Real Time

Remember all that talk a few months ago about toning down the violent rhetoric on the airwaves in the wake of the tragic shootings in Tucson?

On HBO's "Real Time" Friday night, Bill Maher actually joked about a wall collapsing on Congressman Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Bill Maher Tuesday made a statement on MSNBC that would be truly embarrassing for the so-called news network if any of its executives cared at all about being an impartial disseminator of information.

At the end of an almost thirteen minute interview with Rachel Maddow, the comedian said of Republicans, "I hate them as much as you do" (video follows with commentary):

A round-up from over the weekend of journalists denouncing Republican Congressman Paul Ryan for not including a big tax hike in his deficit-reduction plan and discrediting the Tea Party’s pressure on House Speaker John Boehner as a “far right” impediment to good government.

“He doesn't deal with the revenue side at all,” despaired Newsweek veteran Evan Thomas on Inside Washington, arguing: “We cannot survive on 18, his goal is to do 18 percent of GDP as revenue. That's not enough. We're going to have to raise some taxes...”

On HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher on Friday night, Katty Kay, anchor of BBC’s World News America, echoed, “He does nothing on the revenue side,” fretting: “There is this allergy, amongst Republicans, about saying ‘you know what, we actually do have to deal with taxes too.’”

Juan Williams charged “the rich get off like scoundrels,” complaining on Fox News Sunday that Ryan is “not doing anything in terms of raising taxes.” Williams also worried: “John Boehner now has the Tea Party wrapped around his neck like an albatross.”

Bill Maher and Eliot Spitzer on Friday's "Real Time" not surprisingly attacked Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) for his 2012 budget proposal.

Showing glimpses of the conservative that used to occupy his body many years ago, the Atlantic’s Andrew Sullivan not only defended the Republican as deserving a lot of credit for his bold plan, but also exposed Maher and Spitzer as ignorant hypocrites when it comes to the nation's fiscal policy (video follows with partial transcript and commentary):

HBO's Bill Maher is very unhappy with how President Obama is dealing with Republicans on the current budget impasse.

On Friday's "Real Time," the host said, "He is a terrible negotiator - does he not even know a Jew?" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Undeterred by criticism that his recent attacks on Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann have gone over the line of comedic decency even for him, HBO's Bill Maher continued his sexist assault on two of the leading conservative female politicians Friday.

As part of a joke mocking Donald Trump's recent lapse into birtherism, the "Real Time" host displayed mock birth certificates of Palin showing that she was born "Healthy, alert and pregnant" while Bachmann's read “Stupid, even for a baby” (video follows with commentary and transcript):

Following its controversial decision to ban Andrew Breitbart from publishing articles at its front page, the Huffington Post has found itself in quite a pickle now that one of its regular contributors, comedian Bill Maher, made disgustingly vulgar references to former Alaska governor Sarah Palin.

As NewsBusters previously reported, Breitbart made some comments about President Obama's former green czar Van Jones that precipitated the following hypocritical statement from HuffPo spokesman Mario Ruiz last Thursday (readers are warned of vulgar content in full article):

After comedian Bill Maher referred to Sarah Palin as a derogatory term for a vagina a little over week a ago, NewsBusters asked, "Can the dreaded C-word be far behind?"

According to the Dallas Voice, this happened on Sunday while Maher was "performing" at the Winspear Opera House (photo courtesy Reuters):

As NewsBusters reported Wednesday, the National Organization for Women's weak response to Bill Maher referring to Sarah Palin as a highly derogatory term for a woman's vagina in no way discouraged the "Real Time" host or the television network he represents from making these sexist attacks.

Proving this point, Maher called Palin and Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) bimbos on Friday's show (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Bill Maher once again spent a great deal of his HBO program Friday mocking Republicans.

In an opening monologue spoof of a new poll finding 51 percent of the GOP don't believe Barack Obama was born in America, the "Real Time" host said, "John Boehner wears bronzer and goes on crying jags. He just feels like a female to me. Maybe liberals should demand to see his penis" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Bill Maher went on a hate-filled rant about Republicans Friday night because the GOP in his view are too interested in "useless distractions" like public unions, ACORN, NPR and Planned Parenthood.

After telling his "Real Time" audience, "Governing this country with Republicans is like rooming with a meth addict," he dubbed the entire Party as racist saying, "Every black person scares you unless they look like Urkel, talk like Colin Powell and wear Bill Cosby sweaters" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

After Bill Maher called the Koran "a hate-filled book" on HBO's "Real Time" Friday, NewsBusters asked if he would be attacked by the media for doing so.

