Text 27612, 161 rader
Skriven 2007-03-04 07:57:00 av Jeff Binkley (1:226/600)
Ärende: Bill Maher
==================
This clown should not be on television at all.  If this were about a 
democrat the rest of the press would be up in arms.  Maher will get a 
free pass from the rest...  I have written HBO and will cancel my 
service (after 20 years) if they do not publicly condemn this at a 
minimum.  My preference would be for them to cancel the show.

=================================

http://newsbusters.org/stories/maher_sorry_cheney_assasination_attempt_f
ailed.html

Bill Maher Sorry the Assassination Attempt on Dick Cheney Failed
Posted by Noel Sheppard on March 3, 2007 - 10:22. 

In 2002, ABC made the decision to not renew Bill Maher's contract after 
he made some disgraceful comments on his program "Politically Incorrect" 
concerning America's military response to 9/11. After what transpired on 
"Real Time" Friday, the heads of HBO should be equally outraged, if not 
more.

As the discussion moved to the attempted assassination of Vice President 
Cheney last week, Maher asked his panel why it was necessary for the 
Huffington Post to remove comments by readers concerning their 
disappointment that the attempt failed. As the conversation ensued, 
Maher said one of the most disgraceful and irresponsible things uttered 
on a major television program since Bush was elected.

In a nutshell, the host said the world would be a safer place if the 
assassination attempt succeeded. And, he even had the nerve to reiterate 
it. Here’s the deplorable sequence of events for those that have the 
stomach for it (video available here courtesy of our friend Ms 
Underestimated):

Maher: What about the people who got onto the Huffington Post – and 
these weren’t even the bloggers, these were just the comments section – 
who said they, they expressed regret that the attack on Dick Cheney 
failed. 

Joe Scarborough: Right

Maher: Now…

John Ridley: More than regret.

Maher: Well, what did they say?

Ridley: They said “We wish he would die.ö I mean, it was (?) hate 
language.

Barney Frank: They said the bomb was wasted. (laughter and applause)

Maher: That’s a funny joke. But, seriously, if this isn’t China, 
shouldn’t you be able to say that? Why did Arianna Huffington, my 
girlfriend, I love her, but why did she take that off right away? 

After some discussion about why Huffington should or shouldn’t have 
taken these comments down, the following occurred:

Ridley: It’s one thing to say you hate Dick Cheney, which applies to his 
politics. It’s another thing to say, “I’m sorry he didn’t die in an 
explosion." And I think, you know…

Maher: But you should be able to say it. And by the way...

Frank: Excuse me, Bill, but can I ask you a question? Do you decide what 
the topics are for this show?

Maher: Yeah, I decide the topics, they don’t go there. 

Frank: But you exercise control over the show the way that she does over 
her blog.

Maher: But I have zero doubt that if Dick Cheney was not in power, 
people wouldn’t be dying needlessly tomorrow. (applause)

Scarborough: If someone on this panel said that they wished that Dick 
Cheney had been blown up, and you didn’t say…

Frank: I think he did.

Scarborough: Okay. Did you say…

Maher: No, no. I quoted that. 

Frank: You don’t believe that?

Maher: I’m just saying if he did die, other people, more people would 
live. That’s a fact. 

Wake up, HBO: one of your hosts said the world would be a safer place if 
the Vice President of the United States of America had been 
assassinated.

*****Update: Upon further examination, it seems that Maher's comments 
last night were signficantly more serious and virulent than what got him 
fired from ABC in 2002. 

To refresh everyone's memory, on Monday, September 17, 2001, Maher and 
his "Politically Incorrect" panel were discussing the attacks. Dinesh 
D'Souza was one of the guests, and according to both a UPI article from 
September 19, and a September 20 transcript from the "O'Reilly Factor," 
D'Souza was making the case that the hijackers weren't cowards. 

From UPI (no link available): 

"Look at what they did," he said. "First of all, you have a whole bunch 
of guys who are willing to give their life. None of (them) backed out. 
All of them slammed themselves into pieces of concrete ... These are 
warriors."

Maher, according to a transcript of the show, responded by saying, "We 
(the United States) have been cowards lobbing cruise missiles from 2,000 
miles away. That's cowardly. Staying in the airplane when it hits the 
building, say what you want about it, it's not cowardly."

Maher appeared on the "O'Reilly Factor" the day after this UPI article 
was published, and defended his statements as follows:

MAHER: I used the word we, we have been. That was a mistake because it's 
vague, and I apologize, as I do, to the military if they took it the 
wrong way. But I've been a huge military defender on this show, that is 
one of the things you and I would agree on, Bill, and maybe have when 
you were here.

What I was talking about was the policy making body of this country, 
which has not responded and had not responded before this, to terrorism 
the way they should. I was saying basically that they blew up our 
embassies in Africa. That was not a small thing. And embassies -- I know 
it's way over in Africa, that is American soil. And 100 people...

O'REILLY: So you're basically laying this at the doorstep of your guy, 
Bill Clinton. Is that we, his administration?

MAHER: OK, but you know what, as a society now we're coming together and 
we're all lobbying in the same way toward the president.

So when that happened I didn't hear a big out cry from Congress when 
Clinton did that. The country was satisfied to handle the problem that 
way. The country did not want to tackle terrorism then. And that's what 
we did, we lobbed a cruise missile at a pharmaceutical factory. Same 
thing when we tried to get bin Laden the last time.

[...]

MAHER: I think they're [the hijackers] moral cowards. But physical 
cowards, cowards in war, cowards in the sense of a soldier who falls on 
a grenade, no. And I think we make a mistake when we underestimate our 
enemy. I think that is a big mistake in this country to assume that 
these people are stupid and cowardly, because we are up against it now.

With that in mind, it seems safe to say that making reference to an 
attempted assassination of a sitting Vice President in the way Maher did 
Friday night -- actually voicing regret that the attempt failed, and 
stating unequivocally it would have been better if the plan had 
succeeded -- is far worse than what Maher stated on "PI" five and a half 
years ago, and should be dealt with just as seriously by the heads of 
HBO.


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