Bill Maher runs out protesters

[Smallpotatoes]

Seems we've found the limits to Bill's oft-proclaimed dedication to free speech.
Let him cry on Coulter's shoulder.

Not only did we find the limits, he encouraged security to rough them up.

As with so many, "free speech" most often only covers speech with which they agree.

Fenian and Old Tony agree on something?
Repent! The world is coming to an end!

 

[Fenian_Bastard]

Which are even funnier given the knowledge that Maher and Coulter are friends and that he sticks up for her all the time on his show.

Which was my point. Maher doesn't give a rat's ass what kind of vicious lunacy his show spews, as long as it comes from his pals on that side of the table. And when he gets called on it, he's all about what pussies we are in America, and that we're not fearless the way he is.
I'm sorry. He looked like a cheap thug on this.
On the plus side, Matthews looked like he'd wandered into the wrong saloon.

 

[dooley_womack1]

The false premise hypothetical!

That train's never late.

You want to talk about false premise hypotheticals?

OK, here's one: Liberals wouldn't have gotten us into that ****hole quagmire called Iraq.

Fixed.

 

[old_tony]

The false premise hypothetical!

That train's never late.

You want to talk about false premise hypotheticals?

OK, here's one: Liberals would have done things better in Iraq.

If you want to play that game, we can pretty much do it on everything Bush has done that you say liberals would have done differently.

So basically the whole liberal agenda is a false premise hypothetical.

REmember last November? Vote democrat and they'll get us out of Iraq. Then the Dems got control and realized they'd shot off their mouths too much and they knew they would get wiped when their grand plans made things worse.

Maybe liberals woulda kept looking for bin Laden, Tony, and not jumping into Iraq.

But maybe anyone else might have, outside this administration.

Under the Zeke rules, you've just raised a hypothetical and it means you don't have the facts on your side.

 

[zeke12]

Which are even funnier given the knowledge that Maher and Coulter are friends and that he sticks up for her all the time on his show.

Which was my point. Maher doesn't give a rat's ass what kind of vicious lunacy his show spews, as long as it comes from his pals on that side of the table. And when he gets called on it, he's all about what pussies we are in America, and that we're not fearless the way he is.
I'm sorry. He looked like a cheap thug on this.
On the plus side, Matthews looked like he'd wandered into the wrong saloon.

You won't see me sticking up for him sticking up for her, or arguing that he's anything less than a shameless self-promoter.

That said, I enjoy his show most weeks.

 

[rico_the_redneck]

So Maher should have allowed them to hijack his one-hour show? Protesting is fine, but there's a time and place for it. How would you like it if some nut job prevented you from doing your job? I'd be a little pissed too.

I'm not sure where the freedom of speech issue comes into play here. I think dignan makes the real point, which is, imagine you're sitting at your desk, trying to pound out a story on deadline and some idiot reader comes into your office and is screaming at you about something you wrote last week. Does the right to free speech say this guy can stand there screaming until he's blue in the face, preventing you from finishing your story, or does security (or the cops) come and haul his ass out of the building so you can finish your story?

Maher was, as dignan notes, doing his job when someone started screaming at him. If you're on a street corner (guess your job would be prostitute!) or some other public place, then I see free speech. But this is a privately owned studio producing a television show (No different than you writing a story or any other person doing their job in a private building). Yes, these people were invited to watch as part of the audience. But Maher nailed it when he was talking about the word audience coming from the latin word meaning "to listen." Once they stop listening and start interrupting, Maher has every right to kick some ass!

 

[Fenian_Bastard]

The problem is that Maher has relentlessly promoted himself as the brave champion of unfettered public expression. Period. It's the card he plays every time somebody points out, for example, that maybe Coulter shouldn't be quite so visible on the public airwaves because what she says might be destructive. He then replies that we're all a nation of pussies. So, shoe on the other foot, and he gets brave behind his security guards.

 

[Nathan Scott Phillips]

It would have been handled better if it wasn't a live show. Either he'd invite them on stage or throw them out and edit the disruption. As it was he looked a little petty, but not as stupid as the tower 7 nutjobs.

 

[steveu]

Seems we've found the limits to Bill's oft-proclaimed dedication to free speech.
Let him cry on Coulter's shoulder.

Not only did we find the limits, he encouraged security to rough them up.

