On this week’s “Real Time,” Bill Maher took issue with how people, especially in the media, have been reacting to the coronavirus pandemic, the Wrap reports.
Expressing the worry that “panic porn” will cede any optimism about this crisis to President Trump, Maher complained about how news organizations have covered the pandemic, saying media should “calm down and treat us like adults.”
“Now that we’re starting to see some hope in all this, don’t hope-shame me,” Maher began. “You know the problem with nonstop gloom and doom is it gives Trump the chance to play the optimist. And optimists tend to win American elections.”
As an example, Maher cited Franklin Roosevelt’s famous quote, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” then said he worries that “as s— as he is, I can see Trump riding that into a second term. And then there will be no hope left for you to shame.”
Maher turned his attention specifically to the media. “If this insanity happens, again, news sources have to rein it in. Everyone knows corona is no walk in the park because you literally can’t walk in the park. But at some point, the daily drumbeat of depression and terror veers into panic porn,” Maher continued. “Enough with the ‘life will never be the same’ headlines.”
He noted a recent Washington Post headline that read “It Feels Like a War Zone,” which included a photograph of a supermarket stocker unloading boxes in a store’s eggs and deli meats section. “This is not a war zone,” he said. “This is a man with a box of eggs. And I’ve never seen a war zone with this much bacon.”
A recent news story on “Inside Edition” also drew Maher’s criticism. “Two weeks ago, ‘Inside Edition’ said 76,000 in the world had died so some are making comparisons to the apocalypse. The apocalypse? Really? Because most of us are sitting at home smoking delivery weed and binge-watching a show about a gay zookeeper,” Maher said. “Unless you’re a front-line health care worker for whom the phrase ‘above and beyond the call of duty’ doesn’t even begin to cover it, this is not the apocalypse.
Maher cited a New York Times headline, “‘It’s Terrifying': Millions More Out of Work,” adding, “What the f— is ‘it’s terrifying’ doing in a headline? Granted, it’s a quote, but who are they quoting? Trump? Fauchi? Stephen King? No, they’re quoting an event planner in North Hollywood. No offense to the event planners of the world, it’s amazing what you people can do with pine cones and silver spray paint.”
Maher complained that he’d rather get a straight headline and make his own decision about how to feel.
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