Latest news with #WhoopiGoldberg
ABC News
4 hours ago
- Entertainment
- ABC News
How Whoopi Goldberg's bringing netball to the world
Hollywood icon Whoopi Goldberg has teamed up with Netball Australia in a groundbreaking new broadcast deal that will give the sport global exposure. The three year broadcast deal will see the Super Netball competition showcased to more than 65 new countries. ABC Sport's Daniela Intili spoke with Netball Australia CEO Stacey West about the deal.
New York Post
6 hours ago
- Politics
- New York Post
Whoopi Goldberg's claim that Iran and America are ‘the same' is offensive to Iranians suffering and dying — like my family
On Wednesday's 'The View,' Whoopi Goldberg said Iran and America are 'the same.' In a heated exchange, Alyssa Farah Griffin disagreed, at one point saying, 'It's very different to live in the United States in 2025 than it is to live in Iran.' Whoopi retorted, 'Not if you're black!' Here, an Iranian who fled the country and lives in America responds. There is absolutely no comparison between life in the United States and life under the Islamic Republic of Iran. The worst situation of any American citizen — regardless of race, gender or background — is still infinitely better than the daily fear, oppression and brutality people endure in Iran. I lived there. I know the fear firsthand. I've seen it. Advertisement In Iran, you're constantly watched. You can be arrested for a word, for a haircut, for listening to the wrong music, for refusing to conform. They torture people. They execute dissidents. They even assassinate critics abroad. So to hear someone on American TV, with total freedom of speech and legal protection, equate the United States with Iran is not only factually wrong — it's offensive to those who are truly suffering and dying in silence. 4 Whoopi Goldberg (left) sparred with Alyssa Farah Griffin (right) on Wednesday's episode of 'The View.' ABC Advertisement In America, you can protest, sue, criticize the president and still go home safely at night. In Iran, that same act could get you killed. So no — they are not the same. Not even close. Daily life in Iran is a prison — just not always with visible bars. Every detail of your life is controlled: what you wear, what you say, who you associate with, what music you listen to, what you post online. You're constantly afraid. Your phone is tapped. You speak in whispers. You look over your shoulder. Every sentence can be used against you. Advertisement Women are beaten and arrested for how they dress. Students are tortured for speaking out. There is no due process, no transparency, no protection. They can arrest you without reason, torture you without trial, and your family may never know where you are. They force televised confessions, and then they hang people — publicly. 4 The author, Majid Rafizadeh, speaks out about the Iranian regime — despite threats to him and his family. Courtesy of Majid Rafizadeh Advertisement I've had family members tortured, detained. Some never came back. So again, this is not something people in America, even in the worst circumstances, can fully grasp. It's not struggle — it's terror. Iranians would generally rather be in the United States a thousand times over, even on its worst day. An Iranian would dream of having the problems Americans complain about. In the United States, you have the right to speak, to challenge authority, to protest, to live your life. In Iran, you have no such rights. You're not even a person in the eyes of the regime. You're property. And if you step out of line, they break you — and your family. Here in America, even if someone disagrees with you, you still have the freedom to speak, to work, to achieve. People of all races have become billionaires, senators, even president. 4 Massive crowds make their way to the 2022 funeral of Mahsa Amini, who was murdered by Iranian officials for the way she wore her hijab. UGC/AFP via Getty Images So when someone in the West claims to be a victim while having access to courts, media, education and full legal protections, it feels like drama. It feels manufactured. Because in Iran, you're not a victim — you're a hostage. Advertisement Every single person in Iran knows someone who has been arrested, tortured or killed by the regime. It is not an exaggeration. It's reality. Political imprisonment is so widespread that it touches every family. My own family has lived through this nightmare. They tortured my father. They monitored us. They interrogated relatives. And these stories never make the news — because they don't allow journalists, they don't allow truth. People disappear. Mothers never find their children. Executions happen without trials. Advertisement It's not a government — it's a mafia that rules through fear, pain and violence. Everyone knows someone. Everyone lives in fear that he or she might be next. 4 Iranian dissidents are executed in public — sending a lesson to the rest of the suffering population. AP I left Iran because of the oppression, the fear and the constant threat to my life and to my family. We were being watched. My father was tortured. My relatives were interrogated. And I knew that if I stayed, I could disappear like so many others. Advertisement I still have family there — and they are constantly targeted. They are harassed, intimidated and punished, simply because I speak out. My elderly mother, who can barely walk, has been threatened. They want to instill fear — to silence me. Most likely, they do it to stop me from writing and exposing the regime. And yes, I carry guilt every day because of that. I feel responsible for the pain they endure. But I also know that silence helps the oppressor. I have to speak up. I have to write. Advertisement I have to expose the truth — even if it costs me everything. Even if it costs me my life. Because what they are doing to the people of Iran is not just wrong — it is evil. Majid Rafizadeh is a political scientist and advisory board member of the Harvard International Review.
