Bill Maher on The Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear

[mmonk]

Run time: 06:34 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfHD36sWQBo   Posted on YouTube: November 08, 2010 By YouTube Member: browncoatss Views on YouTube: 303   Posted on DU: November 08, 2010 By DU Member: mmonk Views on DU: 4468

 
Watch it while you can.

[Rhiannon12866]

1. K&R! Thanks for the new link!!!

This was excellent! :woohoo:

[mmonk]

2. You're welcome.

:hi:

[Rhiannon12866]

5. Those that were posted previously no longer work...

So this is terrific! IMO, this is one of Bill Maher's best rants, ever... Great find! :thumbsup: :hi: :kick:

[mmonk]

9. This one may not soon.

So I thought I'd get it out there.

[Rhiannon12866]

15. Thanks so much!

I found one last night, posted it on one of the previous threads where the video had expired, but I just checked and that one's now gone, too. *sigh* x(

So I'm kicking this one, so more people can see it before it's gone, too. :( :yourock: :kick:

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

3. can't b herd e-nuf

[LaPera]

4. Maher will never be invited on Stewart's show, nor will Stewart ever be invited on Maher's show.

They both have excellent funny political shows and both are coy clever outspoken comedians - Doubtful their egos would never concede to the other.

[dardango]

7. This isn't about egos,

I like Jon Stewart, but Maher is 100% correct. Pretending that liberals and conservative are on same level in terms of their influence, organization and money would be a joke if it weren't so tragically untrue.

I understand why Stewart included Schultz and Olbermann in his rally video, but they are largely refuting the poison that Beck, Limbaugh and their ilk spew everyday. So kneecapping those guys with the rightwing crazies is not the best move. Maybe they go about refuting the crap in a different way than Stewart, but they are pretty much on the same page.

[no limit]

10. Where did Stewart pretend that people like KO were on the same level as people like Beck?

[truedelphi]

12. Only in the mind of a guy who could never ever get two hundred thousand people

Together unless he was paying them.

I mean, sometimes a person gets the feeling that Maher cannot even get guests for his show, and I imagine he pays the guests.

[mmonk]

22. He came to Raleigh last year for two shows taped for HBO

and the place was packed. I was there.

[Qutzupalotl]

16. In the montage near the end of the rally.

It was made of clips of talking heads saying outlandish things. The implication was that anyone who was included is guilty of gross exaggeration for partisan gain. Alongside Coulter, Beck and Hannity were Ed and Keith.

Granted, it's only by implication, but that's not a group that I would want to be lumped in with if I were Ed or Keith. It's a false equivalency because our side tells the truth and the other side makes stuff up.

[no limit]

18. So do you think KO and Shultz don't say outlandish things?

Should those things be ignored because they come from the left?

[Qutzupalotl]

21. They do, certainly.

But it's not the same with all that truth behind it. Stewart seemed to be ignoring the fact that the ratio of lies to truth is very different on one side.

[no limit]

30. But the truth gets lost when such statements are made. That was kind of Stewarts point

you don't need to say outlandish things to get your point across. Hyperbole is a problem on both sides. And it shouldn't be ignored when it comes from the left. That in no way means that both sides are the same, they aren't. And I don't think Jon Stewart ever suggested that they were.

[Qutzupalotl]

37. He did suggest a moral equivalence that is undeserved.

He did not say it explicitly, though, only through editing; so I guess we'll have to agree to disagree.

Stewart is correct that both sides are guilty of hyperbole, but one side sticks to facts as they are while the other reports facts as they want them to be. That point was lost in Stewart's montage.

[no limit]

56. He did not suggest a moral equivalence

The only thing he suggested through editing was that both sides use hyperbole. The facts behind that hyperbole are irrelevent. Even if your main argument is right but you start your argument by calling someone a racist the fact that you are right gets lost really quickly.

[Qutzupalotl]

62. That is a moral equivalence.

If both sides use hyperbole, both sides are guilty.

[no limit]

65. No, because the world is not black and white. yes, both sides are guilty

but that does not mean they are guilty in exactly the same way. Fox spews bullshit each and every hour. MSNBC spews bullshit from time to time. Fox news protects corporate interests. MSNBC tries to protect the interests of people. Never did Jon Stewart suggest otherwise.

But again, the fact is both use hyperbole. And hyperbolic rethoric is part of the reason our national discourse right now is so screwed up. One side might be more responsible than the other but both sides share responsibility.

[Enthusiast]

46. Compared to what?

Are you kidding? Keith and Rachel don't incite violence in their viewers by constantly spewing lies.

