Media

Bill Maher Rips ‘Fake’ News From Huffington Post And Salon

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Amber Athey Podcast Columnist
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Comedian Bill Maher said on his HBO show Friday night that too many news outlets — including BuzzFeed and Huffington Post — try to stir up fake controversies as opposed to actually reporting the news.

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Maher started out the segment by offering advice to media outlets on how to find real news stories, including avoiding writing stories that only cite “three losers with a combined Twitter following of their mom.” He pointed to the various articles this week about people on Twitter getting upset that actress Jennifer Lawrence took photos outside in the cold wearing a skimpy black dress.

“This is not an outlier. This is a constant and prominent part of today’s journalism — creating some bullshit nonissue that a few trolls will predictably go apeshit over and reporting on those unrepresentative tweets like all of America is talking about nothing else,” Maher explained.

According to the comedian, these hyped-up stories about fake stories can explain why the term “fake news” resonates so much with Trump supporters.

“Wonder why Fake News resonates so much with Trump fans? Because so much of it is fake,” Maher argued. “Just nonsense made to keep you perpetually offended with an endless stream of ‘controversies’ that aren’t controversial.”

Maher finished the segment by slamming people who view themselves as “morally superior” while writing clickbait stories designed to create “division.”

“Because places like the Huffington Post and BuzzFeed and Salon, they make their money by how many clicks they get. Yes, the people who see themselves as morally superior are actually ignoring their sacred job of informing citizens of what’s important and instead sowing division for their own selfish ends,” he concluded.

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