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Wow - I just watched a clip of Bill Maher for the first time.
What a gigantic tool. I'm shocked that anyone could pretend he was impartial for two seconds without the cognitive dissonance and self-loathing driving them insane. He's the TV equivalent of the worst of the Internet posters.
It actually goes pretty far to explain the worst of the Internet posters. THAT makes it on the air? I knew show business was filled with whores, but I haven't seen pretense this bad since the opera concert in Citizen Kane.
The point of his rant was to say that they aren't nearly as bad as Fox News, but the entire nasty, deluded clip was a justification of Jon Stewart's suggestion at the rally to turn the blathering losers off. Unbelievable.
Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
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Dabbler, that doesn't 'knock down' his views. Juan Williams would have said the same thing had he been asked the same question on NPR
Posts: 1918 | Registered: Mar 2005
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quote:Originally posted by katharina: What a gigantic tool. I'm shocked that anyone could pretend he was impartial for two seconds without the cognitive dissonance and self-loathing driving them insane.
Is anyone pretending that Bill Maher is impartial?
Posts: 3852 | Registered: Feb 2002
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Oh Bill Maher's biased as hell. Doesn't pretend not to be, and I'm unaware of anyone who actually thinks he isn't. I love him anyway, though. Well, most of the time. What I really like is that he's always honest (even when he's being an idiot). Yeah, there's the scripted comedy routine and one-liners, but he doesn't hold back how he really feels, and in that sense I think he does a great job of connecting with his viewers (stoned though many of them may be). Plus, he usually has awesome guests.
Posts: 1945 | Registered: Jul 2005
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Would NPR have aired it if Juan Williams had said it on NPR? From how they responded, I think it's reasonable to suggest that they would not have aired it. If it had been a live broadcast, then I think NPR would be consistent in their ethical guidelines to fire him for showing bias and disrespect. I believe they fired him due to showing that bias and disrespect (on a different news channel).
Posts: 1261 | Registered: Apr 2004
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Bill Maher and Jon Stewart are both "biased as hell"...conservatives still find them entertaining. I'm as right wing as you can get and I love Bill Maher and Jon Stewart. I see them for what they are,....entertainers. If Jon Stewart ran for president, he'd get a signifigant portion of the vote. Is this a good thing? Conservatives enjoy Maher and Stewart for what they are,...comedians. If you consider Maher and Stewart to be politically relevant, you'd fit right in with the crowds of the colloseum, during the fall of Rome.
Posts: 1495 | Registered: Mar 2009
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quote:Originally posted by katharina: punchy trash.
I don't know what the definition for this would be, but looking at context, you're probably right. Bill Maher is very often a jerk. But, he manages to be amusing to a lot of people despite being a jerk.
Posts: 3852 | Registered: Feb 2002
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I'm curious, Kat: what do you think of Will Ferrell, Eddie Izzard and Freddie Prinze, respectively, as comedians?
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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quote:Originally posted by rollainm: Oh Bill Maher's biased as hell. Doesn't pretend not to be, and I'm unaware of anyone who actually thinks he isn't. I love him anyway, though. Well, most of the time. What I really like is that he's always honest (even when he's being an idiot). Yeah, there's the scripted comedy routine and one-liners, but he doesn't hold back how he really feels, and in that sense I think he does a great job of connecting with his viewers (stoned though many of them may be). Plus, he usually has awesome guests.
His personal bias doesn't detract from the fact that he is a great commedian. He's hillarious. I laughed my ass off to Colbert and Stewart at the Lincoln memorial. Colbert in the bunker was particularly funny. Comedy has a root of truth. Colbert is lib who pretends to be a conservative...he's hillarious to me. I'm as conservative as you can get. Of course, Chris Rock could have comedy routines where he said he was afraid of "niggers"...to a black audience. Truth is, black people are afraid of niggers. Only Chris Rock could get away with using the "N" word. He's black. Colbert is hillarious to both liberals and conservatives. He pretends to be extreme right but happens to be left.
There's a root of truth in all comedy that is good.
Posts: 1495 | Registered: Mar 2009
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quote:Originally posted by Samprimary: Lucky you: NPR does not claim to be free of bias, and its ombudsmans regularly track how much bias ends up in the end programs in reports. What it makes a claim to is a functional desire to minimize bias and to strive towards impartiality. It largely succeeds at this. But even if it were completely impartial, conservatives would consistently view it as having a left-wing bias. Guaranteed.
For someone that often blows the logical fallacy whistle, I find your last sentence there hilarious.
I don't agree with Juan Williams being fired, especially since other people on NPR have made (in my opinion) worse statements in the past. There was one commentator (I believe it was Nina Totenberg?) that said that if there was any justice in the world Jesse Helms or one of his grandchildren would get AIDS. She is still a legal analyst.
So you can't say seeing people in Muslim garb make you feel uncomfortable on a plane, but you can wish someone (or their grandchildren) get a horrible disease.
Then again that was back in the 90's and the world has changed since then. That and Vivian Schiller wasn't running NPR at the time.
Posts: 1937 | Registered: Nov 2006
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quote:Originally posted by Samprimary: Lucky you: NPR does not claim to be free of bias, and its ombudsmans regularly track how much bias ends up in the end programs in reports. What it makes a claim to is a functional desire to minimize bias and to strive towards impartiality. It largely succeeds at this. But even if it were completely impartial, conservatives would consistently view it as having a left-wing bias. Guaranteed.
For someone that often blows the logical fallacy whistle, I find your last sentence there hilarious.
I don't agree with Juan Williams being fired, especially since other people on NPR have made (in my opinion) worse statements in the past. There was one commentator (I believe it was Nina Totenberg?) that said that if there was any justice in the world Jesse Helms or one of his grandchildren would get AIDS. She is still a legal analyst.
So you can't say seeing people in Muslim garb make you feel uncomfortable on a plane, but you can wish someone (or their grandchildren) get a horrible disease.
Then again that was back in the 90's and the world has changed since then. That and Vivian Schiller wasn't running NPR at the time.
That and Jesse Helms was a Republican.
Posts: 431 | Registered: Jul 2001
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