The March 1 episode of “Real Time with Bill Maher” is the subject of Bill Donohue’s remarks:
Richard Plepler is the CEO of HBO, and my dealings with him in the past have been cordial and professional. But he has obviously allowed Bill Maher to continue with his anti-Catholic rants with impunity. Here is a sample of what Maher said last Friday night:
- The pope and the cardinals are known to stick together “when you’re molesting kids.”
- “I kid the cardinals. They chipped in. They got him a t-shirt that said, ‘I’m not retiring. I’m being put out to stud.’”
- The pope, Maher commented, “said there were moments where it seemed like the Lord was sleeping. Wow! Sleeping. Or like the kids at Catholic summer camp—pretending to be asleep perhaps.”
The question for Plepler is simple: Are there no lines that Maher can cross before he is reined in? Are we to believe that no one at HBO has any say over his vicious rants? If it were some other segment of the population that was being trashed over and over again, are we to understand that absolutely nothing would be done about it?
Contact: richard.plepler@hbo.com
