For me, Bill Maher’s value is in allowing me to step a little bit outside of my echo chamber without having to watch Fox News or etc. I also see and appreciate a difference in how he treats his guests as opposed to CNN which sometimes takes pride in making headlines about themselves by having their anchors rudely argue with people they are interviewing. Maher is infotainment but he’s less about the “gotcha!”
There was a notable incident where he used the N-word with a hard R on the end on his show. He was using the N-word to describe himself and the audience laughed but still… it is clear he got a talking to about that one and I’m pretty sure he hasn’t said it on his show since.
Bearing in mind the N-word incident mentioned above and I am sure any of a million other things he has said over the years, I honestly believe Bill Maher lives in perpetual fear of being cancelled for something he said a long time ago. I think this is why he tilts at the windmill of wokeness every chance he gets. He knows that someday somebody will rediscover that one old clip of him saying whatever and it will go viral and he’ll be out of a job and out of the prospect of any future jobs.
Maher is reportedly worth $140 million. I can’t imagine he gives a damn about getting “canceled”. Would you? He goes after “woke” because he’s a crank with an axe to grind and a megaphone. There’s no deeper meaning.
Yeah, Maher was real rough on Junior (link posted last fall in this thread, but highlights are worth repeating)…
Seems like Maher spent at least as much time ass-kissing as “pushing back”.
Spreading outright falsehoods (like claiming during the segment with RFK Junior that repeated Covid-19 vaccination increases one’s chances of contracting the virus, or his earlier assertion that flu vaccination makes one more vulnerable to Alzheirmer’s disease, or fawning over a crank who claimed that drinking milk from arthritic goats was protective against AIDS) is not “cynicism” - it’s the sort of sleazy pseudoscientific claptrap he’s been engaging in for a long time. Again, from the Daily Beast:
OK, wolfpup, we get that you’re willing to excuse Maher’s revolting tendencies because of stuff about him you like. But don’t mischaracterize his being repeatedly and deliberately dead wrong on vital public health issues as “cynicism” or even “skepticism”. In Maher’s case, it qualifies as denialism.
*Maher likes to call antivax loons “ballsy”, as when he praised Woody Harrelson for his antivaccine tirade on Saturday Night Live - remarks Maher helped him craft.
You’re kidding right? US news media is perpetually walking on eggshells and with a faux politeness that allows their guests to gish gallop any old nonsense. It’s only post-Trump that some interviewers have learned to toughen up a bit.
As I’ve said previously; Mehdi Hasan’s interview style is completely normal for most of Europe. We should be taking politicians to task. And we shouldn’t let them squirm away from answering a direct question.
All that being said, I do enjoy the Mahar style too. Not because of the civility, but mostly because they are a bit more long form and it’s nice that multiple people can chip in with views.
Can you give an example? Because when it comes to banning books, topics, technology etc (as well as obviously reproductive health) ISTM it’s a heck of a lot easier to find examples from the american right.
Oh - the one in which "the two came to an agreement, with Maher arguing for “mak[ing] (Covid vaccination) a case by case basis.”, and let Junior get by with claiming he’s not antivaccine, and the label is just a way of “silencing” him?
On further consideration, your argument that Maher is merely “cynical” about vaccines has made me see Republican leaders in a new light. When they back Trump’s claim of a “stolen” 2020 election due to widespread voter fraud, they’re not fantasizing and lying through their teeth - they’re merely being “cynical”.
Not challenging your point, but I wish to hell people would stop misusing the term “gaslighting”.
The poster in question is not trying to make you think you’re crazy for nefarious reasons, but is merely saying something with which you strongly disagree.
Am I defending him on this? Have you even read the fucking thread? Here’s what I said way early on near the beginning of the thread:
And here’s something else I said, emphasis added:
So what am I defending, @Yookeroo? Let me answer that for you, since you apparently haven’t figured it out. I’m defending the overall value of the show Real Time with Bill Maher.
My sin here, in the eyes of some posters, is apparently that I don’t see the world in black and white; that I fail to side with the bigoted view that if someone is factually wrong about something, then nothing they say is ever worth listening to. That I fail to side with the bigoted view that their entire show is therefore worthless, and so are the thousands of distinguished and well-informed guests that have offered their insights over the course of a quarter-century.
I also object to posters like @Jackmannii conflating the views of some of Maher’s lunatic guests with the views of Maher himself. Has Maher ever claimed that drinking the milk of arthritic goats protects you from AIDS? Not that I know of, but apparently he once had someone named Sam Chachoua as an interview guest who did. I don’t recall that interview but I suspect that “fawning” was very much that article writer’s interpretation of Maher’s lack of aggressiveness. Whenever Maher has controversial guests, there’s always some infuriated contingent that accuses him of not being aggressive enough, as if he should have punched his guest in the face. I responded to that this way:
I’m not going to convince any hater of Bill Maher to watch the show and I’m not trying to. But there’s a lot of hysteria and misrepresentation going on here, much of which I suspect comes from those who have rarely or never seen the show, and base their opinions on a few controversial video clips or outraged media commentary on them.
