Tempers Flare On The View During College Admissions Discussion
The ladies of The View should be used to heated debates by now, but that doesn't mean the show's co-hosts don't still get unnerved from time to time. One such instance happened on Wednesday, March 13, 2019, when the women discussed the college admissions cheating scandal that's been dominating headlines.
During the episode of The View that aired on March 13, the show's co-hosts got fired up when talking about the reported nationwide scam in which wealthy parents paid bribes via a fake nonprofit set up by alleged ringleader William Singer to have their children's SAT/ACT exams corrected before submission and to have fake sports profiles created for their kids, among other things, in order to get their sons and daughters accepted into the colleges of their choice.
Kicking off their discussion about the scandal, Joy Behar asked viewers, "Did you ever wonder why your kid can't get into an Ivy League school even though they have straight A's and great SAT scores? Do you ever think about that? Well, this could have something to do with it."
And many of the hosts acknowledged the unfair advantages children of rich, white families often have, as many can afford to receive private tutoring, attend college prep courses, and the like. "How mediocre must you be if you have to game a system that already disproportionately advantages you anyway?" co-host Sunny Hostin wondered aloud.
Guest co-host Ana Navarro noted, "There are so many black and brown kids and poor white kids in these schools who are told and made to feel like they don't belong there," adding, "Dammit, to know that [rich people] are gaming the system this way, and that the ones that don't belong there and don't deserve to be there and are paying to be there are these kids, not those kids, just angered me to no end."
Behar also commented on the legacy admissions system that's often in place at colleges across the country, especially at prestigious schools like Harvard and Yale. She said, "There's such a thing as legacy admissions which means if your parents went to Brown or Harvard or UP, you can go," she explained. "But it's interesting because the idea of legacy admissions is racist in nature, and I'll tell you why. It started in the '20s to keep out upperly mobile immigrants who had started pushing for admission to elite schools." Behar added that she thought the whole legacy admissions system was "very bad," as she didn't understand why certain kids should have an advantage to get into certain schools if their grades don't warrant it. And that set off her co-host Meghan McCain...
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McCain defended legacy admissions, as, she stated, her family comes from a long line of military officials. "My family goes back generations at the naval academy and that's service to your country so I would push back in that part of it," she told Behar. She added that she doesn't think "there's anything to be ashamed about," regarding the fact that generations of her family had the same schooling.
When Behar replied that she wasn't talking about McCain's family, McCain countered, "You said legacy."
"I'm talking about the policy of where legacy admissions came from," Behar told a visibly upset McCain, noting that the system started as a way to keep people of certain races and people from certain backgrounds out of the schools. "That's what it was about," she said to a round of applause from the audience.
While the show soon changed topics, the subject of the college admissions scandal soon returned when their guest, former late night talk show host Jay Leno, joined the View co-hosts at the table. Leno — who called himself "the only man who could bring Joy and Meghan together" — took a much different approach to the reported scam, as he told the show's co-hosts that he's loving hearing everything that's come about about it. Referencing Desperate Housewives star Felicity Huffman and Full House actress Lori Loughlin's arrests for their alleged part in the scandal, Leno jokingly explained, "It's got movie stars, it's got sports, it's got money, it's got rich people screwing poor people. It's the classic news story."
And we'd guess that updates to this news story will just keep on coming, as the alleged scam is reportedly the "Justice Department's largest-ever college admissions prosecution," according to The New York Times. It's likely all just a matter of time before more scandalous details emerge.