Bill Maher 4/20/07 (and repeats all week)

Cafe Society
1

Bill Moyers was impressive, as usual. He’s doing a show this Wednesday on PBS, “Buying the War”, article here.

Moyers mentioned a few times in his satellite segment that the program would be on Wednesday, but when Maher closed the interview, he (Maher) said Friday. It made me wonder if Maher was pissed that Moyers said Wednesday too often, or if Maher thought that the only reason Moyers appeared was to pimp his special.

His panel guests were Gov. Schweitzer (D-MT), Amy Holmes (a “political analyst” and Bill Frist’s speechwriter), and John O’Sullivan (British author/National Review editor).

Holmes and O’Sullivan were pretty good, but Schweitzer came off like a slightly (only slightly) more intelligent version of the raconteurs at my local bar. I was disappointed in him, because I had heard him on NPR shortly after the elections and was impressed. Maybe TV was too much for him. He was trying hard to make points, but he didn’t seem very thoughtful.

I’m curious about what O’Sullivan implied about the British sailors who were hostages in Iran. Apparently he thinks they behaved badly. He didn’t come right out and call them cowards, but the implication was there. Anyone know what’s up with that?

I’m also curious about Maher saying the big news last week should have been Bush (or the generals) saying they’re giving up on the Iraqi army. I hadn’t heard anything about that.

Also curious about O’Sullivan saying that a million people were killed after the British left India in the 40’s. Is that true? He used it as part of his justification for the US staying the course in Iraq.

They spent a few minutes on the SCOTUS decision, but it was more of a “here’s what I think” than an analysis of the decision.

Anyway, I thought it was a pretty decent show. The panel didn’t talk over each other like usual.

2

I thought it was classy of him when he scolded a part of the audience for booing something O’Sullivan was saying, and then apologized to O’Sullivan for it. I’ve never been very fond of Maher, but lately I’m coming around. Same thing happened with Al Gore for me.

3

I was disappointed in Schweitzer too - he made a few good points, but over-all wasn’t very assertive about his views. Bill has scolded his audience before for booing a guest, and I’m glad he does. I sometimes wish that before the show he (or someone) would tell the audience to hold down the clapping and cheering - it just chews up time and distracts the speaker. As for the British sailors, I don’t recall anything about it in the news, but from what O’Sullivan said, I had the impression that he thought the sailors were too wimpy about their captivity (he mentioned one sailor crying) and they should have shown that “stiff upper lip” for which the Brits are known.

4

Someone is still paying Bill Maher to be on TV???

5

O’Sullivan wasn’t very impressive. His medical facts were simply wrong when he talked about the “intact D&E” procedure prohibited by a law that was just upheld by the Supreme Court – he seemed to think it involved needlessly killing perfectly healthy fetuses that were advanced enough to be viable outside the womb. He even referred to “killing 9-month-old fetuses”.

He also tried to pass off that absurd talking-point about “Clinton firing 93 attorneys”, but Maher and Gov. Schweitzer jumped all over that one.

6

I was rather disappointed in this one. Didn’t recognize a single panelist as the show started and don’t think any of them were particularly well-spoken or did much to advance ‘their’ sides.

O’Sullivan’s characterization of the abortion argument was so incredibly flawed and yet no one called him on it. Schweitzer’s referring to “Mr.Google” when talking about the PATRIOT act sounded stupid and immature and no one called him on that either.

7

I had to turn this off.

Bill Maher scolds the audience a lot and frankly I get a little tired of it. In trying to be fair, he has a tendency to go to the other extreme. If anyone deserved booing it was O’Sullivan for stating outright lies. Save that crap for the National Review where everyone gobbles up everything you say like candy. This is supposed to be a panel discussion. He didn’t even talk to the other panelists, he turned his back on them and talked to the audience.

