Real Time

Since its inception, NewsBusters has informed readers of the tendency of liberal media members to completely make up economic data when it fits their agenda.

Not surprisingly, this happened on Friday's "Real Time" when host Bill Maher brought up Reaganomics and MSNBC's Rachel Maddow proudly told - she even stood up to tell this whopper! - a 100 percent falsehood about income gains during that era (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Two particularly peculiar bits of reasoning Friday night from Bill Maher on the season premiere of his HBO show, Real Time with Bill Maher, starting with his bizarre explanation for why Jared Lee Loughner was able to commit mass murder. After panelist Chrystia Freeland, global editor-at-large for Thomson Reuters, trumped how her native Canada has “universal health care,” Maher jumped in to assert:

Because we don't have government health care, that's one reason why a crazy person gets a gun because, you know what, it’s hard for a crazy person to get a job, so therefore it’s hard for them to get heath care in a country that doesn’t have government- (Audio: MP3 clip)

The conversation moved on and Maher never offered any further explanation, if there could even have been any which made any sense.

As NewsBusters previously reported, Fareed Zakaria on November 5 marvelously exposed comedian Bill Maher's staggering ignorance of politics.

Exactly one month later, on the CNN program bearing his name, Zakaria contradictorily said, "I find Maher to be one of the sharpest observers of American politics and life in general out there" (videos follow with transcripts and commentary):

Schlockumentary filmmaker Michael Moore on Friday's "Real Time" got a much-needed education about how absurd it is to claim "white America does not like having a black president."

CNN's Jessica Yellin also taught Moore a thing or two about voter turnout during midterm elections (video follows with transcript and commentary):

HBO's Bill Maher is clearly still reeling from the Democrat disaster in the midterm elections.

On Friday's "Real Time," the host compared America to a dog that "cannot understand actual words," only "understands fear," and can't have issues explained to it (video follows with transcript and commentary):

For the second time in two weeks, a devout liberal exposed just how little Bill Maher actually knows about politics.

When the "Real Time" host arrogantly told his guests that people voted for Republicans this past Tuesday because President Obama "didn't back the public option" during the healthcare reform debate, Time's Fareed Zakaria marvelously informed the comedian just how wrong he was (video follows with transcript and commentary):

HBO's Bill Maher spouted his usual anti-conservative and anti-Fox News rhetoric on Monday's Situation Room on CNN, attacking the Tea Party movement as "teabaggers [who] are all carrying the banner...of corporatist America" and accusing CNN's competitor of "filling people with misinformation." Maher also labeled Republican voters "far right" and a "fringe group of people who are very forceful."

The left-wing HBO host appeared for two segments starting at the bottom of the 5 pm Eastern hour. Anchor Wolf Blitzer began with an election-related question: "Let's talk a little bit about what's going to happen tomorrow. A lot of Democrats are worried. They're sitting on a potential political disaster tomorrow. Here's the question to you: why? What happened?"

Maher actually first blamed the Democrats: "Well- I mean, partly, it is the Democrats' fault. They don't do very good at bragging about their achievements. This Congress, which I'm sure is going to be tarred as a do-nothing Congress, actually was one of the more successful congresses in recent memory, probably not since Lyndon Johnson in 1965 has a Congress achieved so much." The guest predictably cited health care "reform" and financial reforms as his examples.

Blitzer followed-up by asking, "So is it just a matter of communications?" Maher launched his attack on Fox News in his reply:

Bill Maher and MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell went to great lengths on Friday's "Real Time" to disparage the Tea Party.

One proud member, National Review's Reihan Salam, admirably put them both in their place for doing so (video follows with transcript and commentary):

It’s hard to tell what the end goal of HBO “Real Time” host Bill Maher’s is with his constant barrage of elitist shots at the American public. Does he think demeaning the average citizens is the best way to win people over on whatever issue he is carping about on that given day?

On the Oct. 26 broadcast of TBS’s “Lopez Tonight,” Maher took a couple of cynical and contemptible jabs at the America people. After expressing his disappointment in the Obama administration for not agreeing to abide by the will of California voters should Proposition 19 pass and decriminalize marijuana, he explained it was the role of President Barack Obama’s party to steer the country in a particular direction, albeit in some very unflattering terms.