Fox News
7 hours ago
- Politics
- Fox News
"EMOTIONAL IDIOCY": Mary Katharine Ham SLAMS Whoopi Goldberg, the View for Iran Comments
Mary Katharine Ham, FOX News Contributor, Outkick columnist, and co-author of End of Discussion , joined The Guy Benson Show today to respond to shocking comments from Whoopi Goldberg and The View saying that the U.S. is just as 'bad' for 'black people' as it is to be gay in Iran. Ham blasted the left and argued that the left often prioritizes ideological loyalty over honest conversation. She also reacted to President Obama's latest speech attacking Trump, despite Obama's own 9-0 losses in the courts, and weighed in on the AAP's failed Supreme Court challenge against Tennessee's law blocking transgender surgeries for minors. Listen to the full interview below! Listen to the full interview below: Listen to the full podcast below:
Telegraph
9 hours ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
Whoopi Goldberg epitomises the stupidity of the modern progressive mind
Actor and daytime talk-show host Whoopi Goldberg has always been one of America's great provocateurs. But this week she traded provocation for plain old stupidity. Or at least a deep indifference to logic and truth. On Wednesday, Goldberg was on The View, the mid-morning daily television programme she has co-hosted for years. This time the discussion centred on Iran, its war with Israel and the potential for US intervention. Goldberg's co-host, Alyssa Farah Griffin – who is both Arab-American and politically conservative – made what ought to have been a statement of the obvious: that Iranians live under extreme tyranny and repression, lacking basic freedoms, including over what they can wear. And when they have protested the oppression they must endure, they have faced violence – or, in the case of Mahsa Amini, even death. 'The Iranians literally throw gay people off of buildings,' noted Farah. But Goldberg found it impossible to accept such a clear-sighted condemnation of a reprehensible theocratic regime. 'Let's not do that,' she countered. 'We have been known in this country to tie gay folks to the car.' And her odious descent into compare and contrast moral relativism was just getting started. Griffin tried to push back. 'I think it's very different to live in the United States in 2025 than it is to live in Iran,' she said quite reasonably. 'Not if you're black,' Goldberg retorted. No American could possibly pretend that their country is perfect, and it's impossible to ignore that many groups – my fellow African-Americans among them – still face serious challenges. But does Goldberg really think that things are as bad on the streets of the US as they are on the streets of Tehran, under an Islamist theocracy? Evidently, yes. It's easy to blast Goldberg's political and intellectual myopia, but in many ways she's not to blame. Her moral relativism merely reflects the way in which identity politics has so corrupted Western minds that problems in our own societies are weaponised in order to shut down criticism of even the most appalling totalitarian regimes. It's the same thinking that has fuelled so much progressive activism since Hamas' attack on Israel on October 7. Who are we, they chortle, to criticise Hamas or the Ayatollahs when the US remains a nation still mired in injustice and inequality? But there are vast differences between the 'regimes' in Washington and Tehran – including for African-Americans. They're so basic – free speech, the rule of law, freedom to protest, gay marriage – that it's almost comical to have to repeat them. There is no freedom of expression in Iran, no independent media or women's movement, no protection whatsoever for any of Iran's minority groups (or indeed for anyone at all). But there's nothing comical about Goldberg's world view. Nearly 350 Iranians were executed by the state in the first four months of 2025 alone – a 75 per cent increase over 2024, according to a report from Iran Human Rights. And guess what, Goldberg? Political prisoners and minorities were heavily represented within these figures – none of whom have the luxury of a daily talk show from which to demand justice. Because justice is non-existent in places like Iran and Gaza. The likes of Goldberg might point to the killing of George Floyd by police officer Derek Chauvin as evidence that the US is a similarly arbitrary and unjust society. The difference is that Chauvin sits in jail for killing Floyd, tried amid a media frenzy by both a jury and public opinion. Mahsa Amini knew no such privilege when she was killed under police detention in 2022 for supposedly failing to adhere to Iran's strict dress codes for women. Goldberg's juvenile thinking – her belief that an America that allows her to pontificate on national television – is somehow as repressive as Iran stains the legacy of true heroes like Amini. Goldberg also undermines the very real need for continued reform in the US by insisting that we have as much catching up to do as the Iranians. I'd almost suggest that she should take a trip to Tehran, to see for herself whether her risible comparison between Iranian tyranny and American freedom really stacks up. Judging by the wilful blindness of modern progressives, however, even seeing the horror of life under the ayatollahs up close would be unlikely to change her mind.