It was a horrible panel. O’Sullivan and Amy Holmes both hogged the show and didn’t allow the governor to speak. O’Sullivan writes columns and Holmes writes speeches and talking points so they’re both used to throwing out one sided sound bites and misinformation. Bill should have called them on it or somehow allowed the governor to speak.

I realize Bill has to pander a little to get guests on the show but this was over the top.

8

To be fair, even though Bill Maher is a self professed Libertarian, his audience is completely left wing Democrat and they are only one or two steps removed from a Jerry Springer audience. If he doesn’t put his foot down, and often, that encourages behavior a good moderator doesn’t want.

I was surprised that he had two conservatives on the panel this week. Even though I didn’t agree much with their stances, I was glad that he had them on, since his shows usually consist of a single conservative getting gangbanged by Bill, his two liberal panelists and the audience (hence the fact that he very often ends his shows by telling a panelist, “You were very brave to come on to the show.” etc…)

I do agree though that he was kind of pandering, when he has something to say he can usually talk over whoever is speaking at the moment, but every time the woman was speaking and he wanted to interrupt, he could only get out a string of “um”, “uh”, “but”, etc…

9

Do you know that for a fact? I imagined that obtaining tickets for any show are pretty much the same. Do they have some special process for selecting the guests for Bill Maher’s show? I imagine that more liberal leaning people might be interested in being in the audience but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s true.

I went to a taping of The View and David Letterman and I don’t like either show but went with friends who got tickets. Some people like to go to free shows.

BTW, why are they two steps removed from a Jerry Springer audience? Because they boo Ann Coulter?

10

Cite?

11

No, there’s no way to determine the exact composition of an audience, but Bill did have a major, major problem last season with the folks applauding, cheering, and hooting for at least ten to fifteen seconds after every salient point he made, wasting his limited time. He mentioned once towards the end of the season that conservative audience members were avoiding coming to the show because of the rest of the audience booing and drowning them out, and I could see his frustration.

He was the same way when I saw him live on Broadway–he liked laughter (and the show generated a lot, although he was much more even-handed and thoughtful in his one-man ninety-minute monologue at the Virginia, now the August Wilson) but seemed to be finding the automatic cheering and laughter to be sycophantic when it was after every joke, and soon the audience calmed down and listened to him.

He wants a live show for the energy but he’s not Kelly Bundy and doesn’t want the audience hooting like chimps for every utterance, and 4/20 wasn’t the first time this season he’s turned to them and reprimanded them for booing an unpopular non-liberal opinion.

12

No, there’s no way to determine the exact composition of an audience, but Bill did have a major, major problem last season with the folks applauding, cheering, and hooting for at least ten to fifteen seconds after every salient point he made, wasting his limited time. He mentioned once towards the end of the season that conservative audience members were avoiding coming to the show because of the rest of the audience booing and drowning them out, and I could see his frustration.

He was the same way when I saw him live on Broadway–he liked laughter (and the show generated a lot, although he was much more even-handed and thoughtful in his one-man ninety-minute monologue than on TV) but seemed to be finding the automatic cheering and laughter to be sycophantic when it was after every joke, and soon the audience calmed down and listened to him.

He wants a live show for the energy but he’s not Kelly Bundy and doesn’t want the audience hooting like chimps for every utterance, and 4/20 wasn’t the first time this season he’s turned to them and reprimanded them for booing an unpopular non-liberal opinion.

13

That Maher’s audience is left-wing Democrat? Are you joking? Me, I can tell when they bust the applause meter for left-wing guests while booing right-wing ones. But if that isn’t clue enough, Maher himself and his head writer both know the obvious: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/08/AR2007030802205_pf.html.

14

His audience is clearly left-wing.

I liked the panel this week. I don’t usually like it when he has some actor who comedian who struggles to speak, or just makes points you could read in any pit thread at the straight dope. And, I thought Moyers was good.

The audience did give Sully a hand when he made the points about the Brits pulling out of India, and the US pulling out of Vietnam.

