Bill Maher once again made free speech a major topic on Real Time this week, but with a different angle than he has in the past. He also continued his string of controversial guests, leading to a heated Overtime segment after the show was off HBO. Most of it stemming from the presence of Breitbart Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow.
Marlow was Maher’s guest at the top of the show, the spot shared by former guests Milo Yiannopoulos and Roger Stone earlier this season, but it isn’t until he returns for Overtime that the fireworks begin to fly. Once again, it’s a member of the panel that attempts to hold someone to the flames, as Malcolm Nance stops the show dead to confront Marlow for an apology over Breitbart’s past coverage of his career and comments:
“I sort of have a bone to pick with you…You’re at Breitbart, right? And you don’t do fake news, right? That’s what you’re asserting here? Yeah, you know there was this article about a 35-year counterterrorism expert who claimed that they wanted Trump Tower attacked that was written in Breitbart? I got thirty-one death threats from that – and that came from your website. Are you going to apologize to me? I’m sorry to say, I spent decades hunting terrorists. Yes, so that’s fake as hell.”
Nance said that his family was also threatened at the time and presses Marlow for an apology. The Breitbart editor counters by saying the site also receives death threats, but soon offers that he will produce an apology if Nance can produce the story. Funny enough, Nance was also involved in the confrontation with Yiannopoulos earlier this season during another Overtime segment. Likely why he tweeted this after Friday’s show:
I love @billmaher overtime. It's like MMA for intellectuals..& me too. 👍 https://t.co/w51OyGy2Y0
— Malcolm Nance (@MalcolmNance) June 17, 2017
As for Maher, he seemed to take the opposing stance on free speech when it came to the topic of Shakespeare In The Park and the performance of Julius Caesar that drew so much controversy earlier this week. As The Daily Beast points out, the host almost seems to bond with Marlow because he’s agreed to come on the show and has the same viewpoint on this issue:
“If Obama was Julius Caesar and he got stabbed, I think liberals would be angry about that,” Maher remarked.
“Oh, absolutely. It would be bedlam in the media. The same thing with the Kathy Griffin thing, with holding up President Trump’s head with blood on it, which was not funny. It was bizarre performance art,” Marlow replied.
“I disagree with that too,” said Maher in agreement. “I don’t think they should have Trump playing Julius Caesar and getting stabbed, and I hate Trump…So we’re agreeing that there are some places where free speech does pause.”
This is ignoring the existence of the same play with President Obama as the central figure in 2012 and the countless other times real world figures were melded with the world of Shakespeare over the decades.
(Via Real Time)