Video Below Fold

 

Prefacing his remarks by proposing “you never get into a political discussion unless you bring the word Hitler in. You have to have Hitler, so let's put Hitler out there,” as if that caveat lessened the vulgarity of his impending comparison, on Friday night’s Real Time actor/director/writer Rob Reiner (IMDb page) contended all the Tea Party needs to match Adolph Hitler is a charismatic leader:

He wasn’t a majority guy, but he was charismatic and they were having bad economic times – just like we are now – people were out of work, they needed jobs and a guy came along and rallied the troops. My fear is that the Tea Party gets a charismatic leader, because all they're selling is fear and anger and that's all Hitler sold. “I’m angry and I’m frightened and you should hate that guy over there.”

“Right,” Bill Maher chirped in as Reiner, to applause from HBO's Los Angeles audience, declared: “And that’s what they’re doing.”

(Apparently, that means he at least doesn’t consider Sarah Palin to be a Hitler-like charismatic leader.) Audio: MP3 clip.

George Clooney on Friday exposed Bill Maher's ignorant hatred for conservatives.

During a discussion with the actor, director, and activist on HBO's "Real Time," Maher pathetically said, " I don't think conservatives are bad people. I think they have a hard time being empathetic to people who are not like them at all."

Clooney's answer will not only surprise you, but also visibly stopped Maher in his tracks (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Bill Maher on Tuesday said Americans unhappy with the current direction of the country are like battered women that go back to their abusive lovers.

Chatting with Lawrence O'Donnell on MSNBC's "Last Word," the "Real Time" host also disgustingly claimed, "When they say they want their country back, that`s what they mean, really, is they want their country back to the appropriate time when a white person was in the White House" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

When conservative atheist S. E. Cupp and liberal atheist Bill Maher get together on the same stage, it's a metaphysical certitude they're going to fight about religion.

Following up on their last heated theological battle on the May 14 installment of HBO's "Real Time," Cupp and Maher went at it again on Friday this time over Glenn Beck's decision to become a Mormon after he got remarried.

Not surprisingly, Maher thought it was absurd Beck and his soon to be bride decided to "shop around for religion."

When Cupp made the case that Maher as an atheist couldn't possibly understand how God's callings work, and others on the panel agreed with her, the host said, "Oh f--k you all," and moved on to his "New Rules" segment (video follows with transcript and commentary, serious vulgarity warning):

If global warming is the modern secular religion, HBO’s “Real Time” host Bill Maher has bought into it hook, line and sinker.

On the Oct. 8 broadcast of his program, immediately following a segment criticizing a congressional candidate that was a Nazis reenactor for exercising bad judgment, Maher ironically had some words of praise for the founder of al-Qaeda Osama bin Laden, who is believed to have ordered the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks which caused the deaths of over 2,700 people on American soil (video below the jump).

Bill Maher on Friday called former Alaska governor Sarah Palin a horse's ass.

In the opening monologue of his "Real Time" program on HBO, Maher brought up the recent brouhaha surrounding Alaska Republican senatorial candidate Joe Miller's refusal to express his support for Palin as a potential presidential candidate in 2012.

"So then Todd Palin, all pissed off, wrote him a bunch of emails full of like grammatical errors, spelling errors," joked Maher. 

The comedian continued, "You mess with Todd Palin, you could wake up with a horse's ass in your bed, like he does every day" (video follows with transcript and commentary): 

What – was Janeane Garofalo busy this week? If not, she has some real competition in the "lefty comic making outrageous statements" category.

On HBO’s Oct. 1 “Real Time with Bill Maher,” during the “Overtime” segment available on HBO.com, left-wing comedian David Cross of “Arrested Development” fame appeared to offer his view on issues of the day. This segment of the program is produced generally to answer viewer emailed questions. One of those questions was if people in the media “should be held more legally accountable for presenting false or misleading information.”

The host, Bill Maher likened that scenario to the system in place in the United Kingdom. However in the United States, Americans are protected by the First Amendment and he explained the legal implications of speech in the U.K. compared to the U.S. But in Cross’ estimation, that protected right is somehow wrong. He named two Fox News Channel hosts, Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity, and declared he would like to see them taken off of the airwaves although he wasn’t clear about what “false or misleading information” they may have presented that would warrant this action.

“I think so, absolutely, and I say that as somebody who would like to see Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity off the air, you know,” Cross declared with an approving response from the audience. “So, I think to -- it’s just part of the job. It should be part of the job, you know, if you knowingly do that, then absolutely you should lose your job. We don’t get to, you know, lie and make up things in our jobs, you know. And nobody really does.”

Jay Leno on Friday made an oral sex joke about Delaware Republican senatorial candidate Christine O'Donnell.

