Bill Maher Makes Don Imus Look Like a Saint

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MAY 24, 2007

CONTACT: TIM SCHEIDERER OR COLLEEN O’BOYLE AT 703.683.5004

Bill Maher Makes Don Imus Look Like a Saint

MRC’s Bozell, Knight call for Time-Warner to live up to corporate responsibility and discipline HBO’s Bill Maher for vitriolic, lurid, anti-Christian remarks.

ALEXANDRIA, VA --- L. Brent Bozell III, president of the Media Research Center, and Robert Knight, director of the MRC’s Culture and Media Institute, called on Time-Warner’s management today to take responsibility for talk-show host Bill Maher of HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher” over Maher’s on-air explicit sexual mockery of Scripture and Catholic theology.

Maher’s comments, first detailed on Newsbusters.org, started with a verbal assault on Jerry Falwell three days after Mr. Falwell’s death, and then escalated into a vicious attack on Christianity in general and Roman Catholicism in particular.

Maher: “‘We weren’t having sex, officer, I was performing a very private Mass, here in my car. I was letting my rod and staff comfort him. Take this and eat of it, for this is my roommate Barry. … And for all those who believe there is a special place for you in Kevin.”

“Time-Warner needs to hold Maher accountable for his despicable remarks,” Bozell said. “We’re asking, ‘Are you okay with what he said? If not, what are you going to do about it?’ As my friend Catholic League President Bill Donohue notes, this has become a pattern. Maher, he says, is ‘a serial anti-Catholic bigot.’”

“Maher is entitled to his vile views, but he’s not entitled to an endless ride on the airwaves courtesy of Time-Warner,” CMI Director Knight said. “If Don Imus’s offensive racial joke was too much for the public to bear, certainly Maher’s sickening description of the Mass and Communion as graphic homosexual sex acts is beyond the pale.”

The MRC joins the Catholic League in calling on the Time Warner board of directors to take action.

To schedule an interview with MRC President Bozell or an MRC spokesperson, please contact Tim Scheiderer (x. 126) or Colleen O’Boyle (x. 122) at 703.683.5004.