Bill Maher Disses The Daily Show Rally for Sanity

[telemann.livejournal.com]

Last night, Bill Maher criticized last week's Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear, saying, "If you're going to have a rally: you might as well make it about something," before detailing his specific problems with Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert's efforts. I think some of what Maher observes as shortcomings with the rally are completely valid, especially this idea there is craziness on both sides of the aisle. And even Jon Stewart told Chris Wallace last week, MSNBC can't come close to doing what Fox News is able to do.

“Try not to pretend the insanity is equally distributed through both parties. Keith Olbermann is right: he is not the equivalent of Glenn Beck. One reports facts, the other is very close to playing with his own poop. And the big mistake of modern media, has been this notion of balance for balance's sake. That the Left is just as violent and cruel as the Right, that unions are just as powerful as corporations, that reverse racism is just as bad as racism. The message of the rally, as I heard it, was that, if the media stopped giving voice to the crazies on both sides, then maybe we could restore sanity. It was all nonpartisan and urged cooperation with the moderates on the other side -- forgetting that Obama tried that and found out: there are no moderates on the other side. When Jon announced his rally, he said the national conversation was dominated by people on the Right who believe Obama’s a Socialist and people on the Left who believe 9/11’s an inside job, but I can’t name any Democratic leaders who think 9/11’s an inside job. But Republican leaders who think Obama’s a Socialist? All of them.”

Video will not embed. Clicky here.

Comments

[enders-shadow.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Maher has a point.
It's nonsense to equate Beck with Olberman. We all know that Becks equal on the left is Ed Schultz.

Olberman is more like O'Reilly. While Maddow is without doubt better than anyone on Fox.

[sizequeen.livejournal.com]

We all know that Becks equal on the left is Ed Schultz.

Bullshit. There's no one on the Left that seems to have as many personality disorders as Beck. There's no one who is as much of a liar or as much of a money-grubbing fraud.

Beck's equal on the Left...

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

... is Joseph Stalin. (Oh, I forgot: Stalin was a right-winger.)

[dreadfulpenny81.livejournal.com]

We all know that Becks equal on the left is Ed Schultz.

I think it's a toss-up between Schultz and Mr. "Tingle-Up-My-Leg" Matthews

[sealwhiskers.livejournal.com]

"The other one is very close to playing with his poop"

HAHAHAHAHA...

Oops!

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

It sounded like "pooh" to me.

[evildamsel.livejournal.com]

I give. The right is worse.

The thing is... the parties are these massive institutionalized machines and nothing gets done because they just crank out a lot noise and while the left's noise is more polite and musical, it's still just noise.

Accomplish me something please, my government. Accomplish me something. Make me proud.

Stop taking money from the lobbies, from the corporations, bring back the American dream, whatever the heck that means, bring back the worth of an education, help working hard result in tangible benefits.

The point of a government is to facilitate society. Not to facilitate itself.

[nikoel.livejournal.com]

The point of a government is to facilitate society. Not to facilitate itself.

Well said.

[gunslnger.livejournal.com]

Actually, I think the point of a government is to establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.

[sizequeen.livejournal.com]

This was exactly my problem with the rally and also my problem with TDS. The Left and the Right are not equally crazy, cruel or violent. The Right has far more institutionalized racism, violence, and insanity than the Left. And the leaders of the Left denounce its crazies, while the Republicans elect theirs into office.

[drcruel.livejournal.com]

The genius of the right is to make "liberal" a dirty word. It's disingenuous, but Republicans are the party that pretends they supported civil rights for women and black Americans...even as they oppose civil rights for women and gay Americans.

the right did not make liberal a dirty word

[russj.livejournal.com]

The fact is that the 20-th century progressive movement in North America declared themselves to be "liberal", although they stand for very nearly the opposite of the principles of classical liberalism.

By co-opting the name "liberalism" for their left-wing ideology, THEY made liberalism a dirty word in America. It does not have a bad connotation in Europe.

[a-new-machine.livejournal.com]

Said it before and will say again: the Republicans were instrumental in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Like it or not, they did a lot more for the bill than the Democrats from south of the Mason-Dixon.

[ygrii-blop.livejournal.com]

I think you'd have a hard time finding a Republican leader who truly believes Obama is a socialist, but it plays well to their constituencies, so they push that meme with all their might.

