Comedians Bill Maher and John Cleese criticized the New York Times for no longer being the “great newspaper” they once read.
On Sunday’s “Club Random” podcast, Mr. Maher cited a recent focus group published by the Times featuring young people “making the stupidest things” and told Mr. Cleese, “We I’m so fed up,” he said.
“And it was published in the New York Times,” Maher said.
“Well, I used to think it was a great newspaper, but I don’t think so anymore,” Cleese replied.
“Neither do I,” Maher replied. “I mean, it’s sad because it’s the kind of thing that was on the breakfast table at my parents’ house when I was a kid.”
“It was what you would call a newspaper of record,” Crees said.
“Yes!” cried Maher.
Mr. Maher and Mr. Creese hit it off because the Times once had a “great columnist,” and Mr. Maher added that the Times was financially “more successful than ever,” adding, “No one else He added that he was amazed that they had reporters all over the world in places where they “don’t have any.”
“The trouble is, we’re not just asking you to give us the facts,” Maher said. “Too many front page editorials slant articles that are supposed to be factual articles in one direction. And I’m not necessarily a supporter of the other side! I just want you to tell me the whole truth, not just your version, because you can lie by what you omit. And both sides do.”
“It’s on both sides,” agreed the Monty Python co-founder. “And we’re trying to really pinpoint something that’s becoming increasingly difficult. When I started living in America, I was here from about 1990 to 2008, and since that time I’ve said… The challenge now is not to get reliable information.”
A recurring theme during my two-hour conversation with Mr. Maher, the British entertainment icon that led to the Times bashing, was the pursuit of “woke” activists.
“A great comedy is that it’s also true. And the truth is always overshadowed. It’s never one-sided,” Maher said. “Why are we so frustrated with woke people? Because they don’t understand nuance and context. They don’t do any of that — it’s all literally black and white, a lot. Because the schools have collapsed, they didn’t get a good education. Therefore, they don’t think critically.
“There are a lot of very professional people in American universities that you and I would hate,” Creese says.
“They are insane!” cried Maher. “They’re marching children towards terrorists!”
“That’s because we think everyone is either good or bad,” Cleese continued. “My mother was not a philosopher, but she said there was good and bad in everyone. And if you forget that, you’re in trouble. Because the moment you start thinking that you are better than you actually are, you start denying and projecting and you start seeing all the negative parts of yourself in the person you hate. It creates a paranoid conflict.”
“The kids aren’t reading anything. Longer than TikTok” Maher slammed the younger generation. “They know everything in buzzwords. They learn these words like ‘colonizers.’ They don’t know what a “colonizer” is. As if Israel had colonized the place, which of course is where the Jews come from. Jerusalem. Hello! “The Bible is the Bible in which Jesus was born a Christian,” he joked.
