A rumor that television presenters Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar are forfeiting their salaries for six months to keep their show on the air is circulating online. The Facebook page of America's Last Line of Defense posted this on Oct. 28, 2024:
Whoopi and Joy are forfeiting their salaries for 6 months to keep The View from the chopping block: "The show's been losing money for years."
(Facebook/America's Last Line of Defense)
The post had received 1,100 reactions and 562 comments as of this writing. Some readers seemed to interpret the rumor as a factual recounting of real-life events. However, there was no evidence of The View" being at risk of losing its spot on airwaves.
Rather, the pinned comment under the post indicated that the rumor about about its presenters having to take a pay cut had originated with the Dunning-Kruger Times — a website that describes its output as being humorous or satirical in nature. Its About Page states:
Dunning-Kruger-Times.com is a subsidiary of the "America's Last Line of Defense" network of parody, satire, and tomfoolery, or as Snopes called it before they lost their war on satire: Junk News
Everything on this website is fiction. It is not a lie and it is not fake news because it is not real. If you believe that it is real, you should have your head examined. Any similarities between this site's pure fantasy and actual people, places, and events are purely coincidental and all images should be considered altered and satirical. See above if you're still having an issue with that satire thing.
The fictional story spread as Goldberg debunked several claims podcaster and comedian Joe Rogan made about an appearance former U.S. President Donald Trump made on The View.
America's Last Line of Defense (ALLOD) has a history of making up stories for shares and comments, sometimes relying on artificial-intelligence (AI) writing software to do its storytelling.
Snopes has addressed similar satirical claims from the Dunning-Kruger Times in the past, including the assertion that the television personality Oprah Winfrey had embezzled money destined for charity and a rumor that the fast-food restaurant chain McDonald's had confirmed they had once fired Vice President Kamala Harris.
For background, here is why we alert readers to rumors created by sources that call their output humorous or satirical.