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Bill Maher-P.I.

1,316 Views | 15 Replies

Bill Maher-P.I. 2001-09-27 11:02:04


Here is the latest news:

Conservative columnist Arianna Huffington says "Politically
Incorrect" could get yanked off the air by ABC because of
recent comments by host Bill Maher that upset advertisers
and network affiliates.
Huffington made the claim Tuesday - and strongly defended
Maher -in a column posted on her Web site,
ariannaonline.com.
"A small group of zealots have intentionally distorted
comments made by Bill Maher, and succeeded in putting the
show's future in jeopardy," Huffington, a frequent guest on
the show, wrote.
Maher's comments came last week during the first episode of
"PI" to air after the terror attacks on Sept. 11.
Huffington, whose syndicated column appears in The NY Post,
was not available for comment Tuesday.
Huffington's claim about ABC possibly yanking "P.I" is
"just a rumor," said an ABC spokesman. "It's not true."
(Don Kaplan - NY Post)

I'm glad I was able to make it on the show this summer while I was in L.A.

Response to Bill Maher-P.I. 2001-09-27 13:00:05


At 9/27/01 12:32 PM, traekwonz wrote: I read somewhere this morning that they actually had pulled his show off the air on some ABC affiliates.

Certain network affiliates have. I forget the name of the network that I read did that yesterday. I wanna say it was something like Citadel or a similar word. It wasn't one I had ever heard of or get near me.

Response to Bill Maher-P.I. 2001-09-28 08:48:41


Today's Update:

Staffers at "Politically Incorrect" have been updating
their resumes, says an insider. "I'm betting this show
won't be on the air much longer," says the source. "Too
many advertisers are pulling out. It hardly seems fair that
a guy's career can be derailed by one comment." The show's
host, Bill Maher, has been in hot water since saying that
the suicidal terrorists are braver than some in the U.S.
military....
Maybe Bill Maher can get a job with Michael Moore.
Filmmaker Moore is continuing to anger some with his e-
mails about the terrorist attacks. "The vast majority of
the dead are those who labored to bring them that wealth,
and it dishonors them and their families to so callously
crank up the greed machine within days of this tragedy," he
wrote in an e-mail that's being circulated among outraged
Wall Streeters. "Their bodies - thousands of them - are
still buried under the rubble down the street, but, hey,
why wait to give them a proper burial - let's get busy
making some money!"
(Jeannette Walls The Scoop in MSNBC Living)

Response to Bill Maher-P.I. 2001-09-29 01:38:37


At 9/27/01 11:02 AM, fourchinnigan wrote: Here is the latest news:

Conservative columnist Arianna Huffington says "Politically
Incorrect" could get yanked off the air by ABC because of
recent comments by host Bill Maher that upset advertisers
and network affiliates.
Huffington made the claim Tuesday - and strongly defended
Maher -in a column posted on her Web site,
ariannaonline.com.
"A small group of zealots have intentionally distorted
comments made by Bill Maher, and succeeded in putting the
show's future in jeopardy," Huffington, a frequent guest on
the show, wrote.
Maher's comments came last week during the first episode of
"PI" to air after the terror attacks on Sept. 11.
Huffington, whose syndicated column appears in The NY Post,
was not available for comment Tuesday.
Huffington's claim about ABC possibly yanking "P.I" is
"just a rumor," said an ABC spokesman. "It's not true."
(Don Kaplan - NY Post)

I'm glad I was able to make it on the show this summer while I was in L.A.

I am a big fan of Maher one of my few fav comedians.

I think his comment was blown out of preportion.

They took his show off here about 2 years ago, they only aired the Post Oscar shows.

Well maybe he will be moved to HBO or something, I wish I caught the first few seasons on Comedy Central, I didn't get DirecTV until 1998.

