Memeo to Bill Maher - SHUT UP!!!!

I am 1 of those who will fight to the death to defend the right to free speech. However there IS a line that can be crossed. That line is what we call slander & libel. & when it is crossed, a person needs to pay the price. The other day Bill Maher did so in his vitriolic attack on the Catholic Church. If Don Imus was in the wrong in what he said about the Rutgers University women’s basketball team, then Bill Maher is even more so.

In my opinion what Maher said was slander, plain & simple. You can check it out here:

Caution: some adult language

Bill Maher is a bitter, angry, sick person who needs help, not a job promoting hate & bigotry. & what he said was just plain false. 2 things in particular:

- He lied when he called Pope Benedict XVI a “Nazi.”

- He lied about Pope Benedict coordinating a cover-up.

Fortunately there are plenty of us out there who are standing up & shouting: "We're mad as Heck & we're not going to take it any more."

Bill Donahue of The Catholic League had the following to say (MAHER LIES ABOUT THE POPE): “Maher’s obsession with the Catholic Church continues, only this time there isn’t enough material for him to use as a club, so he literally makes things up. His lies include the following statement: ‘When the—when the current pope was in his previous Vatican job as John Paul’s Dick Cheney—he wrote a letter instructing every Catholic bishop to keep the sex abuse of minors secret until the statute of limitations ran out.’"

He goes on to say: “In 2005, after complaining about another bigoted outburst, I was told by Richard Plepler of HBO that ‘it’s a free country, and people are free to say silly things—even on HBO.’ Last year, after another assault, I was told by Jeff Cusson (replying for Time Warner’s CEO Richard Parsons), that Maher’s anti-Catholic remarks were a matter of ‘creative freedom.’ Well, folks, no one has the freedom to libel someone.”

Judie Brown of American Life League had this to say (TIME WARNER: BILL MAHER HAS TO GO!): "I am flabbergasted that the media is nearly silent when it comes to one of their own hurling hateful comments at Pope Benedict XVI just days before his arrival on American soil. One of Maher’s remarks, the only one I would even quote, was this: "If you have a few hundred followers and you let some of them molest children, they call you a cult leader. If you have a billion, they call you pope."
How dare he! But then again, the media has, for the most part, ignored Maher, perhaps because they too regard the Holy Father with something akin to pure, unadulterated hatred."

Robert Knight of the Culture and Media Institute said, "Anti-religious zealots in the media have a field day every time a pope visits the United States. They showcase self-described Catholic dissidents who would perform an Oprahfication on the church or they give time to vile, hateful celebrities like Bill Maher, who delight in offending millions."

Brent Bozell (also of CMI) said: "Bill Maher has spent the last decade hurling hate and obscenities at the Catholic Church. His lies about Pope Benedict are just his latest barrage. Time Warner needs to take action. . . . . They need to hear Maher's transcript out loud, verbatim, and be asked directly why they provide a platform for this hateful, defamatory rhetoric."

Several Townhall.com columnists have also spoken up.

Mike Gallagher: "You know, Bill Maher loves bullying people of faith. But if he was really as tough as he wants people to think he is, he’d mock and ridicule the prophet Mohammed. It would be fascinating to watch what would happen to Bill Maher’s career if he attacked Muslims, Jews or blacks the way he bashes Christians.
Maher doesn’t have any more of a free speech right to slander the Pope and smear Catholics any more than HBO has a right to fire him. Being paid a ton of money to appear weekly on a cable TV network is a privilege, not a right. Let’s hope HBO comes to its senses. Let Maher spew his filth in a seedy comedy club for a hundred bucks a night, which is right where he belongs."

Kristen Fyfe: "Regular viewers of his program were not surprised by the verbal assault since Maher has made no secret of his loathing for religion in general and the Catholic Church in particular. The comments are just the latest in a long history of hate-filled “comedy” from Maher. . . . . .

Maher’s anti-Catholic, anti-religion rhetoric is part of his schtick as a comedian. It has also been given a very public platform, first by ABC and now by Time Warner and HBO. Offensive material like this is also the cornerstone upon which Maher will build the publicity machine for his upcoming "anti-religion documentary" Religulous, due to be released in theaters in July.
His agenda in all of this is clear: to tear down religious belief and believers. In so doing he attacks a clear majority of Americans and a foundation of American society. When confronted by the Catholic League on why it continues to give Maher air time, HBO stated that Maher’s anti-Catholic remarks were a matter of "creative freedom." One wonders if HBO would be so sanguine if Maher’s vitriol was regularly aimed at Muslims."

The PC Police scream when someone on the Right or someone who is a devout Chrisstian says something they don't like (usually true), they call it hate filled & demand an apology & worse. Yet, when someone on the Left says something truly hatefilled like Bill Maher, they give him a pass. No more. Like St. Paul did when he claimed the rights of Roman Citizenship that were his, it is time for us to stand up & ask for the same. That means that when someone like Bill Maher hurls his hatefilled lies, he should be ready to pay the consequences.

According to a report from The Catholic League on his show tonite (18 April) Bill Maher is going to issue an apology. CL President Bill Donohue said he was contacted Thursday by an executive at HBO. Donohue's sentiments echo mine: " Will the Catholic League accept Maher’s apology? Assuming it comes across as genuine, the answer is yes. But I hasten to add that what we would really like to see is for Maher to stop with his hateful diatribes against the Catholic Church. So this is a start, but it hardly puts to rest our concerns. After all, there are plenty of factually accurate things Maher could say about other groups that would insult its members, but he chooses not to go there. Perhaps he can add Catholics and the Catholic Church to that protected list as well.”

Iwish I could be confident that Maher will be sincere. Given his track record, I doubt it. That would mean giving up a sure source of material to play to the people he wants to reach. & it would mean a change of heart on his part towards the Catholic Church. Can it happen, yes. This time, probably not. I suspect that he is being put up to it by HBO.

Meanwhile there are 2 websites I have come accross that are calling for Maher's firing. 1 is the Fire Bill Maher site that I provided the link to at the start of this post. The other is a site by Media Research Center to e-mail HBO.

You can also contact HBO at:

Warner Inc.
One Time Warner Center
New York, NY 10019
Phone 212.484.8000