Patterico's Pontifications

3/14/2009

Breitbart on Bill Maher

Filed under: General,Race — Patterico @ 9:56 pm



Via Dan Collins comes this Bill Maher segment featuring our friend Andrew Breitbart toughing it out on the Bill Maher show.

It takes balls to go into a hostile environment like that and defend conservative ideas — such as the concept that Clarence Thomas has the right to think the way he wants regardless of the color of his skin.

It’s a shame it takes courage to do that. But it does. Nice job by Andrew.

38 Responses to “Breitbart on Bill Maher”

  1. Ace pointed out on his site that Maher and Stewart’s biggest advantage is their audience–they know that no matter what position they take or how they go about making the arguments, their audience will arf and clap like trained seals. When they are actually challenged, they show that from a substantive point of view, they can’t really think on their feet and resort to their old tics to get over with the audience again.

    The Stewart appearance on Crossfire is a good example of that, but believe it or not, Andrew Sullivan did this with Maher during the election.(I believe Patterico posted that clip, if I remember correctly) Maher gets a good laugh with Sullivan while he’s ripping Sarah Palin, but when Maher imediately tries to seque into a broader point that because she’s religious, she’s a nitwit, Sullivan–being a devout Catholic–gets right in his face and doesn’t back down. Maher was shell-shocked, and because he wasn’t ready to be confronted in an aggressive manner by someone who was agreeing with him not ten seconds earlier, he can’t come back with a quip and his audience sits there like the lip-bibbling idiots that they are.

    The best strategy for guys like Stewart and Maher is to throw their disdain right back in their face and tell them to piss off. Their positions are ones taken in hindsight due to convenience, not due to principle, and since the audience is looking to jeer you anyway, you might as well treat them with the same hostility.

    Another Chris (a3bb8f)

  2. That should read, “The best strategy for confronting guys like Stewart and Maher…”

    Another Chris (a3bb8f)

  3. The best strategy for these worthless butt wipes is to not appear on their shows. No one but brain dead
    liberal morons watch them in the first place so conservatives are not only wasting their time they are exposing their views to deliberately hostile provocateurs and giving their blood brothers in other liberal media outlets additional material to demean them in a wider context.
    Breitbart tried to make a stand but was constantly interrupted and bantered from both sides simultaneously.
    Dr? Michael Dyson the radical black that was on the panel has not had an original thought in years.
    I have seen this dude on a number of programs the last several years and he gives his talking points without taking a breath. He could just as easily bring a tape recording and play it because he never says one word differently.

    Edward Cropper (6a7a91)

  4. Well, that was exhausting.

    Maher and Tyson shoving in talking points and mini speeches and interrupting Breitbart every single freakin’ time he tried to make a point. (Then having the gall to keep telling Breitbart “let me finish” their interruptions of his points.

    Liberals really, really do not want conservatives to talk. Gee, I wonder why?

    no one you know (1ebbb1)

  5. I remember when Tony Snow was on the show…I’m not a big fan of Snow, but he held his own and put to shame the smirking chimp Matt Taibi, the Rolling Stone “reporter.”

    That said, it’s laughable to think that a friendly crowd is only the phenomenon of liberals. If Joe the Plumber could ever host a show, what do you think that audience would be like? At least Maher has a quick wit.

    Zach (dbfcb4)

  6. the audience is looking to jeer you anyway, you might as well treat them with the same hostility.

    Yes, and you should see the episode when Hitchens was on that show, defending the Iraq war – he continuously flipped the audience the bird, and was jeered as expected. He showed the rank disresepect both they and Maher deserved – a good tactic.

    Dmac (49b16c)

  7. At least Maher has a quick wit.

    A wit that is dependent on cuting off a guest midpoint to spit out party tag lines, by default is not a quick wit. It is a sarcastic pedestrian parroting, nothing more, nothing less. Maher gets paid to do that because there are enough people unable to think for themselves and engage in honest debate who would rather react emotionally and follow in lockstep like clueless little lemmings.

    I firmly believe that the right is far too polite in these situations. I’m not a Coulter fan but at least she is willing to eschew the niceties and courtesies that our side is prone toward and get in the mud. Unfortunately that seems to be what it takes to get a word in edgewise.

    Dana (137151)

  8. That was disgusting but it is where our kids are getting their news and opinions. The victimology of that race pimp was heartbreaking. I’ll bet he needs food stamps to make ends meet.

    David E is sure getting a lot of miles out of his column.

    Speaking of not wanting conservatives to speak, the LA Times is indulging in schadenfreude today.

    But for all the anti-tax swagger and the occasional stunts by personalities like KFI’s John and Ken, the reality is that conservative talk radio in California is on the wane.

