Just some thoughts from someone who's just getting back to the boards (in prep for a trip next week)
We are Rosie fans. We started watching the View because of her and without her, we will stop watching the View. Rosie's not perfect, no one is. Husbear & I disagreed on the Kelly Ripa/Clay Aiken issue, he agreed with Rosie that Kelly would not have used those same words to a straight, female co-host; I think her words had nothing to do with Clay's (perceived) preferences but was spoken by a mother who is used to dirty-handed kids.
My point is that we all view the world through our own lenses. I don't agree with everything Rosie says but I have to respect her for the amount of good that she has done, through her charity work, through her entertainment, etc. Personally, I find her very entertaining and enjoyable and (as others have said) a 'real' person (there are some days I just can't STAND Barbara's simpering).h
I think for a lot of us who lived through the Vietnam War, it is very difficult to sit and listen to EH's calls to patriotism. The same arguments that were used to justify that war are being used to justify this one (HB literally yells at the TV when EH gets on one of her rants). And see where we are 40 years later; the Commies didn't take over the world.
As for the criticism that Rosie only wants Rosie's view heard, I think this just isn't valid. We've watched the show regularly since Rosie's been on.
All of those women (Barbara less so) overtalk to the point that we have to replay to hear someone's point. There have been many times that Rosie has stepped in to stop the overtalking (ie, moderate) and in the early episodes, Barbara & Rosie make it clear that one of Rosie's roles was to serve as moderater. I've also seen many times when Rosie really wanted to say something (you could just see the words fighting to get out of her mouth), but she held back until an appropriate moment.
The issue with Rosie's assistant, Janette, defacing the one photograph is also understandable (I don't condone it, but it is understandable). Janette was one of the writers (maybe the principle writer) for Rosie's talk show. For a couple years during run of the talk show, Janette had had
severe health problems. Through it all, Rosie was incredibly loyal and supportive. I wouldn't be surprised if Janette saw the split-screen shot (which is the first time I had *ever* seen it used in the eight months of watching the show even though there was many times that Rosie & EH had sparring matches), saw what the director was doing (exploiting the "fight"), saw that EH was not going to directly answer Rosie's question, and probably just got really pissed off!
Rosie is an incredibly loyal person (to a fault) and it's unfortunate that things got 'personal' on the show, but that's is the kind of person she is. If you had a multinational conglomerate sue you for millions of dollars over the use of your name, then you'd come to the realization that your name was must really be worth something! Pesonally, I will continue to be a fan even though I don't agree with everything she does.