Response to Bill Maher-P.I. 2001-10-01 11:13:30


Next update:

In Washington, Bill Maher's Politically Incorrect -which
was off WJLA-TV during crisis coverage, then on again then
off again following Maher's controversial remarks, then on
again - is now off again.
The show ran Monday and Tuesday of last week but was taken
off and is off indefinitely, the station said.
No further explanation was given.
(Dan Trigoboff -Broadcasting & Cable)

Response to Bill Maher-P.I. 2001-10-01 11:59:37


At 10/1/01 11:13 AM, fourchinnigan wrote: Next update:

In Washington, Bill Maher's Politically Incorrect -which
was off WJLA-TV during crisis coverage, then on again then
off again following Maher's controversial remarks, then on
again - is now off again.
The show ran Monday and Tuesday of last week but was taken
off and is off indefinitely, the station said.
No further explanation was given.
(Dan Trigoboff -Broadcasting & Cable)

TIRADE!

Advertisers are such pricks. People lined up to endorse Dr. Laura's show despite (or because of) her staunch anti-gay and anti single mother rhetoric. Even with the lobbying, letter writing, and protests; that show made it on the air for one lousy season. But Bill Maher makes one comment and he becomes a pariah because the statement is "Anti-American", I guess he was put on the suspected communist list too.

People need to wake up and get their heads out of their asses. Criticizing a military action that did not work is not un-American. Whatever people may say about what he has said, no one has attacked it's validity- dropping a bunch of bombs on Afghanistan did not work last time, and it's not going to work now. But it is so much fun to get swept up into the patriotic mob mentality that the United States is perfect and has never and will never do any wrong. Here's a news flash people, the United States, along with every other country on earth, is run by people, and people are not perfect. We have had our share of fuck-ups, but we have had our share of successes as well. You can't censor people who remind you of the past, because as Santayama so wisely said, "He who forgets the past is condemned to repeat it."

-Septy.

Response to Bill Maher-P.I. 2001-10-01 12:52:21


At 9/28/01 08:48 AM, fourchinnigan wrote: Today's Update:
host, Bill Maher, has been in hot water since saying that
the suicidal terrorists are braver than some in the U.S.
military....

That is not what he said. He wasn't attacking the military, he was attacking the policy makers.

Response to Bill Maher-P.I. 2001-10-10 13:58:57


The latest:

Bill Maher has found a new defender: Barbra Streisand. The
host of "Politically Incorrect" has been under fire since
he said on his show that some actions by the U.S. military
have been "cowardly."
Now, Streisand has posted an article on her Web site that
defends Maher. The article was written by Arianna
Huffington, the formerly conservative pundit who has been a
regular guest on "Politically Incorrect" and a vocal
defender of Maher. "I was sitting next to Bill when he said
[his controversial comments]," Huffington wrote. "And not
only did I not object, I wholeheartedly agreed."
Streisand also posts a second article by Huffington,
calling them two "important" articles, and alleging that
the Los Angeles Times, which often publishes Huffington's
essays, "refused" to run them. A spokesman for the L.A.
Times didn't return calls for comment by press time.
Huffington couldn't be reached for comment, but a
spokeswoman in her office said that Huffington and
Streisand "know each other." When asked if the two were
friendly, she said she "couldn't say."
"Bizarre times we're living in," muses one political
pundit and former friend of Huffington, "when Arianna
Huffington and Barbra Streisand are on the same page
politically."
(Jeannette Walls The Scoop in MSNBC Living)

Response to Bill Maher-P.I. 2001-10-10 14:22:40


At 10/10/01 01:58 PM, fourchinnigan wrote: The latest:

Bill Maher has found a new defender: Barbra Streisand. The
host of "Politically Incorrect" has been under fire since
he said on his show that some actions by the U.S. military
have been "cowardly."
Now, Streisand has posted an article on her Web site that
defends Maher. The article was written by Arianna
Huffington, the formerly conservative pundit who has been a
regular guest on "Politically Incorrect" and a vocal
defender of Maher. "I was sitting next to Bill when he said
[his controversial comments]," Huffington wrote. "And not
only did I not object, I wholeheartedly agreed."
Streisand also posts a second article by Huffington,
calling them two "important" articles, and alleging that
the Los Angeles Times, which often publishes Huffington's
essays, "refused" to run them. A spokesman for the L.A.
Times didn't return calls for comment by press time.
Huffington couldn't be reached for comment, but a
spokeswoman in her office said that Huffington and
Streisand "know each other." When asked if the two were
friendly, she said she "couldn't say."
"Bizarre times we're living in," muses one political
pundit and former friend of Huffington, "when Arianna
Huffington and Barbra Streisand are on the same page
politically."
(Jeannette Walls The Scoop in MSNBC Living)