Dana Carvey was terrible last week (oh, he is NOT still doing Bush the Elder impressions.) What a sad, sad Chevy Chase of a comedian.

To the OP: I think Maher just made a mistake when he said “Friday” about Moyers show. I don’t think it was meant to be a slight.

15

Gah, I agree. I’d forgotten about him. It was so pathetic, and he just wouldn’t shut up.

16

They’re more anti-Bush than anti-conservative, but that’s just a representative of Americans in general. They don’t intentionally pack the place with liberals.

Maher has said that he wishes more conservatives would come on his show as guests (and show up in the audience). The format with one token rightie against three or four liberals is one he has said he hates but is a reflection of rightie resistance to coming on the show. On rare occasons he breaks that. I remember at least one show where he had four – count 'em four conservatives, but the more unpopular Bush becomes, the harder it is to find people who will defend him in front of an uncontrolled audience.

Conservative pundits – especially those close to the administration – tend to avoid formats where their bullshit will be challenged in any way.

At least it’s not as bad as Fox News’ policy that there always have to be at least two conservatives for every liberal.

17

You asked for a cite; you got a cite. His audience tilts decidedly left.

18

The claim was that “they are completely left wing Democrat and they are only one or two steps removed from a Jerry Springer audience.”

I have not seen a cite that they are “completely” liberal (as in no exceptions. I always hear at least a smattering of conservative support in the crowd), that any of them are registered Democrats (as opposed to people who don’t like Bush) or that they are anything close to Jerry Springer audience (the last claim is especially confusing. The Springer show is pretty apolitical, isn’t it?)

19

Yes, that was horrible. Dana seemed to think that he was expected to crack jokes, instead of participating in the discussion.

In case you’re still wondering, after Great Britain left India, it split into India and Pakistan. Millions of people moved between the two countries (Hindus to India and Muslims to Pakistan) and some number were killed in the riots and turmoil. (Wikipedia says somewhere between 200,000 and one million, so O’Sullivan was quoting the high estimate.) The obvious parallel is whether Iraq will fracture in a Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish states in a similarly bloody way, after a US pullout.

20

This not being GQ or GD, I felt that I had room for hyperbole. Obviously, I don’t stand around every week polling the entire audience on their political affiliation. That said, if you were somehow offended by the statement, I apologize for my laziness, I guess?

Judging solely from audience reactions, it is pretty clear that it is highly skewed toward liberal values. From the incessant applause to the occasional booing, it is obvious, to me at least and to several other board members that the audience very receptive to left wing ideology (and not so much the other side.) Are they all left wing democrats? Are there really a majority of right wingers, except they’re too polite to applaud and boo, maybe their individual mikes are set to low? No, of course I can’t tell you either way. The same way I can tell the sun is hot, I can tell the audience is liberal (yes that’s hyperbole too.)

The reference to the Jerry Springer show is not that they are of any political bent, it is that the Jerry Springer crowd is a trainwreck audience (this was in the response to the statement that Bill Maher, sometimes scolds his audience to an extreme.) They’re the type of people that stand around looking at a trainwreck. They are always out for blood and encourage inappropriate behavior for their voyeuristic needs. They clap for what they like and boo for what they don’t at the drop of a hat, oftentimes to the detriment of the “discussion.” In Bill Maher’s audience, it is a little more subdued, though they do applaud and cheer “too much,” and they do often boo people who they disagree with strongly, much to the detriment of the debate at hand. There have been many times, I have thought, “please, I do agree with what is being said, but stop all the damn clapping and let them get on with it.”

I am a very liberal person myself, I often agree with the liberal panelists and disagree with the conservative panelists, but I’m not watching the show for some liberal version of FOX news. I watch the show because I like to be challenged and I do like to hear all sides of the story. I hate the fact that the only conservative guests that Maher can get are the radicals and crazies because they are the only ones who will brave the highly prejudiced audience (guess I need to add the disclaimer that no I don’t know that all the conservatives are radical and crazy.)