[no limit]

57. Why does it have to be compared to somthing? Why can't we simply stop hyperbole?

No matter what side it comes from?

And again, I don't think Jon Stewart ever included Maddow anywhere in his rally, I could be wrong.

[sabrina 1]

68. If correcting the lies of Fox is outlandish, then yes, they do.

Correction, it IS outlandish in this country to go after the lying network that works for Cheney et al and has been allowed to call itself a News organization for nearly two decades because no one in the rest of our disgusting excuse for a media ever dared to challenge them.

Keith was probably the first on as major network, to consistently point out the lies. And any 'outlandish' things he says, is usually repeating some O'Reilly or Hannity lie in order to refute it.

If there are had been more outlandishness like this way back when it became apparent that Fox was a rightwing propaganda machine, we might never have had Bush as a president or a war in Iraq, and the rest of our media might not have thrown all journalistic standards out the window to try to get Fox's cult audience.

Outlandish is relative. I love Keith's outlandishness and hope that if others get the courage to do what he's doing, facts and the truth won't seem so outlandish anymore.

[DutchLiberal]

73. Olbermann: no; Schultz: all the time, he's a tool

[LiberalLovinLug]

17. Uh ...at his rally to restore sanity (and or fear)

and on his show.

Jon Stewart has been a hero for mine for a lot of years now, but he is waaaaaaaay off on his stance. I would have expected a more intelligent analysis from him.

Perhaps Jon is falling into the same trap he accuses some of the news media of falling into. They are deathly afraid of being painted as "too liberal" so they go out of their way to lean as far to the right as they can shy of going into FOX crazyland territory. Jon is afraid of being labeled as a partisan of the left, so he ignores the evidence of all the BS that FOX puts out and the comparatively factual based journalism that MSNBC puts out, and puts them into the same boat, simply because they are both loud. One to blare out false propaganda for the GOP and the mega-rich, and the other to call those bastards out on their anti-American subversiveness.

Bill has got it right.

[no limit]

19. Can you give me some specifics please?

[kenfrequed]

63. Actually...

I believe if falls to you to find examples of Olbermann's hyperbole if we are going to be comparative here. If you can find enough hyperbole on the left to measure up to that on the right than maybe, maybe you might be able to justify this nonsense.

We have to stop cutting our own knees off to play along with this false equivalency crap, else we will be forever hamstrung by the 'concern trolls.'

[budkin]

27. He equally compared slanted pundits on the right and the left...

intercutting clips of Hannity and Beck with clips of Olbermann and Rachel Maddow, without any kind of context about their content. Basically implying that they were all nuts.

[no limit]

31. I don't believe Maddow was ever included (please correct me if Im wrong)

But because he showed that both sides use hyperbole (which is absolutely true) does not mean he was saying both sides are the same.

[txlibdem]

13. There is journalism, and there is BATSH*T crazy

MSNBC attempts journalism. They have Joe and Mika to spout the RW talking points and they don't censor them.

The RW media (FOX and 90% of talk radio) makes no attempt to even stay within the confines of this friggin universe with the wild BS stuff they come out with. Jon Stewart is the one who called them on it as well: the morning show will make some insane totally untrue and unfounded statement and then later in the day (as early as the next half-hour even) the FOX talking head will be saying "folks are saying (X, Y and Z)" and repeating it the rest of the day, week or month as if it were fact when they know damn well they just plain made it up that very morning, pulled it out of their backsides, etc.

Equating MSNBC with FOX is not a fair comparison, nor would it stand even a single day's comparison viewing.

Maher, 1. Stewart, 0 on this one.

[no limit]

20. The keyword is "attempts". Keith and Ed are not journalists.

I think you would agree.

So again, do you have any specifics where Jon Stewart said MSNBC was the same as Fox News? Or that the far left was the same as the far right?

[txlibdem]

38. They're not

I should not have used the term "journalism" and should have said MSNBC tries to present "the truth" or "a balanced view of the news" or "they don't suck."

[no limit]

58. They try that, sure. But a lot of time the truth gets lost in their insane statements

[txlibdem]

59. You're saying that MSNBC makes insane statements?

:wtf:

[no limit]

60. I'm absolutely saying that. You disagree?

[txlibdem]

70. I don't think I have to.

You're obviously set in your opinion and nothing I, or anyone, could say would dissuade you.

I salute you for having the conviction of your thoughts and beliefs.

[DutchLiberal]

72. Olbermann builds his own narrative, but uses facts to back it up...

Unlike the people over at Fox, who build their narrative on shit they just made up.

And yes, Ed Schultz is a tool, I'll give you that. He's the liberal equivalent of Bill O'Reilly. But to lump in Olbermann with Schultz is not fair.