His "Tonight Show" guest was "Family Guy" creator Seth MacFarlane, who last week himself made a sexual comment about O'Donnell on HBO's "Real Time" as NewsBusters previously reported.

Leno brought this up with MacFarlane who joked, "I think the second she opened her mouth, it would probably ruin everything."

The "Tonight Show" host responded, "Or make it really good" (video follows with transcript and commentary): 

After telling his audience that his job isn't to "carry water for this or any administration," Bill Maher on Friday closed his show with a campaign speech begging viewers to support Democrats in the upcoming midterm elections. 

"When it comes to voting, when we only have two choices, you got to grow up and realize there's a big difference between a disappointing friend and a deadly enemy," said the "Real Time" host during his "New Rules" segment. 

Maher continued the campaign speech saying Democrats "are all that stands between you and darkest night."

"You know why the Republican symbol is R?" he asked his audience. "Because it's the noise a pirate makes when he robs you and feeds you to a shark" (video follows with transcript and commentary, vulgarity warning):

Appearing as a guest on Friday’s Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO, conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart argued against Maher after the Real Time host linked conservative protesters to images of President Obama with a Hitler moustache, and went on to recount his own observations of left-wing protesters depicting conservatives with Hitler moustaches. This portion of show could be seen on the Web site during the Overtime portion of the show.

Breitbart also recalled the case of conservative activist Kenneth Gladney being physically attacked and called by a racial epithet by left-wing SEIU members, and his own experience of being called "gay" by protesters on the left.

Below is a transcript of relevant portions of the Friday, September 24, Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO:

Bill O'Reilly on Wednesday smacked down Bill Maher when the comedian blamed Barack Obama's bad poll numbers on racism.

In the first part of his much-anticipated interview with the "Real Time" host, O'Reilly asked Maher's opinion on why the public seems to have soured on the President. 

After blaming Obama's woes on everyone but Obama himself, Maher said, "Of course a lot of it is racially..."

Maher didn't get a chance to finish this pathetic thought for O'Reilly cut him off mid-sentence (video follows with transcript and commentary): 

September 2010 might go down in history as the month America's comedians took over the Democrat Party.

From upcoming political rallies by Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert to the latter testifying before Congress and the media waiting breathlessly for Bill Maher to release another video of Delaware Republican senatorial candidate Christine O'Donnell, our world has surely taken a giant step towards the bizarre.

Jumping aboard the crazy train was David Gregory who on Sunday's "Meet the Press" actually played a clip from Comedy Central's the "Daily Show" to mock the Republican "Pledge to America" and House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Oh.) (video follows with transcript and commentary): 

Andrew Breitbart on Friday exposed Bill Maher for not being the Libertarian he claims to be, but a socialist instead.

When push came to shove, a seemingly embarrassed Maher didn't protest.

In the middle of a heated discussion on HBO's "Real Time" about healthcare reform legislation passed earlier this year, Maher vehemently defended the program.

This led Breitbart to smartly observe, "So you're officially not a Libertarian anymore, right? I mean, this position has run so far from the Libertarian position. Is this, so you admit that you have more of a, you know, European socialist leaning perspective on this issue?"

When the audience laughter subsided, a clearly stunned Maher acknowledged, "I'm not afraid to say European socialism works" (video follows with transcript and commentary): 

Appearing as a guest on Friday’s Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO, Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane made a crack about his willingness to have sex with Delaware Republican Senate nominee Christine O’Donnell after host Maher showed a clip of O’Donnell from a Politically Incorrect episode from 1998. After a clip of the GOP candidate in which denied believing in the theory of evolution, MacFarlane declared, "I would, I would wreck that chick."

According to its definition at urbandictionary.com, the term "wreck" was apparently first used in a sexual sense in an episode of MacFarlane’s crude Family Guy show on Fox. Maher laughed while there was only mild laughter from the audience.

Below is a transcript of the relevant portion of the Friday, September 24, Real Time with Bill Maher:

As the actor Richard Tillman – brother of former Army Ranger and former NFL player Pat Tillman – appeared as a guest on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher on Friday promoting the film "The Tillman Story" about his brother’s death in Afghanistan, host Maher played a clip from Pat Tillman’s funeral in which Richard Tillman mocked the religious references made at the funeral by speakers Maria Shriver and John McCain. Maher went on to praise Richard Tillman as having "a lot of balls" for his words as there was also moderate applause from the audience.

