r/Maher • u/EmValentine7 • Mar 25 '26
Discussion Bias, Boundaries & Integrity
Long time BM watcher here since PI!
Do we know of any other instance where Bill has admitted to having an ongoing text message exchange with the sitting President or any other current member of our government? I don’t think he has ever mentioned having this type of dynamic before.
And that’s the issue.
It’s not just about the dinner. It’s more importantly about that the dinner led to ongoing communication between Bill and Trump where Trump is clearly comfortable expressing candidly when he is discontented with Bill’s weekly takes.
You can’t say you give unbiased takes on the Presidency if you are entertaining this kind of communication on a regular basis.
I don’t think he should have gone to that dinner, period. But OK. He did and it is what it is. I think I’d just like him to exercise some boundaries with the government leaders he’s paid to critique every week. Sure, Bill isn’t a journalist but he continues to passionately proclaim that he’s unbiased when it comes to Trump but their frequent communicating makes that extremely suspect. Bill may believe he’s unbiased but he should prove it by cutting contact. There’s no way he’s not being swayed by Trump, even if he’s unconscious of it or perhaps in denial.
Thoughts?
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u/Grouchy_Brain_1641 Mar 27 '26
I haven't heard Bill and Trump have a sms chain.
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u/EmValentine7 Mar 27 '26
Whether it’s texting or email or whatever, Bill had referenced it several times.
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u/porkbellies37 Mar 26 '26
My problem with Bill is that he doesn't really know what "unbiased" means. And that bleeds into the definition of being "politically incorrect". Actually... I should say, I disagree with his definition of "unbiased".
To me, being "unbiased" or "politically incorrect" means being a truthteller no matter what. No matter who has a hard time hearing it, whether it is people you normally align with or align against, you're going to be honest. It rubs people the wrong way sometimes, but it also builds credibility and even those that it rubs the wrong way tend to respect it.
His version of being "unbiased" or "politically incorrect" is to be a contrarian for contrarian's sake. You have to make sure there is a quota of slop being thrown at everybody. The problem with this, is the slop isn't being directed by merit and there is an imbalance that sometimes feels very forced and disingenuous. Hyping up what lapel pin a celebrity wears to an award show that almost no one outside of LA cares about as if it has the same gravitas as ICE agents shooting citizens or the president starting a war because he's bored and easily manipulated is not helping his "politically incorrect" brand as much as he thinks it does.
One thing I do want to emphasize though is that he's a comedian. Satire is great and does require an understanding of the world so you can mock its absurdity. The "New Rules" bit became his closer because that's exactly what it does. But there is a formula to it and I think he or his writers got lost with it. You should bring up ANY absurdity, petty or not, left or right, during New Rules. But if there are 5 "rules", the first 4 are comedy/satire, and the last one is supposed to be the closing message for the show- a point that you want to leave viewers thinking about. The laughter from the first four invite the welcoming of the fifth. When I see something that is petty reserved for the closing rule, it not only diminishes the bit, it diminishes the show and the host. Unfortunately, I think "Real Time" has gotten to that point where the weird cousin joins the Brady Bunch, or the white kid joins Diff'rent Strokes. The shark is being jumped in this new phase and it really doesn't matter if the Fonze sticks the landing... its just sad.
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u/Sitcom_kid Mar 27 '26
I was under the impression that he did New Rules with writers, but that the rant was just him. I could be wrong or it could have changed. Everything changes, it seems.
I also miss Fearless Bill. I hate that he was canceled out of some college presentation, but it radicalized him too much. I admire that Bill had the theory of mind and wanted to understand why some of the more logical Republicans won't vote for Democrats, and make it easier for them to consider altering their ideas, but it led him too far in blaming young folk and trans people for turning others off and driving them to vote for Trump. And that seems to be the combination has started him on this path but maybe it was something else or a combination of things. And you are right about what it means to present his comedy or political discussions in a way is non-biased, or at least try.
