For a few brief seconds on Friday night, Bill Maher made sense. Maher, who could be described as a “useless Obama hack” – after all, he’s a big donor to Obama and a constant defender of him who chalks up any and all criticism of Obama to racism – condemned liberals, on one subject at least, as “useless Obama hacks without a shred of intellectual honesty.”
What prompted this brief trip into reality? A report on how the NSA intercepted and stored “useless” online conversations that were “intimate” and “voyeuristic.” Maher asserted: “I just want to say, if this was happening under Bush, liberals would be apoplectic.”
Audio: MP3 clip [1]
He continued: “I’m sorry, but liberals are just sometimes useless Obama hacks without a shred of intellectual honesty.”
Just sometimes?
Maher made his point to panelists U.S. Rep. Donna F. Edwards (D-Md.); conservative columnist Reihan Salam and liberal author/journalist Ron Suskind.
From the Friday, July 11 Real Time with Bill Maher [2] on HBO produced once a week from the CBS studios in Los Angeles:
There was a study done this week, found out that online conversations that were intercepted and stored by the NSA, nine out of ten were not from foreigners – they’re from ordinary citizens. And I want to read this: “Many files,” it says, “described as useless by the analysts, but had a startingly intimate even voyeuristic quality. Stories of love and heartbreak, illicit sexual liaisons, mental health crises and disappointed hopes.” Move over Taxicab Confessions, we have a new -- this is exactly what they said they weren’t going to do. Just be nosey and look into the lives of private people for their own shits and giggles.
And I just want to say, if this was happening under Bush, liberals would be apoplectic. I’m sorry, but liberals are just sometimes useless Obama hacks without a shred of intellectual honesty.
Edwards then insisted she is apoplectic and the conversation never returned to Maher’s point about liberals.
— Brent Baker is the Steven P.J. Wood Senior Fellow and Vice President for Research and Publications at the Media Research Center. Follow Brent Baker on Twitter. [3]