the public narrative,” she responded. While Goldberg did agree that the footage confirmed police officers did not respond quickly enough to confront the shooter, she said that the problem came with the decision not to tell the parents and give them “the opportunity to re-steel” themselves. “For them not to have given them a heads up… these are real people, these are real children that died,” Goldberg said.ย
In response to backlash over the publication of the footage, American-Statesman Ethics & Standards Editor Manny Garcia said in an op-ed that there were “long and thoughtful discussions” about leaking the video and that they had decided to remove audio that included children’s screams. “Our goal is to continue to bring to light what happened at Robb Elementary, which the families and friends of the Uvalde victims have long been asking for,” Garcia wrote.
“We have to bear witness to history, and transparency and unrelenting reporting is a way to bring change,” Garcia continued. “This story is part of a much larger public records and legal battle from our journalists, aligned with reporters in Uvalde, around Texas and the United States, to obtain all videos of the tragedy, body-camera footage, communications, 911 calls and more. We are all aligned for the truth.”