[DutchLiberal]

71. Actually, Bill Maher has been on 'The Daily Show'...

He was there to discuss his film Religulous and he and Jon Stewart had a very nice and funny conversation.

By the way, Jon commented on his criticism monday night:
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-november-8-2010/msnbc-suspends-keith-olbermann

[defendandprotect]

6. Giving this another KICK ... highly recommend it for reason and sanity ....

and I think one day Jon Stewart - if he is at all as rational and sane as

he always seemed to be -- will be discussing this with those on the left like

Olberman, Maddow, Schultz -- and Maher whom I think is mainly on the left ...

[Dawgs]

8. Best 'New Rules' Ever!!

And I was at the Rally and support Stewart and Colbert.

:woohoo:

[era veteran]

40. Bill didn't get the idea at all

We, Ms e.v., and I were there. 200,000+ people with us. That is a lot of folks to move their life around to be there to represent.

[Dawgs]

48. I don't think you get it.

Bill wasn't complaining about the rally or what it meant for those that attended. He was complaining about Stewart's attempt to create an equivalency between those on the left and Fox News.

I think he's just saying that it was unnecessary and it hurt the message. That's all.

[era veteran]

52. I never thought that, the feeling I have is that he is

definitely more for our side. Anybody there would say that. Not equivalency. It was a very positive experience as well as personally uplifting. Take care.

[no limit]

11. Looks like the point of the rally also went over Maher's head.

Shame, I would think he would be smart enough to figure it out.

Stewart's job was not to keep score of which side says dumber shit, his only point was that both sides say dumb shit.

[Quixote1818]

14. Obama should hire Maher to write his political responses. If he had earlier

there is a chance Republicans wouldn't have taken back Congress. Obama's communications people SUCK! They probably work for the Republicans under cover.

[lame54]

23. talk about a false equivalency...

Jon Stewart does not think Keith is glenn (but the poop joke is pretty damn funny)

The media's balance for balance sake is what the Daily Show fights against every week - Jon points this out constantly

Then Bill says the rally was about us reaching across to the moderates on the other side.
That wasn't the same rally I was at.

I took away from it that we need to not believe the black and white media war - and that we, as people, are much more than the one dimensional stereotypes that we are labeled.
That we already work together - every day.

It's just that the loudest are the only ones heard.

Then Bill goes on to compare the rally's message with Obama's feudal attempt at bipartisanship - Huh?

When Jon interviewed Obama just 3 days earlier he confronted him about his timidness.

he knows they are the party of NO - he calls them out on it on his show all the time.

But, the rally was about people not politicians - Maher's New Rules is about politics

So, what was Jon's crime? - he dared to point out that Olbermann often engages in hyper-partisan rhetoric

Which - wait for it - he does.

[no limit]

33. Thank you for this great post, you said it better than I ever could

[ashleyforachange]

43. Thank you so much...

for writing a great post. People need to know that Stewart was not comparing them together. They are like apples and oranges. He was only saying that they both tend to engage in hyper-partisan rhetoric (as you said earlier) except Fox News Commentators tend to go way over to the right. This was not about politics but about people noticing we actually have more in common if we take the time to calm down and talk like sensible sane adults.

[Dawgs]

50. I think you are missing the point.

For those of us that attended, it didn't matter what Stewart or Colbert did or said. It was about getting together with like minded folk and letting the country know that we have a voice. But, that's not what Bill Maher was talking about.

Bill's complaint, which I agree with, is that Stewart distorted the message by showing clips of Fox News and some on the left together. It didn't matter that he wasn't pointing out Olbermann's hyper-partisan rhetoric. The fact that he made an equivalency was the problem.

It also doesn't matter if he fights against it every week on his show, or that he calls out the party of NO all the time. Many that watched the rally will never watch his show.

I will agree with you slightly about Bill saying the rally message was about bipartisanship. Although, from the beginning, Stewart never really did a good job of defining his message. And, it's not much of a stretch to think that he was advocating for moderates; which many interpret as the center.

[travelingtypist]

24. Tugaboo?

Fire your researchers, Bill.

That kind of clanged, but other than that, he's spot on about the false equivalencies.

[Dyler Turden]

25. I was there. Bill wasn't.

He's going for soundbites here wishing for a larger audience in my opinion.

He missed what it was about entirely.

I love Bill's show, I love Jon's show, but quite often each one of them will say something I disagree with. So should I hate them? That's what the rally was about.

[mmonk]

26. Nobody is calling for hating any of these guys.

However, my 19 yo old son and 26 yo son both agreed KO and Ed Schultz should not be used for any comparisons intended or otherwise with Billo and the like.

