Bill Maher, John Cleese Trash New York Times
Comic superstars bemoan outlet's hard-Left tilt, omission of inconvenient facts
John Cleese visited Bill Maher’s “Club Random,” this week, and the conversation quickly went woke.
By “woke,” we mean the comedians took turns trashing the far-Left movement. Nothing surprising there. Both comic superstars have spoken at length against the cultural scourge.
They might be the movement’s most vocal critics.
What proved far more shocking is how the progressives tag-teamed against the Old Gray Lady.
The New York Times has been an integral part of liberal life for decades. The paper always leaned to the Left, and for many that perspective proved comforting. It embraced their world view and told a reasonable facsimile to the truth.
Not anymore, each lamented.
Maher brought up a recurring section of the paper where readers sound off on various subjects. That feedback left Maher reeling.
“We’re f***ed,” Maher said to Cleese with a smile. “They’re just saying the dumbest s***, and it’s printed in the New York Times.”
The quip led to a larger discussion about the paper.
“Well, I used to think that was a great newspaper, and I don’t anymore,” Cleese said.
“I don’t, either,” Maher responded. “It’s sad because it was on my breakfast table when I was a kid.”
“It was what they called the ‘newspaper of record,'” Cleese added.
“Certainly, it’s more successful than ever,” Maher continued, and both agreed the paper still has a few “great” columnists.”
“What is annoying about it is, it’s not just ‘give me the facts.’ There’s way too much editorializing on the front page, the way the articles that are just supposed to be the facts articles are slanted one way, and I’m not necessarily for the other side,” Maher said. “I just want somebody to tell me the whole truth…”
Cleese jumped in.
“That’s it,” Cleese added.
“You can lie by what you omit,” Maher said, not knowing that the day the episode went live many news outlets omitted critical context in a Donald Trump speech to frame him as promoting violence.
Including The New York Times.
https://twitter.com/EndWokeness/status/1769245792831701070
Speech with full context
pic.twitter.com/7ly7Cf3fEG— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 17, 2024
“Both sides do it,” Cleese said of media chicanery. “Trying to get a really accurate picture of something has gotten harder and harder and harder.”