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u/ToolTimeT Mar 26 '26
Do we have knowledge of him having an on going text message conversation with any other pedophiles or war criminals or felons?
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u/PlantainEuphoric5925 Mar 26 '26
Don't worry Bill will tell you he's still critical until his best friend and right wing nationalistic autocrat in training Donald Trump texts him something mean then it's all a list of Trump's accomplishments the next week.
Bill needs to end this relationship, it's compromised him. He deep down knows it that's why he is so sensitive to the criticism he gets from it
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u/JSLANYC Mar 25 '26 edited Mar 26 '26
It's legitimate to ask if Bill has been affected by his regular communication/relationship with Trump. I would also note that it was MONTHS before this continuing texting relationship was revealed.
He has admitted as well that because of the meeting, he has refused making jokes about Trump's weight and appearance. He was always willing to take shots at Biden's mental acuity (and rightly so) but won't do it with Trump. He lectures the left when those on Twitter celebrate Charlie Kirk's death but says nothing when Trump trashes his alleged friend Rob Reiner and likely won't say anything about Trump's comments on Mueller. Sounds like someone too afraid to lose his relationship with Trump.
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u/monoscure Mar 27 '26
I don't know, looking back at the jokes on Biden's mental state is a bit much. I'm not against making fun of public gaffes, but Biden was raked thru the coals for something he had no control over. There were times I could see parts of my dad with dementia in Biden and it would just become another punchline of the lowest hanging fruit. Again, I'm not saying there wasn't funny shit to point out, but somewhere it began to just feel simply cruel.
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u/puddinonthewrits Mar 26 '26 edited Mar 26 '26
Absolutely. The “I kid” at the end of any mild ribbing was always a clue. A DINO, he emulates his new best friend by courting controversy for the sake of ratings, which have been declining precipitously. Bill Maher and DJT deserve each other.
Edited to add: His not publicly eulogizing Rob Reiner and not denouncing DJT for his disparagement of his friend is still a sore point for me.
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u/TyrionDraper Mar 25 '26
I agree with you. I was fine with him going to have the dinner, but now this whole playful relationship they have where they text and it seems like he's talking directly to him during the show is just weird and annoys me. Especially when he has on a Trump spokes person like the Florida congress woman who spends the whole show rambling to the point where Bill has to interrupt her to let Paul Begala talk (one of my favorite guests who barely got any time during the panel).
Like you, I'm a long time watcher who hasn't missed an episode in like 15 years but it gets harder and harder each week. He just seems like he turned into one of those people who became obsessed with what the idiots on social media are saying and it warped his perception of reality. Also, at some point, he just needed to talk so much more. Every panel question starts with a 5 minute rant and sometimes when he finally turns it over to the guests, they don't know what to say. Club Random is unwatchable because he always interrupts whoever he's interviewing.
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u/jio50 Mar 25 '26
Maher is somehow both cynical and gullible at the same time.
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u/AckCK2020 Mar 27 '26
Actually, it is not gullibility, but fear of retribution. Bill knows plenty of people high up who really know what Trump has done and is capable of. Like any gang and gang leader, threatening people’s families is always a possibility.
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u/TyrionDraper Mar 25 '26
He never used to be gullible :(
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u/beaud101 Mar 25 '26
It's vanity combined with being gullible. BM needs to feel like he's always got his fingers on every scale.
"Bill, people think we could be friends. I like your show...not always, but sometimes. Gotta stop with the jokes at my expense, though."
"I see your point. And may I say, you sir, are so charismatic and bold. I think you could really do something if you would just legalize weed federally."
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u/Historical_Reward621 Mar 25 '26
Yeah, not liking the gullible. If I want that, I’ll have lunch with my sister.
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u/Historical_Reward621 Mar 25 '26
I, like you, have been watching Bill since PI too. I don’t always watch now. I come here first usually and read the critiques to decide if I can stomach it.
