Just watched my last episode of Real Time with Bill Maher

[Babel_17]

I was disgusted by what I saw as a deliberate change in the show to make it more right wing friendly.

I think it was decided that liberal viewers were a given and were so hooked on the show that as long as they were thrown a few scraps they would continue to watch.

With that attitude their strategy has become to throw in the sound bytes needed to attract right wing viewers.

How ironical to hear the MSM derided for its obsession over empty calorie stories involving scandal and shootings after Maher takes tired and predictable jabs at Michael Jackson. Michael Jackson naturally being a safe and easy target. Many guffaws for those on the right and nobody on the left wants to be associated with his weirdness.

Watching Maher simper at the applause he got for jokes that were barely humorous was getting me agitated. The last straw was when I saw how the show seems to now have the attitude that Bush has stumbled into delivering a surprise success in the middle east.

Maybe I'm being too hard on Maher, maybe it was the shows producers and HBO who are dictating the change in format.

But he doesn't have to go along so willingly if that is the case.

Maybe his new mansion has altered his outlook.

Unless I hear from others here in the DU that his show has greatly improved this weeks episode was my last.

P.S. That "Muslim in the middle" gal, could she possibly be a bigger panderer? Call me cynical but what she has to say is eerily in tune to what is needed to rake in the bucks from the right wing.

[Zuni]

1. Maher is not one to be pigeonholed

he will shock you from time to time, just to be offensive.

Who cares if he makes MJ jokes. I think MJ jokes are funny.

[Babel_17]

5. It's not the jokes so much

It's my perception that Maher is whoring to bump up his right wing viewership.

And his whoring isn't high class. The whole MJ thing has been done to death and it would take a great comic with great material to breathe life into that subject. And I saw neither in that monologue.

But it's with humbleness that I take your point about pigeonholing Maher. Your reminder gives me some hope that the show will improve.

[NightTrain]

2. Damn. And I thought Maher was one of the good guys.

What a shame. :(

[BlueJazz]

3. I truly wanted to yell at the "Muslim in the middle" Gal....

She has one of the most irritating personalities I've ever seen.
Did you see her keep rubbing the other 2 folk's arms and saying "sure..sure" (with a smirk on her face)?

I was glad to see Richard tell her to get Fucked..(in so many words)..

[proud2BlibKansan]

10. Yes, who was she?

I missed the beginning when they introduced her.

[Hatalles]

13. Irshad Manji, sellout and opportunist extraordinaire. The Muslim Malkin.

She published a book a year or two ago (maybe even later)-- it was called "The Trouble with Islam," I think and it caused a stir for a just a bit. Talk was, she was just itchin' for a Rushdie-like fatwa but it never happened. Consequently, her book sales didn't do well in the US and never was able to find a significant audience.

[Catamount]

16. My feelings exactly--- I wanted to punch her in the face and I'm

a pacifist and a woman!

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

4. He's going after the Canadian Lesbian Moslem Conservative audience

[Blue_In_AK]

6. The Muslim in the Middle girl

was killing me. I kept waiting for Richard Belzer to strangle her. I have to say I've been one of Bill's biggest apologists here, but he's starting to piss even me off.

[Cadence]

7. Bill Maher has jumped the shark

I'm done with him.

[2cents]

8. I didn't think it was that bad...

don't know if Mahre was only playing devil's advocate...but Belzer was the voice of reason and he held the fort...we'll see. :shrug:

[proud2BlibKansan]

9. Well don't watch this Friday

it's a show for conservatives. :puke:

[lastknowngood]

11. He's always been pretty much a right winger with some lib talk

to keep an audience. He's the next netzero spokesman.

[CanuckAmok]

12. Maher is a professional dissenter... that's his schtick.

One week he's centrist, another he's RW, the next he's a Leftie. His books are the same.

Basically, he's event/story driven... on some things, he's conservative, on others he's liberal.

Basically, I think he just likes to get a rise out of people.. it keeps him in Porsches and toast points.

[mcscajun]

14. Never claimed Liberal credentials -- he's a self-proclaimed Libertarian

with some leftist leanings. So when he agrees with us, we cheer; when he doesn't, we ask wha hoppen? His shtick is provoking people -- period.

He opposed the war on Iraq until it was on, then said now that we were there, we had to get behind it. So nothing he does should surprise us by now.

Somehow…some people forget this.

Haven't seen this past Friday's installment, yet, so I really can't comment on the "Muslim in the middle" gal.

[Babel_17]

21. I admit it, I did forget.

While I'm no expert on his politics what you are saying does ring true to what I do remember of them.

My opinion though is that Mr. Maher was in the past with this show cultivating a mostly left of center/libertarian/progressive audience.

I didn't think that was just marketing on his part. I really thought he was cultivating that audience because he was making a stand against what I think of as the united front that is on the right. The Bushco agenda in other words.

