Real Time with Bill Maher #308 "News Values"

By Catherine Giordano

 

I lot of talk about news and values and the value of news and whether or not the news has values on Real Time with Bill Maher #308 which aired on February 21, 2014.

Rachel Maddow, host of The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC and the author of Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power, was a panel guest.  She has a new documentary that is sure to make news, Why We Did It, a follow up to her previous documentary Hubris: Selling the Iraq War.   It’s about the real reason we went to war in Iraq.  It will air on Thursday March 6, 2014.  Maddow is the best-she always puts the news in context, delving deep, while being entertaining.  It’s about time we got a definitive report about the Iraq war.

Maher said he was a big fan of MSNBC, but he thought there was too much emphasis on the Chris Christie scandals.  Maddow said, “I’m totally obsessed with the Christie story, unapologetically. I thought the Blogojevich scandal was the gonzo scandal of my career,” [but this is bigger]. Maher said “It’s not Watergate.” [I say, “You’re right, it’s worse.”] I was getting a little angry with Maher for badgering Maddow on this, but he redeemed himself when he that MSNBC scrupulously fact checks; Fox scrupulously makes up facts.”

In the monologue, Maher made a joke about Pussy Riot, the Russian girl band that was beaten by police at Sochi.  He said he was “shocked to see police behave this way …to white people.”  This set us up for the interview with Michelle Alexander, author of the book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness  Blacks are disproportionately targeted and prosecuted in the name of the war on drugs.  Once they a named a felon, then all the Jim Crow discriminations become legal—like losing the right to vote. 

Maher then talked about Ted Nugent saying that calling President Obama a “subhuman mongrel” was not racist and how Zimmerman and Dunn think that they are the victim. There was a hung jury on Dunn’s murder charge, but he was convicted of three counts of attempted murder. Maher said, “When an attempted murder is successful, isn’t that murder?”  I’ve heard others say, only half joking, that if Dunn had killed all four boys, he could have been acquitted.

Jane Harmon was another panelist. She is a former Democratic congresswoman from California. California is in the news because of the extended drought in that state.  In the monologue, Maher joked that “if Jesus came back to California, he’d be pissed because there is no water to walk on.” Later in the show, Maher mentioned that the Conference of Catholic Bishops told people they should pray for rain. This is actual fact, not a joke.  Sometimes it is hard to tell which is which.

Maher mentioned that Jon Kerry said that “climate change is a weapon o mass destruction.  Maddow said that billions of people will be displaced due to rising seas. The Pentagon believes in climate change because it is their job to see coming threats.  She pointed out what Dick Cheney said about war: if f there is a 1% chance that we may be attacked (by Iraq), then we must behave as if it’s a certainty.  Shouldn’t this apply to climate change?  Isn’t there a 1% chance that 95% of climate scientists are right?.

The third panelist was Charles Cook, a writer for The National Review, a conservative magazine.  Cook tried to disassociate himself from Republicans saying, ”I’m a conservative, not a Republican.”  This is the “The third panelist was Charles Cook, a writer for The National Review, a conservative magazine.  Cook tried to disassociate himself from Republicans saying, ”I’m a conservative, not a Republican.”  This is the “nice-try-but-if-it-quacks-like-a-Republican...” moment of the week. He sure sounded like a Republican, railing against “over-regulation” and “government making problems worse.”

Maher had a great jibe against Republicans in his monologue.  He said, In the Ukraine half of the people want to modernize and half want to stay in the past…just like in the U.S.“

The comedy segment was about religious sexual repression and a Mormon video, “Overcoming Masturbation.”  The video advised wearing pajamas that were hard to open.  That is so funny, it is hard to believe that it is not one of Maher’s jokes.  It wasn’t. These were Maher’s tips:  “Hold a live porcupine in your hand”, Spank an actual monkey”, Imagine Chris Christie putting out traffic cones”, Smack yourself in the nuts with a Bible”. 

The mid-show guest was Steve Coogan, who wrote and starred in the Oscar-nominated movie Philomena, (based on the book Philomena: A Mother, Her Son, and a Fifty-Year Search by William Sixsmith)which was partly about sexual repression in the Catholic church. The movie deals with one of the 60,000 women who because they became pregnant out of wedlock were taken to convents to live as slaves and had their babies sold for adoption. Coogan said that he wrote the screenplay using the tactics he learned from Maher’s movie Religulous, primarily the use of humor to make a point.

In New Rules, the final segment was “Wrong Division”.  It was about the fragmentation of news and how the internet is now delivering “personalized news.”  “My news feed," Maher said, “will be all about pot, American history, and Christian Mingle. Ted Nugent’s will be all about Prozac and bullets.”

Maher concluded with, “Only seeing the stuff that confirms what you already believe, that’s not news, that’s Fox News. Newspapers try to tell you what is actually important news, not just what is important to you.”

Each week, Maher gives us the news--the important news—and that is why I value this show.

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Real Time with Bill Maher # 275 “New Ideas”

Rachel Maddow on "Real Time with Bill Maher"

by Cathrine Giordano

“Real Time with Bill Maher” on HBO, episode 275, on march 15, 2013, was a lively show.  Rachel Maddow was a guest and that is reason enough to watch it.

Bill does a segment titled ”New Rules” each week, so I thought I’d do a take-off on that and  title this review “New Ideas.”  And when I say “new ideas”, I mostly mean “no new ideas.”