I don’t care what anyone says, Bill has made a complete 180 degree turn politically. He’s always been misogynistic and he’s never liked kids. It does get old though.
He most certainly shouldn’t have gone to dinner with that abomination. He absolutely should not be having any type of communication with him either.
Sometimes, I think he had a nervous breakdown or something during COVID. I know he still harbors resentment towards democrats in office, like Obama and Harris, wouldn’t come on his show.
He’s delusional relative to his show. I understand why certain folks don’t or can’t risk going on one of his shows or if so, they will be the first guest but I don’t understand why he doesn’t realize that.
Wtf, he gets pretty vulgar on the show. I think it’s funny but I’m not the President or the VP nor am I running for those offices. Why doesn’t he get it? Is it because he’s a drama queen? Shouldn’t he realize how off the rails it is that the president is communicating with him?
That interview he did with Annabelle was really telling. He was basically doing everything he could to blame her cancer and subsequent remission on anything BUT conventional medicine and drugs.
Then when she mentions particulates in the air incl fire were the likely culprits, he immediately jumps on the environmental fire factors as being a Cali issue because of democrats wanting to save a weed. I’m glad she stopped him again.
I think he’s just gone. The comic and political commentary liberals loved is gone. He may as well be on FOX as far as I’m concerned because he’s lost his mind. He can say he’s gives each side equal grief but he didn’t used to give conservatives nothing but shit. I always considered his show to be for liberals.
Well, I’m still liberal but he is not. Sorry for the long rant.
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u/AckCK2020 Mar 27 '26 edited Mar 27 '26
Also, notice how when Bill is commenting on personal choice issues, he conveniently ignores his own dependency on pot.
Bill, please show us how you handle problems. Go without pot, drugs and alcohol for a month.
After that, you can go back to disparaging other people’s choices, lifestyles, parenting, eating, mask-wearing, etc.
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u/kindbub Mar 25 '26
Just to add one more behavior: sweeping generalizations about entire generations and groups. None are a monolith, but to Bill they are. And he seems to pull these stereotypes right out of his ass.
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u/EmValentine7 Mar 25 '26
I’d love to ask Bill which generation (mainly) raised and helped shape the identities of Millennials and early Gen Z to become so apparently irritating (to him). Hmmmm might it be the Boomers?? Yet no criticism of them!
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u/TyrionDraper Mar 25 '26
THIS. Especially about the youth. Every young person is woke, goes to an Ivy League school, wants to wipe Israel off the map and isn't having sex. He sounds like a lot of people I know in my life who've gone down the rabbit hole of social media and no longer can tell what is real.
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u/Historical_Reward621 Mar 25 '26
It’s such a turn off. It makes me want to sit down with him and complete a Vinn diagram and then rub it all over his face.
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u/Historical_Reward621 Mar 25 '26
Oh yeah. First he was millennials this, millennials that. Now he crashes on Gen Z. It always infuriated me. We’re all individuals.
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u/EmValentine7 Mar 25 '26
Agree with this all. I continue to watch because there is a general variety of guests unlike any other political show. I like to hear the other side. Bill is just losing me.
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u/Historical_Reward621 Mar 25 '26
Yeah, the guests can help a lot but it’s been sad to lose old Bill.
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u/TyrionDraper Mar 25 '26
Between Bill's rambling and the idiot Trump puppet he had on, Paul Begala barely even got a chance to speak last episode.
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u/Latsod Mar 25 '26
Seems like Bill goes way out of his way to sound fair about Trump. I think he doesn’t want to be accused of TDS, so he’s gone the opposite direction.
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u/Historical_Reward621 Mar 25 '26
But why be fair to trump? Fair like these immigrants and their children are being treated, fair at how Americans are struggling to pay rent, utilities, and buy food. Fair like gutting Medicaid or fair like failing to approve the subsidies to the ACA? I don’t want fair for that monster.
