White House to Bill Maher: "You may NOT have an opinion!"

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Good Lord, will you look at this:

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Sept. 26, 2001 | WASHINGTON (AP) --

The White House press secretary scolded the host of "Politically Incorrect" Wednesday for calling some past U.S. military actions cowardly.

The host, Bill Maher, said on his show last week: "We have been the cowards lobbing cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away. That's cowardly," Bill Maher said on the show last week.

Then, referring to terrorists who hijacked four jetliners and crashed them Sept. 11, Maher said: "Staying in the airplane when it hits the building, say what you want about it, it's not cowardly."

Maher later apologized "to anyone who took it wrong," and said his comments were aimed at political leaders.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said he remained troubled by the remark.

"It's a terrible thing to say, and it's unfortunate," Fleischer said. "There are reminders to all Americans that they need to watch what they say, watch what they do, and this is not a time for remarks like that; there never is."

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I won't be checking back here for a while, but when I do, I expect this thread to be filled with incredulous ranting.

― Nitsuh, Wednesday, 26 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Note, by the way, that the only issue addressed here is the frequently-bandied word "cowardly," which is a semantic and not a political issue. I have read at least two dozen articles about this whole mess pointing out that the "cowardly" tag is stupid and hypocritical, that the courage of an action isn't 100% linked to its morality, and that surely it's enough to call a person a mass murdered without having to somehow brand him a pussy in the bargain.

But apparently it is a "terrible thing" to have an opinion about the word "cowardly" on television.

― Nitsuh, Wednesday, 26 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Fleischer's comments seem like they were made while drunk. Which I can fully believe.

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 26 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Semantically, this Maher geezer is right. But he's also wrong, in that flying a jet airliner into a building isn't 'brave' either. It's just savage. The whole cowardly-brave continuum is a bad thing to be brought into warspeak in my opinion: people do brave things on both sides, which may also be unneccessary or wrong.

The question is not whether Maher is tasteless or unfunny though - it's whether the White House Press Secretary is the right person to be saying so? It strikes me that the world is full of op-ed columnists who would be happy to skewer Maher for his remarks, but that a "Press Secretary" should be limited to correcting factual innacuracies, censuring leaks, and so on.

― Tom, Wednesday, 26 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Actually, can anyone find Fleischer's official e-mail address? I was going to send him something, but damned if I can find a listing.

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 26 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

taking over a plane with unsuspecting passengers on it and murdering a pilot is cowardly. lobbing cruise missiles is the result of this new idea that no one can die in battle. fleisher was caught up in political correctness, maher has a habit of insulting disabled people and others there is a reason he has vacuous celebrities on his show instead of people with more than a couple functioning brain cells because he is an idiot and figures by hanging out with stupid people he looks less so.

― keith, Wednesday, 26 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Can I dive in with the observation that Politically Incorrect is about as funny as prostate cancer?

― ogden, Wednesday, 26 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Ari Fleischer is a Goebbels wannabe. Anyone else around remember here when he threatened White House reporters who were writing stories about Jenna Bush, how they would lose access to the White House if they did that? Medieval warlords only wished they had a lackey so loyal.

Jesus, with fascist boot-licking weasels like Ari Fleischer around, and people wonder why I'm still angry the fucking election

― Tadeusz Suchodolski, Wednesday, 26 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Maybe Ari Fleischer should watch what he says with regard to others' freedom of speech - as if Press Secretary is an elected position (well, technically this time around President isn't either) providing him with a mandate.

As for all the access bluster, why doesn't he just fuck off to LA and work for Barbara Kingsley?

― suzy, Thursday, 27 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Maher has every right to make stupid comments. And the White House is right to defend its military.

― bnw, Thursday, 27 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I supose its a symbol of the new " We want power" white house that they take away the right to criticize them

― Mike Hanle y, Thursday, 27 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

...oops Pat Kingsley, control-freak PR to the starz.

― suzy, Thursday, 27 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I was all ready to defend Bill Maher and had been in my head for several days. In this specific case, I think he was right on and I also think it would be disgusting to boot him or anyone off the air over a political conversation. Nonetheless, Maher's schtick is terrible, especially all the D-Grade stand up/Swingers women vs. men bullshit that he spouts as if there was no other possible argument. In general, he's really a shame as on other topics I often think he says intelligent things.

― hans, Thursday, 27 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Oh, this post wasn't in the least meant as a defense of Maher. What bothered me was simply the fact that anyone should be scolded by the White House for making a statement of opinion about the relevance of a single word. I'm pretty much of Tom's opinion w/r/t "cowardly" -- courage is a morally neutral value, and has absolutely no relevance to this situation.

bnw -- If Fleischer had simply been "defending the military" -- i.e., offering a semantic argument about the relationship of cowardice to the use of cruise missiles -- that would be one thing. But if all he had to say was "You're not supposed to say that," probably he shouldn't have addressed the issue at all. The "watch what you say" part is particularly galling, as if the end result of all of this should be that Americans feel less free to voice their opinions.

― Nitsuh, Thursday, 27 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

from salon - whitewash whitehouse: http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2001/09/27/spin/index.html

― Geoff, Thursday, 27 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

It's not that bad. There was no restriction of freedom of speech involved, although it sounds as if Fleischer would have liked one; there was only disagreement. I don't find it threatening.

― Maria, Thursday, 27 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I find it disturbing that a White House official has nothing better to do than comment on late night television shows.

― Samantha, Thursday, 27 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Remenber: the only way to ensure worldwide democracy is to fight for it at home. D'oh.

― suzy, Thursday, 27 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I think Bush masturbates and saves the cum to put in his hair

― Pennysong Hanle y, Friday, 28 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

What is it about the Bush Family that attracts boot-licking toadies like Fleischer? (Or James Baker and Donald Rumsfeld, for that matter?) They make the Windsors seem normal, fer Christ's sake. And they make the Corleones and the Borgias look like the Simpsons.

― Tadeusz Suchodolski, Friday, 28 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

C'mon, we all know Maher loves the Fed's attention. He's trying to be the pinko Eazy-E.

― dave q, Friday, 28 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

three months pass...

Today I watched maher on Larry King Live. I have always known that maher was full of shit and this will one day surface. The way he was swallowing back his puke was really pathetic. He was like kissing the asses of all Americans. What I am appalled here is not his previous coomments as much as his lame apologies on Larry King. maher got so confused by the enormity of what happened at 11th September that he felt he should in a way be part of it. That is because he is a very small person with self-importance anxiety syndromes. I think that a place like hollywood needs no better "wise" guy than maher. This is poetic justice.

― Timothy Lahey, Saturday, 5 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I'll agree he wasn't spot on, but he wasn't apologizing either. Seemed like he wanted to piss everyone off but was uncomfortable in his own skin. Or maybe he was annoyed he had to be on the same show as REO Speedwagon (ack!).

― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 5 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

What on earth were they doing on Larry King? Are they back in a big way or something? Oh nooooooooooo.

― Arthur, Saturday, 5 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Scarily enough, yes, apparently -- allegedly they've been selling out 6000 to 7000 seat venues recently. You got me!

― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 5 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

six months pass...

Keep on rolleeeeein!

― reo, Wednesday, 24 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

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