Saturday, April 30, 2011

Breitbart and Maher Wax Sexist, Ignoring Laura Flanders, as They Compare Racist Notes



When I first started calling Andrew Breitbart a racist here and at firedoglake, people resisted. They don't anymore. The Shirley Sherrod episode settled it in many minds.

In this give-and-take at Bill Maher's place, both Breitbart and Maher tend to ignore any and all points Laura Flanders brings to the fore. As they are pointed toward Breitbart by Flanders, not toward Maher, you'd think Bill would be more neutral.

He isn't exactly sucking up to Breitbart, though. It is ironic that Maher, who starts out asking "Do you think you can be a racist and not know it?" ends up quipping rhetorically to Donald Trump, "I have a feeling, if you have such a great relationship with 'the Blacks,' walk through Harlem this weekend without security." The audience erupts in laughter.

Yes, Bill, you can.

Breitbart attempts to both suck up to Maher and bait Flanders with his statement, "We'd like to know about his relationship with ..... Prof. Edward Said, there's a lot of mysterious things in his background that people would like to....."

You can't even understand Flanders' attempt to get back into the conversation, as Breibart yells "What's wrong about that? I would like to know the three ....."

Breitbart attempts to paint some bizarre conspiracy having to do with Obama's movements and Said's, between Columbia University and the University of Chicago. The conversation drifts off into borderless territory Breitbart excels at scooping up the wreckage from, as he demands that we find out - turning toward Islamaphobe and Israel apologist Maher for his final appeal - "We'd like to know if he's pro-Israel, if his people are pro-Israel, we'd like to know what his orientation is, what kind of classes he took."

To his credit, Maher doesn't take the proffered bait and moves on to sum up the segment.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I decided a long time ago that Maher is sexist, which is why I pay him very little attention.

Sometimes no TV, or just the tiniest helping, is quite enough.

Anonymous said...

This was one of his weakest shows I've seen in a while. Why he keeps bringing Brietbart on is beyond me.. unless he was going to question him about the latest video editing at the University of Missouri at KC. Maher wasn't up to speed on that, I guess.

Flanders kept trying to be a little more serious about the issues but Bill reminded everyone (because he needed to?) that they were doing comedy.

What I found more sad than anything was the know nothing guest on Maher's right(I forget his name and he's been a regular)who said people are living longer so they can/should work longer or do without Social Security or Medicare longer. What he fails to understand or refuses to is that people making over $100,000.00 a year are living 14years longer and those under $100,000.00 since the 1920's or 1930's are living one year longer. Bill Maher wasn't up to speed on that one either.

Bigtoe

Anonymous said...

Bigtoe asks why Maher keeps bringing on Breitbart (and others like him).

Simple. Television is about conflict. They provide it.