    The “stunt” was 15,000 people at a “tea party” rally in Fullerton last Saturday.

    They neglected to mention that the LA Tilmes is also “on the wane.” Must have slipped their minds.

    Mike K (90939b)

  9. Is not Maher specifically pointing out how articulate Dyson is racist in itself? The soft bigotry of low expectations? Would anyone ever point out that a white guest was articulate. See how easy it is to flip the racism card. Maher should know better.

    girblot (8d0e78)

  10. Basically Maher, like many others before him, has mastered the fine art of honing rudeness into financial success.

    I wondered why Maher gave an explanatory introduction to Dr. Dyson but offered nothing on Breitbart other than his name? Hm.

    Dana (cbd391)

  11. Maher doesn’t have to know better. Liberals never have to measure up to their own standards, just as they never have to obey their own tax laws.

    danebramage (756d38)

  12. What I learned from AB on BM: articulateness = speaking faster than your brain works. In the old days it was called bullshitting.

    The funniest parts of the show are when Maher crosses Dyson – the audience is stunned into silence. There’s nothing in their programs, apparently, addressing the response to ‘blue on blue’ conflict. It’s probably the only time the audience is collectively doing any thinking and unfortunately it’s not of the ‘how do I feel about this’ variety but instead of the ‘which team is the ‘good’ team’ variety. Truth comes in second on the left when it bumps up against assimilation.

    EBJ (437cb7)

  13. That was like watching “The View” with only one male guest, Andrew Breitbart.

    ML (14488c)

  14. I wondered why Maher gave an explanatory introduction to Dr. Dyson but offered nothing on Breitbart other than his name? Hm.

    Comment by Dana — 3/15/2009 @ 9:51 am

    Noticed that too. Dyson is a “professor” and a “brilliant guy” but Breitbart? A “resident conservative” – and that’s all Maher’s audience needs to know, apparently, about him. Loved the delay in audience applause though – they were waiting for more too.

    no one you know (1ebbb1)

  15. Dontcha love the description of Clarence Thomas as a “white supremist in black skin” and that he’s controlled by a ventroliquist? Outrageous!

    jwarner (0a2a75)

  16. I don’t think he did that well a job. He let the other two monopolize the conversation, let them insinuate he was a racist and didn’t confront their nonsense or their monologues.

    People need to get up and walk off these shows rather than participate in this nonsense. He should tell them, look you want to cut me off and monologue, then bye.

    We need to stop being idiots that slit our own throats.

    El Gallo (c828a4)

  17. Loved how “code words” were part of the “empiracle evidence” that Mr. Articulate based some of his “Rush Limbaugh is a racist, but I don’t dwell in ad hominem” upon.

    Joke.

    The only interesting thing about that show is how high Maher’s booster seat will be set so he can be viewable.

    Cam Winston (96ec19)

  18. Cam – Also Maher didn’t want to defend his accusation of Limbaugh’s racism. He was going to let the “brother” handle that.

    White people just aren’t down with the latest code words and dog whistles.

    daleyrocks (5d22c0)

  19. Prof. Dyson sounds like another run of the mill race pimp, ralking about Unity out of one side of his mouth while stoking grievances out of the other. Here’s part of a write-up about a speech he gave on a campus last April 2:

    “Despite speaking at length about ‘Unity,’ Dr. Dyson was full of controversial and divisive ideas. He compared those that have a problem with angry statements made by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright to those who assassinated Martin Luther King Jr.

    He also defended R. Kelly’s illegal sexual behavior by comparing him to Thomas Jefferson and his alleged affair with a black servant, saying that Jefferson was “trumped by his erotic attractions.” When he could not defend something on moral grounds, he instead talked of slavery and the South’s troubled past.

    For instance, when he began talking about the recently unearthed anti-American and racist comments by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama’s pastor and mentor, he passed them off by saying, “If black people told white people what we really think, it would scare a whole bunch of brothers & sisters.”

    The audience found this funny for the most part, but a few sat in stony silence. He justified Rev. Wright’s behavior by bringing up some churches’ past exclusion of blacks by saying, “You can’t keep me out the club and then tell me how to run mine.””

    daleyrocks (5d22c0)

  20. Maher is quite a clown.

    His position on Palestine is that Palestinians should surrender and submit as a defeated people subject to Israel’s will. He also supported the invasion of Vietnam as a war the U.S. fought in self-defense.

    He CAN be funny, though, in a formulaic way, but relies far too much on hyperbole.

    Given Maher’s glaring weaknesses, I have to wonder why anyone thinks it takes courage to go on his show.

    Unless of course one is aware of exactly how unwieldy the whining conservative pose of intellectual entitlement becomes under fire.

