Far be it for the token Alabama progressive to come to Mr. Maher's defense, but having listened to his program every week for many years, I feel I should.
I generally agree that Maher is not a nice man. He describes himself as a potty-mouth and indeed he tosses out without a blush words I certainly never hear anywhere else. But he is from NJ, and he is a standup comedian, so whaddayawant? :)
Maher's humor is barbed. His jokes are acid and often in questionable taste. But again, he's a comedian. If you really don't want to hear someone rant about the GOP and tell Sarah Palin jokes, why would you tune in? You know what you're getting.
I don't believe Maher is a misogynist. I think he's Hollywood in the manners and personal morals department, just like most of the rest of the people on TV. I know Coulter accused him of this and the Palin jokes brought it up, but Coulter couldn't give a single example and Palin, well... Maher's hardly the only person Palin handed a ready-made schtick. .
Maher's guests make his show. He brings interesting people to the table, and often they're people you haven't heard of, but people who should be heard from. You are not disappointed by the guests. They're not just rotating stock of the usual talk circuit names. He brings conservatives too, and I don't think he treats them unreasonably. He'll argue with them, but it's a talk show and the arguing is refreshing when the only other media "conversation" going on is that Anderson Cooper pulling the desired replies out of a confused eyewitness on yet another generally unnecessary live hookup.
And Maher will talk about some stuff that I think gets drowned out. Just by way of example: taping somebody in their own home to capture their offensive statements, then publishing the recording in a possible attempt to endanger a person's assets crosses some very dangerous lines, and maybe this needs to be given some thought.
Maher is consistent and serious about the freedom to talk like you want, whenever you want, about whatever you want. He never joins the "ban them" pile on for Limbaugh and others. He wants the mike to stay open, and so do I.
Read other related questions on Quora:
- Why doesn't Bill O'Reilly yell at Bill Maher?
- Who would be the Australian equivalent to Bill Maher?
- For the purpose of bi-partisan compromise, what do you think liberals really want?
from Quora http://ift.tt/2bXsWZn
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