Bill Maher Disses The Daily Show Rally: It’s Better To Have A Rally That’s “About Something”
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Wow. It looks like Keith Olbermann isn’t the only big liberal star to have a problem with the message espoused by Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert at last week’s rally. On tonight’s Real Time, Bill Maher also had a problem with the way Stewart seemed to equate the extremes on the Left with the extremes on the Right. During an extended (and sure to be debated) New Rule, Maher argued that he didn’t “need to pretend that both sides have a point here.”
Here’s some choice quotes from Maher’s argument:
“The message of the rally, as I heard it, was that, if the media stopped giving voice to the crazies on both sides, then maybe we could restore sanity. It was all nonpartisan and urged cooperation with the moderates on the other side forgetting that Obama tried that and found out…there are no moderates on the other side. When Jon announced his rally, he said the national conversation was dominated by people on the Right who believe Obama’s a Socialist and people on the Left who believe 9/11’s an inside job, but I can’t name any Democratic leaders who think 9/11’s an inside job. But Republican leaders who think Obama’s a Socialist…all of them.”
There’s been a lot of talk about how the Tea Party has been causing a rift in the Republican establishment. Now that the Dems are the underdogs, is it time for them to split in half?
A Civil War between the fans of Stewart/Colbert and Maher is definitely interesting to imagine. Both sides seem too smart to really become adversarial towards each other (again, it’s important to remember that, deep down, these are entertainers and not politicians), but it would be interesting to see if it goes any further. So who’s ready for it? The battle of the ratings versus the uncensored curse words! Maher has made the first blow. It’s doubtful that either Stewart or Colbert will pick up the gauntlet, but we can imagine where it would lead.
Check out the clip from HBO below:
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62 comments
Keith who?
Bill Maher will be fired by the end of the week. You don’t cross Jon Stewart. Maher better be careful or Stewart will hold another rally.
This is all too much. It reminds me of when The Beverly Hillbillies would visit Green Acres, except that they got along. Either way this Modern Liberalism/Progresivism itself has jumped the shark.
Bill, are ya going to talk about how all those stupid Americans threw your lib pals out?
LOL
I like Bill, but Jon’s right on this one.
Poor Bill is jealous that no one pays him any attention.. Well other than to make fun of his I am snotty, know more than you attitude when everyone knows he knows alot about nothing… He is a 2 bit comedian with little to know real world knowledge, that hangs out with some “Elites” and thinks therefor he is “Elite” Unfortunately for him, other than his few progressive friends, everyone else in the world looks at him as a clown with a TV show… Just like Olberman.. Oh wait..
Nah, they’re all wrong. One thing I’ve learned over the past few years is that, for just about any issue of substance, the liberal side is almost always wrong. And for the times that they are right, it’s only a tactic or temporary.
Everyone should watch and absorb the talk “How Modern Liberals Think”. It’s by Evan Sayet, who used to be a writer for Maher. Evan is a genius and I love his theory: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaE98w1KZ-c
And Jeffy are you going to tell us how your boy Bush got us into a war for no reason? No because you are a coward.
how hard is it to see how stupid americans are? Well look at the garbage that is on MTV it’s pretty easy to see… or most of the stuff on television for that matter. It isn’t hard to see how dumb we are.
I was by no means a fan of Bush, but seriously Scott, Dems in the house and senate supported the “no reason war in Iraq”, which was also supported by prior President Clinton as well as, intel from multiple countries ect.. I mean at least try and be some what honest.. And do I think we should have gone to Iraq?? No I dont, but you cant pick and choose what is real and what isnt.
Stewart sent a hit man to Maher’s place, instructing him to make Maher sleep with the fishes. The hit man returned and said, “From the smell of his sheets, it appears he already is.”
If Bill Maher chooses, I believe he could get his program on a non-premium cable channel.
Maybe not the comedy channel (conflict with Stewart), but there are several other channels which would be glad to air his show.
Let’s see?? Bravo, TNT between Conan & Lopez, game show channel, TLC after Sarah Palin’s Alaska.
Lots of options.
Does HBO care if Maher gets good ratings or not? I assume since there are not advertisers ratings don’t matter much which makes it a cozy gig for Maher.
Wow, Bill Maher demolishes the Republican party yet again. You guys are doing everything wrong, I wonder when you’ll realize.
In other news, another one who felt targeted as being outside the realm of “Sanity” reacts negatively to the rally. Shocking… I expected all of them, on both sides, to just tone down and become more reasonable and moderate.
Meh, indeed. Keep on preaching to your choir, Bill. How about you now go on a dimwitted rant about how reading The Onion is a waste of time when we could be reading The Nation? It would seem apropos.