In the opening monologue, Bill talked about the selection of a new pope, or as Bill put it, “They found a guy to wear the white dress.”  He said that the new pope was being called “the humble pope.”  No limos for him, he rides the bus. Bill said, “An old guy on the bus mumbling about Jesus. When do you ever see that?” Nothing new about that.

Bill asked whether anything would change with this new pope.  He answered his own question, saying “Of course not.”  Bill pointed out that Pope Francis is pro-life, against contraception, and thinks homosexuality is the work of the devil. No new ideas there.

Bill added, “Or as Republicans call him, a progressive.” (It’s a joke, but as Republicans keep leap-frogging over each other to be the furthest to the right, it may actually be true real soon.)

Bill discussed C-Pac—the conservative convention.  Mark Rubio, senator from Florida, and new darling of tea-party gave a speech saying, “We don’t need a new idea.  We have an idea. It’s called America and it still works.”  Bill mocked him. “Really? Climate change? America! Stagnant wages? America. Equal rights for women? Saudi Arabia!"

Rubio is not ready for prime time. First there was the dreadful speech after the president’s state of the union speech. and now this inane speech at C-Pac.  First of all, Rubio—you just admitted that not only do Republicans have no new ideas, they don’t even want any new ideas. Why have an idea when you can have a slogan?  America!  Bill didn’t have to make a joke about it. It’s funny all by itself.

The interview was with Michelle Rhee, the Republicans darling of education reform. I didn’t hear any new ideas from her. Just the same old tired Republican talking points about bad schools and bad teachers.  Bill pointed out that the problem is not schools and teachers, but poverty. Michelle wouldn’t engage, and just kept on talking about bad schools and bad teachers.

I live in Florida.  When Jeb Bush was governor, the state started giving schools grades.  (Jeb Bush is often called the education governor. If by that they mean “the destroyer public education.’ then the title fits. I don’t know how he gets away with it.) One year, an “F” school was turned into an “A” school in one year. How was it done?  A local corporation “adopted” the school.  They provided resources, tutoring, enrichment programs. It’s as simple as that. We don’t have to close “bad” schools or fire “bad” teachers, we just need to provide more resources.  All the government had to do was duplicate the efforts of this corporation in every “bad” school, and problem solved.  Did they do it? Of course not! That would cost money! 

The panel included Rachel Maddow, host of an MNSBC news show (9pm Monday through Friday), Jared Bernstein, a former economic advisor to V.P. Biden, and Tom Davis, a former Republican Congressman from Virginia.

I love Rachel Maddow—watch her on MSNBC and you’ll see why. She’s super intelligent and funny.  She’s like no one else on TV. Jared is new to me, but I liked him immediately.  Rachel and Jared didn’t have any new ideas either, but they don’t need any. Their old ideas are the ones that this country needs, like cutting defense spending, ending poverty, providing health care, and not putting the country into deficits by neglecting to pay for the war that you lied the country into.

Tom Davis’s response was to say that he agreed with Jeb Bush that “history will be kind to G. W. Bush.” He added, “Nixon was rehabilitated.”  Everyone else guffawed saying that there was no comparison between what Nixon did and the terrible mess that Bush got us into. I was laughing, too.  It seems like the country is finally waking up to how really, really, bad Bush was.

Bill went back to the pope theme for his comedy segment.  He talked about what some famous politicos might say in confession.

John Boehner:         I only cry because I’m sh-t-faced.”

Pope Benedict:         I’m not actually sick. I just hated the job.   

Sarah Palin:              Sometimes I close my eyes and pretend Todd is Kobe Bryant.

Marcus Bachman:   Sometimes I close my eyes and pretend Michelle is Kobe Bryant. (Michelle Bachman’ s husband, Marcus, is rumored to be gay.)

Mitt Romney:             I hate the other 53% too.

An orangutan:          I only slept with Donald Trump’s mother to win a bet.

The special guest was Tom Colicchio, a chef who has just done a documentary about hunger in America, called “A Place at the Table.”  He pointed out that 47 million children in this country don’t know where their next meal is coming from. He also explained that hunger and obesity are related. People get calories, but not nutrition. Healthy food is expensive.   

In “New Rules” Bill poked fun at smart cars. He said that you may have things on your key chair bigger than a smart car, and that if you kit Chris Christy while driving one, he’d ask you if you were OK.  (Yes, smart cars are very small, probably smaller than Chris Christie, but I think they are cute.)

The final ‘new rule” dealt with conservatives. 

Bill said that Obamacare is hated, but its individual components are well liked. 

He compared it to saying, “I hate pizza, but I love dough with tomato sauce and cheese.”  He said, “People don’t dislike socialism; they just don’t know how to define it. Hint:  It’s in the name ‘social security.’”

 He said C-Pac was the “open mic from Hell.”  Their message is “whatever you do, don’t change.” 

Bill said, ”Politicians from both parties think their constituents are more conservative than they actually are. He added, “(Conservatives) don’t speak for the majority of Americans. They are just so loud that they haven’t noticed that America has moved on.

He concluded by saying that conservatives were like the nasty old man yelling that the kids hit their ball into his yard and he hasn’t noticed that they have grown up and moved away… and he’s the senior senator from Arizona.

And, that is not a new idea, not even a new joke, but it is really funny when Bill says it.  It’s funny because the analogy is so perfect. This is the “I’ve-heard- it-before-but-it-still-makes-me laugh-every-time” moment of the week.

I’m fine with the fact that Republicans don’t have new ideas. I bet the do-do birds didn’t have any new ideas either—just before they went extinct. I just wish they would get out of the way of the liberal’s good ideas.

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