Bill O'Reilly and Joy Behar battled over 9/11 issues on the 'View,' but was there a real conversation?

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ireworks erupted Thursday on "The View," when co-hosts Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar briefly stormed off the set during an argument with Fox News personality Bill O'Reilly. The source of the much-discussed blowup was the proposed Park51 Islamic center in lower Manhattan, which O'Reilly said was "inappropriate" to build "because Muslims killed us on 9/11." (Watch the clip below.) Who came out looking better in this high-profile brawl?

O'Reilly won the day: "I am not Bill O’Reilly's biggest fan," but Joy and Whoopi "looked like immature brats," says Emma Brady in Babble. If they disagree with O'Reilly that it is "inappropriate" to build a mosque near Ground Zero, they should at least have shown their guest enough respect to listen to his views. By walking off, "the truly inappropriate behavior came on the part of the ladies from 'The View.'"
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Behar and Goldberg did what they had to: "Girlfriend, please," says Mary McNamara in the Los Angeles Times. "O'Reilly has built a very successful career on his patent refusal to have a conversation," and other than walking out, there is nothing "short of physical violence" that Goldberg and Behar could have done to pierce "his oratorical fusillade." But the goal was never dialogue, it was "puttin' on a show," and in that sense, everybody won.
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We all lost a shot at airing an important discussion: Yes, "genius television, ladies," says Melissa Bell in The Washington Post. But if you look "past the yelling and stomping and showmanship," the conversation O'Reilly and the "View" ladies could have had is important, and one that has been percolating "for some time: What do you call terrorists?" Is it right, or smart, to link Islam and terrorism? I guess we'll have to discuss later.
"Bill O'Reilly's fight with the ladies of 'The View'"