The View’s Sunny Hostin hates ‘privilege’—except for her own 88%

By Andrea Widburg88%

7/18/2026, 12:00:00 AM

BS Summary: This article contains 32 faulty reasoning types, including Negativity Bias, Confirmation Bias, and Ad Hominem, with Biased Writer Voice as the most egregious example at 71.8% saturation with 568 hits. Analysis detected 3,444 faulty-reasoning hits from 791 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 80.8% and a BS Rank of 88% (2,608 of 21,196 articles). This article is worse (more manipulative) than 87.70% of the article peer group.

No one hates “privilege” more than Sunny Hostin. 
The slightly black co-host of The View, who earns $2 million annually and lives with her orthopedic surgeon husband in a 12,000-square-foot New York City apartment, repeatedly castigates those—usually white—who exercise their “privilege.” 
However, when it came to throwing her weight around with the cops to protect her son from allegedly illegal conduct, the whole idea of “privilege” vanished from Hostin’s mind. 
Hostin, a former federal prosecutor with a pretty face, landed herself a gig on The View, a show that is aggressively woke. 
In that context, Hostin often complains about privilege—all kinds of privilege that imply that talent and hard work are meaningless. 
Here are some notable examples: 
In April 2019, when he was running for the Democrat nomination, Pete Buttigieg made obeisance to the race and sex hustlers by reflecting on his “white privilege or male privilege.” 
Hostin was thrilled that Buttigieg had this empathetic insight into his privilege. 
In May 2024, while the shrews...er, hostesses were discussing Caitlin Clark, Hostin stated, “I do think that there is a thing called pretty privilege. 
There is a thing called White privilege. 
There is a thing called tall privilege, and we have to acknowledge that. 
Most tellingly, though, for purposes of this essay, in September 2019, when actress Felicity Huffman was trying to get a more lenient sentence for her role in a college admissions scandal, Hostin was outraged that someone prominent, wealthy, and generally in a better (presumably whiter) situation than other people, would dare ask for leniency: “She had wealth, privilege and a platform, and she didn’t use it appropriately.” 
I couldn’t help thinking of these (and other) attacks on privilege when I read about Hostin throwing around her privileged weight as co-host of The View when she tried to stop police from arresting her son who had allegedly been caught walking along the railroad tracks in chi-chi Westchester County last month: 
“The View” co-host Sunny Hostin tried to talk cops out of issuing her Ivy League-educated son a trespassing citation  telling them he “has no criminal record” and repeatedly citing her legal background, according to newly released police bodycam footage. 
The TV personality and former federal prosecutor was on the phone with her 24-year-old son, Gabriel Hostin, when he was stopped by police along Metro-North Railroad tracks in Westchester County last month. 
“My name is Sunny Hostin and I’m one of the co-hosts of ‘The View’ and I’m a former federal prosecutor,” the 57-year-old mom can be heard saying to the responding officers in the bodycam footage obtained Friday by The Post. 
You and I both know that she talked about her role on The View as a subtle threat to the police: I’m powerful, I know people, and I can use my show to destroy you is the privileged subtext of that statement. 
And then more privilege: “That’s my son. 
He’s a Harvard graduate, he doesn’t have a criminal record.” 
In other words, Harvard grads, among the most privileged people in America, shouldn’t be arrested. 
That was such an important point to Hostin that, when she raced down to meet the cops personally, she reiterated his privilege: “He’s a Harvard grad...” 
And then, to assure the arresting cop that her blackish, Puerto-Rican-ish, white-ish son was a good person, she added that he “teaches 4th grade geometry to South Bronx kids.” 
Thankfully, the cops were unmoved by the claimed privilege and the virtue signaling. 
They noted that Gabriel Hostin could not have missed clearly posted “no trespassing” signs, and that they had no option but to detain him. 
As it was, they limited themselves to issuing a trespass violation, rather than arresting him. 
Here’s the full bodycam video: 
Those were very nice cops. 
If they hadn’t been so polite, they could have told Sunny and Gabriel that being a Harvard graduate doesn’t mean you’re not too dumb to live if you think running on a railroad track is a good idea. 
But apparently being a mixed-race Harvard grad who’s the son of a famous mother makes you think your privilege leaves you immune to the laws of physics. 
Those immutable laws say that, when a train hits a human, the human loses. 
I fully understand Hostin’s impulse to go full Mama Bear when she felt her son was under attack. 
That’s a very human emotion. 
