On The View Wednesday, a politically volatile discussion arose over a Texas judge’s decision to uphold an anti-abortion mandate that requires women to see the ultrasound of their fetus before they can terminate their pregnancies. Elisabeth Hasselbeck spoke passionately in favor of the requirement. “To me, it doesn’t make sense why you wouldn’t!” Hasselbeck exclaimed. “Why you would ask for an X-ray for those things or an ultrasound but not in this case? ” “It is such a tremendous decision,” Walters fired back. “I think that in order to even think about having an abortion, to give up a child that is obviously unwanted, that’s why you’re doing it…with so much fear of what you’re doing and guilt…then to have to go and be forced to hear, to see the fetus, to hear the heartbeat, to put more guilt on you, I think is heartbreaking.”

The comedy genre “serious actor delivers dramatic reading of frivolous thing” has certainly expanded in volume of works in the past few years more than it had since William Shatner invented it with his reciting of “Rocket Man” (incidentally, he probably single-handedly revived it with the Sarah Palin tweet collection). And while it appears that the greatest work in the category of 2011 will forever be John Lithgow‘s performance of the Homeric Hymn to Newt Gingrich his spokesman wrote this summer, 2012 already has a very solid entry with “Gary Oldman Reads A Jersey Shore Recap.”

Political mastermind and reality TV star Donald Trump visited the set of Good Morning America, where he discussed GOP candidates Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich, particularly where their personal wealth is concerned.

As regular readers know by now, Mediaite founder Dan Abrams is looking forward to being a first-time dad soon, something he was more than happy to talk about Monday morning as he co-hosted Live! With Kelly alongside seasoned mom Kelly Ripa. And, surprise, he’s going to have a bouncing baby boy! (Which, you know. Aw. [...]

GOP presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich gave an interview to ABC’s Good Morning America, where he told host George Stephanopoulos, where he invoked the words of none other than influential liberal magnate George Soros. RELATED: PBS’s Bill Moyers: George Soros Has Been The Victim Of ‘Fox News Assassins’ The tension between Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich [...]

In an interview with Diane Sawyer airing tonight, President Obama laughed off Jan Brewer’s claims that he with aggressive with her, joking that he’s “usually accused of not being intense enough” and pointing out that it’s always good for a Republican to tell people they fought with him. However, there was one accusation that he didn’t seem ready to laugh down and that was Newt Gingrich’s “food stamp president” insult.

ABC legal analyst and Mediaite founder Dan Abrams spoke to Good Morning America about the rape allegation against Greg Kelly, host of Good Day New York and son of New York police commissioner Ray Kelly.

The View‘s Elisabeth Hasselbeck is none too happy with how the folks at NBC handled last night’s GOP debate in Florida, calling the debate “crappy” and accusing the network of displaying an anti-Republican bias.

Congress is set to return later this month, and one of the most hotly contested pieces of legislation it will be facing is the Stop Online Piracy Act. The bill was authored by Republican Lamar Smith, and has received bipartisan support and opposition in the House. There has been a lot of talk about internet- and technology-based companies that support the bill, including GoDaddy (up until recently) and the video game industry.

With all the talk of the ongoing battle between Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum, at least one person thinks the two will be able to patch it up. That person is Rob Lowe who predicted that the two front runners would become “the new Republican ticket” when stopping by Good Morning America.

George Stephanopoulos is returning to ABC’s This Week this weekend, right in the middle of election madness. RELATED: George Stephanopoulos To Return As Host Of This Week Stephanopoulos, who is coming back to host the Sunday morning show as former host Christiane Amanpour balances the role of global affairs anchor with a new show on [...]

Regular viewers of the three big broadcast news shows — ABC World News, CBS Evening News, and NBC Nightly News — have probably come to admire some of the reporters and correspondents featured on air each night. But have you ever stopped to wonder which reporter has logged the most airtime?