As with so many, "free speech" most often only covers speech with which they agree.

Fenian and Old Tony agree on something?
Repent! The world is coming to an end!

(Clutches chest, falls over)

 

[digger]

The problem is that Maher has relentlessly promoted himself as the brave champion of unfettered public expression. Period. It's the card he plays every time somebody points out, for example, that maybe Coulter shouldn't be quite so visible on the public airwaves because what she says might be destructive. He then replies that we're all a nation of pussies. So, shoe on the other foot, and he gets brave behind his security guards.

OK, I agree with you probably 99 percent of the time, but you're wrong on this one (don't let it happen again!).

I was watching the show, and there was no other way to handle this. I don't care what the idiots were shouting about, they were making it unwatchable. They had to go.

And Bill wasn't exactly a ***** about it, he went into the crowd after them. Then he even explained who the hell they were. He didn't have to do that.

He has a responsibility to his show, and his audience, to put on a show where we can actually listen to what the guests are saying.

By the way, the best part of the show was the interview with Kasperov. He pointed out the main reason Putin needs chaos in the middle east is he needs high oil prices. Kind of the same reason bush and company need chaos there. (and probably why its better than 50-50 that we're heading for Iran).

 

[heyabbott]

 

[Fenian_Bastard]

The problem is that Maher has relentlessly promoted himself as the brave champion of unfettered public expression. Period. It's the card he plays every time somebody points out, for example, that maybe Coulter shouldn't be quite so visible on the public airwaves because what she says might be destructive. He then replies that we're all a nation of pussies. So, shoe on the other foot, and he gets brave behind his security guards.

OK, I agree with you probably 99 percent of the time, but you're wrong on this one (don't let it happen again!).

I was watching the show, and there was no other way to handle this. I don't care what the idiots were shouting about, they were making it unwatchable. They had to go.

And Bill wasn't exactly a ***** about it, he went into the crowd after them. Then he even explained who the hell they were. He didn't have to do that.

He has a responsibility to his show, and his audience, to put on a show where we can actually listen to what the guests are saying.

By the way, the best part of the show was the interview with Kasperov. He pointed out the main reason Putin needs chaos in the middle east is he needs high oil prices. Kind of the same reason bush and company need chaos there. (and probably why its better than 50-50 that we're heading for Iran).

OK, so my basic point stands.
He'll stand by whatever slander his pals put out there, and call people pussies when nthey complain.
But handed a little actual unfettered speech, he calls in security and runs up into the crowd behind them.
Go **** another porn star, you fake.

 

[zeke12]

Go **** another porn star, you fake.

Remember when we had the thread on curses?

This is the worst curse of all time. 8)

 

[old_tony]

For the record, I have no problem with him having morons booted from his audience.

But I also agree with Fenian that Maher is a total phony.

 

[steveu]

Maher is a tool, but I saw the clip and couldn't help but laugh every time they tried to start conversation and someone shouted from the audience. You could tell he was getting pissed.

 

[Fenian_Bastard]

I thought Matthews was going to duck under the desk.

 

[Dan Rydell]

Maher is a tool, but I saw the clip and couldn't help but laugh every time they tried to start conversation and someone shouted from the audience. You could tell he was getting pissed.

Yeah, it was like: "Hey, I'm the star here. Camera is on me! ME-ME-ME!!!"

So I enjoyed watching Maher get pissed off. I can guess what he's like out in public.

Maybe he wears a cape.

 

[Smallpotatoes]

So what should Maher have done?
Should he have turned the show over to the audience members and turned it into a debate about what they were saying?

 

[markvid]

I did like that he waited to get into the audience until one was being taken out, then pushed on the security guards.
Nice acting, tough guy.

 

[Point of Order]

Bill Maher always takes the side of protesters until it's his ox being gored.

If it's a bunch of nuts shouting down a Republican, it's free speech.

If it's a bunch of nuts shouting down a liberal, it's criminal trespass.

It's got nothing to do with politics. Criminal trespass is criminal trespass. What was he supposed to do in that situation, invite them onstage?

No he's not supposed to invite them on stage. But if they were protesting at something like a Sean Hannity speech, he'd be backing them up 100%. He would call it free speech. And if Hannity encouraged security to rough them up, he'd have a stroke and talk about it on his show every week for an entire season.

I love me a good o_t hypo.