KEY POINTS

  • Barbara Fedida allegedly made racist and derogatory remarks about the staff of ABC 
  • "The View" co-host Sunny Hostin was disappointed and hurt after learning about Fedida's comments about them
  • Fedida issued a statement to address the report and called it "misleading claims"

“The View” co-host Sunny Hostin was hurt and disappointed after learning that ABC executive Barbara Fedida made racist comments about her and her colleagues.

On the June 14 episode of “The View,” Hostin and her co-hosts reacted to a report published by Huffington Post about Fedida making racist and derogatory comments about several members of the show’s staff.

“It was a tough weekend for me and I was really disappointed and saddened and hurt when I learned about the racist comments that were made allegedly about me, my colleagues and my dear friends,” Hostin said as per People.

“Because if true, to reference Robin Roberts, who is one of the most respected and beloved journalists in our country, as picking cotton. To reference me, someone who's been very open about having grown up in public housing, as being low rent. To reference Kendis Gibson, who was my office mate at ABC and now is an MSNBC anchor, to say that he isn't worth paying as much as ABC would pay for toilet paper.”

Hostin also mentioned Mara Schiavocampo, a friend and former colleague at ABC. She added that Schiavocampo has an NDA in place and couldn’t talk about her experience at ABC and that made her feel that “systemic racism touches everything and everyone in our society, regardless of social stature.”

“No one is immune,” she added.

Kendis Gibson, an American journalist and reporter for NBC News and MSNBC, who used to work at ABC, also reacted to the report.

“I really enjoyed the show & people I worked with at @ABC. I look back at my time there fondly. I’m still surprised and disappointed by the reported remarks made about me by an exec there, if true. My hope is, and always has been, for a more diverse industry,” he wrote on Twitter.

Fedida was placed on administrative leave after the report was published. She also released a statement through her attorney to air her side of the story.

“Throughout my career, I have been a champion for increased diversity in network news. Building a news division where everyone can thrive has been my life’s mission,” she said.

“I am proud of my decades of work of hiring, supporting and promoting talented journalists of color. And, unlike these heartbreaking and incredibly misleading claims about me, that track record is well-documented and undeniable.”

Sunny Hostin
Everything you need to know about the newest addition to “The View” cast, Sunny Hostin. Photographed above: Hostin at the premiere of “Chi-Raq” in New York City on Dec. 1, 2015. Getty Images