The glee some are taking in Rosie O’Donnell’s departure from The View should be tempered by the fact that she wasn’t fired for being an obnoxious loony bird, she was let go because ABC couldn’t afford her. That strikes me as an important distinction reflecting poorly on everybody concerned:

ABC, in fact, wanted O’Donnell to stay with the show. They offered her, as she said on the air, a three-year contract. She refused to sign. Rosie said she’d stay for a year, and this is what you don’t know: She wanted $10 million to do so. ABC did not turn down the money. They turned down the one-year part. They wanted stability. They would have paid her something like $30 million to sign for three years. That’s how much they wanted her. She was the future of “The View.