You know what this Bill Maher situation reminds me of? The Don Imus situation from 2007. Don Imus was a well-known, respected and wealthy radio and TV host. His morning show used to air concurrently on MSNBC. He also had a history of saying racist and problematic sh-t, mostly about women, and mostly about black women. In 2007, he referred to a women’s college basketball team (made up of mostly young black women) as “nappy-headed hos.” Suddenly, all of Imus’s big, powerful, political friends couldn’t walk away fast enough. Even then-senator Barack Obama had to say something. The thing about the Imus situation is that it all snowballed rather spectacularly within the space of a week, and Imus was out on his ass very quickly.
What’s happening with Bill Maher is sort of different, and probably reflective of the different space we’re currently occupying. Like, we have a racist moron in the White House who is too stupid to even speak in dog-whistles. So Bill Maher used the n-word live on his show, then apologized for it the next day. What will happen to him? Probably nothing. I was waiting to do a follow-up on this story when HBO hopefully sh-tcanned him, but that hasn’t happened, and according to TMZ, it won’t be happening at all.
Bill Maher will not be benched for his comment about “house n*****” … TMZ has learned. Sources familiar with the situation tell us, HBO will not yank Bill from the air or fire him for the comment he made to Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse on last Friday’s show. Maher apologized quickly and the fallout from the comment got quickly lost after the London terrorist attack.
By the way … the fact that HBO does not run advertisements makes the situation vastly different from networks that advertise … HBO will not lose money because it’s subscription-based and, realistically, very few people would unsubscribe. Maher’s show will stand or fall on ratings.
[From TMZ]
It will be interesting to see if this one is more of a slow-burner. I mean, it’s not like people of color didn’t already know the real Bill Maher. Like the Don Imus thing, this is not some new revelation about his personality. I feel like right now, we’re just in the cycle of all of Bill Maher’s big, powerful, political friends all backing away from him. Al Franken has canceled his appearance on Real Time already. The Hollywood Reporter did a story about how Maher’s booker is going to have a really tough time getting five guests a week for the rest of the season, and Maher’s brand is likely too “toxic” now for most politicians and serious politicos. But Ice Cube is still going on this Friday, which should be… interesting.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Source: celebitchy.com
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