Posted on 11/18/2017 7:56:33 AM PST by EdnaMode
UPDATE with video Bill Maher didnt exactly go easy on his pal Al Franken tonight, spending much of the opening monologue and a big chunk of Real Times season finale tossing joke grenades at the Minnesota senator. But the HBO host drew a hard line between the former Saturday Night Live staffer and the ever-growing gang of famous abusers and grabbers.
Maher then described the scandal the photo of Franken mock-groping Leeann Tweeden, then writing and demanding a rehearsal of a sketch calling for a kiss. Als a friend, Maher said, but Al I gotta tell you, if you write a comedy sketch where you, Al Franken, kiss a model and the next line of dialogue isnt Get off of me, creepy, its not comedy, its science fiction.
Jokes out of the way, Maher got to his point: He did a bad thing and the condemnation has been universal, which he deserves. What he doesnt deserve is to be lumped in with Roy Moore. Or Kevin Space. Or Harvey Weinstein. Or Donald Trump, who calls his accusers liars, threatens to sue them, did long riffs at his rallies where he said they were too ugly for him to assault.
Plus, with Al Franken were talking about one incident. Trump has 16 accusers. Roy Moore has nine. Roy Moore spent more time chatting up young girls at the mall than Santa Claus.
Franken came up again later in the show when comedian and activist Chelsea Handler joined the panel and noted that Franken, facing one allegation, took responsibility, while Trump pretends hes going to sue his accusers.
I agree with you on Al Franken, Handler said. Im sorry, hes not a predator. Everybody whos met him knows thats not true. He made a mistake. Hes not a predator.
Maher then challenged this afternoons cable news wisdom that Franken should resign, decrying a culture that doesnt know the difference between zero tolerance and maximum punishment.
At which point panelist Rebecca Traister, a writer for New York Magazine and author of All the Single Ladies, took the mic, metaphorically speaking, and dropped it, all in one long, breath-free and beautifully worded speech. Carl Bernstein, environmental activist Bill McKibben and author Max Brooks were also on the show, but Traister deserves all of the last words here:
To focus on what the punishment is going to be, she said about the harassers, is on some level an easier conversation to have, because then we get to fight about it. Should he resign? and then we get to go to our partisan battle stations.
(Thats easier) than actually looking at the more difficult conversation, which is about the whole culture, a culture that empowers white men to abuse their power in a million ways, from the villainous predators to the fact that there is a sense of humor that we all understand in this country, that if a woman is asleep its funny to grab her t*ts. And that a man can gain power and stature and a place in the public sphere by profiting from that comedy.
That doesnt make him the same as Harvey Weinstein, but its not about him. Its about reckoning with the fact that we make that culture, we participate in that culture, its our good politicians, its our friends, its our husbands, and its ourselves. That is a harder conversation to have and its the one we should be having about this moment, not Should he resign
No, link them to Bill Mahr.
Bill Maher is a waste of oxygen.
Al Franken has ONE PICTURE of him groping a woman... it’s NOT his only abuse. It’s the only one reported... (the press doesn’t get opposition research handed to them by democrats ON democrats...). So yeah Maher - there’s not as much dirt on the lying democrats.... but there’s a whole lot of dirt on them...
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