And as disgusted as I am with Republicans, I'm even more disgusted with Democrats for being such horribly spineless cowards. If the Democratic leadership had any courage, they wouldn't know what to do with it for fear of offending someone somewhere. And now we have the government we deserve. God help us all.

Spinelessness is the Democrats' strong point

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

The Democrats are spineless and the Republicans are brainless. Between the two of them, they have a complete nervous system.

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

Keith Olbermann is right: he is not the equivalent of Glenn Beck.

True, one would need ratings first.

[devil-ad-vocate.livejournal.com]

Certainly. Because everyone knows that if more people watch one obnoxious celebrity than another obnoxious celebrity, the dingbat with the biggest audience MUST know what he's talking about.

[new-wave-witch.livejournal.com]

This might be the sick burn it was intended to be if the left cared as deeply for media reinforcement as the right seems to.

[htpcl.livejournal.com]

I found this comment under the video interesting:

"I want to like Maher. But I don't. Ever since he came out as a vaccine denier, I realize that he's a slightly brighter, funnier version of your average conspiracy theorist. Moreover, he's the less smart version of both Colbert and Stewart and he knows he doesn't do well in the comparison. Stewart at least makes an effort to be evenhanded in his vicious abuse. So Cons come to Stewart's show instead of Maher's where there's no hope of anything unpredictable happening, other than the timing of his shrill, vicious, often-funny comments. Stewart at least holds to the possibility of the dialectic; even though it's pretty clear where his sympathies lie. Maher prefers the echo chamber."

I've watched a couple of Maher documentaries (Religulous the most recent one), and though I tend to agree with many of his premises on those subjects, I'm kinda put off by the self-righteous, nearly arrogant, holier-than-thou way he conducts his narrative.

Same with Richard Dawkins, btw.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

Yeah, and when Maher gets on that tangent about processed food with a guest sometimes, it's really annoying-- and I don't mean that general idea that Americans really need to eat better, Maher goes way off into left field about that stuff.

[mijopo.livejournal.com]

I didn't attend the rally or watch much of it on youtube, but the sense I had was that it was less about making the left and right moral equivalents and more about urging all of us beyond the heated rhetoric that is, at least partially, a media construct.

[evildamsel.livejournal.com]

Yep. Very much so. Having been there I can attest to that.

[the-rukh.livejournal.com]

I've heard 9/11 being an inside job from as many on the right as the left.

[oportet.livejournal.com]

I just can't watch the guy. I can't get into Colbert either. This has nothing to do with my political beliefs either, because while I may be a little right of center, I watch Stewart anytime I'm awake and near a TV at 10. Maybe it's the delivery, maybe his writers are better, maybe a little bit of both.

As far as arguing over which side has more crazies, I put that on the same level as comparing paycheck stubs, measuring cocks, my dad can beat up your dad.

[paft.livejournal.com]

You consider the difference between accusations that are false ("Obama's a secret Muslim/Communist") and accusations that are true ("The tea party movement has ties to white supremacy.") That irrelevant?

[reality-hammer.livejournal.com]

It's amusing to watch people accuse [fill in Fox employee] of what the MSM has been doing for decades and then try to project their own failings (racism, prejudice, ignorance, etc.) onto that person.

And all because a free society has chosen to watch that Fox employee over any other (non-broadcast) employee.

Rage! Rage against the competing cable/satellite channel! Go not easy into that recliner!

[telemann.livejournal.com]

You're really entertaining sometimes.

[lordtwinkie.livejournal.com]

yep Democrats are not insane at all



yep and not Racist at all
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ku_Klux_Klan_members_in_United_States_politics#Robert_Byrd

Democrats are above reproach
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/16/AR2010111604000.html?hpid=topnews

yep Democrats the picture of civility
http://motherjones.com/politics/2010/01/best-quotes-alan-grayson

and no Democrat believes 9/11 was some kind of inside job or that there should be a reinvestigation

http://patriotsquestion911.com/#Cleland

NONE at all

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msGxrHISayI

God Bless the Democrats who are obviously our betters. For they can do no wrong.

[lordtwinkie.livejournal.com]

video embed didn't work for that first one about Dems not being insane so heres a direct link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0mpjp-akVE