I think her popularity started to rise on the View because some of the viewers have similar political views as her. They saw in her an ally. I believe that is the same reason that other viewers support Elizabeth.

The one think that does make me laugh, is when I hear people start spouting their politics. They start spewing the same phrases that the talking heads on TV use. I find it hilarious because they sound like they have no ability to think on there own. That they are nothing more than hypnotized puppets for those talking heads.

In terms of grammar and all of that, this is the internet after all. The internet hasn’t been exactly known as a place for people to write their viewpoints in a calm manner. I have been to many a message board where individuals will on occasion look for any weakness in someones writing/typing and use that to discredit everything that, that person had to say.

All I can say is to try and not sweat the small stuff. People do what they will do and it is up to us as individuals to determine if we want to react to what they do or not.

I will get off my soapbox now.

1. Re: typographical errors. It’s amazing how frequently you can make a diction or punctuation error when you write a lot. In my job, there are days I produce 30 pages of printed text. I have excellent grammar, but I make mistakes. Everyone does. It does not mean that the person does not understand the difference between “your” and “you’re,” for instance. (You have to start asking that question when you frequently see the same mistake…) Robert and Bill do an excellent job writing on this site, and I for one find it an enjoyable read. So no flaming these guys for the occasional typo!

2. Re: Rosie. There was a time when Rosie was very funny. She probably is capable of humor still. But her time has past. She strikes me as being very bitter and angry, and those are not traits that lend themselves to effective comedy, likeability, or even effective advocacy. (Take gay marriage as an example; who is the more effective spokesperson for gay marriage? Rosie or Ellen Degeneres? And why?)

But I don’t think her variety show failed because of Rosie’s personal foibles. The first I heard of this variety special was about 2 weeks before it aired. It was not well promoted, and NBC treated it as being an experiment. While we may never know the “inside scoop,” I’m willing to bet money that it was done on the cheap, with few writers, and little prep. Regrettably for Rosie, that showed through, as the show was undeniably awful.

F**k the haters and keep up the great work.

The numbers are tracked minute by minute but *we* never see those numbers. Typically we only see half hourly data. By that slice, the numbers did go down in the second half, but not massively — dropping from 5.25 million the first half hour to 4.83 million the second (based on preliminary overnight data, I haven’t see any final numbers).

Are the ratings tracked minute by minute? I watched “Rosie Live,” the whole thing, and was just amazed at how horrible it was. It just kept getting worse too. Were the less viewers during the second half than the first? I would assume people tuned it and then quickly changed the channel.

The absolute worst is an electronic sign for a bar and grill down the street from me. Last night, it flashed something like, “Saturday DJ Night’s!” then “Open Mic Sunday’s” then “Half Price Drink’s” then “$1 Mozzarella Stick’s.” I am in New Jersey, but the sign gives the (probably false) impression that the place is filled with completely uneducated blockheads and rednecks. It can’t be helping their business.

Evidence of the spreading plague:
http://apostropheabuse.com

It was less than 10 years ago when everybody loved her and it seemed like Americans couldn’t get enough of the woman.

Now she’s just the woman Americans love to hate.

As for the variety show, did they promote it anywhere? The promotion of the date of the show must have been weak. I was aware that there was a show but, my apparently incorrect impression was that it was some sort mid-season replacement. On the other hand, except for football and “Saturday Night Live” I don’t watch NBC much any more.

As for the grammar, I do reread my posts and then after they are sent. I usually read them again and feel bad because I sometimes notice that I’ve made some grammatical mistake. It just happens.

Editors don’t catch everything either. Just keep up the good work and ignore the criticism.

One of my pet peeves is people who feel the need to correct every little typo you make. It’s easy to type “they’re” instead of “their” and unless you proofread meticulously, it will slide through. But so what? I come here to read the ratings and a few typos don’t bother me at all.

As a gay man, I am offended that anyone could defend Rosie’s special and claim that any criticism of it was homophobic. Look, I loved Rosie’s talk show and I tuned in to the View occasionally to see her, but this special was just awful. As great as Liza can be, she sucked in the opening number with Rosie, which sounded and looked like they’d just put it together 5 minutes before the show aired. Why was Jane Krakowski, another of my favorites, reduced to stripping and singing a lame song about free gifts for the audience? The only performer who came across as somewhat decent was Harry Connick, Jr, whose brief appearance couldn’t salvage the amateurish production values. It was a horrible special and Rosie’s political opinions and sexuality had nothing to do with why it stank!

Keep up the good work. As the old saying goes…just outlast the bastards.

As for your Rosie Live comments, they were spot on. I enjoyed the Rosie O’Donnell show and the few times I saw ‘The View’ when she was on it, I enjoyed as well. From my recollection of those few episodes, she basically was the only woman who took a stand against all the biased reporting and false doctrine that Elisabeth Hasselbeck was spewing out on a daily basis. I will always respect Rosie for that stand. However, the ‘Rosie Live’ show was an absolute embarrassment. It was worst than those grade school talent shows that feature kids performing ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb’ on their recorders, followed by the prinicpal and some teachers doing a skit about just saying no to drugs- a weird combination of awful and hilarious. Me and my lady sat in front of the tv too stunned to even turn once it had ended. I remember saying to her that this show will go down in history as one of the worst events ever aired on network tv. I was even hoping that maybe it would be just bad enough that people would take it as a joke and she would get a do-over. Then I came to my senses and realized that I would never even dare watch something that insanely bad again.

I don’t know that I agree that screwing it up more than occasionally means I don’t know the right version or am extremely careless. One mistake I make regularly is stuff like typing “The Simpson’s” instead of correctly typing it “The Simpsons”. I do know the difference, and I don’t chalk typing it that way up to extreme carelessness. I chalk not *editing* it up to carelessness, but I’m not sure how extreme of an infraction it is. To me, it’s not that extreme. My tolerance for that sort of thing is fairly high as long as I get the numbers for The Simpsons correct.

There are at least a few people who find such a mistake unbearable seemingly to the point of it being excruciating for them.

But what strikes me is, who in the world is even sending emails with spelling/grammar corrections for this site? It’s not like the place is overrun with errors. I’ve seen one here and there, sure, but nowhere near enough for it to be a real issue for me. Of course, JMHO. Seems like it bothers the emailers more than it does me. It would be interesting to hear their viewpoints.

I like Rosie a lot. But it’s true that the lineup she chose for her show was just awful. She had no musicians I cared about seeing, or comedians for that matter. I DVR’d it to watch sometime since it’s Rosie, but I’m not too eager.