Aww! C'mon...what a piece of crap! (Not you). That's nonsense shit. What tha fuck is happened? Why tha newspaper don't publicate Bill Maher's articles. THAT'S FUCKED UP! Oww ppl! We're talkin' about politically incorrect shit!! I'm totally angry! I don't understand this fuckin way to be! That's all...now i can shut tha fuck up and breathe fresh air.

Response to Bill Maher-P.I. 2001-11-09 08:08:22


And the latest:

MAHER EXPECTS TO BE AXED
By DON KAPLAN
New York Post
Embattled "Politically Correct" host Bill Maher doesn't
expect to keep his show on ABC after his contract expires
next year.
Maher has been under fire since mid-September after
comments he made on his show enraged advertisers like Sears
and Federal Express who later pulled their ads from his
show.
The ensuing brouhaha has ruined Maher's relationship with
ABC and is not likely to be resolvable, he says.
"How could it be?" Maher tells the December/January issue
of Talk magazine.
"Could we keep working together? Yeah, but there'd still be
that tension and that conflict. They're not going to change
and I'm not going to change. . . After this whole thing I'm
not expecting to be here after my contract runs out in 2002
- if we make it that long," he said.
Maher's troubles began when his free-wheeling talk-show
returned to the air in the week following the Sept. 11
terror attacks.
In the midst of his usual round-table discussion with
guests he said the terrorists were braver than U.S.
government who drop cruise missiles from the sky.
"We have been the cowards, lobbing cruise missiles from
2,000 miles away," Maher said on the air that night.
"That's cowardly. Staying in the airplane when it hits the
building - say what you want about it, it's not cowardly,"
he said.
The next day, Dan Patrick, a religious fundamentalist and
talk show host in Houston, Tx., urged his listeners to call
"PI's" advertisers and complain. Maher reluctantly hit the
talk-show circuit to explain his side of the story and
opened his show on Sept. 19 with what sounded like an
apology.
"These are sensitive times, and I should've been more clear
when, in a discussion of how we have in the past conducted
our war on terrorism, I said 'We have been the cowards . .
' The problem there is the word 'we,' I think. It's
indistinct, and I should've been more clear."

Land of the free, indeed.

Response to Bill Maher-P.I. 2001-11-09 12:08:55


Jesus Wade, it's one thing to be pissed at what happened and another to be blinded by the tragedy and allowing the government to do whatever the hell they want without even giving thought to what they are doing just because you're pissed and want someone to hang. Since when is it anti american to hate certin gov policies or the president for that matter? Now Bush can push all the little policies that were being debated before the tragedy, since everyone is too scared to fight back because they don't want to seem "un patriotic". That is such bullshit. I bet you'd allow them to take every freedom you ever had and still think they were great people who are fighting the bad men.

It's stupid that you are saying Maher should be censored when in turn also saying that he is speaking against the country that made him rich. Aside from making people rich America is about freedom of speech, I really love how all our rights are easily violated when it stops being convenient. Maher did NOT say that we were cowards and "they" were heroes, you're completely taking what he is saying out of context just like those stupid people who tried to take him off the air took him out of context. It shouldn't matter that there is a war going on, we shouldn't have to be walking on egg shells and censoring ourselves out of fear, if anything it's times like this that we need to speak out the most. There is a lot of ignorance in this nation, especially about what is going on. If you think this is as easy as black and white and good innocent America vs. the evil middle east then you really need to stop being blinded by your anger at what happened in sept and actually do some fucking research. "They" have a very good reason to hate us, I'm not saying we deserve having innocent people killed, but blind hatred at anyone's direction is sure as hell not going to solve anything. Bombing things is not the answer, the only way to truly solve this is with compromise, but since people want to see heads roll even if it makes things worse, that is what's going to be done. god bless america...

