In July 2023, the Dunning-Kruger Times published an article claiming more than 1 million fans of "The View" were petitioning ABC to fire hosts Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar:
Fans of The View Petition ABC to Fire Whoopi and Joy: "We Want Our Show Back"
The View has been on television for going on three decades. In that time, it's seen some of the most interesting exchanges on television. When Survivor celebrity Elizabeth Hasselbeck joined, the show got a bit of a political push.
Unfortunately, over the last few years, the show has gone full-tilt into politics, with a deep dive to the left. It's become so awful that a group of more than one million fans sent ABC a petition to remove Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg.
We found social media posts with the claim on Facebook. Additionally, the Dunning-Kruger Times' article was published word-for-word on at least three other websites.
The claim about a fan-led petition against Goldberg and Behar wasn't true. On the Dunning-Kruger Times' "About Us" page, the outlet described its articles as fiction:
Everything on this website is fiction. It is not a lie and it is not fake news because it is not real. If you believe that it is real, you should have your head examined. Any similarities between this site's pure fantasy and actual people, places, and events are purely coincidental and all images should be considered altered and satirical. See above if you're still having an issue with that satire thing.
The website's "About Us" page aside, there were other clues the story was fake. While it was true that online petitions calling for Behar and Goldberg's removal from "The View" existed, as of this writing, none had anywhere close to more than 1 million signatures. Based on our research, the one with the highest number of signatures — 38 total — was a 2020 Change.org petition.
Also, no reputable news publication had reported on the alleged story about fans asking ABC to fire Behar and Goldberg.
Behar was fired from "The View" in 2013 and returned in 2015. In 2020, she denied reports she was leaving again, and, in February 2023, she said of her future on the show, while comparing herself to 80-year-old U.S. President Joe Biden:
Joe Biden and I are the same age. Would you say I could not do my job for the next four years? Of course I can. And the haters can go stick their heads in something, because I'm not moving out of this seat.
We've previously fact-checked other satirical claims stemming from the Dunning-Kruger Times. They include a fictional story about Hank Williams Jr. supposedly resigning from CMT's Board of Directors in support of Jason Aldean — an artist whose "Try That in a Small Town" music video was pulled off CMT in July 2023 amid outrage over the video's imagery and song's lyrics. The music video featured a Tennessee courthouse where a Black teenager was lynched in 1927.
For background, here is why we sometimes write about satire/humor.