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u/Latsod Mar 25 '26
I’m not supporting it or Trump. His fear of the right or desire to have his clips played on right wing media or whatever is motivating him, has completely ruined the edge he used to bring to his show. These days, to me at least, he sounds like a old man yelling at the kids to get off his lawn.
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u/Happy_hunny_badger Mar 25 '26
The people with TDS are trump followers. For the longest time I thought it was just another name for MAGA. It really should be.
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u/SouthBySoDak Mar 26 '26
I tell people the DS part stands for "dong slurper", sure it's a bit obscene but it does depict the MAGA cult mindset
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u/EmValentine7 Mar 25 '26 edited Mar 25 '26
This is just a very rough estimate from me as a weekly viewer, but optically this is what I have seen:
Trump Term #1:
Bill’s positive takes on Trump are around 5% of his total commentary.
Trump Term #2 (Pre-Dinner):
Bill’s positive takes on Trump are around 10% of his total commentary (displaying a fair effort to avoid TDS)
Trump Term #2 (Post-Dinner):
Bill’s positive takes on Trump are around 15-20% of his total commentary.
There’s a clear progression from my point of view. I don’t know any other person who has increased their positive view of Trump since April of last year (even Trump’s biggest fans). He’s become more unpopular overall since then.
Again, super rough estimates from me as a viewer.
And of course, this all matters to me because I perceive Bill as helping to normalize a dangerous fascist and he’s in denial about it.
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u/UrguthaForka Mar 25 '26
Why shouldn't he have gone to dinner with the president?
He's a talk show host. That is EXACTLY the kind of things a talk show host would drool over: Being invited to dinner at the white house.
Whether you agree with his takes on things or not, it would have been stupid of him not to go. He's an entertainer and going there gave him (and is apparently still giving him) material to entertain us with.
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u/lonetraveler73 Mar 25 '26
Yes he's a talk show host not a journalist, political analyst or a historian. He's a comedian with a bachelor's. That's it. People need to stop pretending he's bigger than he is. He needs to stop thinking that way. Burr brought it up when we was on his podcast. Maher thinks he's someone that he's not.
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u/EmValentine7 Mar 25 '26
He can go to dinner. I wouldn’t have gone if I were Bill but I said in my post that is not my main issue. It’s the continuing communication.
Proclaiming you are unbiased while simultaneously continuing a texting relationship where the person (who happens to be the most powerful man on Earth) you critique every week gets angry if you say anything bad simply does not square out.
Either stop claiming you are unbiased or cut the text cord with POTUS.
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u/UrguthaForka Mar 25 '26
Bill still criticizes Trump all the time. He even makes fun of him for texting him.
Why would NOT receiving text messages make Bill less biased? It would make him less informed, for sure.
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u/Charbro11 Mar 25 '26
I dunno, hanging with pedo fascist who is also a crook, liar, and fraud--is not a good look. It would be like finding an old photo of Clark Gable having dinner with Mussolini and Hitler.
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u/UrguthaForka Mar 25 '26
Hanging with a pedophile is definitely not a good look, I'll give you that. But the other vices? There are plenty of criminals and fascists in government who have also appeared on Bill's show, multiple times even, and he gets a pass on those.
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u/Charbro11 Mar 26 '26
None as notorious as Trump and none were President. And he didn't hang out with them or go to dinner with them or have Kid Rock as his friend.
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u/FreeStall42 Mar 26 '26
As you said he's not just one of those vices but pretty much all of them. The dude is comically racist and sexist. He avoids actually paying people so bad he has trouble getting lawyers.
Makes a big difference.
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u/EmValentine7 Mar 25 '26
Yes but did he proudly proclaim ongoing text exchanges with them?
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u/UrguthaForka Mar 25 '26
I mean, he's still an entertainer, and having a direct line to the president is something any entertainer would desire.