    Hax Vobiscum (23258e)

  21. Nice job, Maher. Have you ever thought of renaming your show, “The View-with Bill Maher”?

    Richard Sacrison (1946f7)

  22. Here’s Breitbart’s column on doing the show.

    Karl (8966b4)

  23. Anyone else notice that Maher called them “boys”? That’s right folks. Right at the start, Maher referred to the black man as “boy”. That’s stronger evidence of Maher’s racism than Rush’s comments about the media coverage of Donovan McNabb are for him.

    And to bring up “Barack The Magic Negro” again is pathetic. Rush won that round. And it’s a damned funny song.

    Before anyone misses my point, Maher did NOT mean anything racist. But he did call a black man “boy”.

    Viktor Nehring (6c107f)

  24. Maher’s first words to Andrew and the black professor is ‘hello boys’. The professor goes on to discuss code words for racist thought, but says nothing about being called a ‘boy’ by the host.

    Menlo Bob (58b23e)

  25. Reading Breitbart’s autopsy of his trip to the Maher show reminded me that only in the wingnutosphere would anyone have the self-regarding paranoia to spin an appearance on a political chat show as an exercise in victimhood in which defeat was victory.

    Back when the GOP controlled the House, Senate, White House and federal courts (nominally), I thought the constant whining of conservatives about how unfair it was that liberals sometimes present their point of view in public was a little off-balance.

    Now that the GOP is working hard to remain a minority regional party dominated by southern white males, the conservative media victimhood complex seems a little less unbalanced, but no less paranoid.

    Unless and until conservatives can get over the idea that they are somehow entitled to a public forum, whether or not they earn it, the movement is doomed to slow death by paranoia.

    Hax Vobiscum (4012df)

  26. Wow he got out-articulated.

    imdw (b3b982)

  27. “Nice job, Maher. Have you ever thought of renaming your show, “The View-with Bill Maher”?”

    This is a good example of what the prof was talking about. Except now its about women, not black people. Thanks.

    imdw (bb2239)

  28. imdw, you’ve just shown us all the problem with cries of racism or sexism. “The View” is a terrible show, but not because it’s comprised of women.

    To reflexively spin any criticism of “The View” as sexism is more than a little dishonest.

    Steverino (69d941)

  29. “To reflexively spin any criticism of “The View” as sexism is more than a little dishonest.”

    Good thing I didn’t call it sexism then.

    imdw (c990d8)

  30. Good thing I didn’t call it sexism then.

    Then what did you mean by this:

    This is a good example of what the prof was talking about. Except now its about women, not black people.

    Steverino (69d941)

  31. “This is a good example of what the prof was talking about. Except now its about women, not black people.”

    imdw – Women are only supposed to vote Democrat and not allowed to think for themselves?

    daleyrocks (5d22c0)

  32. Exactly what I said. It’s a good example of what the prof was talking about. He was articulate enough to differentiate his thoughts from simple accusations of ‘racism.’

    imdw (9753ba)

  33. Women are only supposed to vote Democrat and not allowed to think for themselves?

    imdw – That’s essentially what the professor said with the Clarence Thomas example. Thanks for showing your colors here.

    daleyrocks (5d22c0)

  34. Exactly what I said. It’s a good example of what the prof was talking about. He was articulate enough to differentiate his thoughts from simple accusations of ‘racism.’

    For those of us who don’t have audio at work, kindly explain it in your own words.

    Steverino (69d941)

  35. I liked this, not because of what Breitbart said, but what I learned about Maher, a person I’d never seen or listened to before, only heard of. I didn’t know how shallow he was.

    V.R. Stull (d7fc75)

  36. Sociology is supposed to be a science and thus, sociologists are supposed to be scientists. They should demonstrate their little hypotheses like “code words” using the scientific method free of bias coupled with a lot of rigor. If they can’t, they should stop making such assumptions about people’s intents and slandering entire swaths of the population. As long as they continue to do so, such fields should not receive the prestige that comes with the science label.

    Chris M (892189)

  37. Sociology is supposed to be a science and thus, sociologists are supposed to be scientists. They should demonstrate their little hypotheses like “code words” using the scientific method free of bias coupled with a lot of rigor. If they can’t, they should stop making such assumptions about people’s intents and slandering entire swaths of the population. As long as they continue to do so, such fields should not receive the prestige that comes with the science label.

    Chris M (892189)

  38. imdw assumed I was disparaging women. My fault for not being more clear. I compared it to the The View because at Maher’s show, just like at The View, the lone conservative is shouted down and not allowed to speak.

    Typical to always assume the worst of another’s motives.
    Thanks to everyone else for standing up for me.

    Richard Sacrison (bf312f)


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