Bill Maher - FishbowlLA

Bill Maher Conservative Panelist: ‘I Made the Mistake of Replying with Facts’

Richard Horgan — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 10:15:09 +0000

What’s it like being the “token Conservative” on that raucous Friday free-for-all known as HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher? After last week’s show, San Diego radio host and columnist Roger Hedgecock has shared his experience.

Hedgecock was joined on the panel by MSNBC’s Chris Matthews and TIME magazine reporter Rana Foroohar. Anyone with right leanings who agrees to do Maher’s program is to be commended, and this latest brave soul admits he knew what he was in for. But he still takes Matthews to task:

“I didn’t expect Matthews to falsely claim that President Obama inherited unemployment over 10%. Unemployment in January 2009 was actually 7.8% and has not been that low since. Then Matthews really lost it, bellowing you people are just racists who hated Obama from the first day. I haven’t heard the “you people” phrase since Ross Perot used it in front of an African-American audience in 1992.”

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Bill Maher, VICE Partner for HBO News Magazine

Richard Horgan — Thu, 10 May 2012 16:30:16 +0000

It makes perfect sense for HBO to expand the Bill Maher current events coverage playing field, and today, the network has indicated it will be doing so in a most intriguing manner.

Real Time host Maher will executive produce a weekly news magazine hosted by VICE founder Shane Smith. Smith will also be one of the other executive producers along with VICE chief creative officer Eddy Moretti. CNN’s Fareed Zakaria meanwhile will be on board as show consultant.

From today’s announcement:

“VICE has emerged as a premier new media brand through a savvy combination of irreverence, smarts and fearlessness,” said Michael Lombardo, president HBO programming. “We are excited to offer a forum for their groundbreaking style of news coverage and look forward to a show that’s like nothing else on TV.”

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The Future of Original Web Video Programming

Matthew Fleischer — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 18:47:37 +0000

Perhaps the single biggest takeaway from the 2012 TV Summit is that Yahoo is trying REALLY hard to drum up Hollywood awareness of its new video content production strategy. The website sponsored the event and the Yahoo logo was front and center everywhere.

“We’ve got eight out of 10 people online touching Yahoo.com.” said Yahoo’s VP of originals & video programming Erin McPherson in a new-media panel discussion. “We call ourselves the ‘fifth network.’ That’s aspriational. But we’re TV on steroids. We’re creating a TV consumer experience but adding social and mobile.”

They’re also creating some nice swag. I was given not one, but two shiny blue Yahoo pens from a booth inside the Summit. Very nice.

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Daily Beast Columnist: Let’s Not Forget These Other Misogynistic Media Men

Richard Horgan — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 11:30:58 +0000

From the outset of the Rush Limbaugh controversy, more than a few members of the public have tweeted about what they perceive to be an egregious double standard. While the conservative talk show host is going down in flames, equally culpable folks perched at the other end of the TV-radio spectrum like Bill Maher get less overall flack. (Maher appears to have learned a thing or two from his Politically Incorrect ABC days by moving to a network with no advertisers.)

Over the weekend, Daily Beast columnist (and Fox News analyst) Kirsten Powers (pictured) picked up this strand with a vengeance. Starting with a rip-roaring first two paragraphs:

Did you know there is a war on women?

Yes, it’s true. Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann, Bill Maher, Matt Taibbi and Ed Schultz have been waging it for years with their misogynist outbursts. There have been boycotts by people on the left who are outraged that these guys still have jobs. Oh, wait. Sorry, that never happened.

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With Just One Tweet, Bill Maher Has Christian Conservatives Foaming at the Mouth

Pandora Young — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 16:02:43 +0000

The above tweet from Bill Maher about the Broncos’ loss to the Buffalo Bills has some Christians spitting mad – particularly those on FOX. Follow the Money host Eric Bolling tweeted that Maher was “vile trash,” and on Monday joined his co-hosts of The Five in slamming the comedian.

A boycott of HBO by Christian conservatives angry at Maher has since been widely reported by the media – though the only evidence of a boycott we can find are a few dozen tweets by people who likely don’t watch the network anyway.

Maher, a vocal critic of religion, is probably enjoying all the free press. Season 10 of Real Time With Bill Maher premieres January 13.

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Grassroots TV Reporter Keeping Tabs on Occupy Los Angeles

Richard Horgan — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 12:00:57 +0000

There’s a whole lot going on at Occupy Los Angeles beyond mainstream media coverage points such as yesterday’s Westwood-Wilshire standoff and the possibility of downtown eviction. For FishbowlLA’s Federal Reserve-backed tender, one of the best ways to keep up with the historic on-the-ground developments are the daily video dispatches of Margot Paez.

Just this week, under her great moniker “Insight Out News,” Paez and crew have captured a surprise drop-in visit from Bill Maher, another appearance by the Reverend Jesse Jackson and more. Her reports are long, but that’s another advantage of running your own broadcast operation; there’s no media-money exec(s) telling a reporter what to cut:

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Bill Maher and Jane Lynch Perform ‘The Weiner Monologues’

Pandora Young — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 08:32:15 +0000

A staged performance of Anthony Weiner‘s creepy tweets, by Bill Maher and Jane Lynch.

Not safe for work! And it won’t do much for your faith in elected officials, either…

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Framing Andrew Breitbart

Matthew Fleischer — Thu, 05 May 2011 14:56:40 +0000

Let’s face it. LA’s resident conservative agitator Andrew Breitbart isn’t going away. His involvement in the Shirley Sherrod flap threatened to put him out to the woodshed of the public consciousness. But now, thanks largely to his protege James O’Keefe‘s NPR sting, Breitbart is back on Bill Maher and at the LAT Festival of Books and even written up by the Times itself. Breitbart has even inexplicably reemerged as one of the left-wing media’s go-to conservative pundits–much to the incredulity of the liberal blogosphere. Several weeks ago Huffington Post decided to give Breitbart a front page blog on its site. About a week after putting him up there, under intense online liberal pressure, HuffPo eventually found an excuse to take Breitbart off the front page.