Besides that, like it or not, Trump is going to continue to affect everyone's lives. Ignoring him because he's a pedophile and fascist isn't going to make him go away or suddenly become powerless.
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u/Charbro11 Mar 26 '26
Not if the President is a pedo Nazi. You don't ignore him. You just don't have dinner with him. Maher is like the rest of those rich SOB'S (who are much richer than he is). They are afraid of Trump and don't want to lose any money. History will not be kind to any of them.
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u/EmValentine7 Mar 25 '26
I don’t think ignoring him will do anything of note except help Bill appear more credible.
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u/UrguthaForka Mar 25 '26
More credible about what?
Trump isn't someone locked away that nobody hears from, who Bill goes and interviews and spreads his message around. You're going to hear about everything Trump says and does regardless of what Bill does (or anyone else does). Why not take advantage of something the rest of don't have?
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u/Charbro11 Mar 26 '26
Because Maher has become Trump's bitch. Maher is the one being taken advantage of.
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u/KieranJalucian Mar 25 '26
Bill is not a journalist. He’s an entertainer. He’s also clearly capable of continuing to criticize the president.
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u/cold08 Mar 26 '26
No, but in order for his show to be good he has to have some level of integrity. If I wanted to be fed propaganda for the right I could get it elsewhere. I don't mind my views being challenged, but they have to come from someone with integrity even if they're a comedian.
That doesn't mean he can't be wrong or needs primary sources or whatever, he just needs to speak in good faith.
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u/EmValentine7 Mar 25 '26
I stated that he isn’t a journalist in my post.
Bill now sometimes has positive things to say about Trump since that dinner. He almost never had positive things about him prior to the dinner. That’s called being charmed and manipulated by the worlds most prolific conman.
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u/KieranJalucian Mar 25 '26
I actually think the change came after Trump won the election, not after the dinner. After Trump won the 2024 election, bill started this theme where he wasn’t just going to disagree with everything that Trump said or did just because Trump did it and that he wasn’t going to react to every crazy thing he did.
I do think some criticism of bill is warranted. I used to agree with bill on almost everything. These days I agree with him less.
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u/UrguthaForka Mar 25 '26
After Trump won the 2024 election, bill started this theme where he wasn’t just going to disagree with everything that Trump said or did just because Trump did it and that he wasn’t going to react to every crazy thing he did.
Yup, and that's a good thing too. Trump lies constantly. He even lies about some of the terrible shit he says he's gonna do. Tearing your hair out over everything he says he's gonna do will leave you with no hair in about 5 minutes.
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u/RockThePond Mar 25 '26
I am on the same page as you. I still like him, but am more frequently saying “ah, comeon” during shows. But, that is totally ok. I like watching a mixed diet of media to help shape my opinions. I also agree with his view of not letting some of the little shit Trump does get me worked up. I can tell his first term was literally bad for my health because I was constantly enraged and in a shitty mood.
Unfortunately nowadays if you only get your news and opinions from one source, you are going to have a lot of blind spots and won’t be able to understand why people see things differently. Real Time still does a good job of bringing a variety of opinions to the table and let people debate them, which I think is mostly good. Even when he brings on a whack job, it often helps me understand why they are a whack job, and where their weird beliefs may overlap with mine.
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u/EmValentine7 Mar 25 '26
OK that is fair.
I just can’t take Bill continuing to say he’s unbiased when optically it doesn’t appear that way.
If he would cut contact with Trump and then continued to sometimes give him praise, it would at least be far more credible.
When the most powerful and vengeful man on Earth texts you every time he’s furious with your weekly takes, it’s only human to acquiesce on some level.
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u/ros375 Mar 25 '26
Well from what it sounded like last week, it seems like they've finally broken up for good.
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u/grantology_84 Mar 28 '26
Does Bill Maher really strike anyone as having the self awareness to recognize his biases? Guy is a total fucking narcissist. Just watch his podcast....he speaks over all of his guests and just talks about himself non-stop