After an unsuccessful appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins tried the late night comedy circuit again on Friday as she joined HBO’s Bill Maher on Real Time to recap the Democratic National Convention. During their conversation, Maher argued that CNN’s coverage was “the same as The View,” while Collins desperately tried to claim that “we call bullshit on every side.”
Maher recalled, “I know what the conservative side of America thinks, and I don't blame them. I watched Kamala's speech last night, it ended at 8:09, or, I guess, 11:09 in the east. It wasn't until 11:23 ‘til the one conservative guy, what’s his name?”
As Collins informed him it was Scott Jennings, Maher continued, “Lonely Scott, I call him.”
Collins also cited David Urban, but Maher wasn’t buying it, “Wait a second, wait a second, I watched from 8:09 to 8:23, it was just gushing about how great a speech it was, and I think she did fine, I didn’t think it was as good as they were making it out to be, but if I'm a conservative in America and I'm watching CNN, just for the straight middle-of-the-road, that's what I hear for 15 minutes is 'it's great' and then Lonely Scott. When you see -- it does look like tokenism. It's, kind of, like, the same as The View, it's like, it’s almost better to have nobody there like MSNBC.”
Defending her colleagues, Collins claimed it was natural to have Democrats opine on the Democratic Convention first, “I don't think you can say it's better to have nobody there than also lament the fact that you don't think that conservative guy, Scott Jennings, who is great and we have him on my show all the time, spoke up early enough. I think it was a Democratic Convention, they turned to Democrats, people like David Axelrod, who ran successful presidential Democratic campaigns first, for their analysis of this, and I don't think you can say that CNN is anything, but fair.”
Whatever one thinks of that defense, what followed was less defensible, “I mean, look at, we covered President Biden's exit from the race very closely, the pressure on him to get out and I feel like I could speak with authority on this -- I'm from Alabama, I'm from a very red state, I have a very conservative family, a lot of them are Trump voters, they watch my show every night to and I think they know that they can trust me, that we call bullshit on every side, not just whatever leaning our audience may be, and I think that's something people want more of his to hear from that.”
Sure, a broken clock is still right two times a day, and Collins will occasionally call out Democrats, but on the whole, CNN goes much softer on Democrats, and sometimes their anti-GOP fact-checks aren’t even accurate, forcing Republicans to have to turn the tables on CNN.
Collins proceeded to unwittingly undermine her point, “I think Scott's voice is really important, but I think other voices are important to hear from, and everyone who was speaking last night, it’s not like they were all Democrats. I mean, Dana Bash, Jake Tapper, Abby Philip, all my amazing colleagues giving analysis.”
Maher concluded the CNN-DNC portion of the interview by pointing out the problem with that, “They come across that way. They came across that way in a moment like that. It was like five-to-one, it always looks like five-to-one.”
Here is a transcript for the August 23 show:
HBO Real Time with Bill Maher
8/23/2024
10:12 PM ET
BILL MAHER: I'm talking about the people on CNN and I know what the conservative side of America thinks, and I don't blame them. I watched Kamala's speech last night, it ended at 8:09, or, I guess, 11:09 in the east. It wasn't until 11:23 ‘til the one conservative guy, what’s his name?
KAITLAN COLLINS: Scott Jennings.
MAHER: Lonely Scott, I call him.
COLLINS: David Urban was there too.
MAHER: Wait a second, wait a second, I watched from 8:09 to 8:23, it was just gushing about how great a speech it was, and I think she did fine, I didn’t think it was as good as they were making it out to be, but if I'm a conservative in America and I'm watching CNN, just for the straight middle-of-the-road, that's what I hear for 15 minutes is “it's great” and then Lonely Scott. When you see -- it does look like tokenism. It's, kind of, like, the same as The View, it's like, it’s almost better to have nobody there like MSNBC.
COLLINS: I don't think you can say it's better to have nobody there than also lament the fact that you don't think that conservative guy, Scott Jennings, who is great and we have him on my show all the time, spoke up early enough.
I think it was a Democratic Convention, they turned to Democrats, people like David Axelrod, who ran successful presidential Democratic campaigns first, for their analysis of this, and I don't think you can say that CNN is anything, but fair.
I mean, look at, we covered President Biden's exit from the race very closely, the pressure on him to get out and I feel like I could speak with authority on this -- I'm from Alabama, I'm from a very red state, I have a very conservative family, a lot of them are Trump voters, they watch my show every night to and I think they know that they can trust me, that we call bullshit on every side, not just whatever leaning our audience may be, and I think that's something people want more of his to hear from that.
I think Scott's voice is really important, but I think other voices are important to hear from, and everyone who was speaking last night, it’s not like they were all Democrats. I mean, Dana Bash, Jake Tapper, Abby Philip, all my amazing colleagues giving analysis.
MAHER: They come across that way. They came across that way in a moment like that. It was like five-to-one, it always looks like five-to-one.
