Real Time With Bill Maher
HipHopWired Featured Video
Source: Rachpoot/Bauer-Griffin / Getty
Kanye West tends to say a whole lot of antisemitic statements, consistently. Nevertheless, Bill Maher still interviewed the controversial multihyphenate, but the host now says he isn’t releasing the podcast because, wait for it…he says Kanye West is antisemitic.
TMZ is reporting that Maher sat down with West for a two-hour podcast interview. However, Maher says the Ye episode of his Club Random podcast will never see the light of day due to the “Flashing Lights” rapper’s acerbic views of the Jewish community.
“I thought it was going to be a learning moment. We were here for two hours. By the way, we had an amazing, fun time,” Maher told TMZ. “He’s a very charming antisemite. And by the way, he’s not the only one in America who feels that way. It’s not like the Jews are universally loved except for Kanye West, okay?”
And is Maher choosing not to air due to his integrity or for fear of what advertisers might say?
Anyway, TMZ has a whole episode on West called TMZ Investigates Kanye West: Unhinged But Unstoppable, which is backed by Fox, because of course. Not condoning Yeezy’s behavior, but TMZ seems big mad Ye has not been “canceled” in the traditional sense and is trying to get to the bottom of why.
Mind you, TMZ has surely made a financial killing by covering all Kanye West-related antics and shenanigans. Remember, it was on TMZ where West said his infamous “slavery sounds like a choice” comment.
[embedded content]
As for Maher, he offered up more tea—that wasn’t exactly shocking to anyone who has been paying attention—about West. Here’s what Maher said about why West’s antisemitic rhetoric is dangerous: “The problem, I think, is that he appeals mostly…of course he’s a rock star…to young people. They don’t know much and they surely don’t know much about the Middle East or Jews. So the combination of Kanye out there…I feel like he sort of like was helpful for spreading the fertilizer, and I do mean fertilizer, for this idea that Israel and the Jews are like the worst people in the world.”
Ye did apologize recently, but no one really believed him, basically.
The full episode of TMZ Investigates Kanye West: Unhinged But Unstoppable, which features commentary from Angela Yee, the Game, Toure and more, can be streamed on Hulu.
HipHopWired Featured Video
Source: WWD / Getty
Late-night host Bill Maher is under fire for his “boneheaded and wrong” recent comments on gun violence and race in Chicago in a segment on his show.
The Real Time with Bill Maher panel segment this past Friday (April 21st) featured Maher and University of Washington professor Daniel Bessner in a discussion on race, crime, and poverty. During that discussion, Maher asked Brown University professor & economist Glenn Loury about Chicago: “Like Chicago, most of the shootings are young Black men killing other young Black men. Is that not correct?” When Loury answered in the affirmative, Maher responded: “OK, much more than what the cops do. Why doesn’t anybody talk about that? Why aren’t there a hundred giant Black celebrities, who would have the respect of those people, saying, ‘What are you doing to yourselves? Why are you killing each other?’”
Bessner responded that other factors “’ more linked to social conditions, socioeconomic conditions, the disbelief that there is anywhere to go in terms of improving your lot in society,’” had to be considered, to which Maher dismissively replied, “You sound like the Mayor-Elect,” referring to Brandon Johnson, the recently elected mayor of Chicago and Chicago Teachers Union activist considered more progressive than the previous mayor, Lori Lightfoot. Maher and Loury would then say more “moral leadership” would help the situation. Bessner disagreed, saying the change would require that Johnson “attack it at the level of socioeconomics, not culture.” Right-wing outlets including Fox News amplified Maher’s Chicago comments – ironic as his opening monologue on the show skewered the network over its $787 million defamation settlement with Dominion Voting Systems.
Maher’s comments were criticized heavily by Ben Burgis of The Daily Beast, who pointed out how Maher’s rise as someone who was antiwar in the 2000s has given way to him devolving into more conservative positions. “But that doesn’t mean he’s ever been a leftist in any deeper sense. If you want to hear old jokes about Sarah Palin reheated and served up as jokes about Marjorie Taylor Greene, watch Bill Maher. If you want to hear well-thought-out analysis of what’s wrong with our society, then — at least on nights when Daniel Bessner isn’t on Bill’s panel — you’re better off changing the channel,” he concluded.
Maher has been no stranger to making racist comments, which include his statement that using the N-word “isn’t racist.”
-
Pages