Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Petition To HBO To Get Maher Off The Air

The New Agenda has the following petition in light of Bill Maher's repeated misogynistic and sexist language. I urge you to sign this petition to HBO to stop giving this man airtime for his despicable characterizations of women:

Please sign the petition here. The petition signatures will be sent to HBO Chairman and CEO, HBO Head of Programming, and the entire Board of Directors of Time Warner (owner of HBO).

Please SHARE, post on your Facebook page, and tweet! This story is posted at The Daily Caller.

Home Box Office (HBO) “Real Time” host Bill Maher’s recent foray into sexism – employing the terms dumb twat, bimbos, and cunt in describing Rep Michele Bachmann and Gov Sarah Palin – is completely unacceptable and should not be allowed to be part of our country’s national dialogue. That is why The New Agenda, a national organization devoted to improving the lives of women and girls, is calling on Time Warner, owner of HBO, to immediately cancel Bill Maher’s show and terminate his employment.

Mr. Maher has a track record of sexist comments against women in power.

In February 2008, Maher made light of David Shuster’s Chelsea “pimp” comment by saying (emphasis added):

Now they fined CBS a million dollars, a million dollars for Janet Jackson’s nipple. Think what they could get for Hillary Clinton’s cunt.

For this, Mr. Maher was almost fired by HBO. He should have learned from his mistake, but he clearly did not. In fact, Mr. Maher’s most recent string of vulgar comments has little to do with political party, and everything to do with his utter contempt for women.

Mr. Maher’s use of the terms dumb twat, bimbos, and cunt hurts not only Rep Bachmann and Gov Palin, but each and every mother, daughter and wife.

Mr. Maher’s statements reveal his belief that rather than criticize or question a woman on her positions or ideas; it is appropriate demean and diminish her by sexualizing her or presuming a lack of intelligence due to her gender.

Mr. Maher’s comments have no place in our national dialogue and he should be taken off the air immediately.



This has gone way past "Enough is enough." Maher should lose his job. And if he doesn't, please consider boycotting HBO and letting them know why.

One final note - why is it that this kind of language is tolerated about women? If a comparable remark was made about a person of color, Maher would have lost his job long ago. And, why is it that the so-called "progressive" men are the ones making these kinds of misogynistic statements about women? Maher isn't even that extreme of an example, unfortunately. Heck, Chris Matthews claimed that the only reason Hillary Clinton was able to be in the Senate was as a result of her husband's infidelity. Never mind Clinton's legion of qualifications and experiences leading up to that. None of that matters. She is defined solely by her husband. Wow.

Those of us paying attention during the 2008 Campaign had our eyes opened as to the extent of misogyny in the DNC, the media, and punditry. Enough IS enough. This assault on women needs to stop, and HBO can begin by firing Bill Maher.

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