Bill Maher criticized CNN and other legacy media outlets for their relentless focus on bashing former President Trump, arguing it has become boring even for someone like himself who is highly critical of Trump.
While expressing sympathy for their position covering Trump, Maher said CNN had gotten rid of pro-Trump voices and that their panels consistently dumped on him without representing why people still support him.
“I don’t trust that anyone is giving me the full story. Everyone is giving me their spin on the story, including the places that used to be, I thought, fairly neutral, like CNN and The New York Times, I think, used to be a lot more neutral-” Maher began.
Maher felt the media needed to better understand and present conservative views rather than dismissing them, and that portraying all opposition as extremist was driving some voters to Trump.
Katie Couric defended the media and blamed Trump for eroding norms, but Maher countered the media coverage risked alienating viewers by not acknowledging legitimate concerns on issues like education.
“You think they’re sort of more activists?” Couric asked.
“Yes,” Maher said. “You could always slant any story… My earliest memories of my father and me talking about something… I remember him telling me like… the bias comes through somehow, and I remember the examples he used. He said, like, ‘If you say he squawked about it, as opposed to he said.’ Then he said, Robert Kennedy, so this must have been before ‘68 when he was killed. I was definitely under 12. He said, ’Robert Kennedy, if you like him, he is dedicated. If you hate him, he is ruthless.’ But it got worse.”
“And it got to the point where each side thinks they have to load their issues because we can’t really be trusted with both sides because the other side is so powerful and such an existential threat, they both think the other side is an existential threat. We just have to do everything we can – we can’t trust them to make sure they have the one true and correct opinion,” Maher added.
“For a place like CNN, I have total sympathy with them for that,” Maher said. “It was an impossible choice. Either you pretend that this is just the other side of normal, left, right, Republican, Democrat, or you start calling him a liar… I think the world needs a great CNN, so I’ll do everything I can to help that organization. And they still do some great stuff and have some great people. I still tune to it when something happens.”
“Here’s what people saw in America. They saw Trump killing it, killing it with the crowd. Then you cut to a panel of six people who all just do nothing but dump on him and call him a liar. And America goes, ‘Oh, didn’t you just see that we like him?'” Maher said. “The people loved him and what he was saying. Then you cut to a panel of six know-it-alls in Washington who just do nothing but talk about the negative. I’m all in on the negative. No one’s been harder on Trump than me. I get it, and I’m bored with it. There’s a different way to do this, I think.”
“So what is it?” Couric asked.
“Not to defend Trump, but to defend the people who still vote for him,” Maher said. “Because what they see on the other side, to them, is even more dangerous. Because it’s very closer to home. ‘My kid is coming home from school, and he thinks he’s a racist.’ He’s five. What have you been telling him? ‘My son thinks maybe he’s not a boy,’ and maybe that’s true, that happens. Those things are what they say, ‘that’s why I’m voting for Trump.'”
“A conservative guy once said to me, ‘What you don’t get about Trump is we don’t like him either.’ Now, that’s not true for all people. There are people who just love his dirty drawers, and they are dirty. Lots of people, it’s like that. ‘We don’t like him. He’s all that stands between us and madness.’ That’s their view. I would like that view presented. That view, not election deniers, but just try to understand why even the election-denying thing is not a deal breaker for these people. And I think they’re wrong. But I don’t hate them. And they’re not stupid.”
“The socioeconomic disparities are a lot and class resentment is a lot and anti-intellectualism and elitism is what is driving many of these anti-establishment — which are Trump voters — so, I think that is a huge problem that we have to address,” Couric said.
Maher argued the media needed a less one-sided approach in their coverage to rebuild trust.
