On Friday’s edition of Real Time on HBO, host Bill Maher skewered the Washington Post for its Dave Weigel-Felicia Sonmez controversy, labeling the Post as an “unlicensed daycare center” and mocking the recently sacked Sonmez for lacking of a sense of humor.
Maher began by requesting “If someone knows of a story that more effectively captures what's wrong with today's journalism than the sad saga of what happened last week at the Washington Post, they need to keep it to themselves, because it would be too depressing.”
Recapping the situation, Maher informed viewers that, “the Washington Post recently got embroiled in a self-inflicted shitstorm when one of their best reporters David Weigel, retweeted -- not tweeted, retweeted -- this joke: ‘Every girl is bi. You just have to figure out if it's polar or sexual.’”
After guffaws from the audience, Maher thanked the audience for “Proving it is a joke” and then explained to self-serious people like Sonmez why people found the joke funny, “For eons, both sexes have made jokes about how the other is crazy, and no one but the perpetually offended thinks it means anything more than that the sexes get frustrated over how differently we see the world, and yes, we relieve some of that frustration with humor. And, scene.”
Getting back to the internal dynamics at the Post, Maher continued, “Nevertheless, Weigel pulled down his retweet and wrote ‘I apologize and did not mean to cause any harm.’ And that was the end of that. I'm joking, of course, the unlicensed day care center that is today's ‘newsroom’ went apeshit. You see, the post has another writer named Felicia Sonmez and she's...a lot. For example, she tweeted about Kobe Bryant's 2003 rape trial hours after his helicopter crashed.”
After recalling Sonmez’s declaring, ‘”Fantastic to work at a news outlet where tweets like this are allowed!,’” Maher criticized both Sonmez and the Post’s reactions, “Yes, can you imagine a world that allows jokes you don't like? Of course—of course-- the leadership at the post folded like a Miami condo and suspended Weigel without pay for a month and denounced the offending retweet as a gross violation of their values, free speech apparently not being one of them.”
Continuing to poke fun at Sonmez’s inability to take a joke, he recalled the next development in the saga, “Then a third Post reporter offered up the idea, of course, on Twitter, because why do anything privately? That hey, maybe everyone was overreacting and we should all just calm down and then it was really on: Felicia demanded that the post discipline him, and tweeted about that. I assume she's tweeting about this right now. For days, she raged with the fire of a thousand burning bras.”
In reality, Sonmez hasn’t tweeted since the day she was fired, presumably because she’s going to sue the Post, which might violate Maher’s earlier request to not present him with even dumber stories about modern journalism.
Here is a transcript for the June 17 show:
HBO Real Time with Bill Maher
6/17/2022
10:48 PM ET
BILL MAHER: If someone knows of a story that more effectively captures what's wrong with today's journalism than the sad saga of what happened last week at the Washington Post, they need to keep it to themselves, because it would be too depressing. If you missed it, the Washington Post recently got embroiled in a self-inflicted shitstorm when one of their best reporters David Weigel, retweeted -- not tweeted, retweeted -- this joke: "Every girl is bi. You just have to figure out if it's polar or sexual."
Proving it is a joke, thank you. The comedian who actually wrote the tweet called it "A banal throwaway joke," which is exactly what it is. Throwaway, as in, if you don't like it, throw it away. For eons, both sexes have made jokes about how the other is crazy, and no one but the perpetually offended thinks it means anything more than that the sexes get frustrated over how differently we see the world, and yes, we relieve some of that frustration with humor. And, scene.
Nevertheless, Weigel pulled down his retweet and wrote "I apologize and did not mean to cause any harm." And that was the end of that.
I'm joking, of course, the unlicensed day care center that is today's “newsroom" went apeshit. You see, the post has another writer named Felicia Sonmez and she's...a lot. For example, she tweeted about Kobe Bryant's 2003 rape trial hours after his helicopter crashed. And despite the fact that she says Dave Weigel is a good friend she resurrected the tweet he had taken down with a screenshot and demanded to know what the Post was going to do about this unacceptable evil that must not be allowed to stand, sarcastically writing "Fantastic to work at a news outlet where tweets like this are allowed!"
Yes, can you imagine a world that allows jokes you don't like? Of course—of course-- the leadership at the post folded like a Miami condo and suspended Weigel without pay for a month and denounced the offending retweet as a gross violation of their values, free speech apparently not being one of them. Then a third Post reporter offered up the idea, of course, on Twitter, because why do anything privately? That hey, maybe everyone was overreacting and we should all just calm down and then it was really on: Felicia demanded that the post discipline him, and tweeted about that. I assume she's tweeting about this right now.
For days, she raged with the fire of a thousand burning bras. Sending a gazillion tweets calling for more to be done against Weigel, mocking her bosses, attacking colleagues and letting the world know how much the Washington Post sucked and this endless bickering and infighting continued online public view until the bell rang and they all went to seventh period.
