American TV hosts argue over who's more obnoxious

It's not about idiots singing, or Chinese people with no legs or Sherlock ruddy Holmes, but it did happen on TV: popular US daytime chat show The View has been embroiled in controversy after their female hosts walked out on guest Bill O'Reilly.

This one might need to come with a glossary. The View is a female-hosted, issue-based chat show, hosted by - among others - Whoopi Goldberg, Barbara Walters, Elizabeth Hasslebeck and Joy Behar: sort of like Loose Women but with more audience hooting. They had on a guest, Fox newsreader Bill O'Reilly; a horrible right-wing fascist whose British equivalent would be Richard Littlejohn coated in Kilroy's spittle.

In short, they had a ding-dong. O'Reilly is a fiercely outspoken critic of the Obama administration - therefore everything that stands for good and right with the world - so perhaps 'extreme' views should be expected. Predictably, he got the gals' hackles up, mostly by wittering on about "the Mosque down here on 9/11", a statement that, when read, means nothing (given that it's not a Mosque and 9/11 is a date, not a place), but does contain buzzwords guaranteed to set off your nutter alarm.

It's only when he bellowed "MUSLIMS KILLED US ON 9/11!", like some horrible YouTube comment brought to life, that things got hairy. Host Whoopi Goldberg turns up her indignation from 'Sassy Sister' to 'Oh No He Di-in't' and the whole thing descends into a slanging match, culminating in Goldberg and co-host Joy Behar walking off stage. On their own show. Chat show walk-outs: you're doing it wrong.

It's all hot air over nothing - you give a madman a microphone and an audience, you can't complain when he starts broadcasting his dribble to the nation - but Goldberg has been made to apologise by her employers and O'Reilly, the devious, stomach-churning wretch that he is, will continue to use it as ammunition for a thousand more misguided rants.

Really, it's difficult to know who to hate more. At least when the Bee Gees walked off Clive Anderson's show, you knew to hate the bald guy.