Bill Maher's Easy Gamble
Think back to nearly four years ago when under-dog presidential candidate Barack Obama was steadily rising in the poll numbers, hoping to overtake establishment favorite Hillary Clinton and other candidates in the race for the Democratic nomination.
Imagine if during that time, right-leaning comedian Dennis Miller, in one of his HBO stand-up comedy specials, made the following comments:
"The Democratic establishment is freaking out because their token black guy is in the league now. They never expec-, it's like an episode of Star Trek where the black guy beams down to the planet and lives."
"A million to one, I will give you a million dollars. If you think that the Democrats are going to have an election with a woman and a black guy against each other, that they don't have a choice to vote for a white man in the primary elections, that will never happen."
How do you think the media would react to that? How do you think HBO would react to that?
Now I don't believe Dennis Miller would make such comments, even in the context of a comedy routine. It's not who he is.
Bill Maher, on the other hand, would... and did... on his HBO show last Friday. Except, instead referencing the Democratic party, he was talking about the Republicans. And instead of talking about Barack Obama, he was talking about Herman Cain.
I recently wrote a column on this website describing how many liberals are condescending to African Americans. Maher epitomizes the point I was making. When he looks at a man like Herman Cain, he doesn't see a charismatic individual with an impressive resume. He sees a black man - A black man who couldn't possibly be admired by white people based on his character and achievements. That's why Maher is willing to bet a million dollars against Cain winning the nomination. It's not because he thinks voters will decide that another candidate is more qualified... It's because he identifies Herman Cain solely by the color of his skin, and assumes everyone else does as well. Thus, his dense view of white conservatives won't let him draw any other conclusion.
But let's not go any further back down that road right now. The point of this column is how the mainstream media would react to such rhetoric.
If it was Dennis Miller who made those comments about candidate Obama, you can be assured the offensive video clips would have been repeatedly aired on every major news network. Commentators would have been outraged and called for Miller's firing. Activist organizations would have pressured HBO to sever their relationship with Miller. Camera crews would have been racing to Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson for reaction.
There's no way the liberal media would have let a public figure get away with referring to their darling, Barack Obama, as a "token black guy".
In the spirit of Bill Maher's wager, does anyone want to bet that the lamestream media will get even slightly worked up over Maher's comments? Yeah, me neither.