But her approach—which basically boiled down to a politely expressed version of “do you know who I am and do you know who my son is?”—is still a stinking bit of leftist hypocrisy when you consider Hostin’s long history of identifying and attacking any type of so-called “privilege,” especially those attached to wealth and prestige. 
Article reasoning-pattern comparisonThis article: 38.6%Andrea Widburg: 14.2%American Thinker: 10.4%Confirmation Bias38.6%This article: 0.0%Andrea Widburg: 0.9%American Thinker: 0.7%Anchoring Bias0.0%This article: 6.1%Andrea Widburg: 3.3%American Thinker: 3.7%Availability Heuristic6.1%This article: 12.3%Andrea Widburg: 2.1%American Thinker: 1.6%Representativeness Heuristic12.3%This article: 3.3%Andrea Widburg: 1.4%American Thinker: 1.3%Hindsight Bias3.3%This article: 0.0%Andrea Widburg: 2.1%American Thinker: 2.7%Overconfidence Bias0.0%This article: 8.7%Andrea Widburg: 6.7%American Thinker: 7.2%Framing Effect8.7%This article: 0.0%Andrea Widburg: 0.4%American Thinker: 0.6%Loss Aversion0.0%This article: 7.0%Andrea Widburg: 0.7%American Thinker: 0.6%Status Quo Bias7.0%This article: 0.0%Andrea Widburg: 0.3%American Thinker: 0.2%Sunk Cost Effect0.0%This article: 4.2%Andrea Widburg: 0.8%American Thinker: 1.6%Optimism Bias4.2%This article: 3.7%Andrea Widburg: 2.8%American Thinker: 2.6%Pessimism Bias3.7%This article: 62.1%Andrea Widburg: 17.2%American Thinker: 13.0%Negativity Bias62.1%This article: 2.7%Andrea Widburg: 1.7%American Thinker: 1.1%Self-Serving Bias2.7%This article: 10.4%Andrea Widburg: 4.4%American Thinker: 2.9%Fundamental Attribution Error10.4%This article: 7.6%Andrea Widburg: 0.6%American Thinker: 0.2%Actor-Observer Bias7.6%This article: 0.0%Andrea Widburg: 3.7%American Thinker: 3.9%In-Group Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Andrea Widburg: 5.8%American Thinker: 5.0%Out-Group Homogeneity Bias0.0%This article: 8.5%Andrea Widburg: 3.3%American Thinker: 2.7%Halo Effect8.5%This article: 0.0%Andrea Widburg: 1.4%American Thinker: 0.8%Horn Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Andrea Widburg: 0.0%American Thinker: 0.1%Dunning-Kruger Effect0.0%This article: 6.6%Andrea Widburg: 2.1%American Thinker: 1.3%Recency Bias6.6%This article: 0.0%Andrea Widburg: 0.9%American Thinker: 0.7%Primacy Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Andrea Widburg: 0.0%American Thinker: 0.1%Blind-Spot Bias0.0%This article: 33.2%Andrea Widburg: 9.5%American Thinker: 5.7%Ad Hominem33.2%This article: 9.5%Andrea Widburg: 3.7%American Thinker: 4.1%Straw Man9.5%This article: 5.1%Andrea Widburg: 6.4%American Thinker: 4.7%Appeal to Authority5.1%This article: 0.0%Andrea Widburg: 5.0%American Thinker: 4.7%False Dilemma0.0%This article: 5.3%Andrea Widburg: 3.1%American Thinker: 3.3%Slippery Slope5.3%This article: 0.0%Andrea Widburg: 0.3%American Thinker: 0.3%Circular Reasoning0.0%This article: 1.0%Andrea Widburg: 18.2%American Thinker: 16.9%Hasty Generalization1.0%This article: 6.6%Andrea Widburg: 1.3%American Thinker: 0.6%Red Herring6.6%This article: 0.0%Andrea Widburg: 0.4%American Thinker: 0.5%Bandwagon0.0%This article: 16.6%Andrea Widburg: 9.1%American Thinker: 8.5%Appeal to Emotion16.6%This article: 0.0%Andrea Widburg: 3.6%American Thinker: 2.7%Begging the Question0.0%This article: 0.0%Andrea Widburg: 4.0%American Thinker: 3.8%Post Hoc (False Cause)0.0%This article: 8.1%Andrea Widburg: 1.8%American Thinker: 0.3%Tu Quoque8.1%This article: 15.7%Andrea Widburg: 5.0%American Thinker: 1.7%Burden of Proof15.7%This article: 2.4%Andrea Widburg: 0.8%American Thinker: 0.6%Appeal to Nature2.4%This article: 4.2%Andrea Widburg: 1.4%American Thinker: 0.8%Composition/Division4.2%This article: 2.1%Andrea Widburg: 3.0%American Thinker: 3.6%Anecdotal2.1%This article: 0.0%Andrea Widburg: 0.7%American Thinker: 0.4%No True Scotsman0.0%This article: 22.9%Andrea Widburg: 3.3%American Thinker: 2.1%Ambiguity (Equivocation)22.9%This article: 0.0%Andrea Widburg: 0.0%American Thinker: 0.0%Gambler’s Fallacy0.0%This article: 0.0%Andrea Widburg: 0.0%American Thinker: 0.1%Middle Ground0.0%This article: 0.0%Andrea Widburg: 0.2%American Thinker: 0.2%Personal Incredulity0.0%This article: 7.0%Andrea Widburg: 0.9%American Thinker: 0.2%Special Pleading7.0%This article: 0.0%Andrea Widburg: 1.8%American Thinker: 0.7%Genetic Fallacy0.0%This article: 0.0%Andrea Widburg: 2.8%American Thinker: 3.1%Unattributed Quote0.0%This article: 16.8%Andrea Widburg: 2.8%American Thinker: 1.9%Quote-first Misdirection16.8%This article: 71.8%Andrea Widburg: 31.0%American Thinker: 23.0%Biased Writer Voice71.8%This article: 12.3%Andrea Widburg: 5.3%American Thinker: 5.8%Indoctrination12.3%This article: 0.0%Andrea Widburg: 0.4%American Thinker: 0.4%Politically Left Leaning Bias0.0%This article: 13.5%Andrea Widburg: 14.4%American Thinker: 14.7%Politically Right Leaning Bias13.5%This article: 0.0%Andrea Widburg: 1.0%American Thinker: 0.7%Attempt to Sell a Product or S…0.0%

791 words analyzed.

Speakers

No attributed speakers were identified in this analysis.

Loading…
Loading…
Loading…

Analysis

Hover over highlighted words in the article to view the associated bias or fallacy analysis.