Maher set up the clip: "But, you know, they had Maria Shriver and John McCain... Speaking there, and Maria said, "Pat, you are home. You are safe." And McCain said, "You will see Pat again when a loving God reunites us all with our loved ones."

Then came a clip of Richard Tillman speaking at the funeral while nearly crying: "Thank you for coming. Pat’s a f------ champion and always will be. Just make a mistake, he’d want me to say this. He’s not with God. He’s f------ dead. He’s not religious. So thanks for your thoughts, but he’s f------ dead."

After applause from the audience, Maher responded, "That’s a lot of balls, my friend."

Remember when American comedians went after the powerful in an effort to bring them down to earth with the sharp satire of accountability? Today, they appear to only protect the powerful. Well, unless the powerful aren't liberal enough. As things stand now you have the likes of David Letterman and Louis C.K. savaging Sarah Palin's family, SNL terrified to rip Obama with any real zeal, cartoonists proclaiming President Teleprompter too cool to mock, and Will Ferrell films flaking for corrupt public unions, all in an effort to protect the corrupted leftist elitists currently holding power.

It's like we now live in an alternate universe you might call ... North Korea.

In desperate Hail Mary moves to protect Obama and Democrats from what's looking like a November rout, three of the left's most beloved Palace Guards have just upped their game considerably. Bill Maher's now openly blackmailing Delaware Republican Senate Candidate Christine O'Donnell, threatening a weekly drip-drip-drip of videos he thinks will ruin her candidacy unless she agrees to appear on his show - which is where he'll really pull out the stops to finally win that Emmy by attempting to destroy her:

The Associated Press is using a video clip that Bill Maher showed on HBO's "Real Time" Friday to bash Delaware Republican senatorial nominee Christine O'Donnell.

Here's the headline:

Bill Maher Digs Up O'Donnell 'Witchcraft' Clip 

Inside the piece, things got even dicier:

Schlockumentary film producer Michael Moore on Friday said the McDonald's that's two blocks from Ground Zero killed more people than the nineteen hijackers involved in the 9/11 attacks.

Chatting with Bill Maher on HBO's "Real Time," Moore also accused Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin of being America's Taliban.

"We should start calling them Cleric Gingrich and Mullah Taliban Palin," said Moore.

"Because I think that their level of bigotry is so un-American" (video follows with partial transcript and commentary): 

Bill Maher on Friday said Barack Obama's problem is "he's only half black." He'd be a better president "if he was fully black."

In the season premiere of HBO's "Real Time," while chatting with former Clinton labor secretary Robert Reich, the host said, "Isn't Obama's big problem is that he does everything half-assed? Maybe it's because he's only half black."

Maher continued, "If he was fully black, I'm telling you, he would be a better president."

As if that wasn't enough, "There's a white man in him holding him back because everything is half-assed" (video follows with transcript and commentary, file photo):  

As part of the 5th anniversary celebration of NewsBusters we have started a weekly Five for Five feature to list the blog's top twenty five posts. Last time, we looked at the top five posts on journalistic Obamagasms. On Friday we concluded with the top five posts of outrageous media outbursts.

We have picked out a couple posts from each of the five categories and asked the authors to reflect back on writing them up. In this series of short videos, they share their thoughts on how they caught the particular media moment and describe the impact their post had.

We finish our video look back by reflecting on two of top posts of outrageous media outbursts: "Rosie O'Donnell Spouts 9/11 Conspiracies: 'First Time in History Fire Has Ever Melted Steel'" by Justin McCarthy (reflection by Rich Noyes) and "Maher Buys Into Claim Sarah Palin's Baby Son Really Her Grandson" by Brent Baker.

Check out the last video of NewsBusters' Tim Graham and Kyle Drennen remembering some of the top posts on journalistic Obamagasms.

Catching up from Friday night, on the last Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO until September, Maher insisted “I’m not trying to be a conspiracy theorist,” but then proceeded to assert the Defense Department “uses more oil than anywhere else to kill people in the Middle East to get fuel to fight wars,” so “I do think there’s something -- just the way the pharmaceutical companies sometimes come up with a pill before they come up with the disease -- I think maybe we need a war all the time so we can wear out equipment and buy oil.”

Maher’s claim came during a one-on-one with far-left film director Oliver Stone, who is producing a ten-hour documentary for Showtime, Secret History of America, about how, as Maher agreed, “America always does seem to need an enemy.” When Stone maintained the Cold War was fueled by an exaggerated fear of communism, Maher jumped in: “I’d like to blame it on oil.”