Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on how selectively sensitive HBO has become:
When it comes to Catholics, HBO shows no sensitivity, the prime example being its determination to stand by Bill Maher, the most obscene anti-Catholic bigot on television. But when it comes to others, it bends over backward not to offend. The duplicity is driving our petition drive asking HBO to reprimand Maher.
Just this week, HBO announced that Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have stopped working on a new series, “Confederate.” It is not certain whether they will resume at a later date; in the meantime HBO is weighing how to proceed.
“Confederate” is a fictitious historical romp: the Confederacy exists separate from the Union, as does slavery. That is of no particular interest to us, but what does interest us is the statement that HBO president Casey Bloys made earlier this year
Responding to a backlash about the controversial alternative history series, Bloys explained that HBO was “misguided” in the way it rolled out the program. “If I could do it over again, HBO’s mistake—not the producers’—was the idea that we would be able to announce an idea that is so sensitive that requires such care and thought on the part of the producers in a press release was misguided on our part.”
How thoughtful. But when it comes to Catholics, HBO never says that its defense of Maher is a “mistake.” It has the guts to kick Louis C.K. off the air, and to force Maher to apologize for dropping the “N-word,” but it stands fast behind Maher’s relentless assaults on Catholicism.
Thousands have signed our petition asking HBO CEO Richard Plepler to treat Maher’s recent attack on Jesus, Mary, and Joseph the way they have responded to Louis C.K. and Maher’s attack on African Americans.
Please sign the petition. Next week, we will release a statement on it, sending the list to Plepler.
