Bill Maher Interview By Larry King After He Got Fired for His 9/11 Statements

[MarcATL]

Bill Maher was summarily canned from ABC for his statements referring to the 9/11 bombers as brave and not cowards for having the balls to be willing to kill themselves for their cause.

This was mere days after the actual 9/11 event.

I remember his statements, as I've been a fan from that time and watched his show on ABC almost nightly.

I also remember the outcry and his firing thereafter.

I was worried for his future, but as I looked at this interview I see that he wasn't. It was actually a blessing for him as he's gotten way more famous and wealthy since then, largely due to his mega-hit success show Real Time w/Bill Maher

Check out the interview in question...

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tl69E-0FwyI]Bill Maher on Larry King Live after "Politically Incorrect" is cancelled by ABC (2002) - YouTube[/ame]

Do you guys remember the political climate and atmosphere at the time? The fear was palpable and the Bush Administration took FULL advantage of it.

As usual, being the far RW radicals they were, they overdid it and have since suffered the consequences.

What a trip down memory lane.

 

[Rozman]

Was that the time when your buddy Bill called our men and women in uniform cowards
and said how brave he thought terrorists were?

 

[JoeB131]

I can't feel really bad for Maher.

It wasn't like they cancelled him after he made the statements. Politically Incorrect ran for another six months after Maher said the stupid thing he said.

It got weaker and weaker ratings, that's why it was cancelled.More importantly, sponsors didn't want their products associated with it.

This can't be a good thing when it gets Glenn Beck off the air and a bad thing when it gets Bill Maher off the air.

 

[Truthmatters]

arround that time 70% of Americans thought Sadam did 911 because Cheney and Bush were lying their asses off.

 

[JoeB131]

arround that time 70% of Americans thought Sadam did 911 because Cheney and Bush were lying their asses off.

That and Bill Clinton and Bush-41 spent the previous decade making Saddam responsible for everything bad in the world.

Tell you what, when 9-11 first happened, before Bush or anyone else said a thing, my first thought was, "Had to be the Iraqis!" So did a lot of other people.

And the first guy who drew a link between Saddam and Bin Laden? It was Bill Clinton, who mentioned no less than 4 times in Bin Laden's indictment that he was allied to Saddam.

 

[MarcATL]

Was that the time when your buddy Bill called our men and women in uniform cowards
and said how brave he thought terrorists were?

Yes.

 

[MarcATL]

I can't feel really bad for Maher.

It wasn't like they cancelled him after he made the statements. Politically Incorrect ran for another six months after Maher said the stupid thing he said.

It got weaker and weaker ratings, that's why it was cancelled.More importantly, sponsors didn't want their products associated with it.

This can't be a good thing when it gets Glenn Beck off the air and a bad thing when it gets Bill Maher off the air.

He got his walking papers shortly after making the statements.

They gave him more time on the air, yes, however, he was fired for the statements.

Ratings had nothing to do with it, it was a highly watched show.

ABC cancelled the show even though its ratings were strong, and in some markets it was beating out The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Host Bill Maher has been quoted as saying it was because the politically conservative Walt Disney Corp., which owned ABC, didn't like his criticisms of the government of President George W. Bush.

Source: Politically Incorrect (1993?2002) - Trivia - IMDb

Maher sealed his show's fate when he offered an ill-phrased post-Sept. 11 criticism of earlier American military strategy, asserting that Americans ''have been the cowards, lobbing cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away.'' These remarks were deemed unpatriotic by some advertisers (which dropped their ads), some affiliates (which dropped the show), one White House press secretary (Ari Fleischer said, ''This is not a time for remarks like that; there never is''), and probably every ABC exec who'd been looking for an excuse to shut down ''Politically Incorrect.''

Source: Politically Incorrect Review | TV Reviews and News | EW.com

So yeah, as you can see, it wasn't the ratings at all, the powers that be simply didn't like the show. Plain and simple.

I remember because I used to watch it almost every night...almost. Bill made Christine O'Donnell famous, she was the guest that's been on show the most (darn near 100 times over the years.) Anne Coulter got a boost from the show as well. And did you know that him and Anne are truly really good friends. I don't get it, but it's true.