I'm the last person to say that those who oppose Bushco should march in lockstep in order to do so.

Bill Maher is welcome to be as diverse and eclectic in his thinking as he desires. But when I see pandering for ratings I call it.

I don't buy that he's trying to advance a diverse range of opinion because it's not practical to get an all inclusive panel on his show.

He did do that on his previous show before it was canceled but back then I could buy it as being somewhat honest and not just trying to keep the show edgy or what have you.

If Mr. Maher wants to tackle controversial issues on his show he is going to have to allow for the serious implications that will inevitably arise from a decent discussion of them. And that means seriously offending Bushco supporters.

I fear his show is heading the way of Crossfire. Intellectual and factual dishonesty will be allowed so as to provide "balance".

I think his show no longer wishes to scare the right wingers away. Be they guests for his show or viewers.

I tell you, I think the Bushco propaganda machine has really worn people down. As intended they are getting the consensus to become that the "center" is far more to the right than it really is.

People who disagree with this administration are being barred a forum for their dissent in the MSM so as to make those of a like mind think they are more alone in their beliefs than they really are.

Akkkkk, so in a way I'm venting onto Mr. Maher feelings that have been building up for quite a while.

Oh well, Friday's show was still crappy. :)

I have to be honest and admit I couldn't watch it to the end. Further viewing would have seemed to be an exercise in masochism.

[stopbush]

23. Is that anything like a self-proclaimed genius?

Few of us get to define ourselves. That's left up to what others think of us.

Bill's libertarianism has a strangely self-serving bent to it: everyone gets to to their own thing, but children shouldn't be allowed in public, etc. Up to few years ago he was big on smoking MJ. Now, he seems to think that wasn't so cool. Why?

[B Calm]

15. I'm totally disgusted with him too.

[Catamount]

17. Perhaps we expect too much from comedians?....

Like others have pointed out already, BM works whatever he thinks is funny and that is his job.
But I too am disappointed, can't deny it!
It's his guests that really piss me off,(apart from the obligatory 1 l-winger) how much more neocon could they be?
Yet I laughed a little here and there, so I suppose it was worth it.
I'll watch it again next week, since a lot of negative stuff is happening for * and the adm.today, so here's hoping!:beer:

[Skittles]

18. cannot watch him

he's just too f***ing smarmy

[Nikepallas]

19. I notice that too. It is like he lost his edge and honestly REAL fast

after the election.

[GalleryGod]

20. Maher Defenders: Last Week He was BEGGING for more NeoCons !

In his Friggin' Audience!

Guess Bill is the latest "Bottom Boy":puke:


Officially,Now: NO PLACE LEFT on TV:argh:

[stopbush]

22. Maher proves the maxim: a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

If only he was better informed, he might be of value. My wife still watches, but she's getting fed up.

I dropped into the TV room the other night when she was watching Real Time. He was interviewing Barney Frank and talking about SS and "personal" accounts. Bill thought he had Barney in the "can't we do better with our own money" headlock by repeating the R line that SS "earns only 1.6%. C'mon, Barney. Gov employees put their money into something else and earn 10%! Why can't we do that?" Of course, Barney straightened Bill out, saying "you're confusing two things, Bill. Gov employees DO pay into SS. You're talking about a Gov employee's version of a 401k. That's in addition to SS. You are already doing it." Barney then went on to mention some of the downsides to privatization...like what do you do with all the people in their 70s who opt for privatization and then see their investments fail? Do you say "too bad?" and let them starve? No. As Barney pointed out, the gov would have to step in and take care of them at additional cost.

What I found disappointing - again! - was that rather than Bill saying, "thanks for setting me straight, Barney. I guess I was talking through my hat on privitization," Bill just walked away from the conversation because his "big" talking point had just been blown out of the water. And it was fortunate that Barney Frank was there to answer the question, rather than some lame-ass DINO who would have conceded Bill's false point and allowed it to devolve into a he said/she said debate.

Later, I saw the new Ms Muslim Malkin blathering on as Belzer shot her down. "Bill is running a conversation for two-year-olds," I said to my wife. She agreed and flipped to something else.

On edit: I'm getting the impression that Bill gets most of his talking points from those shocking e-mail hoaxes that make the rounds every couple of months. Obviously, he had just received the one about "gov employees don't pay into SS BUT RETIRE WITH MILLIONS!!" crapper.

Look for him to rail on "Under God" being removed from the Pepsi/Coke/Dr Pepper cans next week.

Bill has bought into the "we have to do something/doing something is better than doing nothing" bullshit that the RW loves to throw to the sheeple. That's what's behind his "maybe bush was right invading Iraq" comments. That's the logic that says "I'm in an airplane that's crashing. I wish something different had been done. Oh, somehow we landed safely. Now, I'll get in my car now and drive off a cliff. It may not solve the problem with the airplane, but at least I'm doing something..."