I used to love Bill, but he’s gone so far left it’s annoying.
I would love to start an online movement that floods his e-mail and voice mail with God loves You Bill! I’ve never seen an athiest go so far out of his way to hate God and demean people that beileve.
bill maher is right,the false comparison has to stop.
any one one who compares fox …. and msnbc is crazyyyyy.
no, he said how stupid Americans keep voting against their own self interest.
Whoever equates MSNBC with FOX is not paying attention.
They have 3 hours of GOP tool Joe Scarborough on every morning. Plus other assorted GOP tools on the rest of the day (Chuck Todd, Andrea Mitchell, etc.)
Who does FOX have on from the left? :crickets:
Maher continues to be as irrelevant as ever. He can’t even get “greater than / less than” correct. Last time I checked 400,000 is more than 150,000.
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/huffpo-rally-attendance-obliterates-turnout-to-glenn-beck-rally/
They have everyone on the left who would bring in any ratings.
I find myself agreeing with Maher on this.
I love Bill Maher. I do. Watch his show every week, and enjoy whenever he’s on someone else’s show.
But, I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again — DON’T PICK A FIGHT WITH JON STEWART!!! It never, ever, EVER ends well. Just a few days ago, I said the same thing about Keith Olbermann picking a fight with Stewart, and looked what happened. Sure, his suspension had nothing to do with Stewart, but still…. the point stands. You pick a fight with Stewart, and either you get publicly embarrassed or you get thrown off the air.
You knew there was an election a couple of days ago, right? Did you see the results yet?
MysteriousTraveller says:
November 6, 2010 at 8:29 am MysteriousTraveller(Quote)
1 0
Whoever equates MSNBC with FOX is not paying attention.
They have 3 hours of GOP tool Joe Scarborough on every morning. Plus other assorted GOP tools on the rest of the day (Chuck Todd, Andrea Mitchell, etc.)
Who does FOX have on from the left? :crickets:
riiiiiight they are really allllllll GOP… hahaha, yea and uh olbermann was … Center.. Ninny.
I like Jon Stewart a lot but his equating MSNBC with Fox is just plain wrong.
The whole “both sides do it” is a bullshit meme.
The sun still comes up in the east. It’s always hot in Louisiana in August. Dogs still chase cats. And Bill Maher is still a punk.
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I think Bill makes some excellent points. The fact that Republican leaders have to back off or be punished for criticizing pundits , or will agree with nonsense to keep from alienating voters makes a difference. Who was the guy who had to basically apologize to Rush a few days after making a negative comment. Then there’s Bob Inglis Rep from S Carolina who got booed at a town hall for daring to suggest people turn Glenn Beck off. In 2010 he got replaced as the GOP nominee.
All that said I think both Bill M. and Keith O. missed some of the point and the nuance in what Jon has been saying. He didn’t say the left and right media are equal in offense. I think his point is that neither have taken it upon themselves to really inform us, and to offer intelligent fact based analysis of important issues. No TV media gives us in depth examination of the issues. Indeed, maybe it’s too much to expect. When you think of it a very small % of people actually tune in the shows we talk about. What seems to happening is that because Shows like Beck and Hannity , and various other pundits and “news casters” are willing to spread phony hyped and often false information the fringe has grown a bit and gotten louder. On the left as well, although not to the same extent.
I think Jon’s point, made through that Jersey tunnel analogy, is that there is a vast majority of moderates on both sides that are so busy or perhaps so turned off by the quality of what passes for dialogue , that we haven’t been involved in the discussion. We’ve stepped back from the rants, accusations and name calling , and while the media keeps telling us how divided we are, we go about our day making things work, and maybe even liking and respecting people we disagree with on some things.
Maybe Jon is suggesting that the the majority, made up of middle class moderates willing to find some compromises and move forward, need to get involved with the conversation.
I went to a birthday gathering last night for a conservative friend of mine who couldn’t pass up the opportunity to tease me about the election, but later confessed that he wasn’t all that confident that this new group of politicians would do anything decent.
What he didn’t say, and his show doesn’t say, is both sides do it equally. IMO, the meme that Jon said or implied that is incorrect.
Mathematically, that’s true. It’s just that neither of those numbers are accurate in speaking about either rally.
Maher is just disappointed that Stewart’s rally was not a Liberal love fest. Stewart’s message was that idealogical messages get in the way of having fun, people ought to lighten up. Stewart’s only flaw in his rally was having Yusuf Israel as a guest.
Right.
Maher has said numerous times that he isn’t an atheist. Don’t blame us for what he says, because he isn’t one of us (and his numerous anti-science rants prove it).
