HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher” ran a show on May 18—repeated throughout the same week—in which Maher began with an attack on the late Rev. Jerry Falwell and then devolved into an assault on Catholicism:
And it’s easy to start a religion! Watch, I’ll do it for you: I had a vision last night! A vision! The Blessed Virgin Mary came to me—I don’t know how she got past the guards—and she told me it’s high time to take the high ground from the Seventh Day Adventists and give it to the 24-hour party people. And what happens in the confessional stays in the confessional. Gay men, don’t say you’re life partners; say you’re a nunnery of two. “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 [our emphasis], for this is my roommate Barry. And for all those who believe there is a special place for you in Kevin.”
The Catholic League wrote to the 14 members of the board of directors of Time Warner (the parent company of HBO) asking them whether Maher’s gratuitous and highly offensive attack on Jesus Christ merited the same punishment afforded Don Imus for his racist remark. Maher isn’t a one-time offender; he is a serial anti-Catholic bigot.
Time Warner’s Standards of Business Conduct includes the following principle: “While our content may sometimes engender controversy, we want no one to question our character.” We have known for a long time that Maher lacks character. What the public needs to know is whether Time Warner’s board of directors, who are looking into Maher’s latest anti-Catholic escapade, has any.
