"It was like the Mormons," interjected Joy Behar out of nowhere. She went on to make a derogatory comment about the underclothing that faithful members of the LDS Church wear, adding "Maybe it was one of those."

Shepherd, Behar, Whoopi Goldberg, Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Barbara Walters all laughed.

Where the heck did that come from? It had absolutely nothing to do with the subject at hand. And, gee, the women of "The View" seemed to think that mocking something sacred to members of a religion was just hilarious.

HERE'S ONE MORE reason why it's so easy to hold Walters in contempt.

The woman is an enormous hypocrite.

Walters recently blew up on the air at Rosie O'Donnell, defending herself and attacking her former "View" employee because it was reported that O'Donnell called her a "liar."

Walters never called out O'Donnell by name, but it was clear who (and what) she was talking about when she said on the air, "There are some people who have done the show and then for years feel they have to dump on it. ... I resent it. If the shoe fits, ladies, get on with your lives!"

Well, there are a couple of things wrong there. First, O'Donnell never used the world "liar" in a teleconference with TV critics and writers. Yes, some media outlets used that word in their report, but I've got the transcript and it's not there.

In response to a direct question asking her opinions about "The View" — which she answered pleasantly and without malice — O'Donnell said, "No matter what, Barbara wants everyone to believe and think and act as if everybody (on 'The View') gets along and is really good friends and happy and hangs out together. And it's just not the reality. I'm not saying they loathe each other. But the fact is, there wasn't a lot of camaraderie off camera there. People don't get together and have dinner once a month, the 'View' ladies. They don't."

That's hardly inflammatory, not coming close to the level that would require some sort of on-air response from Walters. Unless, perhaps, she only read the headlines without bothering to check out what O'Donnell actually said.

And, gee, I thought Walters was supposed to be a journalist.

But what does make this rise to the level of unbelievable hypocrisy is that, back in May, Walters admitted on "Oprah Winfrey" that she lied about why Star Jones was fired from "The View." That she offered to tell any story Jones wanted, that she wanted to spend more time with her husband (whom she is now divorcing) or anything other than the truth. That ABC wanted Jones out because of falling ratings.

And yet Walters told Winfrey she was stunned when Jones accused her of lying.

"Yes, I was lying to protect her," Walters said.

Yes, that would be lying to viewers. Lying. To. Viewers.