The View Criticizes Cable Nets for Putting Nunberg On the Air: ‘It Felt Very Exploitive’

It isn’t just the folks at Axios, Sam Nunberg’s friends or media figures on Twitter who felt Nunberg’s media blitz yesterday may have been exploitative. During today’s broadcast of The View, the co-hosts tossed some criticism the cable news networks’ way for constantly booking the former aide to President Donald Trump — especially since some of those interviewers were expressing concern for Nunberg’s well-being and state of mind.

“If Nunberg was a little out of it, should they have put him on the air if she smelled alcohol?” Whoopi Goldberg asked after playing a clip of CNN’s Erin Burnett confronting Nunberg about his potential drinking. “Should he have been on the air?”

Guest co-host Amber Tamblyn defended Burnett a bit, stating that the CNN anchor probably didn’t see Nunberg until he came on set and only then “smelled a little Schnapps or something.” Joy Behar added that it was legitimate for Burnett to ask if Nunberg was drinking.

Meanwhile, Sunny Hostin jumped in to state that “it felt a little exploitive,” explaining that it was at least the “fifth time” he had been interviewed that day. Hostin pointed out that she was texting fellow co-host Meghan McCain during his media tour and asked if he was sober.

“We were texting, ‘Is he sober or having a mental breakdown?'” McCain declared, adding that she wanted to get Hostin’s analysis of what the “legal ramifications” were for Nunberg.

McCain went on to say that Nunberg was clearly someone who was “not in control of himself in one way or another” and that there were “very gray ethics” when it came to having Nunberg on television.

“He admitted he wasn’t drinking because he was taking his anti-depressants,” Hostin concluded. “It felt very exploitive.”

Watch the clip above, via ABC.

[image via screengrab]

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Follow Justin Baragona on Twitter: @justinbaragona

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