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.

[sealwhiskers.livejournal.com]

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

HAHAHAHAHA...

[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.

[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.

[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.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Ed isn't pushing gold and doomsday supplies on his own shows.

[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.

[nikoel.livejournal.com]

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

Well said.

[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.

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.

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

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

True, one would need ratings first.

Re: the right did not make liberal a dirty word

[telemann.livejournal.com]

This comment brought to you by Jonah Goldberg.

[evildamsel.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

It's come as somewhat a surprise just how deeply dissatisfied I am with our government and its continued inaction.

I find myself nodding along when people comment about judicial activism because while I don't actually think judicial activism exists in the way that those that decry it do, the only major changes that seem to happen, seem to come straight out of the judiciary. Sometimes such things are negative, as with the latest corporations folly, but the judiciary is frequently on the front lines of MAKING SHIT HAPPEN [and actually that's party politics invading my last, best bastion of hope, thanks a lot for Roberts and Alito, Bush], when it should be the executive and legislative branches doing so but they pretty much sit around scratching their asses, gathering votes, smiling pretty for the camera.

And you know what, I was lukewarm about Obama in the first place and I'm frankly kind of embarrassed by how he's handled things since about a year into his Presidency. I recently read a NYT article that perfectly summarized the problem. (Have I veered hopelessly off topic yet?) If the point of government is to get things done then devise a plan that you think will work. Compromise where it is reasonable but when you see that compromise is getting you nowhere, RAM IT DOWN THEIR THROATS WHILE YOU HAVE THE BACKING OF THE POPULACE.

I don't know. I just feel like there are Americans out here in America and we have credit card debt and student loan debt and mortgages and car loans and jobs and lives and kids and then there's Washington. And Washington just doesn't care as long as we don't mess with their machine and it doesn't matter if we're R or D or even T so long as it's business as usual.

[dierdrae.livejournal.com]

IAWTC, very well said. I could see it being a rallying cry.

Oops!

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

It sounded like "pooh" to me.

Re: the right did not make liberal a dirty word

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

I just love that guy. He's the only American with the balls to profess to be to the right of Hitler.

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.

[evildamsel.livejournal.com]

Thanks. The flames of my discontent have me looking cross eyed at the local ballots...

Beck's equal on the Left...

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

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

[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.

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

I don't hold any of them in high regard, to be frank.

[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.

Re: Spinelessness is the Democrats' strong point

[allhatnocattle.livejournal.com]

not true. Both are missing their heart.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's like the National Inquirer at one point had a circulation of 6 million, and the New York Times 800,000.