Jenny McCarthy has officially signed on as co-host on The View.
And the major backlash against this hiring has officially begun.
Not because she once posed in Playboy and not because she dated Jim Carrey for a long time… but because McCarthy is a staunch opponent of childhood vaccinations, believing they can lead to Autism.
“Sickened that @theviewtv is going to give anti-vaccination zealot Jenny McCarthy a bigger platform,” Tweeted feminist and author Jessica Valenti after the announcement.
But others have taken their criticism further. A lot further.
Take Phil Plait of Slate, for example: “McCarthy’s views constitute, in my opinion, a threat to public health.”
“Even if she doesn’t talk about any of her nonsensical health ideas on the show, the very fact that she now has this co-host position gives her a tacit credibility to the viewer.”
Michael Specter – author of Denialism: How Irrational Thinking Hinders Scientific Progress, Harms the Planet, and Threatens Our Lives – went even farther in his negative assessment.
He tells The Los Angeles Times of McCarthy:
“I think a network hiring a homicidal maniac, giving her a forum in front of people who have young children and are impressionable, is the most irresponsible thing I’ve heard of in a long time.”
Yes, homicidal maniac. His words. Man. And we thought Elisabeth Hasselbeck was controversial all these years. Sound off now, THGers:
Based on her vaccination views, should Jenny McCarthy have been chosen as a co-anchor of The View?