In 2010, after his so-called “Rally to Restore Sanity,” MSNBC host Rachel Maddow took issue with Comedy Central host Jon Stewart for comparing MSNBC to Fox News. It was a comparison that even HBO “Real Time” host Bill Maher criticized at the time.
But almost two years later, Maher is now at least admitting MSNBC serves a “counterweight” Fox News. In an interview with The Patriot Ledger (Mass.) reporter Jack Encarnacao published on Thursday, Maher appeared to suggest that some MSNBC hosts are overzealously promoting their views:
There’s a place for it. For a while, there was only Fox News. I’m glad MSNBC emerged as a counterweight. As much as I’m very fond of all of the people at MSNBC, Chris Matthews and Rachel (Maddow) and Lawrence O’Donnell, they’re all good people. But if I watch it, like, for a whole day, I want to marry Ann Coulter and join the tea party.
As for the entire media climate, Maher told The Patriot Ledger it is difficult for anyone to win:
That’s a really good question. It’s very hard, because to win an argument you have to be talking to people who know facts, and the audience doesn’t. And this is why, almost no matter what happens, the other side can say, ‘Well, you know, it’s a wash.’ I remember when they were going after Romney for the dog on the car. The dog on the car is a real thing. Whether it’s important in the election, that’s for the electorate to decide. Obviously, it’s not the biggest issue. But the Romney campaign came back a day later with, ‘Well, you know, when Obama was growing up in Indonesia, (he) ate dogs.’ And if you can make everything a push like that –– and the media is very culpable in doing that and abetting them in that –– then it is very hard to answer your question.