Bill Maher granted an interview with the Hollywood trade paper Variety, which mostly discussed his aversion to taping his HBO show Real Time instead of doing the show live – perhaps because that decision would mock the show’s title. But the jaw-dropping part came late in the article. Maher suggested the networks are “committing journalistic treason,” and Variety’s Brian Steinberg apparently failed to follow up:
And while Maher scoffs at traditional evening newscasts – “All of the network newscasts blow,” he remarked. “They are absolutely committing journalistic treason” – he realizes Real Time functions as a sort of news outlet. In each broadcast, he said: “I want to touch what I consider to be every important story that happened that week. I don’t mean it’s every story the media thought was important.” But he also wonders if people who rely on just his program for the news are on the right information diet: “It’s like saying I get all my nutrients from the Cheesecake Factory,” he cracked.
We’re going to guess that by "treason," Maher means the network news is too corporate and cautious and avoids covering the contentious policy issues that a hard-hitting socialist magazine would do, like starting a panic over how global warming is going to lead to a massive increase in brain-eating parasites. Both the Left and the Right can disdain the networks for skimping on hard news on weightier subjects, so that more time can be offered to supposedly shocking show-opening "scoops" like the potential for harsh winter weather in December.
The headline was "Bill Maher Courts Danger by Working Live at HBO." As one might suspect, Maher doesn't want to avoid danger by taping, but he cherry-picks the audience:
Maher has not considered joining the pack. In recent weeks, he has urged staff to select a live audience that is less ruffled by some of the decidedly “politically incorrect” material he delivers. Nearly every week, it seems, the Real Time audience expresses outrage or dismay at some of Maher’s pointed comments about liberals or conservatives – precious seconds that can detract from the show. Maher has on at least one occasion actually left his stage and gone out into the audience to help remove people who heckled the show and interrupted the discussion. He recalled the episode as “an out-of-body experience.”
Variety included a video from 2007, where Maher said of one heckler, “Don’t be gentle with him...Ass-kicking is what’s called for!”
“I think you should be shocking your audience,” said Maher, who has recommended the crowds for Real Time be more like the people who pay to see him do standup around the country. Paying fans “are much less politically correct. I want to keep going with that,” he said. “I’m not politically correct and the audience should know that. I’ve only been on TV for 22 years! I come pre-advertised. I think the brand is plain.”He does not seem eager to get rid of the live broadcast, no matter the potential for hiccups. “If you tape something, and then the next day something happens to undo what you were talking about, you look like an idiot,” he explained.
Maher argued keeping the show live means offering viewers something they can’t get anywhere else. “If you are doing something somebody else is doing, then the audience has a choice,” Maher said. “I want the audience to have no choice. If they want something like I’m doing, they have to come here.”