With no outrage having ensued, the folks at Fox News on Monday questioned why Maher's comments went ignored by the Muslim defenders in the press, with Juan Williams telling Bill O'Reilly that if he had said anything like that, "They would have tied you to the pillar and be whipping you and stoning you" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

As NewsBusters has been reporting for over a week, America's media have been widely attacking House Homeland Security chairman Peter King (R-N.Y.) for conducting hearings about the threat of homegrown Muslim terrorists.

On Friday's "Real Time," host Bill Maher, in an interview with Muslim Congressman Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), called the Koran a "hate-filled book" while claiming "the threat potentially from radicalized Muslims is a unique and greater threat" than from "right-wing militias and Timothy McVeigh types" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Former Clinton advisor and current CNN contributor Paul Begala thought he was being clever Friday evening when he took a cheap shot at George W. Bush on HBO's "Real Time."

Without skipping a beat, St. Louis Tea Party founder and Big Government editor Dana Loesch smacked down her CNN colleague with a delicious jab at his former boss (video follows with transcript and commentary):

For the second week in a row, "comedian" Bill Maher derogatorily compared Sarah Palin to Charlie Sheen.

On Friday's "Real Time," the host said the former Alaska governor is an "unemployed ego lunatic" just like the Sheen (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Bill Maher said Friday that George W. Bush when he first ran for president had the "thinnest résumé anyone had ever seen."

Such happened on HBO's "Real Time" during an interview with author T.C. Boyle (video follows with transcript and commentary):

As NewsBusters previously reported, Bill Maher on Friday, during a joke about Sarah Palin, bashed Charlie Sheen's "childish" behavior.

Moments later in his "Real Time" monologue, the host, while defending actress Natalie Portman, immaturely attacked former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee's family for being overweight (video follows with transcript and commentary):

There must be something in Bill Maher's contract with HBO that requires him to make at least one joke about the former Alaska governor on every show.

In his monologue beginning the most recent installment of "Real Time," the host said Charlie Sheen's childish, needlessly defensive, nonsensical behavior is like Sarah Palin on coke (video follows with transcript and commentary):

President Barack Obama is “a pragmatic centrist,” Norah O’Donnell, NBC News reporter/MSNBC chief Washington correspondent, insisted Friday night on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, though not even Maher bought the claim Obama is a centrist. O’Donnell noted “they're trying to make inroads” into the business community with outreach to it as evidenced by hiring Bill Daley and speaking to the Chamber of Commerce, but she contended “other than that tonal switch, he's still the same centrist he’s always been.”

Maher countered: “But he's not really. If you woke him up in the middle of the night, of if you gave him sodium pentothal, I think he’s a centrist the way he’s a Christian – not really.” O’Donnell pleaded: “Don't you think it's a pragmatist?” To which, Maher recognized: “Yes, that’s different, he’s pretending to be a centrist.”

On the February 8 edition of MSNBC's "Last Word," left-wing comedian Bill Maher disparaged Bill O'Reilly as "unpatriotic" for the way in which the veteran Fox News anchor conducted his interview with President Barack Obama on Super Bowl Sunday.

"And Bill O'Reilly, who claims he's such a patriot, how unpatriotic in my view to treat a president that way," railed Maher. "How does that look to other countries when you're interrupting and belittling? I just find it astounding."

[Video embedded after the page break.]

The Wall Street Journal's John Fund on Friday night had a number of interesting battles with Bill Maher as well as Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.).

During the panel segment of HBO's "Real Time," Fund found himself needing to defend Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, and Clarence Thomas's wife from the at times totally illogical attacks by the perilously liberal host and Congressman (video follows with transcript and commentary):

As the centennial celebration of President Ronald Reagan's birth approaches, the Media Research Center has released its special report on media bias against the late commander in chief, Rewriting Ronald Reagan: How the Media Have Worked to Distort, Dismantle and Destroy His Legacy. NewsBusters has complied a video montage displaying some of the worst media attacks over the years.  

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It seems these days whenever Bill Maher opens his mouth, he's bound to stick his foot in it while saying something totally devoid of logic or factual basis.

Consider Friday's "Real Time" on HBO when with his final "New Rule," he claimed the economic business philosophy of NFL football is similar to that of the Democratic Party while Major League Baseball's is more in line with the Republicans (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Bill Maher has for years bragged about his love for marijuana and his desire for drugs to be legalized.

On HBO's "Real Time" Friday, the sometimes comedian linked our nation's education problems to drugs claiming, "The kids are dumbasses and their parents are dumbasses and they’re taking drugs and f--king and not learning" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Rachel Maddow had a very tough evening Friday.

Before telling a 100 percent falsehood about Reaganomics on HBO's "Real Time," the MSNBC commentator said the Strategic Defense Initiative would never work because you can't shoot a missile out of the sky with another missile (video follows with transcript and commentary):