In the last few days, I have received more than a dozen phone calls from newspapers asking me to comment on the Star Jones/Barbara Walters controversy. Although I have a lot of thoughts on the matter, many of which I’ve offered in public, I simply don’t have the energy to invest in writing about this topic right.

Nevertheless, I’m pretty sure that my readers are interested in the subject since it’s the hottest story in the country at the moment. So, here’s a piece from the good folks at BlackProf.com.
A Falling Star

by Shavar Jeffries

On Tuesday, Star Jones of ABC’s television show “The View” announced that the network had decided not to renew her contract and that her nine-year tenure with the show would end by mid-July. On Wednesday’s telecast of “The View,” Star was — literally — nowhere to be found. Not only was she conspicuously absent from the host’s table, but also her name and picture had been removed from the introductory credits. Co-host Barbara Walters announced that Star was expected to announce her departure on Thursday’s show, not Wednesday’s, and that unexpected occurrence caused the network to determine that she should leave immediately.

Later on Wednesday, People Magazine reported that Walters was also upset with Star because in an interview with People, Star had told the magazine that her contract had not been renewed, and that she felt like she had been fired. Walters claimed that these statements to People constituted “betrayal,” as Star was told that she could leave on her own terms, announcing any reason of her choosing for her departure — by which Walters apparently meant any reason other than the truth that she had been fired. Closing the loop, on a Thursday night telecast of “Larry King Live,” ABC took things further, publishing a long list of critiques of Star’s job performance — from claims that Star had wrongfully used her celebrity to obtain wedding services to contentions that Star had misrepresented the way in which she had lost large amounts of weight.

For the remainder of the piece, click here.