“Then there’s Bob Inglis Rep from S Carolina who got booed at a town hall for daring to suggest people turn Glenn Beck off. In 2010 he got replaced as the GOP nominee. ”
—That’s because there’s no more room for RINO’S. People are tired of voting for the GOP and getting the same old bullshit they get from the DNC. You have to cut taxes AND spending. Besides, so far Glenn Beck has been right about everything he said.
http://politicallyincorrectlibertarian.wordpress.com/
Bill doesn’t hate God, or even deny God exists. He admits he doesn’t know. He is rather outspoken about beliefs he finds goofy or even stupid. I don’t find that any more evil than believers who judge others as “hell bound” or whatever because people don’t share the same beliefs they do.
What bother’s Bill is people believing religious tradition with such certitude, willing to disregard reason and science for the sake of religious tradition and claim “it’s faith” I admit Bill is pretty blunt and sometimes rude in his presentation but no more so than some believers are when they insist their opinion is also the opinion of the one and only God.
If your belief affects the lives of others you should expect them to challenge that belief. It always surprises me that people who claim to value truth and will agree that the truth can set us free, are willing to close their eyes hearts and minds when the truth conflicts with the religious traditions of men. Such is the nature of mankind I guess.
I have to ask this question……
Who really gives shit what Bill Maher says? I mean really…
Everytime I see this guy interviewed, he looks like he is in pain and in need of a laxative.
BOOM!
How’d that one feel Jon?
“Maher biatch-slaps Stewart right across the face!”
Let’s see who emerges less-damaged from this one!
Bill Maher is a comedian and he’s right on this one. I voted republican (because of taxes) but even I know the people like Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage are worse than any major democratic spokesman on the right. I’d go as far as to say they are extremists and need to be ridiculed and pushed out of mainstream political discourse.
Let the calm heads prevail. It’s not about being liberal or conservative, democrat or republican, it’s about voting for issues you believe in, regardless of party lines.
More fun from Maher’s show:
Fareed Zakaria Exposes Bill Maher’s Complete Ignorance of Politics
For the second time in two weeks, a devout liberal exposed just how little Bill Maher actually knows about politics.
When the “Real Time” host arrogantly told his guests that people voted for Republicans this past Tuesday because President Obama “didn’t back the public option” during the healthcare reform debate, Time’s Fareed Zakaria marvelously informed the comedian just how wrong he was (video follows with transcript and commentary):
Read more: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2010/11/06/fareed-zakaria-exposes-bill-mahers-complete-ignorance-politics#ixzz14WCICvJs
Keep talking, Bill. Please!
Man, Maher is an idiot. (As an aside, I like to say Bill Behar and Joy Maher real fast). nyways, when you watch him say the “public option” reasoning, it’s so painful. How can these liberals be so delusional?
Fareed Zakaria is very logical, and tends to view things in a very binary way. He’s always entertaining in debates, in my opinion, and you can see why he’s been tapped as a political advisor in the past (to president Bush most recently). A true skeptical thinker that looks at logic, reasoning, and semantics in a sober way.
To be honest, the rest of the world kind of thinks all fox news viewers are a joke… as does a hefty portion of America. You could say that the Tea-Baggers, are, in a way, the laughing stock of America, who only won because of the sheer amount of stupidity they were able to send to the polls.
Rednecks, Poor people, stupid people, they all vote Republican because they don’t know better. It’s sad.
Rednecks, Poor people, stupid people, they all vote Republican because they don’t know better. It’s sad.
Sensitive liberals do not believe in stereotyping.
You’re like the reverse of Karl aren’t you? Conservative satire. Who’d a thunk it.
Jon Martin said:
To be honest, the rest of the world kind of thinks all fox news viewers are a joke… as does a hefty portion of America. You could say that the Tea-Baggers, are, in a way, the laughing stock of America, who only won because of the sheer amount of stupidity they were able to send to the polls.
Rednecks, Poor people, stupid people, they all vote Republican because they don’t know better. It’s sad.
Thats because you are so enlightened that you refer back to the Jr. High school put downs for people that have different political opinions than yourself. You enlightened liberal you. Whose the smart guy using the teabagger reference… YOU ARE… Twit.
I have seen BM proudly proclaim that he is an athiest many times. Athiests have their right to not believe as they wish. For believers and non-believers to hurl insults at one another over faith serves neither cause well. BM’s vociferous attacks against believers of any faith disgusts me.
If BM was on fire I wouldn’t piss on him to put it out.
Is that why FOX News dominates the cable ratings and is growing? Is that why FOX News obliterated ALL of the news networks during the election coverage? People tend to listen to a message that they agree with.
while many people are conservative the actual numbers that watch any cable TV news is a pretty small % of the population. I think more and more people are finding other sources of news and information as TV cable “news” becomes more like the national enquirer.