[no limit]

34. They were never compared to billo and the like.

[Dawgs]

49. Yes they were. Stewart was no better than Anderson Cooper or Larry King on this one.

It was still a great rally and for those that attended it didn't matter.

[no limit]

54. Repeating that they were without giving any specifics doesn't make a good argument

[Dawgs]

66. Arguing would imply that I care what you think.

:shrug:

[no limit]

69. What your posts imply is that you don't care what the facts are.

I don't care if you care what I think. But I was under the assumption that willful arrogance was frowned upon in this establishment.

[mmonk]

53. The point being if the rally was about restoring sanity

and there are clips with rightwing tv hosts and left tv hosts together, an equivalency was made whether intended or not to a drop in viewer that was not there. It probably keeps the appearance that the msm is doing its job as well when just giving two sides of view, even if one side is incorrect.

[no limit]

55. The point was that both sides use hyperbole

it was never suggested that both sides were the same. All he was saying was that both use hyperbole to make their point, which needs to change. He never said both were the same or that both were similar. If you expect Jon Stewart to ignore what he doesn't like simply because it comes from the left I disagree with you. What makes the Daily Show so great is it is not a partisan show, never was and never will be.

[DutchLiberal]

74. Actually, Ed Schultz is the left-wing equivalent to Bill O'Reilly...

Loud, obnoxious, arrogant and acting like a tool.

[activa8tr]

28. Yeah, this is GREAT!!!!

I love Bill... he's older and more reasoned than most comedians.

[activa8tr]

29. Love this line about Olbermann and Glenn Beck....

"One reports facts, the other one is very close to playing with his poop!"

[no limit]

32. The problem is Olbermann does not always "report" facts

[mmonk]

36. In what regard?

[no limit]

67. As in he doesn't always tell the truth. Do you disagree with this?

[mmonk]

76. Examples are up to you. You make the charge.

Let's see your evidence where Keith Olbermann lies to Countdown viewers.

[activa8tr]

78. Funny, I don't think that poster is going to answer your comment here... just

wants to make that accusation, no "facts" (about lies) to back it up with.

Funny how that works.

[mmonk]

79. I know.

I wasn't expecting any.

[Anna Marie]

35. Maher is Right On

I like both Jon Stewart and Bill Maher. But in this case, Maher is spot on. What was Jon thinking of, comparing Olbermann, Schultz, and others on MSNBC to the likes of Fox? Keith, Ed, Rachel deal in opinions, obviously, but also FACTS, which they actually correct when appropriate! Fox, need I say, does neither! We get quite a bit of awareness bout Fox lies from Keith! Maddow researches her stuff thoroughly. There is NO COMPARISON. Jon was trying to be the CNN of comedy I guess, the middle-unopinionated fantasy. Fortunately, Maher called him on it!

Jon is so intelligent, I can't believe how far off base he was on this one, to trash the 1% or so of those fighting back/ delivering a few actual facts, standing alone on Cable News. 99% of what we hear is spin and lies, and Jon trashes the 1% that isn't? Jon did the country a huge disservice on this one. I quit listening to him over it. I don't always agree with Maher (such as his fear of anyone Muslim; he s/b singling out behavior, not a racial or religious group. How about extremists of any religion, Bill? Are you afraid of all white men because they formed the Tea Party extremist wing, the KKK, the OK City bombing? Still--aside from that, Maher is funny, entertaining, has a great show, the best on TV. Obviously more balanced than Jon Stewart.

[pam4water]

39. So good! Dies laughing at the both crowds weighed the same. Then goes on a diet. K & R

[MrMickeysMom]

41. Thanks, Bill...

Listening to your comment made up for the interview with Bill O'Reilly.

K&R

[Iwillnevergiveup]

42. Most excellent rant

Love Maher, Stewart and Colbert all. For me, they're all antidotes to regressivism.

:applause:

[awoke_in_2003]

44. I love Bill and Jon...

this time, Bill got it right.

[pam4water]

45. Jon Stewart felt the need to answer Bill in the opening of tonight show. He faked getting punch

below the belt by Maher.

[mmonk]

47. Thanks for the info.

Maybe they can play off it and keep the viewers going back and forth (and away from rw "news").

[nyc 4 Biden]

51. K&R

100% truth to power

[valerief]

61. One of his best! nt

[davidwparker]

64. K&R

[Stinky The Clown]

75. ". . . . and Glenn Beck is close to playing with his poop."

Perfect.

[lame54]

77. Attack a "false equivalency" by using a false equivalency - great job Bill