ABC's The View To Mainstream Conservative Demagogue Dana Loesch

Dana LoeschABC's The View reportedly plans to mainstream conservative talk radio host Dana Loesch by featuring her as a guest co-host on the February 3 program. 

The decision to give Loesch a national platform on a highly-rated television show is troubling considering Loesch has gained notoriety for her inflammatory rhetoric, expressing extreme views on topics from gun control to reproductive access. 

Loesch made headlines in January 2012 for her reaction to an internet video that appeared to show members of the Marine Corps urinating on the corpses Taliban fighters. On her St. Louis-based radio show, Loesch defended the alleged act, saying that she would “drop trou and do it too” if she was in a similar situation. Loesch criticized “a bunch of progressives that are talking smack about our military because there were Marines caught urinating on corpses -- Taliban corpses,” and later defended her comments on a Breitbart.com blog post by claiming she was “defending [the Marines] from overly-dramatic hysteria.”

At the time, Loesch was an CNN contributor, and the network reportedly suspended her soon after these remarks.

Loesch was also one of the few right-wing media figures to excuse former Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO) for his “legitimate rape” remarks. After Akin declared that it is rare for women who had been the victim of “legitimate rape” to become pregnant because “the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down,” Loesch took to Twitter account and dismissed Akin's comments, claiming he “failed a soundbite” and attacking his critics for “hypocritical overreactions.”

Loesch also has a history of leveling groundless and inflammatory attacks against liberals. Five years after the story was debunked, Loesch claimed on her radio show that President Obama attended a Muslim school known as a Madrassa in response to a caller's comment that Obama was “born with a Quran in his hand.” Loesch attacked State Department official Huma Abedin by pushing the conspiracy theory that she had ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, and labelled then-Georgetown Law student Sandra Fluke a “nympho” for advocating for a mandate for insurance companies to cover contraception.

Unfortunately, this will not be the first time that The View has mainstreamed a figure on the fringe of the right. In October, the show hosted serial health care misinformer Betsy McCaughey, promoting her as a “health care expert,” and in February, 2011, hosted radical conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who used the appearance to promote his website Infowars.com.