Posted on 09/23/2005 9:43:15 PM PDT by cyberdasher
I didn't immediately see a topic for the tonight's (9/24/2005) episode of Realtime with Bill Maher on HBO, a show I wouldn't normally watch unless I REALLY feel like getting bent out of shape.
Tonight's guests included Chris Hitchens and Georgie "the Arabist" Galloway, and for once, there was some casual, uncensored leeway to have an adult debate (at least on Hitchen's part).
Number of times Maher insinuated Hitchens was a drunk: 3. Number of times Maher whipped the crowd into a masturbatory frenzy over the "stupidity" of Bush: 10, maybe 11. Number of times he compared Laura Bush to Hitler's dog: Once too many.
Tonight, he crossed the line in a fashion more sinister than what got him in trouble years back. In one of his segments he alluded to Bush falling back to the comforts of alcohol (a National Enquirer story?). Maher photoshopped some pics of Bush sipping Budweiser from a customized bike helmet (funny). He showed Bush's face superimposed on Nick Nolte's drunken hawaiian-shirted mugshot (funny). Then he proceeds to show a drunken Bush passed out on the floor, as if he had overindulged at a wild party--with an impish Kate Moss doing coke lines off the back of his exposed buttocks (reprimand from HBO). Finally, a portrait of Laura Bush with a bandaged face and a black eye as if an abusive Bush had battered her. (CAREER ENDING INSULT, Billy Boy).
HBO better had step up and excoriate this maniac.
Hahahaha, I edited my reply ;-)
Can't Bush sue The Enquirer and Maher for libel and slander?
Nope. As a public figure, he's fair game. Anybody can pretty much say anything they want about W.
Good thing, too. Otherwise Bill Clinton would have been able to shut them (and us) down years ago.
I thought there had to be truth to it. I remember many years ago, Carol Burnett won a big case against the Enquirer when they printed a false story about her stumbling drunk out of a restaurant.
I think they have to prove that the publishers knew the story was false. All the Enquirer has to do is testify that a source gave them the information, they couldn't prove that the source was wrong/lying, and they're in the clear.
Tom Cruise won such a suit as well, but the burden is extremely high for celebrities to sue. And for politicians, it's stratospheric.
Maher is even more protected than a paper. - he can say anything he wants at all (short of threatening violence, and even that wouldn't really bring much more than a Secret Service investigation). Especially if it's been reported elsewhere - he's only making comedy out of acknowledged news reports.
Free speech means that some people will always abuse it. Nutjobs on both sides will say things about politicians, and the politicians just have to live with it, whether it's the reports that W is back on the sauce or that Clinton had a political execution squad when he was governor of Arkansas.
Thanks for the explanation. I hate liberals. ;)
Glad you sent an email.......I did too!
Also felt good to tell them that Maher had 'crossed over the line' this time in his offensive attacks.....and that HBO had lost me as a paying customer!
Will do. His comments were beyond over the top. He should really GET OVER his smarmy self.
Does anyone remember when HBO actually showed movies, and MTV actually played music videos?
My response to HBO, not that they'll care.
Once again, Maher is sinking to new pathonogenic lows. He spews filth, lies, and hatred. Maher truly is a pathetic, washed up, bitter man and you would do better to be rid of him.
I realize this is HBO I'm talking to, so you are accustomed to filth in your programming already, but really, calling the President of the united states a drunk and associating him with cocaine snorting women, then calling him a wife-beater is too disgusting even for you.
Clean up your act and at least pretend to have some common decency.
Or maybe it's how much "thing" fits in his mouth.
maybe it's the size of the thing he had in his mouth. I already e-mailed HBO.
Number of women killed by Ted Kennedy in a moment of drunken abandon: >0
Number of women victimized in the presence of a drunken Ted Kennedy: >0
Number of Bill Maher jokes about the habitual drunkard Ted Kennedy's excessive and abusive lifestyle: 0
What do expect from a tv channel that airs video of two transexuals bathing each other in a tub and calling the program "REAL Sex"???
Don't bother with complaining to HBO. Take your grievance to Warner and tell them you will cancel your subscription to Warner Cable. Time-Life-Warner-Turner is one ugly company.
You have satellite and dish options now. Defund the left.
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