At 11/9/01 11:47 AM, WadeFulp wrote: He simply said the wrong thing at the wrong time. Everyone was upset about what happend, and that moron goes and says "The terrorists aren't cowards, we are for using Cruise Missels". What kind of moron says something like that?!!?! All these families are in pain, and greiving for their loss and he's like "Oh, the we are the cowards, not the terrorist". Fuck him and his show! If I was SEARS or FED EX and paying his show millions of dollars for adverising, and he said something like that, I sure as hell would pull my money out of his show and feed him to the dogs! I'm sure the people at FED EX don't share his views, and if they don't, they have a perfectly good right to not give him their money! The fact is no big company is going to want to support some nit wit like that! So he's screwed. Next time he should try sticking up for the country that has made him rich.

Response to Bill Maher-P.I. 2001-11-09 13:46:18


#1. "Politically Incorrect" is a syndicated show. It is shot at CBS, but it is not a CBS show. It is purchased by various networks who wish to run it throughout the country. The network is not the issue.

#2. It is a political debate show. It is supposed to present varying political opinion. If it bows to the whims of its sponsors, it is defeating its purpose. Yes, the sponsors do have every right to pull their adverts. Yet, why bother to sponsor a controversial show in the first place if you don't want to deal with the contoversy?

#3. Wade, you defend the right of people to be blinded by their emotions instead of using logic, right? This is different from religious zealots who attack innocent buildings in what way besides the lack of violence? If people would control their emotions and respect the opinions of others, we would not have so many damn wars in the first place. Let's defend freedom by bombing our foreign attackers because we don't need anyone else helping us in America do what we are so good at doing ourselves, right?

#4. White Rabbit isn't defending the Taliban with her statements or saying we deserved anything. She is looking at both sides of the issue. This is a tactic often implemented by people who don't end up killing each other.

Wade, you've been a lot more belligerent lately. Is everything ok?

Response to Bill Maher-P.I. 2001-11-09 14:30:10


I think that Bil Maher was trying to "instigate" more less with the comment that he made. Ya'know?... Like in middle school. Trying to get everyone to check themselfs.

Response to Bill Maher-P.I. 2001-11-09 20:31:42


At 11/9/01 01:31 PM, WadeFulp wrote:
Maher is free to say whatever he wants, but he can't expect to keep his TV show if he mouths off things that piss off all his sponsers.

But see he was taken out of context, those people who got pissed heard one thing but that's not what he was saying at all. Not once has he ever spoken bad about America, people are overly sensitive on this issue and I understand that but he didn't say anything to get them pissed off, it was just a misunderstanding that has been taken way too far.

People like you who think we deserved this attack, or the terrorist had some kind of reason to be mad at us, are in the minority right now. You people love any kind of conspiracy that makes our government look bad.

Don't do this "you people" shit, it's thinking like that, that has put us here in the first place. Instead of thinking in terms of "us" and "them" we should thinking about "we". I know this sounds hippie-ish and I don't want it to come across like that, but that's really what it's all about. I never said we deserved what happened, I clearly stated that in my previous point, but unlike many Americans, I would actually like to see both sides of what is happening, rather than buying into the propaganda being spewed constantly on the news. I am not one of those people who will jump at a chance to believe "the man" is trying to stick it to us, but I also do not trust the news and would like an unbiased account of what is going on so I can have an educated opinion on the matter.

Unless you were living over there with Osama and have first hand experience with what we did to make those people so pissed off, I don't wanna hear it. There is so much miss information floating around you don't know what to believe. Like all these people saying how in Iraq all these kids are starving to death and it's OUR fault because of the sanctions we put on Iraq. That is total and utter BS. We went into IRAQ and interviewed people and they are prospering and doing very well. The people who are starving are the people Saddam is purposely starving! They have the money and means to feed those people, but THEY choose not to. So that isn't OUR fault. As far as Osama, I've heard he's mad at us because we have troops on "his" soil. We are upsetting him religiously. Well guess what, most of the people over there ARE NOT mad at us. It's only these small groups of people who are nut caes! It's not like the who middle east hates us! Most of them support us! You are foolish if you think we should bend over and let these people ram us up the ass because they are unhappy with us! It's only a SMALL group of people! They are CRAZY! They are all brainwashed by a few key people. Osama himself maybe brainwashed by his 2nd in command.