Breitbart even found his way to MSNBC’s Dylan Ratigan show last week–where the typically ornery liberal Ratigan went out of his way to call Breitbart a “sharp shooter who gets results.” That didn’t sit well with Color of Change activist and Firedoglake blogger James Rucker–who felt Ratigan was bending over backwards to help restore Breitbart’s undeserved credibility.

Rucker interviewed Ratigan about Breitbart’s appearance.

When I spoke with Ratigan, he explained what he was trying to do. He quickly agreed that Breitbart was a race-baiter, dishonest, and undeserving of credibility — without question. And he frankly hadn’t thought about the legitimizing effect that having Breitbart on his show — without clearly labeling him as the race-baiter and deceiver he is — would have.

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Arianna Huffington Goes Blond, Could Have Been Richer

Matthew Fleischer — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 13:33:49 +0000

Arianna Huffington is profiled in today’s LA Times, where we learn not only did she leave money on the table in her sale of the Huffington Post, she’s gone blond. Oh, and perhaps more importantly, she finally offers a defense against the online sweatshop allegations that have stung HuffPo since its sale to AOL.

Her employees, she said, “are the people expected to meet deadlines, turn up every day, even over the weekend when something like the Tucson shooting happens.”

The site’s 9,000 bloggers, she continued, “have no obligations…. You send a blog today, for which we are very grateful because that’s how we get great content, but if you don’t send another blog for another two years, nobody’s going to bother you.”

A much more spirited defense than she made this past weekend when Bill Maher made fun of her on Real Time for refusing to share the wealth of her new deal.

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Huffpo/AOL Reaction: It’s About Freelancers

Tina Dupuy — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 11:33:48 +0000

So far the reaction to the Huffington Post/AOL merger fall into a couple of different groups:

Anti-corporate reactionists: They don’t trust anything or anyone making money. They were already suspicious of Huffpo and then a giant corporation bought them. To anti-corporate reactionists the merger is just further proof for their already held beliefs. Their only news sources are alternative and if you’ve heard of it – it’s too mainstream. In a way they are happy about the Huffington Post AOL deal because it gives them fodder.

The Toldjas (sorry Nikki, it’s not copyrightable): As in “toldja Arianna only cared about her bank account” and “Toldja she was a Republican.” They are the “I never liked that site” people. They are the “It’s always been a digital tabloid” people. Yes, they’ve been waiting patiently on social networking sites for the opportunity to pronounce themselves as never liking anything so therefore they’re right about some things. Right-wingers also fall into this category. They’ve never liked Huffington Post and now take joy in saying “TOLDJA!”

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Bill Maher’s Christmas Video

Tina Dupuy — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 16:29:37 +0000

We don’t believe in Oprah but we’re afraid of her. Bill Maher‘s a brave, brave man.

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The Disappearing Rob Schneider Interview

Richard Horgan — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 18:30:33 +0000

Ahead of a Friday, December 3rd stand-up appearance in Chicopee, MA, comedian Rob Schneider did a long phone interview from LA with MassLive.com. For some reason, the Q&A transcript quickly disappeared from the website after publication Monday, November 30th.

Perhaps someone decided the material was too political. From our perspective, the conversation showcases Schneider in a highly flattering Bill Maher type of light. And certainly, nothing he says is any more offensive than the gay-aliens John Travolta joke the comedian told at last night’s Quentin Tarantino roast. Here are a few samples:

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Republican Strategist: It Was Definitely Marijuana

Richard Horgan — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 07:45:50 +0000

Tonight’s edition of Real Time with Bill Maher should be very interesting. That’s because after host Bill Maher suggested during a Monday interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that the joint lit up on air last week by guest Zach Galifianakis was in fact not marijuana but rather “cloves or something,” fellow October 29th guest Margaret Hoover has set the record straighter.

On last night’s edition of The O’Reilly Factor, she insisted that the pot smoked by the bearded funnyman was real.

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Chong’s Cause Goes Up in Smoke

Richard Horgan — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 11:30:48 +0000

Stoners across the state are crying in their Fruit Loops this morning, trying to figure out how many joints they will have to smoke on the QT before another shot at California legalization in 2012. Still, the residual media buzz from Proposition 19 remains strong, thanks in large part to the celebrities involved. In no particular order:

1) On Monday, November 1st, comedian Tommy Chong (pictured) recorded a MySpace message in favor of Prop 19. “Get it legal, before you wind up in jail, like I did,” he urged. Unfortunately, in this video at least, Chong was perhaps not the optimum physical-specimen-advertisement for smoking lots of weed, legal or otherwise.

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Rob Reiner Discovers Hitler Magic

Matthew Fleischer — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 12:01:52 +0000

Actor/director Rob Reiner is onto something. In his appearance on Bill Maher‘s show last Friday, he noted that if you want anyone to pay attention to what you’re saying in today’s political discourse you have to compare someone to Hitler. So he did, comparing Tea Party followers to the Germans who uncritically ate up Hitler’s hate spiel. And it worked. Every conservative blog in the country is talking about Reiner’s comments–including, not surprisingly, the LA Times’ “Top of the Ticket” blog.

One of these days we’re going to do an all-Hitler day where every item we write has a Hitler reference or comparison of some sort. Perhaps our election coverage next week could use some Hitler sprucing…? Crazier things have happened. Stay tuned.

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