.jpg%3Ftrim%3D0%2C50%2C0%2C50%26width%3D1200%26height%3D800%26crop%3D1200%3A800&w=3840&q=100)
The Independent
9 hours ago
- Politics
- The Independent
Fox News rages that Whoopi Goldberg's Iran take is ‘as racist as anything' they've ever heard
Fox News is completely aghast over Whoopi Goldberg's recent assertion that living in the United States as a Black person is comparable to the oppression that citizens of the Iranian regime face, claiming The View host's hot take is 'as racist as anything' they've ever heard. During a contentious opening segment on Wednesday's broadcast of the ABC daytime talk show, Goldberg furiously clashed with co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin over the specter of the United States going to war with Iran. At one point in the discussion, which initially focused on the growing rift within the MAGA coalition as President Donald Trump weighs joining Israel in its bombing campaign, Griffin took aim at the repressive and totalitarian government led by the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. 'Let's just remember, too, the Iranians literally throw gay people off of buildings. They don't adhere to basic human rights,' she noted, prompting Goldberg to object and bring up hate crimes in America. 'Let's not do that, because if we start with that, we have been known in this country to tie gay folks to the car,' the Oscar-winner exclaimed before adding: 'Listen, I'm sorry. They used to just keep hanging Black people.' After Goldberg suggested 'it is the same' between the United States and Iran and that 'there's no way I can make you understand it,' Griffin pushed back: 'The Iranian regime today is nothing compared to the United States.' 'Every day we are worried,' Goldberg declared during the fiery exchange. 'Do we have to be worried about our kids? Are our kids gonna get shot because they're running through somebody's neighborhood?' While Griffin said she understood where Goldberg was coming from, she added that it was 'important we remember there are places much darker than this country and people who deserve rights.' When Goldberg brought up that African-Americans were not granted full voting rights until the 1960s, Griffin retorted that 'they don't have free and fair elections in Iran' and that it's 'not the same universe.' Needless to say, Goldberg's remarks drew widespread backlash, with Iranian dissidents calling her 'offensive' comments 'deeply misguided and dismisses the brutal realities faced by millions of Iranians.' Of course, the segment was also pure unadulterated ragebait for right-wing media, and especially for the hosts and pundits at Fox News, who tore into the Sister Act star across multiple segments on Wednesday and Thursday. 'It's like a Saturday Night Live bit to me,' primetime host and Trump confidant Sean Hannity sneered. 'I get a headache. I take an Excedrin Extra Strength and hopefully the memory is erased as quickly as possible.' While other Fox News stars called on Goldberg to experience the oppression in Iran 'firsthand' while claiming she is out of touch due to her wealth, network anchor Harris Faulkner tore into the actress for peddling bigotry and racism. 'It's asinine what I just heard from Whoopi Goldberg,' she fumed on Thursday's broadcast of The Faulkner Focus while interviewing Fox News contributor Gianno Caldwell. 'You know, we're two Black individuals and we've done well, we're successful, and there's a lot of other folks like us around. This is not Jim Crow, this is not slavery, and to be making those kinds of comparisons is despicable.' She continued: 'Just to make that comparison and not give the world credit on where we've come from. It's Juneteenth! It's June 19th. We know where we have been. That is not 2025.' Co-anchoring the midday panel show Outnumbered the following hour, Faulkner – whose solo news show runs head-to-head with The View – upped the ante on her criticism of Goldberg. 'She is ignorant of the facts. I want to try to be kind because my expectation for Whoopi Goldberg is lower,' she declared. 'I liked her better when she was playing on, you know, an actress on Star Trek: The Next Generation, where her character was based off this planet in space with aliens. Now she has become one.' Complaining that Goldberg – who was suspended by ABC in 2022 for claiming the Holocaust was not about race – 'says a lot of offensive things,' Faulkner said this was why 'no one can watch' The View anymore before taking one final parting shot. 'This goes beyond the pale,' she concluded. 'If you can't see where we are coming from, then you have no hope for where we can go. That's as racist as anything else I've heard.'