You are, right. We don't know what's going on. And that's just the problem right there. The news can make it sound like they are the evil empire who are jealous of us because of our american ideals and that's complete bullshit. It is a small group of people but they are powerful because they have control over a lot of people, I am not saying we shouldn't fight back but that's not what we are doing. You gave an analogy in a previous post similar to if someone punches you in the face, you fight back. But we are not fighting back the asshole who punched us, we're merely kicking their dog and taking it out the poor animal. If this was as simple as fighting against a whole country because a whole country was responsible for the attacks, then war would make sense, but we are fighting a group of scattered people and the problem with that is in our attempt to attack this scattered group, a bunch of innocent lives are lost, perhaps even more innocent people are dying than are guilty. The people over there see us harming them and then they begin to hate us when previously they didn't. That is how we are making things worse. If all the terrorists were bunched together in one location and we bombed that location then that would be great, but we are merely attacking in their general direction, thus doing more harm than good, it's not helping anything.


The governemnt isn't going after Maher, it is his sponsers that don't agree with him, and they have a right not to agree with him. So Maher didn't do anything wrong, or illegal. He has the freedom to say what he wants, but at the same time he offended his sponsers, and they choose not to support him anymore, and that's to bad for Maher. Maybe he can find some other sponsers to support him, and another network.

Perhaps, but again, he didn't say anything that would have been offensive, his words were misinterpreted and those sponsers who stopped supporting him based it on what they thought he said rather than what he actually said and that's really unfortunate. But of course they have every right to do so, it's their millions, but it's still stupid.

Response to Bill Maher-P.I. 2001-11-09 20:34:49


At 11/9/01 01:46 PM, fourchinnigan wrote:
#4. White Rabbit isn't defending the Taliban with her statements or saying we deserved anything. She is looking at both sides of the issue. This is a tactic often implemented by people who don't end up killing each other.

hahah exactly

Response to Bill Maher-P.I. 2001-12-10 08:08:23


The most recent update:

The Heat's Off Maher
By DAVID K. LI
NY Post
An aide to President Bush admitted the White House went too
far in bashing talk show host Bill Maher for his
"Politically Incorrect" comments about the Sept. 11
attacks.
ABC and the show had no comment yesterday for the semi-
apology offered up by White House advisor Mark McKinnon
during a panel discussion about Hollywood in the post-Sept.
11 era.
Maher had taken issue with Bush's description of terrorists
hijackers as "cowards," and instead used that term to label
high-altitude U.S. bombing raids.
That gaffe prompted an advertising backlash that still
threatens the late-night show. White House press secretary
Ari Fleischer piled on a day later, telling Maher to watch
himself, saying Americans "need to watch what they say."
This week, McKinnon called Fleischer's comments "pretty Big
Brother-ish."
McKinnon, a Bush media consultant who has played a leading
role in bringing Hollywood suits together with Washington
power brokers since Sept. 11, said the White House wants to
steer clear of any hints that it wants Tinseltown to jump
on any propaganda bandwagon.
"We really don't believe that it's our role to be dictating
or telling people what they should be producing," McKinnon
told reporters after the panel talk, "Hollywood Goes to
War?" at the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.
NBC entertainment chief Jeff Zucker went further during the
free-wheeling 90-minute forum, and said frank discussion -
even comedy - is the best weapon Hollywood has against
freedom-hating, terrorist thugs.
NBC's late-night comedy anchors - "The Tonight Show" and
"Saturday Night Live" - now regularly ridicule the
terrorists and even take light-hearted jabs at American
leaders.
"The best thing Jay Leno can do is make fun of those people
who hate us," Zucker said. "I don't think it's
disrespectful."