Patterico's Pontifications

10/17/2010

Bill Maher on his O’Donnell Archives: I Never Lie to My Audience; I Just Imply Things That are Not True

Filed under: General — Aaron Worthing @ 5:21 pm



[Guest post by Aaron Worthing]

A while back Patterico gave us video of Bill Maher showing the now-famous “I dabbled in witchcraft” O’Donnell clip from his old show Politically Incorrect. In it, he also implied he had many more clips, and that he would show one every week until she came on his show.  Maher likened it to a hostage situation.

So that would imply that those other clips were, you know, damaging to her, right?

But via Althouse we get another clip of his show where he shows basically a montage of many out-of-context arguments, exchanges and statements by O’Donnell where she drives the more liberal persons surrounding her crazy.  Althouse dissects the political impact very well, and I fully recommend that you read her commentary for yourself.

But I want to focus on one element.  Notice how these clips—that Maher himself admits is not “earthshaking”—really doesn’t live up to the hype.  It was not a lie, exactly, but it was dishonest to imply that he had something, anything, nearly as significant as the witchcraft clip.  Its only truthful in a Bill Clinton sort of way.  Combined with the hypocrisy of calling the Tea Party racist on the same night he engaged in the crudest of racial stereotypes, only verifies that I am right to profoundly not care what Maher says or thinks.

And let’s remember that Maher has gone from being kind of libertarian with some leftward positions, to now being a fan of European style socialized medicine.  I have said before that if Obamacare is upheld it is the death of all privacy in this country.  You would think to a man like Maher, that would matter.

[Posted and authored by Aaron Worthing.]

22 Responses to “Bill Maher on his O’Donnell Archives: I Never Lie to My Audience; I Just Imply Things That are Not True”

  1. Maher also promotes the idea that we may have hit the ‘tipping point’ in Global Warming Climate Disruption.’ He contends that western standards of living will have to decline change, and he wants the U.S. government to do whatever it takes to impose this change. He talks about it, as an almost throwaway opinion, here.
    here.

    TimesDisliker (3843d8)

  2. My dislike of Maher was profound enough for me to cancel HBO..I’m sick of liberal entertainers who somehow feel their political beliefs are entertaining.

    bobby (fb2263)

  3. You would think to a man like Maher

    Maher does not posess any of what I would consider manhood. He certainly is no gentleman. He is a bullying, snob libtard. A wuss by any other name is still a wuss.

    PatriotRider (17f47b)

  4. Bill Maher belongs to the Will Folks “Sacred Honor” school of journalism, apparently.

    Y-not (479b1f)

  5. Maher is a lying weasel, but his gambit worked to a degree, it made certain parties which will remain
    nameless, drop her like a hot potato, occasioning
    that all too predictable trend, that Whittaker Chambers foresaw more than 5o years ago

    ian cormac (6709ab)

  6. I remember fondly earlier this year when Maher appeared on one of the Sunday news shows, a serious show, and George Will ate his lunch and drank his milkshake. Maher is just another liberal idiot who doesn’t know what he doesn’t know and shouldn’t be taken seriously.

    daleyrocks (940075)

  7. I think his own magnus opus ‘Pizza Man’ that he starred, directed and wrote, is the apotheosis of
    his talent, around 1992

    ian cormac (6709ab)

  8. I used to watch his first show when it aired on Comedy Central – despite his idiocy, he occasionally had on guests I never saw before; people like Elmore Leonard and other authors, for example. His NYC audience was also a little less bootlicking than the kind of jackals you see today – and the Hollywood crowd is your usual run of numbskulls.

    BTW, he not only is not a gentleman, he beats up hookers for good measure. Quite a little guy, our Mr. Maher.

    Dmac (84da91)

  9. ian – I was particularly fond of his work in Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death.

    daleyrocks (940075)

  10. Shannon Tweed was in that, I wasn’t particularly paying attention to Maher at that time

    ian cormac (6709ab)

  11. ian – I was primarily focused on the avocados as well.

    daleyrocks (940075)

  12. Daley, Professor of Feminist Studies Shannon Tweed was fantastic.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SheDtIEwrVU

    My favorite part is at 3:54. Shannon Tweed is actually a pretty good comedian. Bill Maher, not so much.

    Eric Blair (84e072)

  13. Eric – Thanks for the clip. I’m tempted to watch more for the endlessly entertaining, gag, Adrienne Barbeau, but think I’ll polish my light bulbs instead.

    daleyrocks (940075)

  14. Daley, that’s heatballs, not light bulbs.

    At least if you’re in Europe.

    http://www.improvedclinch.com/index.php/weblog/its_not_an_incandescent_lightbulb_officer_its_a_heatball/

    kishnevi (aea34b)

  15. kishnevi – A clean heat source is a more efficient heat source.

    daleyrocks (940075)

  16. Bill Maher is an obvious liar and snake. There is no reason to ever believe a word that he says. I assume that most everything he says is a distortion in some form or other, so there’s no point wasting time with him.

    PatHMV (c34b06)

  17. I do not watch Maher, nor do I remain in any abode where he is being watched. The man is a vile pig.

    Adjoran (ec6a4b)

  18. .

    Bill Maher is actually a liberaltarian.

    That’s to libertarianism what a RINO is to conservatism.

    IgotBupkis (9eeb86)

  19. I do not watch Maher, nor do I remain in any abode where he is being watched. The man is a vile pig.

    What are you, Muslim?

    I formally request that you stop insulting pigs, please!!

    :^D

    IgotBupkis (9eeb86)

  20. You all wish that you had the balls he does.

    Everything is screwed up because there are too many lazy, apathetic Americans who refuse to give up on a completely backwards, outdated, and unrealistic idea of what America is/should be- be it politicians or “regular joes”, the majority of people are still indulging in a “good old days” view of how they wish the world would be. He’s not an idiot for saying that things need to change, and while you may not agree with how he feels it should happen, at least he’s trying.
    No one’s perfect, no one lives without making mistakes. Yes, that includes Maher but it also includes all of you (and yes, because someone is going to be immature enough to argue the point if I don’t make it, myself as well). That shouldn’t even need to be said. How about instead of sitting around complaining about the “liberals” on the internet you all actually go out and try to do something to make things better? Half the comments on this post are pure insults, with no vein of intelligence or anything productive to contribute.

    And honestly, if you all lived in the “red states” that I have, you would have sense enough to understand that even though he may be hyperbolic at times, he’s not completely wrong or without warrent.

    Nicole (7c185a)

  21. Wow, Bill Maher has a fan. Well, I guess minstrel shows did too (bet they were democrats). ‘He’s not completely wrong’ means what, Nicole?

    And attempt to explain in such a way that wouldn’t work for a minstrel show or other democrat bigotry.

    I’m sure in a few years this kind if hate will be blamed on the right too.

    Dustin (b54cdc)

  22. Nicole is an idiot. That is all.

    JD (c8c1d2)


Powered by WordPress.

Page loaded in: 0.0857 secs.