Former Massachusetts governor (oh, and the winner last night in Iowa) Mitt Romney told Good Morning America‘s George Stephanopoulos just how his experience differs from that of “runner up” candidate Rick Santorum, noting that there is “nothing wrong” with the fact that Santorum has spent “most of life in the governmental sector,” but that “it’s very different, I think, if you want to get the economy going again.”

Ron Paul rebuffed ABC News’s Jake Tapper on Sunday’s This Week, when he had brought up a quote by former senior campaign aide Eric Dondero, saying the Republican presidential candidate had engaged in 9/11 conspiracy theories. “About the conspiracy of Bush — of Bush knowing about this?” Paul responded incredulously. “No, no, come on! Come on! Let’s be reasonable! That’s just off-the-wall!”

It is a long-standing tradition for many, particularly in Times Square, to ring in the new year with a kiss from a loved one or significant other or perhaps someone with whom sparks had flown throughout the night. The latter seemed to be the case for Jenny McCarthy on ABC’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve, who the cameras caught in the first minute of the year locking lips with an NYPD officer she later explained just happened to be closeby.

On Sunday, This Week host Christiane Amanpour bid her audience farewell during her final broadcast as anchor, and wished George Stephanopoulos the best of luck when he takes over for her in the coming year. “It’s been an enormous privilege to anchor this prestigious program,” Amanpour said.

Tonight on the 20/20 holiday special (that’s the one where Sam Donaldson buys a sickly Christmas tree for the pageant and everyone makes fun of him), ABC will air a special interview that Barbara Walters did with Barack and Michelle Obama in which, presumably, Walters explains to them just was they’re so much less fascinating than the Kardashians.

Just in time for TBS’s annual Christmas 24-hour marathon of A Christmas Story, a few of the stars of the frequently-seen 1983 holiday chestnut joined the ladies of The View.

We don’t usually get two View posts in a day here at Mediaite but, while that fart thing was just BREAKING NEWS THAT THE WORLD NEEDED TO SEE, there was also another interesting moment on the show. Saturday Night Live‘s Fred Armisen appeared to promote the second season of his IFC series Portlandia ( a series where that hilarious one-man show sketch probably would have been better appreciated) and Sherri Shepherd pointed out an issue that’s been a problem almost since SNL‘s inception (and possibly the actual solution to Greg Gutfeld’s conspiracy yesterday); Lorne Michaels needs to hire some more damn black people.

Last Friday, the entire blogosphere went crazy because it was possible that Whoopi Goldberg farted on live TV (what can I say, bloggers just want to go home for the holidays too). Today during the opening few minutes of The View, Goldberg discussed the incident during some of the most ridiculously funny television you’re going to see all week. Seriously, I want every day to start with someone doing a Zapruder film analysis of a fart joke.

Guys, I can’t even. Whoopi Goldberg, the breezy View co-host, added a veritable whirlwind of excitement to the show’s set today when she… Well, when she farted. Yes, there. Typed it. Whoopi Goldberg farted.

On Tuesday, ABC announced Christiane Amanpour would no longer be hosting This Week — she would stay on as a global affairs anchor, while returning to CNN to host a show on CNN International. While Amanpour seemed overjoyed (“This role is groundbreaking, bold and very different,” Amanpour said. “I am thrilled and honored”), ABC now had a role to fill. So they turned to the past, and announced Amanpour’s replacement: George Stephanopoulos.

Longtime host George Stephanopoulos is set to return to ABC’s This Week early next year with the news that current host Christiane Amanpour is set to return to CNN for a weekday show, and remaining with ABC for specials.

With several days of reporting and, today, a final official story on the departure of host Christiane Amanpour from ABC’s This Week (but not from the network entirely), the host herself has made the news official, and elaborated on her roles both for ABC and her weekly CNN International program– as well as CNN President Jim Walton responding to the news of her return.

On Friday, the New York Post‘s Page Six column suggested that Christiane Amanpour was about to step down as host of This Week. The column reported that Amanpour would return to CNN, the network she left last year to join ABC.