cactusoly

I used to watch Bill Maur's show Politically Correct every so often when it was on and found it entertaining.

I caught part of his new show on HBO last night and was not impressed.

1st he was putting down the farming community saying that government subsidies are another form of welfare. Jessie Ventura who was on his panel jumped in and said if you took away subsidies farmers shoud charge whatever they want because the government controls pricing. (I'm not a farmer but I live in a farming community and I know farmers are nor welfare bums because they work a hell of a lot harder than I do)

Then he had Liz Phair (sp) via satallite talking about how hard she works and people are stealing from her by downloading music and all the fame and limos are just fronts yadda yadda yadda. Bill went off on a tangent about how terrible it is to steal from from the poor record industry. There was no other side off the story and no discussion from the panel.... that is when I stopped watching.

Goldberg74

Within the next ten years on Fox's Celebrity boxing we'll have Bill Maher vs. Al Franken... and I hope Al whomps his ---!

Groucho

So Maher's a scumbag because he doesn't share the same opinions as you?

Spooky

I like Bill...I don't agree with him 100% of the time, but then again, who does agree with any other person 100% of the time? I admire Bill because he exercises his right to free speech better than most other media personalities out there. He raises questions that the mainstream media should be asking...so for that alone, I applaud him and his HBO show. If you don't like what he's saying, flip over to Showtime....

Spooky

I might point out that the other person on the panel (the economist...I appolgize for not rememberhing his name) jumped all over Mr. Ventura for getting this wrong. The government acutally pays farmers to raise LESS crops so the prices will remain HIGH on produce, thus benefiting farmers, not hurting them.

MrBob

Liz phair was a horrible spokesperson, for the RIAA. She couldn't couldn't form a complete sentence. She really didn't put up that great of an aurgument, she just agreed with Bill. And then the kicker she practically admitted that she has DL'd music in the past.

cactusoly

I find it easier to be sympathetic to someone who works dawn till dusk to feed ther family compard to someone who needs extra money for a cool outfit to the MTV awards

dstrauss

I only saw a bit of it, but it seemed this week that Maher was off his game a great deal. He didn't really seem to be clever or informed, which he usually is. (He also got a couple of things dead wrong.)

I'd feel a whole lot worse for artists like Liz Phair if they were honest enough to admit that the one who steals the most from her is the record label she works for. The RIAA is the biggest joke in the entertainment industry, and they'll be dragged, kicking and screaming, into a new business model if it kills them. (And I believe it will.)

dolphinboy

That's unbelievable! I saw Liz being interviewed just a day or two ago on one of the 24 hour news channels and she said she had NO problem at all with people getting her music from file sharing AND they even had a bit where she showed them her own mp3 player and talked about the music SHE had been downloading.

I have been a big fan, but what a lying scumbag. I know this is supposed to be about Maher, but I'll need to see the show tonight before commenting. The one really bad thing is that Maher isn't up all on sides of the issues. Whether you like him or agree with him Franken usually knows the issues. Farmers do get way too much money from the government and I'm sure Bill was thinking more of the BIG, corporate farming businesses, but if there are other sides, like price control, even if it doesn't change someone's opinion, someone should be able to present that side, which it seems Ventura did. Maher probably just did his chagrined look, which means he had no answer for the other side because he didn't know enough about the issue.

big whoppa

Record companies do more harm financially to artists than napster or kazaa could ever do. RIAA is looking for scapegoats.

As for Maher, I agree with much of what he says but not all. I'd rather watch him than Rush Limbaugh or watch Fox news.

Spooky

Yeah, but you'd hit it, wouldn't you?! I would!
(Sorry...been hanging out on this forum too long!)

FuzzyBallz

Hmmm... that's funny. I didn't know there's an other side to stealing. Maybe the burglar should give me a reason why he's in my house in the middle of the night, before I blast his freaking head off w/ a 12 gauge. Say what? The TV's too expensive at goodguys and you decided to steal the one in my house instead?

Ranger

I do agree that Bill's a bit of a hypocrite though.

tha_dvd_man

Whose house are you breaking into with kazaa?

FranksAndBeans

Yep. That's exactly the same thing.

wm lopez

I watch the Bill M. show.
But nobody must be watching because there seems to be something said on that show every week that should make national news by something somebody said.
J. DeGarfolo said "There's no liberal media".
M. Chow said "That nowhere in the Bible it says homosexuality is wrong.
And on 2 weeks ago Bill was talking about Jesus 2nd coming.
Bill was going on like it's a silly idea that people believe that.
So he asked his friend an actor on the panel who is jewish what he thought of that. The actor replied because of the way the current events are it seems it is true. Bill's jaw dropped, he wasn't expecting that answer. He then said to his friend on the panel, "How could he Mr. Jew believe that"?
So Bill's show does have intresting things happen every week.
I could put up with Al Franken's, Jeanne DeGarfolo's, but one thing that I don't like about the show is the audiuance.
The show is in California, so they had Governor Gary Davis on where California signed a pettion to have him removed and he gets cheered. The audiance seems to cheer for everything the guests say.

Numanoid

Oh, that old argument. Totally failed analogy. A correct analogy would be to say that the burglar broke in with a Star Trek Tricorder&#153 to scan your television. He would then take the data back to his house and have his Replicator&#153 produce an exact copy. You know what...I'd probably let him do it, and ask him if he wanted a cup of coffee.