The View gets tense as Meghan McCain says sexual harassment at NBC was ‘way worse’ than at Fox News

"The View" spun off the rails after co-host Meghan McCain rattled off a list of men in media who were accused of behaving badly.

The topic started with the abrupt retirement of MSNBC's Chris Matthews, who unexpectedly signed off for good after a years-old sexism claims resurfaced in recent days, and McCain was troubled by his abrupt departure.

"To reduce his entire career to this segment is really sad, because I thought he deserved a better sendoff than that," she said, "and I thought I might be raked over the coal for saying that today. That doesn't mean his behavior should be absolved, it doesn't mean that he should not apologize and his feet not be held to the fire, but a lot of people at MSNBC have done a lot of crap."

McCain ripped NBC News executive Andy Lack over his handling of the Harvey Weinstein reporting and sexual harassment claims against former "Today" host Matt Lauer.

"Are they as bad as Fox [News], do you think?" co-host Joy Behar asked.

McCain, who previously worked for Fox News, quickly fired back.

"Mark Halperin put his, allegedly, erect penis on a woman's shoulder, and he was fired," McCain said, as the audience reacted in disgust. "Yeah, look it up."

"Talking about Brian Williams, who had stolen valor, and lied about having service in Iraq," she added. "True story, and he worked at NBC. A lot of people at NBC who have done a lot of bad, dirty things, and we've talked about it on the show a lot."

Host Whoopi Goldberg said Matthews, who is 74, came from a different era, when men felt they could get away with commenting on women's looks in the workplace, but co-host Joy Behar said that behavior wasn't as widespread as some men like to claim.

"We never heard those comments from Walter Cronkite," Behar said. "I'm just saying, there are some men who didn't do it."

Goldberg pointed out that some men behaved poorly but were never publicly outed, and then read a legal disclaimer pointing out that Halperin had denied making unwanted physical contact with his former colleagues in the media.

"I said allegedly, I said allegedly," McCain said, and her co-hosts agreed. "He was allegedly accused of that disgusting act."

Goldberg agreed the allegation was "pretty gross," and compared that accusation to the coverage of their own behavior on the show.

"In all of our stuff," Goldberg said, "we haven't done any of that."