Thank you.
He’s an atheist who admits he doesn’t know if God exists or not. He has the same problem with certitude coming from believers or non believers.
The thing I notice is that it doesn’t seem to occur to believers how insulting their beliefs can be. I don’t think foolish religious beliefs deserve some modicum of respect or an untouchable status especially when they adversely affect the lives of others.
You want to teach creation theory in schools along with evolution as if they’re equal. They’re not and it’s ignorant to assert they are. You want to quote the Bible or mention God when denying gay citizens equal rights. Someone has every right to mention the Bible is just a book written by men and has no authority, and it’s willful ignorance to ignore all the evidence that shows that to be true.
cosmos dan , i agree the religion quoting the bible is a lame arguement, but bill does go out of hi s way to insult religion
True. The scary thing is that so many “young” people get their political news and opinions from John Stewart and Steven Colbert. Not much better than the Enquirer.
I treat my gay and lesbian friends just like my straight friends. The same goes for my athiest friends and friends of other faiths. If someone wants to teach that there are no gods they should have that right. They should not, however, have the right right to suppress the right of a believer to teach their point of view and vice versa. Causing harm to someone else for their beliefs is not acceptable.
Let every person learn every point of view then make their own choice.
Equating MSNBC (which just suspended Keith Olbermann for donating to a politican’s campaing) with Fox-Kids (who shamelessly handed a check for $1 million to the RNC) is like equating an educated adult with grade schools droputs who just found their pappy’s gun.
Jon Stewart, who is awesome, is wrong and Bill Maher is100% right.
This ‘fairness’ crap is anything but.
Bill O’SexualDeviant, Glenn ‘Cry-Baby’ Beck, Sean ‘Neo-Nazi’ Hannity and Rush Limpdick make their living by scaring uneducated little NASCAR boys from the sewer south while folks like Keith Olbermann, and Bill himself simply shine a light on the neo-confederates and their scare tactics.
Phrases like “Mushroom Cloud”, “Mass Casualtiy Attacks”, “Terror Alerts” and the rest we’ve become so familiar with since the AWOL coward allowed 9/11 to kill Americans that they’ve almost lost their ability to scare hayseeds so the entertainers over at Fox-Kids had to come up with something brand new to scare the sewer south boys and what better way than to play on their inbred racism…enter President Obama. Sorry Jon but you had an ideal oportunity at the “Rally” to show your fans that fairness for fairness’ sake is stupid instead you wasted it by trying to equate peofessionals like Olbermann and Maher with filth like Rush “The Druggie” Limbaugh and Sean “Hal Turner’s Best Friend” Hannity.
Face it…if you still think the folks over at Fox and Clear Channel care about America you are not American and there’s a better than even chance you hail from the primitive, uneducated, inbred slave-states.
He’s blunt to the point of being rude, I agree. I just want believers to understand that their beliefs , however sincere can be insulting as well and it’s inevitable that religious beliefs will affect society as a whole, so we have to be able to speak freely about those beliefs. Preachers go on TV and spout theirs every day. I guess Bill gets to spout his as well. I admit I cringe sometimes at his presentation, but we can always turn the channel.
I’m confused. In what way is Maher or anyone suppressing the right of believers to teach their point of view?
I do have a problem with people who want to publicly teach mythology and religious tradition as fact. I certainly wouldn’t try to prevent people from teaching what they believe in their Sunday schools or whatever, but we do need to differentiate between religious tradition and accepted science.
I think free speech allows believers to voice their beliefs and folks like Maher to disagree. Obviously there are many more preachers on TV and radio than non believers. So, how is anyone trying to cause harm?
NeoConfederate is so bitter, he must be a Union army vet. Didn’t know any were still alive.
Jon wrote, “Both sides seem too smart to really become adversarial towards each other….”
This is what the media wants to have happen, right Jon? Gives “neutral” reporters something interesting to cover.
Stewart was trying to offer up the false meme that there are crazies on both sides, and that’s what Maher, Olbermann and Maddow (among others) are taking issue with. There is only one side that has gone over the cliff of reason for the last two years, and that is the right and far more so the far (reactionary) right led in no small part by Glenn Beck.
The rally to restore sanity was disappointing in one large respect. The ONLY time people were encouraged to actually VOTE in the elections was at the very end by Tony Bennett and he was competing with applause.
It turns out that people not turning out to vote altered the outcome of the elections and the course of history. The rally to restore sanity did not restore sanity; it failed to prevent the least sane from taking over.
Rally to restore sanity: epic failure!
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